Artisanal LA Fattening up the Public at the Cooper Building

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• Polt holders from Collision Wear
• Miss Beachy Cream, your ice cream spokesperson
• Hands down, the cutest booth at the event. Miss Fruitfly's organic cotton towels.
• Edgy aprons by Domestic Doll
• A few of the whimsical knick-knacks from A Common Thread Studio
• Ummmm…

No offense to the brain trust behind this weekend's very well done Artisanal LA festival, but artisanal is becoming one of those words like amazing, couture, or crazy: it's a catch-all used for everything and so ultimately its meaning is debased. Or maybe everything really is artisianal these days.

Linguistic quibbles aside, Artisianal LA was a whole lot of foods and a little craft (pickling food is a craft, right?) from local merchants, with an emphasis on sustainability; organic, eco-friendly ingredients; and small-batch, made-by-hand care. The bulk of it was sugary: your $15 admission earned you a diabetes-inducing amount of samples of cupcakes, chocolate, tarts, gooey brownies with candybar chunks baked in and covered with frosting, from vendors like Cake Monkey, I Heart Pies, My Delight Cupcakery, and Medina Chocolatier, who supplied a very tasty mango habanero chocolate. For those more interested in DIY, Artisanal LA held workshops on (you guess it) pickling, and other fairly fascinating topics like beekeeping, sustainable caviar, and sustainable spirits). The merchandise was limited to a smattering of kitschy kitchen goods, like rockabilly aprons, Dracula potholders, and organic teatowels. There was even a little area for you to sit, dine, and lay prone once the food coma kicked in.

As popular as this seemed to be, we can't imagine it NOT coming back?probably close to the holidays, possibly in conjunction with Unique LA.
· Artisanal LA [Official Site]