It's that time of year again: The calendar is chock-full of every sort of charity food event imaginable. But which ones are worth it? Let's look at a couple upcoming events back to back and compare cost, menu, cocktails, beneficiaries, and overall fabulosity. We'll weigh in, you make the call.
La Vida Sake
Petersen Automotive Museum, Miracle Mile, Thur, May 22, 7pm-10pm
Cost: $60 in advance, $75 at door
Menu: Nibbles from Maison Akira, Water Grill, Japon Bistro, Maru Sushi, Warun, Oiwake and others.
Cocktails: Lots of sake, sake experts, sake sampling.
Beneficiary: Little Tokyo Service Center.
Overall Fabulosity: Last year, it was Morimoto and Star Wars at the Science Center; this year it's sake and low riders at the Peterson Museum. As they said on Losanjealous: "We have no choice but to applaud the LTSC for managing to neatly encapsulate the essential ingredients and flavors comprising Los Angeles, our fair city, within this one event: fund raising, alcohol, small portions, numerous cars and Wilshire Boulevard will all be simmered in a melting pot of cultural influences with serious Latino and Asian leanings. Voila!"
Drink:Eat:Play's Cupcake Challenge
Montmartre Lounge, Hollywood, Sun, May 18, 1pm-4pm
Cost: $60
Menu: Cupcakes from Yummy, Lucky Devil's, MILK, Vanilla Bake Shop, Mrs. Beasley and others.
Cocktails: Wines from K&L
Beneficiary: Percentage of proceeds goes to Elizabeth Glaser Pediactric AIDS Foundation
Overall Fabulosity: While eating cupcakes and drinking wine might sound fabulous to some, the thought of eating only cupcakes for one afternoon put us right in a sugar coma. But for cupcake fans who don't want to drive all over town to buy $3 minis for your own showdown, you can match palates with "celebrity" panelists (i.e. Caroline on Crack, Lesley Bargar from Los Angeles magazine, Sam Rubin from KTLA, etc.) to pick the winner.
For What It's Worth: Of course you can do both, but if we only had $60 to spend on an event next week, we'd take sake and low riders at the car museum over cupcakes and wine at a Hollywood nightclub. Low riders and sake, people. You?