TRAVEL TALES | LA-style raw food in Chicago at Karyn's On Green

EVER BEEN to LA? No? Ever wonder what it’s like in LaLa Land? For a close approximation (if you can’t make it all the way there), Karyn’s on Green in Chicago (I know... bear with me) is hard to beat. At least for an LA-style dining experience (see?). Although, if you ask owner Karyn Calabrese about it, she’ll say that the restaurant is more LA than LA ( “you can’t even find any place like this in LA”.) Which makes me believe that this must be a sort of culinary Shangri-La, at least for vegan types in search of something less Patchouli soaked than the usual offerings.

Somehow, walking into Karyn’s on Green, it feels like this space -- a sort of abattoir for restaurants past -- has finally met its match. The minimalist, low-to-the-ground, Southern California cool is exactly what Karyn’s on Green needs. Vegans from all over Chicago come here. Fans and friends of Karyn’s come here. And, most importantly, food lovers come here.

Not that it's fine dining. It’s somewhere between fine and casual. It’s vegan dining dressed in Preen or Marc by Marc instead of Birkenstock and Kohl’s clearance rack. It’s sexy vegan. It’s a vegan I didn’t know existed. Karyn’s on Green has pulled a Justin Timberlake and brought sexy back (or brought it for the first time, really) to meatless eating.

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Beautiful idea and website - About Great People Magazine

Sometimes in life we get bored and uninspired. We accept the status quo without so much as a lifted eyebrow. It was with such a wizened creative wick that I happened upon a site that's the perfect pile of kindling to re-ignite anyone's creative spirit (and just in time, let me tell you). 

To be fair, I met the founder of this online magazine as well, which greatly (as it should) informs my opinion of the site. He is a ball of kinetic positive energy and enthusiastic curiosity, which is reflected in About Great People. He and this site are quite the antithesis of the daily dose of superficial Schadenfreude we all seem to seek in the red tops, the weekly glossies, etc., sneaking peeks of cellulite and botched surgery, private heartache and personal turmoil exposed. Swap out the cultural roadkill for a story on a knitting collective in New York or an interview with an eco-friendly, ethical condom manufacturer. Feeling a bit less one-dimensional already, aren't we? 

It's not just the content that's fantastic (if adorably translated, peppered with little language foibles here and there). The format is totally innovative. The sleek, beautiful cover leads to a minimal index. Click on an article and you're taken to a very clean, readable format with completely new, but intuitive, pagination and copy and images in digestible, design-led layouts. 

If you're looking for something to inspire and beautify you from the inside out, this is a great place to start. Brand spanking new, it's only going to get better.

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A new year, a new vintage with Michele Ouellet

The fashion world in the UK is used to seeing the same faces. Why, you wonder? Lineage, I say (but we'll leave the in-depth analysis of the UK's cult of caste to the ethnologists at UCL, shall we?). There are some (La Moss, teenage mum (way to aid the national stats, girl... the UK's got be on top somewhere!) Jourdan Dunn) who don't come from the landed (or simply titled, thanks to the economy) gentry. They seem to be the exception, not the norm.

In the US, there is an equally privileged set of girls who become models, fashion designers, whatever... And I have to say, If your last name is ASSOCIATED WITH A PUBLISHING HOUSE, you are not on the catwalk for any other reason, sweetheart. Well, fine, maybe you're a shade cuter and a sliver thinner than the average Jane, but, well, the last name doesn't hurt, does it?

Then there are those who come from money, lineage or whatever background and are actually worthy of the titles they are bestowed (and more power to this set, I say!).

This is where I see the young Miss Michele Ouellet fitting in. Given a winery for her 21st birthday (of sorts... more of a label but still trumps my a pint of beer), she's the face of Lorenza Rosé (her label) and cuts quite the cult figure in the model world. Bringing something of the olde worlde (i.e. Christie Brinkley/healthy/Cali, decidedly not street urchin) modeling style back, we're intrigued by the girl. And ecstatic to find someone with her fingers in a few other honey pots so far afield from the world of haute couture (variety is, after all, the spice of life, dears). So hurrah to her and keep reading for our five-minute chat with Oullette to see what has to divulge from her insider stance on the world of smoke-and-mirrors and the tools which are therein employed... and her wine. We are very curious about the wine

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