Get transported to the eighties, the wild & crazy era of die-hard romancing & synth-laden beats, tonight at  Beer Belly’s debut of “New Order Mondays.”

This highly popular, hipster hang-out-gastropub features 12 local craft beers on tap and a simple menu of bar bites, and starting tonight a whole new way to relieve your case of the Mondays. Until 7 PM, fill up on 50-cent Jidori chicken wings, four-dollar duck fat fries, and all beers priced at one dollar off. Or you can go big with the bar’s “hoppy meal,” which combines both dishes and a beer for $15. (All the while, jam out to the likes of Duran Duran, The Cure, & Depeche Mode).

In addition to these unbeatable prices, chef Wesley Lieberher will introduce a new dish that’s served up for one night only, which will be announced on Facebook and Twitter beforehand (tonight it’s THREE different types of cheese-steaks). Get ready for new & interesting takes on grilled cheese, chili, and burgers to go perfectly with your IPA or Lager.  Crowd pleasing resident menu items include: Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Gourmet Grilled Cheese, New York Pizza Mac & Cheese, & Deep Fried Oreos.

Beer Belly is tucked away in a parking lot off of Western Avenue, but you won’t be able to miss it thanks to its striking exterior covered in street art designed by Yoshihiro Takahashi (aka MR44).

New Order Mondays at Beer Belly summed up: cool interesting people, a great selection of local beer & menu items priced right, and 80′s vibes. There you have it, Monday’s aren’t so blue anymore.

Beer Belly - 532 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA

It’s that time again and DineLA has taken over most of the restaurants in this big city and we’re here to tell you the best ones to hit up. It’s an excuse to check out new spots (or oldies but goodies) at a reasonable price. DineLA will be running in Los Angeles for 2 more weeks, scoring you 3-course dinners running at $26, $34, and $44.

The best mega-steals of the bunch are few and far between but, we managed to sort through to find the best you can get for just $26. At hipster hangout, Luna Park, choose from warm goat cheese fondue, marinated Hawaiian Tuna Poke, or Grilled Artichoke for your first course; enjoy Breaded Pork Cutlet stuffed with mushrooms, gruyere, & white cheddar, or Steak Frites, or even a delicious Pan Seared Mahi Mahi for your entree & top it all off with our favorite “Make Your Own ‘Smores.”

Or, if you’re feeling a little adventurous, check out Hollywood’s new Asian-Peruvian hot spot Osaka. Their 3-course meal offers classic ceviche, a spicy crunch roll or Filet Mignon medallions, and a hot chocalte molten cake.

Last but not least, escape to LA’s own version of Paris at the Little Next Door for Arugula, blood orange, almond & goat cheese crostini with your choice of Wild Mushroom Chicken Breast or Steak Frites, and Chocolate Flour-less Cake.

For those who haven’t already checked out newbie Cleo in SBE’s Redbury Hotel, this is your chance to try a little bit of everything. The $34 dinner includes 2 appetizers such as hummus with homemade pita bread and wood burning oven items such as as artichoke or spicy potatoes, an entrée like a delicious Chicken Tagine or an assortment of kabobs, and a dessert (get the apple streusel with cinnamon cider caramel and spiced vanilla ice cream).

As if we didn’t already love & crave with all our “fifth taste” everything that is the Umami Burger, owner Adam Fleischman is aiming to tickle our tastebuds with our other favorite comfort food – pizza.

800 degrees is Flieschman’s latest endeavor located in Westwood, offering his spin on the modern pizza joint. The decor is sleek yet, simple featuring long communal counter space where diners pick from a variety of fresh and local toppings, black & white tiled walls, and the coolest futuristic soda fountain we’ve seen (designed by Ferrari presenting crazy flavors like “Mello Yello”). The vibe is fast paced yet warm, with pies spitting out of the oven quicker than you’ll be waiting in line. With build your own pies & daily house specials starting at $5, we have a feeling this joint will keep us coming back.

