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location: FASHION

PHOTO KERI FREEMAN

celebrating

Khaman Dhokla

Glide Across the Park - Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square Returns

Open seasonally, the Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square has brought winter fun to sunny Los Angeles for over 20 years. At 7,200 square feet, it is the city’s largest outdoor rink, offering visitors professional-quality ice for skating and entertainment and welcoming more than 54,000 skaters and 450,000 spectators annually. The rink fosters community while embracing winter fitness and fun.

The beloved recreational landmark will kicked-off its return with the annual Icebreaker Opening Celebration on Wednesday, November 23 at 11:00am.

This year’s opening event features a live performance, special guests and more. After the “icebreaking” ceremony, where a large ice sculpture iwas shattered, The Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square’s first young skaters from south Los Angeles took to the ice.

“Whether you are a Los Angeles resident or simply visiting for the holiday season, The Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square is an absolute must when it comes to embracing winter in Los Angeles,” says Willy Bietak, president of Willy Bietak Productions.

Located at 532 South Olive Street, the landmark destination is easily accessible by car, bus or Metro (Pershing Square stop). General admission to the rink, including skate rental, is $20, locker rental is $5, and skate helpers are $6.

Private parties are available on select Mondays and Tuesdays during the 5:30pm & 7:00pm sessions on or before December 13, 2022. The rate for a private party is $5,000. Sessions are not open to the public if sold to a private party.

This year’s beneficiary is the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation & Parks.

The Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square is open daily until the new year. Tickets, which must be purchased online and in advance. www.holidayicerinkdowntownla.com

The Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square returned to downtown Los Angeles for the first time in two years with locals gliding across this ice in the Spirit of the Holidays.

PHOTOS COURTESY: HOLIDAY ICE RINK PERSHING SQUARE

GOING VIRAL!!!

How the REAL Mexican Pizza at CILANTRO LIME in DTLA Took Over the World

In the beginning, there was young Leo Matias, working his way up the ladder inside America’s most beloved diners, Bob's Big Boy. Back then Matias spent his days learning the ins and outs of running a successful eatery; facing long lines and crowded dining rooms almost every day of the week.

On the outside Matias was a studious hard-working employee loyal to his superiors, never missing a beat when it came to customer service and attention to detail.

On the inside was a young man with big dreams of owning his own restaurant someday. Yet, those dreams would not materialize until 20 years later when his beloved mother was diagnosed with cancer.

Matias became determined to create something that would make his mother proud before the time came when she would no longer be with him.

It was then Matias packed up his ideals, tied on his work ethic, and began stretching the limits of his creativity to fit inside his own establishment.

La Familia Matias

Soon he would open his first location in Downtown Los Angeles inside a sleepy food court which before Matias had opened, catered mostly to construction workers on lunch breaks and a handful of hungry shoppers who found their way west of the Santee Alley to the Cosmo Food Court on Los Angeles St. and Olympic.

The year was 2017.

When visitors arrived at the counter at “Cilantro Lime Mexican Restaurant” they were greeted by two smiles. One smile was on the eatery’s logo, the happiest lime in sunglasses with a cilantro leaf stemming from its lips, and the other smile was from one very proud President, CEO, and Executive Chef Leo Matias.

“Welcome to Cilantro Lime” Matias would greet his first customers, but for

his family, friends, and staff his greeting would warm into “What can I get for you, fam, Mija or Mijo?

It was this sense of family that held Cilantro Lime together. Through years of ups and downs and personal triumphs, Leo and his "familia" at Cilantro Lime would present downtown and beyond with entirely new ways of rediscovering his mother’s traditional Mexican dishes.

Leo’s mom kept a watchful eye from home as his menu evolved into personal takes on her traditional meals passed down from generation to generation. One of Leo's first Mexican fusion dishes was an original plate of loaded carne asada fries topped with beef, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, and onion.

Fatefully, "DTLA Carne Asada Fries" was a hit.

Along with a variety of recreated burritos, street tacos, and several different refreshing flavors of Horchata, soon DTLA would discover what breakfast and lunch breaks and Fashion District wanderers had in common.

