The Pre-Read

Fruit Cake

I'm not sure if it's me, or what, but I think fruit cake gets a bad wrap.

Now it's true I have had some pretty bad fruit cake. But growing up fruit cake was just a part of the holidays and while I don't remember dad ever making it, he always managed to find really good fruit cake. And that trend continues. Dad orders his stuff online now and the quality is really pretty good.

How can something that has butter, eggs, cherries, dried pineapple, walnuts, almonds, pecans, white raisins, brandy and rum be anything but amazing?

I don't know much about a company called Figis, except to say that they have a variety of fruit cakes, and they're good moist and amazingly flavorful. They even offer a "sample" type cake that has a variety of individually wrapped small slices. this way you can pick and choose what kind you want to try.

Granted, it's not very diet friendly, but this time of year there are so many treats that fall into that category. The cool thing about the sample cake is you can have one small piece and it's rich enough to satisfy you for the day.

Anyway, i know I'm probably in the minority, but I like fruit cake. Check out Figis' site and who knows, you might like it too!

 

The Past

The Cafe has long since gone, but I did find this photo of the Gorky's sign that used to let late night hipsters know there was a 24 hour Russian cafe (cafeteria really) open for their pleasure.

My wonderful and talented friend Lisa introduced me to this place in the mid 80s, and from the moment I walked in I was in love. Gorky's wasn't in the best part of town and that was part of the charm. That, and sharing stuffed cabbage with the most diverse cross section of Los Angeles that you could hope to find.

Gorky's wasn't particularly impressive to look at if memory serves. But its counter culture existence seemed to go so well with all of those who were trying to escape the Reagan 80s, even if we, ourselves, weren't communists, being a liberal, in those times, was pretty close.

I think i've mentioned before that Gorky's was a cool place to hang out, where people smoked Clove Cigarettes, long before they were in, and way longer before they were out.

With the revitalization of downtown I don't know if there are any cool counter culture places for the current hipsters to hang. I'm sure there are.  I hope there are.

And I hope they find their hangout as cool as we all found Gorky's!