Alex's Lemonade Stand

Every year, there are more and more food events to choose from, making it hard to know exactly which one to support. LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade, however, is pretty much la crème de la crème when it comes to the quality of participants – at least from my inaugural experience last year. This year, it looks like the case will be the same.

Let’s take a look and see why. Participants from LA include Michael Cimarusti (Providence), Vinny Dotolo & Jon Shook (Animal), Neal Fraser (Grace), Suzanne Goin (Lucques, A.O.C., Tavern), Matt Molina (Osteria Mozza), Zoe Nathan (Huckelberry), Steve Samson & Zach Pollack (Sotto), Eric Alperin (The Varnish) and Jonathan Graham (Compartes).

And if those weren’t all enough reasons, there will also be stellar showings from other parts, such as April Bloomfield (The Spotted Pig – NY), Neal Bodenheimer (CURE – New Orleans), Brian Huston & Paul Kahan (The Publican – Chicago), Johnathan Sundstrom (Lark – Seattle), Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto – NY) and Lachlan Patterson (Frasca Food and Wine – Boulder, CO).

As far as tickets, they’re not a drop in the bucket, but they’re mostly tax-deductible. But there’s no better way to enjoy endless hand-crafted cocktails from top mixologists and dishes from your favorite chefs with the Gone With The Wind mansion as your backdrop. Meanwhile, you pay your taxes forward and further research on childhood cancer. Yay! While the regular general ticket price is normally $175, Thrillist LA is offering VIP tickets (normally $400) for $225 ($100 is tax-deductible). Given that you get a whole extra hour and admission into the VIP area as well as the pre-event mixology session, this ticket is your best bet.

See you in Culver City next weekend!