The next few years of prosperity would come in the form of massive exposure and growth but not before embarking on one of his most creative ideas yet, a marketing plan almost every food influencer in the region could sink their teeth into; the world’s first ever Foodie Blogger Menu. As food influencers began flocking to Cilantro Lime, Leo’s extended foodie family grew along with his creative menu ideas; gaining more and more popularity with every post.

Soon came years of back-to-back original ideas and influencer-inspired concoctions of deliciousness.

Let’s Go Grub, Mexi Papa Adventurers, Itza Spicy Meatball, Dandy Eats, Reach Hard, Got Bars, Eyes of a Foodie, DTLA Weekly, Mellow Man Ace and many others all took part in promoting their own menu items along with the good times at Cilantro Lime.

With keen intuition Chef Leo Matias turned his original and inspired concepts into first-of-their-kind culinary adventurers. The phone rang off the hook for 6ft Burritos, Fiery Cheeto and Crispy Burnt-Cheese Quesadillas, Crispy Flautas Burritos, Birria Grilled Cheese, PAMBAZO, Kobe Tacos (in honor of Kobe Bryant), and his signature DTLA Carne Asada Fries soon attracting the eyes of celebrities and mainstream media beginning with Spectrum News Running on Empty with Jada Montemarano.

Then Covid hit.

Like so many business owners, Leo almost lost everything, including his life due to Covid.

Returning to DTLA in 2021, Matias, like many others, wanted to give up. The pandemic was an unforeseen hurdle not too many had experience in dealing with and brought with it new levels of depression and feelings of hopelessness.

"

God's Got Me"

Through fluctuating sales, bouts with Covid, and wanting to give up. Leo's wife was quick to remind him how he never quit anything, and how she knew he wasn’t about to quit now.

With God, his wife and family and a head full of creative ideas Leo returned to Cilantro Lime refueled and ready to wow the world.

Like a miracle, soon came more appearances on mainstream news.

Chef Lovely on Oprah’s Own Lovely Bites gave Leo a wink, along with KTLA and Chef Irvine on Food Network who took notice, while celebrities Nicole Richie, Laker Byron Scott, and Tania Estrada marked Cilantro Lime as one of their favorites. Leo even took first place for BEST EGG

DISH

in LA during TikTok's National Egg Board Challenge beating out over 200 contestants for his grandmother's Huevos Rancheros.

With yet another original sensation Leo and Joey Bars of Broke Boyz collaborated on a menu item that would quickly go viral collecting over 28 million views online.

The Real Mexican Birria Pizza meant for dipping.

Starting with Burnt-Cheese Quesadilla Crust, Sprinkled Cheese and salsa, choice of meat and, of course, cilantro and onion, Cilantro Lime's REAL Mexican Pizza is as visually pleasing to the eye as it is flavorable and hearty enough to feed entire families and work crews.

Riding high on his reclaimed success, Leo now sees his dreams of establishing more Cilantro Lime locations as only one step away.

As for mom, she stuck around long enough to witness it all, and today watches her son’s endeavors play out like her cherished novellas anxiously awaiting each new delicious episode. See you at Cilantro Lime! @cilantrolimedtla

Chocolate Uno Taco @ChocolateUnoOfficial

Chilla-dillas @ReachHard_

Crispy Flautas Burrito @DandyEats

Real Mexican Birria Pizza @GotBars510

Giant Let's Go Grub Taco @LetsGoGrub

Return to the Alamo: Wakanda Forever Now Playing in Downtown LA

Six months before he Covid media blitz Downtown’s future was set in Gold, shimmering with a bright, booming economy with a hospitality industry rivaled by some of the world’s best.

It was then a well-known Texas theater house called Alamo Drafthouse opened its doors at TheBloc Shopping Cen ter in the heart of the Financial District.