The menu is simple, offering patrons the freedom to choose from a list of the freshest ingredients to create their ultimate tomato pie or pick a “Specialty Pizza” already dreamt up. Some of our favorite Specailty Pizza’s include: the Tartufo (at $11, it’s deliciously completed with truffle cheese, roasted mushrooms, caramelized garlic, and arugula) and the Carni (at $10, it’s the perfect pie for all you meat lovers with salsiccia, pepperoni, meatballs, & rosemary ham). Feeling light? Stick with one of their 4 versions of Burrata Salads. Oh, and if that’s not enough to get you pumped for Umami-style pizza, they are also serving fresh daily gelato from LA Creamery with flavors like Chocolate Hazelnut and Rum Raisin.

800 Degrees Pizza - 10889 Lindbrook Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90024 - 11am-2am daily - 424-239-5010

Long gone is the Spacecraft insignia that closely guarded (for years) the mysterious corner pocket of Hollywood and Ivar. The black blockades are no more, and Adolfo Suaya’s (Surly Goat) Osaka is wowing the pre-club supping crowds with its Peruvian-Asian fare.

Osaka’s ambiance is as breathtaking as the food is stellar. The new Hollywood spot marks the US arrival of the successful South American brand (other locations include Mexico City, Lima, Santiago, and Buenos Aires). The space is a zen den of eye candy – from the hop-skip over the stone path in the floating entryway to the chiseled staff and Palo Santo infused air (a South American wood burned everyday before open).

Minx Society had the pleasure of attending a private dinner consisting of a tour of interior designer extraordinaire Kris Keith’s charted grounds, starting with cocktails in the Pisco Garden, then down the sushi bar stretch and finally ‘neath the roped ceilings cocooning the main dining room.

The extensive menu offers a sushi & ceviche selection as well as Osaka-style (Asian-Peruvian fused) plates like Tuna Ribs, Miso Truffle Kobe Beef, and Parmesan Scallops. For libation lovers, try the Caipi Osaka with Absolut vodka, muddled strawberries, passion fruit, and lime or the Ginger Julep with Mount Gay rum, fresh ginger, mint, orange, and tonic water (oh-so-refreshing).

Unforgiving foodies may label the Asian meets Peruvian fare a runner up to Ricardo Zarate’s Picca over on Pico, but if you want to share Hollywood Boulevard with Hemingway’s and the W – well, you’ve got to look the part.

Osaka – 6327 Hollywood Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90028 323-785-0360

The owners of The Beverly and Trousdale, Guy Starkman and Darren Dzienciol, debuted their rustic new hot-spot-eatery in West Hollywood last week.  Located behind Jerry’s Deli on Beverly, guests make their way to this hidden gem for the impeccable menu by Keven Alan Lee of East in Hollywood and Lutece in Las Vegas.

The indoor/outdoor restaurant has an intimate feel, seating only 50, with low lighting that makes for a perfect date night.  But even if you’re looking for that special spot for a girl’s night out, you’ve found it (head to celebrity favorite The Beverly for dancing right next door).

The original and fun vibe of this restaurant welcomes everyone with the tantalizing start to your meal: the one of a kind “spud mixologist.” Never heard of one before? Well, think of it as an upgrade from bread and butter.  Offering personalized mashed potatoes, the mixologist wheels around a cart with a variety of toppings from truffle oil to bacon that will add flare to your choice of whipped parsnips, purple or sweet potatoes.

Feel free to get close in the leather booths and enjoy the divine entrees including New Orleans-style prawns with a zesty barbecue sauce and a signature tomahawk cowboy steak.  The upscale new venture also offers beef and tuna tartar, a kurobuta pork chop, truffle chicken pasta, and a refreshing gazpacho. (Everything is simply divine!).

Sherborne makes it easy to enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine under the night sky.   But don’t end your starlit night without tasting one of the exquisite desserts that include the chocolate chip bread pudding, chocolate mason jar soufflé or blackberry pear cobbler. It’s safe to say that the cuisine and sexy feel of Sherborne will leave you wanting more.

