Wednesday Morning Linkage: Food Edition

Maybe a year or two after the fact, the LA Times declares Culver City a "Hot" dining scene. It seems that Beacon, Ford's Filling Station, Surfas and La Dijonnaise weren't enough to convince them. They needed Wilson , the upcoming Tender Greens, a new wine bar , and a couple of upscale bakeries to suggest that maybe the area was undergoing a revitalization. And if you're a restaurateur looking to get some sweet incentives to open up shop down there, good luck. The past decade of incentives handed out to anyone with a global knife and a colander are over. The redevelopment agency's job is done.
Something's cooking [LA Times]
(Photo by Annie Wells / LAT)

The almighty has a funny sense of humor when it comes to LA's bureacracies and government. First, the deputy mayor of mass transit drives a Hummer. Now, the Parks and Recreation dept is figuring out if the Cornfields downtown can be used to sell...corn. Yes, that's right, the Cornfields might become a farmer's market. And in more Cornfield news, the art project that refuses to die: those Friday night activities at the Cornfield didn't mercifully end when the corn was shucked and carted away. No, self-indulgent heiress artist Lauren Bon is still hosting "salons" at the site on Fridays. and this time, there will be pie! (emphasis hers, not ours. apparently she thinks pie is a major draw).
Farmers Market Could Come to Cornfield [LA Downtown News]

BataliWatch 06 Continues! A reader send us this tidbit:

Don't know what this means but on my daily 'walk with the baby in the vain hope that he'll be lulled to sleep by all the exhaust fumes on Highland' I went by the old Alessi space...on Melrose and Higland. Everything still looked shut down but there was a shirtless 50 something african american homeless man pulling the greeenery off the outside walls with a rake... he looked about half way through. Don't know if he just happened to have a rake, sweeping brush and dust pan in his shopping cart (parked in the alley) and decided that this was the perfect opportunity to put them to good use or he was actually commissioned to do this work.... Of course what is shocking about this email is not the use of car exhaust to render a child unconscious, or the strange activity going on at Batali's forthcoming restaurant. Its the lack of pictures. Who still walks around without a digital camera tucked safely into their baby's snugli? Pictures, people! We need pictures! Keep the tips coming.