We had such high expectations for the Alamo Drafthouse. Yet, we were so disappointed at the service and overall experience we felt compelled to publish a not-so-positive review. We let Drafthouse have it, gave suggestions and sarcasm and brutal honesty about what happened to us and how their Carnival of Lost Souls could fix themselves to blend into Downtown – as if they really had to listen to us.

Two years later when we found out Wakanda Forever was playing at the Alamo Drafthouse we figured, sure, why hold The Grudge any longer? Surely our experience wouldn’t be as crummy as the last time. Or would it?

We decided to risk it mostly because Wakanda Forever was 2 hours and 44 minutes. If we’re gonna sit through a three-hour movie we figured we’d better be darn comfortable. And what could be comfier than the reclining armchairs at the Alamo?

Although a Night to Dismember experience of having a run-in with a concession work er and a fellow movie patron for no appar ent fault of our own plus being threatened by the cashier when they first arrived back in 2019, faded into all the other horrify ing memories of 2020 episodes being, the comfortable seats at the Alamo had man aged to plant its self firm in our memories.

Returning to the Alamo, made our way past the front desk without incident. The cashier seemed comfortable at her first notice of us, she was cordial and friendly and seemed to know somehow we had pre-purchased our tickets with the Alamo App passing on an opportunity to examine them. “Go right up”, she said with a smile.

Okay.

We took the escalator further up into the unknown.

Walking the halls, passing old B-movie posters, mannequins, and treasured movie artifacts, we found our seat in the dimmed theater with the escort of our hostess/server in Row 3.

We sat down in the theater about 20 min utes before the movie started. Pushing on recliner buttons and situated in our seats, the server began explaining the strict “nono” talking policy and showing us with the provided pencil and memo paper just how to order our food from the kitchen.

“We only have one rule here” she ex plained with the grace of a fourth-grade teacher. “This is a no talking theater, so if you need me after the movie starts, all you have to do is push this little red button and I will appear.”

Really? Like “I Dream of Jeanie?”

Looking over the menus our skeptical minds held fast to the days of old; pop corn, nachos, soda, and candy. But wait, Alamo Drafthouse was now serving menu items prepared by Chef Erick Cielo from Hatch.

Knowing items we ordered on the menu were coming from Hatch moved the level of excitement up a good two notches.

Situated just below in the Bloc Courtyard, Hatch Yakitori Bar never fails to disappoint. To have the privilege of Hatch side by side with theater popcorn on the same tray in front of us was tremendous. So that’s why we found no scent of old grease burning in the kitchen as we trav eled the hall?

It had been almost 2 years since we last visited the Alamo Drafthouse. It was the summer of 2019, before the Earth Stood Still, the last time we sat down in their Dark City theater to watch the big screen.

We ordered Hatch Green Chiles Fries, Large Fountain Drink with extra ice, and a Pretzel. We know, we know… no beer, wine, or mixed drinks. Sorry, it was 5 o’clock somewhere but in DTLA it was 11 am.

asked our server.

Huh free water? Well Alright!

OK, that had to be the nicest sequence of welcomes in a theater ever to occur.

In the two years since our review, Alamo Drafthouse had changed its entire menu, replaced the concession staff with experi ence servers, and managed not to make us feel unwanted or unwelcome in any way.

Playing the Devil’s Advocate we tried again to revisit the ill feelings leaving the Alamo of yesteryear, but they just weren’t there. Here was a new Alamo. The old had become Alien to us.

Our return to the Alamo was so hospitable, we wondered how many months of pure movie-watching bliss we’d missed out on since they had made the change.

We shed 100 Tears at the Alamo that day. Tears of joy for the theater’s redemption, tears of rage for the loss of King T’Challa, and tears for our ances tors whose descendants were still fighting to get their lands back or in movie hero Namor’s case, fighting to keep their people from ever being displaced by the War of the World’s.

Sincerely, Alamo had become so com fortable there was no way we couldn’t recommend a theater as peaceful as the underwater city of Talokan, hidden and protected from the outside world.

