Los Feliz is the place for the first West Coast Jeni's!

The company plans to unveil its first California-based store in March. However, in preparation for the opening, the team has embarked upon a tour-de-force ice cream trunk journey around Los Angeles. Jeni’s is an Ohio-based dessert company renowned for its creative and consistently fresh and delectable desserts. Their website touts, “We Make Better Ice Creams” and though that may seem like a lofty claim, Jeni’s has the track record to prove it.

Their ice creams are literally built from the ground up, or should we say the cow up. The milk comes from grass-grazed cows and ingredients that they blend, bake, peek, chop, skin, pulverize and even blowtorch themselves. You won’t find any chemical dyes or artificial flavoring in Jeni’s ice creams. It is clear that this is a premiere company that doesn’t cut corners when it comes to serving their customers.

Jeni's debuted in the area with their food truck

Flavors like Brambleberry Crisp, Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet, and Yazoo Sue with Rosemary Bar are some of the eclectic, fresh, delicious flavors you can expect from Jeni’s. Like the flavors Jeni’s creates, the founder and owner, Jeni Britton, is anything and everything but boring. The company claims they are “Ice Cream Explorers” a title evidenced by their wide variety of flavors. You won’t find any boring vanilla here; instead, Jeni’s revamps the classic flavor by introducing Orchid Vanilla ice cream and ice cream sandwiches.

Jeni’s is also a certified B Corporation, endorsed by the international nonprofit B lab as a company that meets rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and most importantly, transparency. This is a company that only purchases fair-trade certified ingredients, like fair-trade-certified vanilla and work with people they, and you, can trust.

But who is Jeni? She studied art at The Ohio State University, worked in a bakery, and has a lot of interesting hobbies. She left college to do her own thing in 1996 and opened up her first ice cream shop. Jeni is ever-developing new flavors, working on a book (of which she already has two), directing art campaigns, dedicating her time to Local Matters, a Columbus-based non-profit she co-founded, and spending time with her husband and two children.

The new, interesting, heart-and-soul driven ice cream shop will fill a substantial gap in the dessert market in Los Feliz. Though Los Feliz is home to frozen dessert spots like Pazzo Gelato, Froyo Life, and the chain Scoop, none of these stores pushes the envelope the way Jeni’s does. Judging by how popular the Jeni’s pastel-hued Ice Cream trunk is, it is clear that Jeni’s will curate a unique audience, tired of the banal, without too much competition.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream has a simple objective: to create high quality foods that support local business. Jeni’s takes helping out the local community seriously; in 2014 alone the company purchased 800,000 pounds of goods from local businesses! Each dollar spent here aids the community and supports the local food movement. The mission of Jeni’s is not only commendable, but also refreshing, and Los Feliz is ready to welcome Jeni’s with open arms!

New at the LA Zoo - LA Zoo Lights Starts Friday in Griffith Park

Starting Friday, the Los Angeles Zoo will offer a new holiday tradition, LA Zoo Lights. The zoo in Griffith Park will be decorated with glowing light animals and 3-D projections by Bionic League, world-renowned light designers who have created light shows for Kanye West and Daft Punk. Visitors can see real reindeer and enjoy holiday treats and music, too. LA Zoo Lights is open every night from 6 – 10 p.m., starting Friday, until Jan. 4 (except for Dec. 24 and 25). $13 for adults, $11 for children 2 - 12 years old.  
 

The Eastside's Hottest "New" Area is Frogtown - Here's Why

FROG TOWN:  Front Porch Living at its Finest........

The Elysian Valley, just outside of Los Angeles, California has long been considered a small, closely knit community.  The residents there affectionately refer to it as “Frogtown.”  Some say this name comes from an event many years ago when the river’s water level rose up to unbelievably high levels and frogs literally covered the streets.  Some say that is just a myth, designed to keep the busy Los Angeles residents from overpopulating their community.  If those folks found out how peaceful, friendly and attractive the Frogtown community really was, there may be a mass exodus of people leaving the city and heading for greener pastures.

The community is a little like something you would see in a painting from the fifties.  People sit outside on front porches and wave at their neighbors as they walk by.  Families go for bike rides together through the streets.  Back yards are filled with fruit trees and shrubs adorn the front walkways.  People walk through downtown hand-in-hand on a Saturday night without looking over their shoulder, and the occasional resident may actually go to bed at night without locking all their doors, slamming a deadbolt shut and setting their alarm system. 

But don’t confuse this with a Norman Rockwell classic.  The town may only have a few churches, some small stores, a couple of schools and a gas station, but it is still a part of Los Angeles.  This small segment of society is still only a few miles north of the city.  There is no soda shop on the corner or old-time pickup trucks with hay in their truck beds.  The residents of Frogtown are a proud group of folks who have worked very hard to keep their community on the right track.  As a community they have fought to keep their area zoned for “low-density” housing.  This prevents Los Angeles developers from coming in and constructing high rise apartments and condominiums.  The community also works together to keep their area safe.  There is a planned, centrally organized neighborhood watch group on nearly every block throughout Frogtown. 

The area that Frogtown encompasses is small in relation to the surrounding cities.  The strong sense of community within its borders may stem from its relative seclusion.  The city is bordered by the Los Angeles River on one side, and the Golden State freeway on the opposing side.  The side that borders the freeway is literally walled off from the rest of civilization by a giant wall that was built by the Department of Transportation, in an effort to muffle the noise from the massive traffic count.  With a wall on one side and a natural barrier like a river on the other, that only leaves two ways to enter or exit Frogtown;  from the North or the South.   With entry to this hidden cove only possible via Riverside Drive or Fletcher Drive, this community doesn’t get many casual visitors.  It is actually said within the community that anyone who comes to Frogtown is either there for a very specific purpose…or they’re lost.

The homes in Frogtown have a modern flavor in their features and conveniences.  However, their design is individual and distinct.  Most neighborhoods are unique and eclectic, as you may pass a home with a distinctly Spanish influence on one block and a uniquely Old-English Colonial design on the next.  This trend is refreshing to most residents, who have fought to repel the cookie-cutter over development that plagues neighboring areas. 

This is an area that was founded by families of the railroad workers in years past.  Homes in the north end are intermingled with small factories and bus yards.  There are scattered and various light industries in Frogtown today as well.  Many of those, such as electrical, plumbing or air-conditioning contractors, serve the greater Los Angeles area but are stationed in Frogtown to attract workers who want to avoid city life.  The south end of Frogtown is still mostly residential, and houses many of the employees who work in town.

This quaint area is secluded and private, but still just a stone’s throw away from the big city.  For the best of both worlds, and an air of community spirit that is second to none, it is easy to see why so many residents continue to call Frogtown their home.