Tender Young Food Truck Ventures Up To Granada Hills

In an encouraging sign that the food truck revolution is slowly trickling its way up to the G.H. -- and we need it more up here than they do in L.A., dammit -- the Crepe'n Around crepe truck came and served up their folded Frenchy wares to grateful GranadaHillsians outside of Menchie's on Chatsworth on Monday night. And there was NO LINE!






In business for less than a week, Crepe'n Around serves both sweet and savory crepes. We sampled two of the savory kind: the ham and cheese was laden with seedy mustard and sweet carmelized onions, and the vegetarian featured grilled red peppers and eggplant with cheese and a balsamic reduction glaze. The verdict: YUM.









Jamie, the truck's friendly proprietor, wasn't yet sure if another visit to GH would be in the future or not, but at least we can say, that for a few, brief, shining moments, we had a good French restaurant in this town.

Local Maiden Featured In Maxim's "Hometown Hotties"

A Granada Hills resident named "Valerie" was recently featured in Maxim Magazine's "Hometown Hotties."

I'm not really sure what else to say here.

Spring Egg Hunt At Granada Hills Recreation Center

On Saturday, March 27 at 10am, Petit Park will host a "Spring Egg Hunt." There will also be a moonbounce, "photo with bunny," and face painting.

All publicity materials for this event conspicuously avoid use of the word "Easter," so I guess I will too.

Biff Naylor Sets The Record Straight

Contradicting earlier accounts given to Giga Granada Hills, Biff Naylor of Tiny Naylor's, Biff's, and Du-par's fame called to set the record straight on the Du-par's eviction.

"Almost none of that is true," Naylor said of the story that the business was evicted and patrons were escorted out of the restaurant.

Almost?

"That's a wild rumor. There were no patrons of the premises, we closed voluntarily, and turned the premises back to the landlord. There was an eviction served three days after we vacated the premises."

Naylor said that they were behind on rent payments as "part of the negotiating strategy" with property owners whose rents Naylor said were too high -- "nearly twice what it is at Farmer's Market." So the management "dragged the rent to see if we could get them to come to the table. Of course we will pay them back rent."

Naylor didn't rule out a return to Granada Hills. "If another location comes up there, of course we love the community."

Du-par's De-parts

In a rather dramatic development for diners who were still mid-meal, the Granada Hills' Du-par's was closed last week by sheriffs, who carried out an eviction during business hours, escorting patrons out of the restaurant, sources said.

It seems this isn't the first round of trouble for the Du-par's chain in recent years. The Thousand Oaks Du-par's was closed last year after losing its lease, and during its last years the location had been plagued with health department violations.

Du-par's did not return phone calls requesting comment, nor did the property's landlord, Regency Centers.

The 2008 Granada Hills Holiday Parade, Complete With Techno!

Someone recently posted this video, which shows that no matter how much you try to hip it up, you just can't.

Tomorrow is Free Pastry Day at Starbucks

For once, they're not overcharging.

Gilded Rose Manor: The Little Girls Understand

“Is this a toy house?”

My four-year-old daughter was struggling to comprehend the garish lavender and green building in front of us.

“It’s a tea party place,” I explained, as we walked up the entryway, its banisters still wrapped in Christmas-season garlands on a March afternoon.

“Does somebody live here?” my daughter asked, still trying to make sense of it all. “It looks like a house!”

The fact that Gilded Rose Manor clearly was a house, with few changes to its architecture, is a big part of its charm, and the former residence turned girly haven on Devonshire Street just west of Balboa is all about charm, of an achingly earnest sort.

Fake flowers are everywhere—over the doorways, painted on the walls, even adorning the Christmas tree still standing in the corner, and one room is even painted to resemble a faux-seaside scene. Gilded Rose is the perfect place to go if you want to delight a small girl, or humiliate a small boy. Has any male ever dared set foot in this place? It might have happened, but if it did, it certainly wasn’t his idea—it was his girlfriend’s, or his tiny daughter’s. Inside, there’s a single restroom, and although it has both male and female icons on the door, its more prominent signage reminds users to dispose of feminine products in the wastebasket.

Gilded Rose is a temple to tea, not as beverage, but as fetish object steeped in mythology. This fictitious rendering of a Victorian England populated entirely by ladies in flouncy hats and feather boas, I imagine, would leave authentic Brits scratching their heads in wonder and amusement at silly Yank ideas about the proper way to drink tea: only on special occasions, only in special attire (which is provided on a hat rack at the door for patrons who want to play dress-up).

