LABJ’s LA Stories
Food for Thought
Would you like some politics with that?
A group of L.A. restaurant owners have used the war in Iraq as an inspiration to enhance their menus. David Rosoff, managing partner of Opaline who came up with the idea, said he was looking for a creative way to raise money for the American Red Cross International Response Fund’s efforts in Iraq.
Since March 24, Opaline has added an item to its typically European menu called “Prix Fixe for Peace” that includes a three-course lunch or dinner combining Middle Eastern, European and American flavors.
“We’re not making a definite political statement, but I am pro peace, harmony and understanding and for humanity,” Rosoff said. “By bringing the key players into the menu it shows those elements can exist in the culinary sense, and we’re hoping in a geo-political sense, as well.”
About $1 of the $18 lunch and $2 of the $30 dinner goes toward the Red Cross, Rosoff said. So far, Opaline has raised about $500, not including complementary fare from other participating restaurants Zax, Koi, The Hillmont and Angeli Caffe.
At Opaline, the appetizer options are Middle Eastern, the main course options European and the desserts American, he said.
Amanda Bronstad
Arms Chairs
Business is booming at Torrance’s Moto Art, where the design shop takes antique bombs and airplane parts found in junkyards and turns them into home and office furniture.
The pieces have caught on with aviation fans and furniture collectors, says Dave Hall, who founded the business eight months ago with Donovan Fell. Since then, the duo has sold more than 30 pieces to the tune of $250,000, Hall said.
After a feature appeared in Maxim magazine, the firm’s cheapest lounge table the $800 “Blockbuster Bomb Table” became “very popular with the college kids,” Hall said.
That’s created it’s own problems.
“We’re getting those people who don’t want something the Smiths next door have,” Hall said.
Being located in LA has its advantages and not just because of an ample supply of residents with disposable income and eclectic furniture tastes.
“It helps being an arms distance away to the desert, where a lot of this material is buried,” Hall said.
Andy Fixmer
New Voice
Mike Carlucci, the XTRA-AM (1150) sports reporter who had been the Dodgers public address announcer for several seasons, has been dropped in favor of relative unknown Eric Smith.
Smith, a high school teacher, got his first major announcing gig this past year when the Clippers picked him to introduce its roster during home games.
He was one of scores of aspiring announcers who sent tapes to the Dodgers before this season. The team invited him and five other candidates to audition at Dodgers Stadium, where officials sat in various sections to get a feel for voice texture and clarity.
“We were looking for a warm, inviting voice, once you hear it, you know it,” said John Holguin, the Dodgers spokesman. Smith made the first cut, then impressed Dodgers executives during his second audition.
“He’s a good guy, a good P.A.,” said Holguin.
Not surprisingly, cranky Los Angeles Times sports columnist T.J. Simers had his own take.
“The Dodgers apparently wanted to have someone who is familiar with working with losing teams,” Simers wrote.
RiShawn Biddle
What’s in a Name?
The publisher of Audrey, a new fashion magazine, admits names can be tricky.
“Many people asked why we chose an American name for our Asian American magazine,” said Publisher James Ryu. “To that I say, ‘why not?’ Most of us on staff have American names.”
In fact, Ryu, who heads Korean American Publications, the Gardena publishing house behind KoreAM Journal, the nation’s only English-language monthly magazine devoted to Korean Americans, named his latest venture for his daughter Audrey.
The mission of Audrey (the magazine) is to celebrate Asian beauty, celebrity and fashion. The first issue for March/April features actress Tamlyn Tomita (“The Joy Luck Club,” “Karate Kid II”) on the cover. Lavish photographs inside include the likes of Michelle Yeoh and Bai Ling of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” among others.
Kate Berry
The Roving Eye
Drive for Five?
As the Lakers charge into the playoffs, an entrepreneurial fan is getting into the game.
Local graphic artist Jerry Leibowitz, 54, owns the copyright to “Quat-Row,” a phrase he invented for describing a team that wins four straight championships.
Before the end of last season, Leibowitz and his friends were already looking past the NBA finals with the New Jersey Nets and questioning if the team could do it a fourth time.
But what to call it?
“I just hated four-peat,” Leibowitz said. “It didn’t make any sense phonetically.”
Besides, former Lakers coach Pat Riley, now with the Miami Heat, owns the patent on the phrase “three-peat,” which by some estimates has garnered him $775,000 in licensing fees.
Relying on Spanish and Latin word roots, Leibowitz came up with the slogan. Before last year’s Lakers victory parade he and his friends made up hundreds of Quat-Row signs and T-shirts and handed them out to fans.
By the end of the day, Staples Center president Tim Lieweke was shown chanting Quat-Row while wearing one of Leibowitz’s T-shirts. “I went out and got it trade-marked the next day,” he said.
So far, Leibowitz has invested $22,000 in creating and marketing the logo. But the expense is beginning to pay off. The NBA has approved the logo to be used with Lakers apparel.
“One of the best things in winning a championship is the increased apparel and merchandizing sales that go along with it,” said Richard Giss, a retail analyst with Deloitte & Touche. “If the Lakers win again, their sales would go through the roof.”
Ultimately, Leibowitz said he is hoping more for a Lakers victory as a life-long fan than anything else. “You can’t approach something like this for the purpose of making money,” he said. “Only when it comes from a place of pure enjoyment, does the whole thing start to snowball.”
-Andy Fixmer
