We Should All Scream Because Salt & Straw's Scooping FREE on Valentine's Day in Brentwood.

No doubt about it, Rose City ice creamery, Salt & Straw has been an unequivocal success since opening their first Golden State location on Larchmont late last year. Heck, their Salted, Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough made my Top 14 of '14 after only one taste. Many on the westside though, hampered by traffic and kids and work and life, have yet to experience the lusciously velvety goodness. Salt & Straw wants to change that.

For Valentine's Day, S&S will park their ice cream truck out front of Brentwood chocolate sanctum Compartes from 1-3 pm and will be doling out FREE MINI-SCOOPS of two of their February seasonal flavors. Part of an overall chocolate-based February special menu, the two pro-bono flavors on offer both feature the aforementioned Compartes. Note to male people out there: you should already be going to Compartes on V-Day, so now you get a free scoop as a reward for not buying her CVS chocolates she'll pretend to like, but actually really, really loathe.

Can't make it to Compartes? You're in luck! The Salt & Straw February Chocolatier Series consists of four all chocolate-based ice creams, all of which came about via collaboration with notorious California artisanal chocolatiers. Besides the two Compartes flavors, the Larchmont shop will also feature one flavor each from Santa Barbara's Twenty-Four Blackbirds and Chocolate Maya from January 30th until March 5th.

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Compartes
912 S. Barrington Avenue, Brentwood. 

Salt & Straw
240 N. Larchmont, Larchmont.

That One Time I Made Eggs With Chef Brooke Williamson.

What: Egg Mixer with Chef Brooke Williamson (sponsored by Davidson's Safest Choice Eggs).

Where: The Gourmandaise School (Santa Monica).

When: Wednesday, January 21, 2015.

Menu: Dungeness Crab Salad and 6-Minute Egg w/ Old Bay Hollandaise, Coddled Egg and Whipped Celery Root w/ Salmon Roe & Chive Puree, Braised Short Rib w/ Truffled Pecorino Soft Scrambled Eggs and Carrot Farro, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles and a Whiskey Flip cocktail.

Thoughts: I really went into this event trepidatiously. I'm a HUGE Brooke Williamson fan (The Tripel, Playa Provisions) and looked forward to her teaching fellow bloggers and myself some wily yolky recipes, yet I truly didn't know what to expect from the eggs. Davidson's eggs are pasteurized in a gentle water bath before packaging, enabling a longer shelf life and a complete elimination of potential salmonella. Which is rad. I wondered though: would they taste as good as non-pasteurized eggs?  My conclusion: can't say I noticed any difference with the new eggs. And even though I rarely think about my mortality when shoveling cookie dough down my gullet, it was nice to know FOR SURE the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles and Hollandaise sauces were not going to be my last meal. Former Top Cheffer, Chef Brooke was also rad. Super laid back and chill like you expect out of a Playa chef.

Here are some pictures from the eve...

To prove they're safe, Eddie Lin of Deep End Dining did an egg shooter like it was his bachelor party. 

Chef Brooke demonstrating how to make the Chocolate Chip Cooke Dough Truffles, which did not suck.

Putting the delicate finishing touches on the Crab Salad.

Egg Coddling like bosses.

I told her to ask normal. So neither of us did.

FREE Pizza at New 800 Degrees TONIGHT.

The fast casual, Ford Model-T-esque quality Neopolitian pizza pie purveying 800 Degrees is opening a new location Monday (1/26/15) in the downtown section of Los Angeles. To celebrate the opening and work out the kinks, 800 Degrees plans to give out FREE PIZZAS TONIGHT, FRIDAY, 1/23/15. Up to three toppings. Stop by the 800 Wilshire Blvd. location anytime this eve between 6-9 pm, show on your phone you're a liker/fan/follower of any of their social media accounts and you got yourself a pizza with your name on it that costs exactly $0.00!

Also, a cool note: the next local 800 Degrees is coming to Playa Vista. So, uh, Playa Vista, be bumped.

Not a 800 Degrees liker/fan/follower yet? That's easy peasy. Go here, or here. Or here.

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800 Degrees

800 Wilshire Blvd., DTLA

Find other locations here.