Sherbourne – 327 N. Sherbourne Dr., 310.289.5942 – Reservations

Just when you thought West 3rd. Street couldn’t get any better, The Churchill restaurant opened last month at the base of the Orlando Hotel.

Understated grace and rustic, charm oozes from the space; polished wood tables and counters showcase a grain and pattern of wood so fine it could rival amber. Created by the same gang that is responsible for the unbridled fabulousness of the Hudson in West Hollywood, this gastropub (translation: bar with haute couture food) was designed to resemble an early 1900s English country cottage. It’s like going to Europe without having to fight the traffic out to LAX.

Plush tufted leather, deliberately worn seating rests against exposed brick walls, cross-back chairs and spindly wooden spoons adorn the main floor of the restaurant. There’s an open air patio at the ground level offers the opportunity to dine with the sun blessing each eyelash and a fireplace to keep things toasty on colder days. Enjoy discovering antique-y items like a silver cash register and vintage boxing gloves adorned here and there with framed black and white photographs on the wall.

Jason Tuley has been crowned executive chef and thank God. You can look forward to items like duck confit, prosciutto pizza, octopus salad, and potato gnocchi. All the ingredients are local, all meats cured in-house and the presentation–fabulous. Get ready for a comprehensive wine list and innovative cocktails, bottomless mimosas on Sundays. The entire environment makes you feel like you’ve been set up on a blind date with this really cool guy who has great style and is about to cook you dinner.

Photo by The Churchill

The Churchill – 8384 W 3rd St - Los Angeles, CA 90048 - (323) 655-8384

Adrian Grenier, Entourage’s hunkiest star, is the latest Hollywood player keen on the sustainable wine industry; so keen, that the 35-year-old is launching his own sustainable wine called “Stomping Ground”.

Grenier gave his loyal fans a sneak peek of the first Red bottle this weekend via his Twitter.”We decided that we were going to create a sustainable wine because we are all about connecting and lifestyle and what better way to connect and communicate ideas about sustainability than around a nice dinner with a great bottle of wine,” Grenier told reporter Robert Scoble at the Napa Film Festival Sunday. “It’s a social lubricant.”

The wine is a rich blend of the finest organic, bio-dynamic and sustainable ingredients. Even the bottles & labels are eco-friendly; all of the bottles are made from re-used, washed and recycled glass & the ink’s 100% environmentally friendly. ”I’m very passionate about trying to curb our destructive ways and provide a viable alternative to just ignorant consumption,” Grenier said.

“Stomping Ground” will be available starting in December, but you can pre-order a bottle (or case) starting next week on SHFT, Grenier’s eco-website which sells sustainably designed products and produces original environmentally conscious online content.

I, for one, have never arisen at 7AM to go down to the local market in a village in Tuscany. However, after dining once at SBE’s newest addition Mercato di Vetro, I feel as though I have accomplished this through some remarkable transport in time and space.

The restaurant is composed of wood and glass: enormous two-story plate glass windows comprise the front of the restaurant and wood panels accent throughout the interior walls. Together, with the overall sensation of space and an overarching open-air quality, the wood and glass give the pleasant illusion of being outside. You feel as though you’ve wandered into some local Tuscan market where your friends and neighbors shop and welcome you authentically.

The staff of the restaurant, under the leadership of general manager Neil Solomon, is indeed welcoming and warmly offers suggestions for a first-time diner. At the marble-topped upstairs bar, Lamar and Josh expertly explained the nuances between cocktails, allowing me to feel confident when I finally ordered the singular apples and peaches martini.

If you’re in the mood for a small bite, the menu offers crisp snacks like portions of kale and raw almonds, or the more inventive squash blossom, which comes puffed with ricotta cheese and a tomato dipping sauce. These petite snacks range from $5 to $9.

