Sushi Nozomi: An unexpected surprise

As my regular readers are aware, I eat a lot of sushi; I am pretty picky about the sushi I eat and there are only two people (Song and Alex) that I go to when I want it. Unfortunately, neither of my friends is currently available so I was prepared to abstain for a while. Tanya, on the other hand was not. Tanya is an interesting case because she only recently started eating sushi and she was only familiar with Song’s fusion style of preparation. Since we knew Song was selling his business, Tanya had been talking about visiting a …

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Smog City Brewing Opens & Strand Brewers Club Party

Saturday was day six of the 2013 American Craft Beer Week and in keeping with the theme of the week these photos are from the Smog City Brewing grand opening and a birthday party for the President of the Strand Brewers Club, a local home brewers club. If you have been following this site recently, you probably noticed that Smog City Brewing, a 2012 Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal winner, has been holding a few soft-opens in preparation for their grand opening. Well, Saturday was the big day. As Tanya really enjoys the Smog City Groundwork Coffee Porter and …

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Torrance 54th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade

On Saturday, Torrance held their 54th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade, the longest running military parade sponsored by any city in the United States. Prior to the event I was reading about how much smaller the parade would be this year due to budget constraints as a result of the sequester. This was my third time attending the parade in the last few years, and while there were slight changes this year, I cannot say that there were not similar cutbacks prior to the sequester. Either way, it was a fun event for the entire family and Torrance Boulevard was …

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Torrance readies for Armed Forces Day Parade

Today, the City of Torrance will have their 54th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade; the nation’s longest running military parade sponsored by any city. The parade begins at 1:30 PM and will travel up Torrance Boulevard; beginning at Crenshaw Boulevard and ending in front of the Torrance City Hall at Torrance Boulevard and Madronna Avenue. Even though the recently implemented sequester is forcing a few changes as far as things like what military units, bands and flyover will be present for the parade, the show shall go on. Friday, there was a display of various military vehicles, big guns and …

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San Pedro Brewing Company and Smog City Brewing

Friday was day five of the 8th Annual American Craft Beer Week (ACBW) and I was able to visit two gold medal winners that are both located in the South Bay; San Pedro Brewing Company from San Pedro and Smog City Brewing Company (2012 Great American Beer Festival) in Torrance. San Pedro Brewing Company is a brewpub that has been in San Pedro for 13 years and currently has seven beers brewed on location. Smog City Brewing Company just moved to Torrance and is having their grand opening today, May 18 from 12-8 PM. Both locations have a wide variety …

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American Craft Beer Week, Day 4

This group of photos are from American Craft Beer Week 2013 (ACBW), day 4. Regular readers know that on Thursdays we have our Business & Beer gatherings; so it was a little difficult for us to get out of town long enough to get to a Great American Beer Festival (GABF) winner and get back to the area for our Business & Beer meetup. Business & Beer was scheduled to be held at Alpine Inn at Alpine Village in Torrance, which could have been a great idea as they do have a wide selection of beers from local craft brewers …

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Business & Beer Meetup at Alpine Inn

These photos are from our Business & Beer gathering at Alpine Inn last night. Alpine Inn is a German gastropub at Alpine Village in Torrance. While a German restaurant might not seem like a likely setting for a Business & Beer gathering during American Craft Beer Week, the general manager is a home brewer and makes it a point to have a good selection of American craft beers on tap. Unfortunately, about one third of their taps were nonfunctional last night, so we were limited as to the number of American beers while there were plenty of German beers available. …

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Smog City Brewing Industry Party Photos

Smog City Brewing Company, the latest microbrewery to locate to Torrance, held an industry only party Saturday afternoon as a continuation of the soft open that they have been having for the past couple of weeks in preparation for their grand opening this coming Saturday, May 18, 2013. The industry only party was to celebrate the launch of their new brewery and taproom and included guests from all facets of the local craft beer community, including owners and representatives from local breweries, brewpubs, and gastropubs as well as members of various media platforms that promote local brewers. It was a …

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Business & Beer Meetup at Tortilla Cantina

These photos are from our Business & Beer gathering last week at Tortilla Cantina. As the photos show, we had a less than stellar turnout, with no participation at all from our Meetup group. Unfortunately, after corresponding with the people that run Meetup.com we have come to the conclusion that there is no point in continuing to use them. If anyone were to ask me if we found any value in incorporating Meetup to our group, I would have to say that after the initial payment, you are just throwing your money away. Of course, we have a lot more …

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Photos from the Smog City Brewing soft open

These photos are from the Smog City Brewing Company soft open which was held Friday evening in Torrance, CA. A few days ago, Smog City Brewing, a new local microbrewery, posted on their Facebook page that the brewery now had a telephone number and that people should call and leave a message; the hint that “there’s something in it for you too” was enough to make me call. In their message they announced that Smog City Brewing would be having a soft opening prior to their scheduled grand opening on May 18, 2013. They opened the doors at 5:00 PM; …

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