Parking was validated inside the parking lot at TheBloc. Driving up the spiral ramp four stories The Thing made us dizzy enough to crash but the drive down gave us time to reflect and decide to write a new review; where we would recommend a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse to anyone with eyes, anyone in love, anyone alone and anyone who loves the movies. Thank you Alamo Drafthouse for coming to our neighborhood and being a part of the DTLA community. www.alamodrafthouse.

The Return of Writ Large Press Brings Race, Politics and Poetics to the Los Angeles Theater Center

Race, Politics and Poetics, is the latest live reading produced by Writ Large Projects and featuring four of the most acclaimed poets who talk it like they walk it: Tongo Eisen-Martin, Viva Padilla, Matt Sedillo & Alyesha Wise.

Poets will be presented in the round robin style with a discussion hosted by Writ Large Projects, Peter Woods.

The aim of this reading series is present the work of these titans, engage listeners around race relations in our City of Los Angeles (a timely matter, wouldn’t you say) and to discuss the role of poetry in shaping identity statements as well as building bridges between the Black and Brown Community.

If anything, it should lead to self- reflection and further strengthen our communities by recognizing commonalities and shared struggles.

Sharing our words and experiences to one another, not only allows for more awareness but helps to open doors to more complete and systemic understanding.

This free event will be held on December 8th, 2022 at the Latino Theater Center in Downtown L.A. at 514 S. Spring Street from 7pm-9pm & is produced in conjunction with The DTLA Chamber of Commerce, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts, The DTLAWeekly and the Los Angeles Theater Center.

@peterwoodsla

“Would you like some water while you wait?”

Action Packed & Seaweed Wrapped Sumo + Sushi Comes to the Mayan in DTLA

What could better than eating Sushi in DTLA?

Eating Sushi while watching traditional Sumo Wrestlers at the Historical Mayan Theater, that’s what.

Beginning Wednesday, Nov 30th until Saturday, December 2nd, this action packed, seaweed wrapped event will be hosted by legendary Sumo Wrestler, Konishiki.

Meet Sumo legend, Konishiki. Born and raised in Hawaii, Konishiki is also the first non-Japanese-born wrestler to reach ōzeki – the second highest rank in Sumo.

With a peak weight of 633 lbs, Konishiki is still the all-time heaviest wrestler in the history of the sport.

Se Production’s special three-night event will feature a glimpse into the history of sumo, live matches and a Q&A portion where audience members will have the chance to interact with the fighters. A select few guests will even ‘Get In The Ring!’ to take on the wrestler of their choice.

Sumo Wrestling – As Old as the Gods

This a form of competitive full-contact wrestling dates back to 23 BC but legend has it the Japanese Gods had been practicing this ancient ceremonial struggle of Sumo wrestling long before the time of man.

Famed Sumo wrestlers range from lightweight Aononami a Pro Sumo of 3 Years standing at 5.8, weighing a measly 242 lbs to heavy weights Daikiho a Pro Sumo 7 Years who’s 5’11” and 308 lbs to the heaviest of them all, Tououyama a Pro Sumo 10 Years standing the tallest at 6’2”, weighing in at a whopping 400 lbs.

There are several ways to experience Sumo + Sushi with different ticket tiers. If you’re looking to watch the show without a food inclusion, you can purchase ‘The Show [Viewing Only]’ at $75 + fees.

Guests looking to enjoy a bento box during the event can purchase ‘Sushi + The Show’ at $150 + fees.

For those looking to be closest to the action with a premium bento box and included drink, you’ll want to buy ‘Front Row: Sushi + The Show’ at $275 + fees.

There is even a VIP Sky Suite featuring an open bar and your own dedicated sushi chef rolling sushi on demand.

Sushi is being crafted by Kombu Sushi for Front Row and Sky Suite ticket holders and Sushi Roku for Sushi + The Show ticket holders.

Limited upgrades to ‘Get In The Ring’ with a wrestler are available for $100. Beer, select sake, and mixed drinks will also be available for purchase at the Mayan cash bar.

Tickets are selling quickly following sold out runs in San Francisco and Seattle. www.sumoandsushi.com

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