My three favorite things in the world are Music, Beer and Vegan Food - in pretty much that order. Now, if you take one of LA’s top music venues, the Fonda Theater, add in LA’s top ale house and a damn good vegan entreé, you have me SOLD. I will go there as often as I can, sometimes several times a week.
The Fonda Theater in Hollywood, as any music nut knows, hosts The Music Box, an eclectic live music venue for reasonably popular acts. Recent appearances include MGMT, Rancid, Tegan and Sara, The Arctic Monkeys and Conor Oberst…. I’ll be there in a couple of weeks to see the Kaiser Chiefs from my homeland.
Some bright spark had the idea of converting the awful Blue Palms Lounge, which I had frequented on occasion to consume over-priced martinis and bottled Heineken, into an absolute mecca for beer lovers in LA. Blue Palms has undoubtedly the best beer selection south of San Francisco, including several rapidly rotating taps and a single cask ale pump. In addition, you’ll find knowledgeable staff and even a video/audio feed from the stage so you can continue to enjoy your favorite act while you pop into the bar for a quick one.
On the food front, they have only one vegan selection, but it stands head and shoulders above what you’d typically get in a brewhouse: Blackened Tofu. This dish is perfectly prepared firm tofu, blackened in a pan and served with steamed spinach and a selection of delicious grilled vegetables. It’s absolutely vegan, as the chef knows what vegan means, and even prepares it separately from non-vegan dishes. That’s really cool, if you ask me.
But, for me, the best part is the beer selection — especially the cask ale which reminds me so much of rainy England.
Here’s a sneaky pic I took recently when the bar staff (and owner/leaseholder) were huffing and puffing to change a cask. You can clearly see the zillions of beer taps, along with the cask beer engine in the middle:
I think, on that visit, I was drinking a Porter from Craftsman, perfectly pulled into an English-style glass. Oh boy, it was quite a night. In fact, I absolutely refuse to drive when visiting Blue Palms, except on the odd occasion that I find myself wandering on Hollywood Blvd. after some event where I’ve drank a bottle or two of way-too-cold-American-Beer and absolutely, without a doubt need to wash my mouth out with something like this:
Alternatively, if you’re not completely sold on the whole cask ale thing (and it’s not for everybody, I can admit), the other two dozen or so beers on tap will, without a doubt, whet your whistle.
For those rare beer lovers who are also vegans, the blackened tofu is really a treat. Here’s a close-up so you can get excited about it:
So, if you’re looking for good music, great beer and above-average vegan food (for a bar, goddamit!), please visit the Blue Palms. You will get a warm welcome, a cold beer and a very soothing environment to imbibe. Highly recommended!
Oh, and beer is, mostly vegan. For the record, I don’t care if the grain used to make my beer is fed to dairy cows after, or if isinglass or gelatin is used in the filtering process. The reason I don’t care is that none of those products are in the thing I’m actually drinking - they are long gone on a molecular level.
The most steadfast vegans in the city eat at Pure Luck: I watch the dude from La Brea Bakery deliver the bread some mornings, and I’ve see him happily eating Mc Donald’s as he drops off the goods. The fact that animal products are used to bring me what I eat bears no relevance on the fact that I eat it.
Try living a TRULY vegan lifestyle in western world, and tell me how you manage it.
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i know that makes me sound fucking old, but going to gigs is a stressful hassle. thank god i always have the beer to rely on.
