Everyone remembers where they were when the Great Chalkboard War of 2008 broke out....or least we do.  I was sitting at the front desk when I turned to Jen and said, "I think some guy just very methodically moved our sidewalk chalkboard sign two inches to the right."  What started as a curiosity became a small town battle in sunny, strange Eagle Rock. 

     Now, before continuing, some of you may be wondering what this has to do with wine.  Well, it has to do with mom and pop businesses, Los Angeles neighborhoods, and the relationship between the two staying healthy (and yes, it's a short week and September is a notoriously slow month so...humor us).  And we were recently reminded of how fragile this relationship can be with the unfortunate demise of Doughboys on 3rd street in Hollywood.  

     So, back to the war, we would keep our dinky little chalkboard sign on our half of the sidewalk which is approximately 13 feet wide.  Well, what began as a surgically precise shift of our sidwalk advertising became a grumble and a swift kick which ultimately left our advertising flat on the ground or facing the store instead of the street every day.  Polite confrontations posing questions like "excuse me, sir, why do you do that" and "are you angry at wine?" became pretty heated with quotes like "all you people are only in it for the money!" and "why should I have to walk on the side of the sidewalk! I want to walk down the middle and it's a free country!"  In it for the money?  Clearly he's never been in retail. 

     To be fair, though you see these types of signs up and down every retail corridor in our city, they are illegal.  And soon enough, after a few more run-ins with our friendly neighborhood sign abuser, we received a notice from the city forcing us to remove it from the public sidewalk.  And when an employee accidentally put the sign out the following week, our landlords were summoned to appear before the city downtown!  Ultimately, we settled with the city over the phone and all was forgiven provided we never EVER spit in the face of justice again by putting out our little chalkboard trying to make our business a little more noticeable. 

     This is a tough year on almost everyone and small businesses need to do whatever they can to get you to stop in.  But there is always this push and pull between residents who want services and restaurants nearby their homes, but don't want to deal with the decreased parking and increased noise associated with these businesses.  So how can you be heard?  Please, oh please, join a neighborhood community group.  These issues are on-going and need to be discussed frequently in order to keep people happy in their homes and businesses able to bring in enough money to survive.

     We're fairly sure many of you won't entirely agree with us and will agree more with the man whom we dubbed "Mr. Very Angry Irish Man", which is why we have the handy comment section below.  Please let us know! 

Hometown Pairings - Round 2

     Continuing with our Hometown Pairing series, we next move to Dave's Chillin' and Grillin' , one of those places that makes Eagle Rock a unique, neighborhoody place in the middle of a big city.  In addition to providing great service and delicious sandwiches, Dave can (and will) provide you with the most detailed description of every ingredient of his sandwiches from the exact fat content to the mood the driver was in when he delivered that crate of pork sausages last Tuesday.  It's truly remarkable.  So.....let's get to why we're really here....what to eat and what to drink with it....

     Every Friday and Saturday, Dave and his staff run a deal on their mouth-watering meatball and sausage hoagie.  The sandwich comes dressed up with melted provolone, grilled onions, grated cheese and this great spicy/tangy pepper spread (you would be very, very, very silly not to get the pepper spread) for $6.  After selflessly tasting a dozen different wines with the meatball/sausage wonder, we settled on the 2007 Mas Malbec from Mendoza Argentina for $11.99/btl.  The vanilla, plum, tobacco and smokey notes from the malbec pair perfectly with the sweet from the meatballs and sauce and the spice of the sausage and pepper spread.  Let me see if I can tell this story in pictures...