Drink.Eat.Play

Paramount Studios Block Party

Location: 5555 Melrose Ave, Hollywood CA 90038

Entertainment Value: All you can drink beer, Eat.Drink.Play Beer Mug, Roach Coach gallore, live music, and sampling international hard to find beer brands
Entertainment Cost: $30
Food Cost: $10-$20 depending on what you want & which roach coach you want it from

What's cooler than an ice cold refreshing beer on tap? How about getting your own souvenir mug to drink from? Or how about getting to sample dozens of different name brands, some of which are rare, borderline weird? Hmm. Or how about walking around a New York backdrop inside the set of Paramount Studios? Well...Then how about drinking while the DJ spins live hip hop, trip hop, and pop round the clock with speakers set all around the block? Then add dozens of roach coaches serving their eccentric food items? Enter hundreds of young beer lovers like you who are there to cruise through the booze, dance to the mix, and fraternize? So what is really cooler than an ice cold refreshing beer on tap?  How about having it all? Yes, at this block party, you can pay for your beer and drink it too!

Never mind the fact that this block party gives you access into Paramount Studios, a paradise for starstruck Joes like me and a go-to site for Hollywood's best actors, producers, screen writers, extras, agents, stage developers, etc. This is where the magic all happens and it is apparently where all the magic water happens to be at on this fine occasion. Passing through side door entrance on Gower St. felt like sneaking into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--it was exciting, it was new, and I was curious as hell as to what it would look like in there. Needless to say, I was not disappointed, although a little bit surprised. In many ways the back lot of a multi billion dollar company like Paramount studios looked mundane--I mean clean like a University dormitory, but very ordinary. I had expected some one way glass mirrors, solar powered robots hovering over ground running their errands, or at least a Saturday afternoon bombarded with busy people running around for a set. However, it was not only peaceful with scarcely a worker on site, but the offices were plain beige buildings with golden placards tagging buildings that would say "Lucille Ball" or empty carts next to big banners that said, "Congratulations to so and so for blah blah Emmy nominations". It was just all to paradoxical for me. Just like walking into the main lot, where star trailers were staggered together like the Metrobus lot on Sundays. As we almost arrived at the entry way to the New York Street back lot, to our right was the famous  Bronson Gate and to our left the Blue Sky B-Tank hungrily stealing the scenery with its massive facade of a cloud filled blue horizon putting all other backdrops to shame.

As soon we hit the NY set, the first thing I did was fill up my mug with Blue moon and with my husband's mug, Samuel Adam's Summer Ale--both well recognized brew brands in So Cal. While sipping away at the cold brew that tingled on the way down and double fisting through the crowd, I noticed the wide array of international and domestic beer brands that I've never even heard of (not that I'm a beer connoisseur or anything, but you're average Joe, aka me, would even have to do a double take on some of these eclectic brands). The range of beers go from light Pale lager such as Edison Light to American Strong ale's Arrogant Bastard. There were interesting international brew company brands like Czech's golden pilsner Bierbitzch, Japan's Sapporo, Tibetian's Chhaang, and Thailand's Singha, just to name a few. Domestic breweries such as Noble's Pale Ale, Bootleggers, Bitchcreek, and  Sudwerk also made their mark. They even had drinks that weren't beer: Sailor Jerry Rum, Naja's herbal tea, Korea's Makgeolli--a milky off white rice wine, and Honest Tea giveaways by the bottle. As someone who likes fruity, carbonated drinks, my all time favorite beer at the festival was Hornsby's red apple and green apple Cider. It was so good, that half an hour later when I went back for a second round (which is out of the norm considering there were dozens of available beer booths there), they had ran out of the green apple flavor. Hornsby's Cider had the tang of Martinelli's apple cider with the malted fuzz of beer--light, cold, and smooth. 

Not to mention the many different roach coaches out there. For those of you who don't know, roach coaches are your think outside of the box ice cream trucks and your old school taco trucks. Roach coaches are mobile trucks that travel from city to city hot spots feeding busy hungry businessmen and college students with their specialized menu items. Since the lucrative Kogi truck started, many entrepre-imitators have sprouted like California wildfire. What we have now is not only just a new wave of aesthetic enterprise but also a cultural fusion phenomenon. There were about 6-8 different food trucks at the party-- all different ethnic foods with its own unique flavor: Some highlights were:  Delicious Meat's wraps from Turkey, Kogi's Korean BBQ burrito, Dim Sum's Peking duck taco, Don Chow's Spicy BBQ pork taco (Chino-Latino fusion),  India Jones' curry, Fry Smith's Kimchi Pork Fries,  Crepin Around's fluffy sweet crepes, and Mediterranean's sweetly layered Baclava and fruit kabob.

By the second hour, I was feeling pretty good along with 200 other people there. It was getting pretty obvious that everybody was buzzin when even the vendors were smiling for the camera and giving nice compliments such as, "cool tattoo" and "pretty lady" this and that. People asked about the camera, they asked about my blog, and they asked about where we're from. The point is when people ask you personal questions in LA, that is being more than friendly--that's being buzzin friendly--and that's when you know you are at a good block party. Soon, networking started, people danced to the rhythmn of the DJ's beat, cigarettes and cigars distributed around among newly shaken hands, and spirits lifted higher and higher along with the vibrant late afternoon air. Cool magic water, cool LA air, cool music, cool setting, and cool people. All around a cool day

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