While all dishes feel like they’ve been made with ingredients just plucked from the garden, executive chef Danny Elmaleh still keeps each dish innovative and dynamic. A burrata and peach salad focuses on a plump dollop of the silky burrata surrounded with a halo of seared peaches. Entrees like the ripe and creamy pork osso buco and the branzino sea bass with perfectly seasoned cauliflower in a light yogurt sauce, show the high caliber of talent of the kitchen staff in creating both delicate and robust flavors. Such entrees range from $10 to $16.

It is perhaps this divine harmony between rustic, old world charm and fierce innovation that best characterize Mercato di Vetro. For as much as the restaurant feels like a delightful sojourn to the most bucolic parts of Italy, modernity does prevail. Touch screen notebooks flourish in the bar areas of the restaurant, allowing customers to browse through menus electronically and parts of the kitchen are glass enclosed, allowing you to pass through them and watch the masters at work.

It is a marvel to experience such synchronization occurring so gracefully in one place and the restaurant truly is an exceptional, ground-breaking feat.

Mercato di Vetro –  9077 Santa Monica Blvd – West Hollywood, CA 90210 – (310) 859-8369

Half-rustic and half-metropolitan, wood panels cover the floors and walls in a facade that makes you feel like you’ve stumbled upon a luxury wood cabin. Long communal tables fill Downtown LA’s Urbano Pizza, allowing Angelenos to chill in an atmosphere that almost feels downright neighborly.

Urbano specializes in wood roasted pizzas and honey, you can taste the difference.

Pizzas start at $10 and offer you a range of harmonious toppings such as the graceful, yet cheeseless pomodoro with tomato, garlic and oregano for vegans and aspiring vegans.

Meat eaters can feast upon pizzas with the likes of salami or fennel sausage paired with things like caramelized onions, burrata, pesto, chili and a range of other carefully selected accompaniments that create a symphony of scrumptiousness.

In fact, they even have a starter menu which features some wood-fired appetizers, such as wood-fired corn, which is smoky and sweet, with a slight crunch and a delicate trot on your tongue.

Urbano’s bar abounds with a beer selection that is respectable, bordering on comprehensive and averages at $6. They boast classic draft beers like Blue Moon and less common varieties like Stone Smoked Porter, making the restaurant feel like a real, true destination point and making you feel like you’re  OUT. In fact, if you’d like to feel like you’re OUT, but have your wallet feel like you’re curled up on your couch at home, stop by their happy hour, from 5 to 7pm and enjoy $4 beers and $8 Margherita pizzas. Who says you can’t have the best of both worlds?

Urbano Pizza Bar – 630 W. 6th St - Los Angeles, CA 90017

Photo Credit: Maya Meinert

Is an un-fried, gluten-free — maybe even vegan – doughnut too good to be true? Not anymore, Angelinos! Fonuts (get it? faux doughnuts), opened its shiny new doors last week with fresh, out-of-the-oven ready to feed your gluten/lactose/egg-intolerant doughnut-craving stomach! The West Third Street bakeshop is stirring up a craze of this new era of the donut (so long, cupcakes) thanks to bakers-slash-owners Waylynn Lucas (former four-star pastry goddess of The Bazaar) and Nancy Truman (at home baker times voice actor).

Now you can satisfy your sweet tooth and stay within the restrictions of your LA diet with chocolate-hazelnut, strawberry-buttermilk, Hawaiian, peanut butter and jelly, and even rum baked donuts to-die-for. The unlikely faux donuts push the envelope even further with unlikely, yet savory combinations (so long, crepes!) of flavors including: chorizo cheddar, maple bacon, and even rosemary with olive oil powder.

Fonuts is doing so well, that they had to close shop today because of the unbelievable amount of customers storming their doors, selling them out of their entire inventory of Fonut ingredients since their opening last week! Fonuts reopens tomorrow for their regular hours at 8 a.m. and close at 4 p.m.

Fonuts - 8104 W 3rd. St Los Angeles, Ca. 90048 – 323-592-3075