Fashion figure Christian Audigier’s designs have moved beyond just clothes. HobbyTron.com, a San Fernando company, is producing a line of remote-control toys featuring the L.A.-based designer’s popular Ed Hardy look.
The best-seller so far is the Ed Hardy Intelli Heli Mini RC Helicopter, which can be maneuvered so precisely that it can land in the palm of a hand.
The toys and packaging feature the distinctive tattoo-style graphics that Audigier licenses to use on his trendy garb. Other products include watches, pet accessories and linen products. He gets a cut of the toy revenue under another license deal with HobbyTron.
“That kind of technology toy is not just for kids men in their 20s and 30s love these toys, too,” said Tim Gibson, co-founder and vice president of business development for HobbyTron. “That’s why we thought it was a fit with Ed Hardy. It’s for kids who are a little bit older, let’s say.”
Besides two models of helicopters, HobbyTron also has an Ed Hardy UFO and a twin-engine viper boat, with plans to expand the line to 30 products in 2009. The Ed Hardy-branded toys currently retail for $30 to $100.
The HobbyTron-Audigier partnership came about when a friend of a friend of Audigier managed to get the toys in front of the designer. Audigier has an 8-year-old son, Dillon, and it was the boy’s enthusiasm that sealed the deal.
Prix Fixe Fun
This year’s Dine LA Restaurant Week will offer a lot more choices than last year’s.
Restaurant Week is really two weeks, and will take place Jan. 25-30 and Feb. 1-6. The event is staged to promote L.A. restaurants by using special pricing to introduce customers to eateries they might not have known about.
This year, more than 150 restaurants have signed up for the event, about 70 more than last year, with additional participants yet to come. To include more restaurants, a higher-priced tier was added. Lunches will be $16, $22 or $28, and dinners will be $26, $34 or $44, depending on the restaurant. Some of the newcomers are brand new Akasha, Sashi Sushi & Sake Lounge, Bazaar at SLS Hotel and Gordon Ramsay at London hotel. Others have been around longer, including Water Grill, Woo Lae Oak, Campanile and Yamashiro.
Noted chef David Myers’ brasserie Comme Ca is one of the new participants.
“We would love to get new people in that’s every restaurateur’s hope,” said Myers, who is planning a second location for Comme Ca and an Italian restaurant, Pizzeria Ortica, both opening in Costa Mesa in early 2009. A second Ortica will open in Los Angeles soon after.
Dine LA is a marketing collaboration between LA Inc., the city’s convention bureau, and American Express, so cardholders have first dibs on reservations starting Jan. 1. Everyone else can start booking Jan. 11.
Spaced Out
Hollywood-based architectural design firm Spacecraft, which specializes in designing and building bars and restaurants, is keeping busy despite a downturn in the dining industry.
Spacecraft owner Kristopher Keith, who was behind the designs of new Hollywood eateries Kitchen 24 and Bar Delux, will begin work in January on the transformation of Parc, which recently shuttered after being open less than a year, into gastro-pub Essex.
Keith is also turning Cahuenga Boulevard’s Karma Coffee into Stout, a beer and burger joint, and the former 40 Deuce space into Barkley, a ’60s-style lounge.
He is also working on two Adolfo Suaya-owned restaurants: Osaka, a Peruvian restaurant, and Boho, which will serve pizzas and family-style dishes to replace Suaya’s Charcoal at the ArcLight Theater.
“It’s true people aren’t eating out as much now,” Keith said, “but if you give people what they want, you’re going to be busy no matter when you open up.”
News & Notes
UCLA Extension is offering a 10-day executive hotel management program from Aug. 17-28. Some of L.A.’s best-known industry players, including Ali Kasikci, managing director of Montage Beverly Hills, and Offer Nissenbaum, managing director of Peninsula Beverly Hills, will play a role in developing the program. Registration is open until March 31. Newly reimagined clothing boutique Jane Doe on West Third Street is now Jane Doe John Doe. The store now carries menswear and collections from several contestants from the “Project Runway” show, including L.A.-based designer Jerell Scott, who now co-owns the boutique with designer Ani Lee.
Staff reporter Joel Russell contributed to this column. Staff reporter Maya Meinert can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.