But if you were looking for authentic elegance, you would have taken your tea at the Biltmore or at the Langham Huntington. We all know why we’re here at the Gilded Rose: to revisit the little-girl fantasy of the fancy lady, all grown up, sipping tea from a china cup, nibbling teensy petit fours blanketed in pastel frosting, with pinkies skyward. Here, in the “Victorian splendor” of the painfully pink tea room, it’s all about the faux-elegance, complete with crocheted doilies and mommy’s pearls.

All that said, the tea list was impressive, with an overwhelming variety of choices, and the tiny crustless sandwiches, scones, and cupcakes very well-executed. I felt a bit soaked by the $5.50 “sharing charge” slapped onto the check for the Afternoon Tea, which clearly wasn’t designed to be enjoyed by a solitary diner—would an elegant lady ordering solo really be capable of chowing down on eight finger sandwiches, three scones, and four small desserts all by herself without making an elegant pig of herself? If she did, the elegant belches bouncing off the flowered wallpaper would compete in volume with the Vivaldi suite blaring from the iPod dock in the corner.

But the ladies of the Gilded Rose know that you’re not here in search of a bargain; you’re here for a bridesmaid’s tea, or a five-year-old’s birthday party, or for a Red Hat Society luncheon. They’ve got you where they want you, and it’s tough to put up much of a fight when you’re wearing opera-length gloves and heels.

St. Patty's At Oh Grady's!

"Everybody in Granada Hills basically comes to our bar on St. Patrick's day," says Danny Deprest, who co-manages Oh Grady's in Old Town Granada Hills with his partner Melissa, who owns the bar.

Oh Grady's, like most Irish-themed bars, expects to have a full house on March 17th, but they're planning to keep things slightly lower-key this year than last.

At the height of Oh Grady's 2009 St. Patrick's Day party, Los Angeles Fire Marshalls paid a visit at about 11:30 p.m. and shut the place down for overcrowding and lack of a proper fire permit.

The lack of a permit was the result of a simple misunderstanding, Danny explains. "The entire time the bar was open -- from when it was Valentino's, and then became Oh Grady's -- nobody ever caught that it didn't have a fire permit. We took over almost two years ago, and you have to go to Building and Safety, and Alcholic Beverage Control, and no one caught that there was no fire permit. We thought that the paper that the fire department brought out was our fire permit."

In actuality, the Fire Department had only provided an occupancy slip, indicating the maximum occupancy of the bar -- 92 patrons -- which is different from a fire permit.

"The fire marshall said, 'Your fine is that I'm shutting you down for the night; tomorrow, come to my office, get the permit, and you're good to go,'" Danny says.

The error was corrected the very next morning -- Melissa was in the Fire Marshall's office at 9:00 a.m. the following day. But the Los Angeles City Attorney wasn't quite as prompt.

The following October, the couple received notice that the City Attorney's office had decided to press charges for over-occupancy. The charges came as a shock; Danny and Melissa thought that the matter had been settled and fines had been paid when they were closed down by the Fire Marshall months earlier.

So the couple retained a lawyer. "The city needed money, so seven months later they want to go after ridiculous charges," Danny said.

Because their legal troubles have not yet fully been resolved, "We dont' want to stir it up any more," Danny says. That means no live bands playing the bar on the evening of St. Patrick's Day, and strict adherence to occupancy limits.

But the bar will still be open for business, they expect a lively night, and everyone's invited, Danny says. "We're going to have a keg bar and the main bar. We'll have green beer and Guinness on tap. Come down and celebrate St. Patty's Day, have a good time with friends, and meet your neighbors. And wear green!"

Rolling Blackouts Affect Granada Hills Businesses, Schools

This morning, intermittent power failures plagued businesses along Chatsworth Street from Balboa -- Staples reported being without power for two hours -- to Zelzah -- Granada Hills Charter High School and businesses in the OSH Shopping Center.

"We were totally without power for two hours, and now it's just going off an on," a Staples employee said.

LADWP representatives could not be reached for comment about the source of the trouble.

Election Day FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about the Granada Hills Neighborhood Council Elections:

1. There's an election today?


2.  Why should I care?


3.  Who are these people?  How do I know who to vote for?


4.  Where do I go to vote?


5.  How do I know if I'm in Granada Hills North or Granada Hills South?

Mud Flap At Sunshine Canyon

The Daily News reported that Sunshine Canyon Landfill is receiving 40 additional truckloads per day of waste and debris Los Angeles County cleared from catch basins in the wake of recent storms.

The landfill's manager says the stuff is simply mud, but Sunshine Canyon watchdogs the North Valley Coalition and Councilman Greig Smith are raising question about the potential health risks, if any, from the debris, which they fear may contain contaminants.


Read the full article at Daily News.com

Granada Hills Charter High School Brings Home The Silver

GHCHS's Science Bowl team took second place in the 18th annual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Science Bowl, coming in after perpetual winner North Hollywood High.
Full story here.