Our college town has certainly grown up. In Claremont, home to some 7,000 or so college students, there are two wine bars, one gourmet cheese shop, a jazz and fondue club, and a dream gastropub for a Belgian beer connoisseur. A dive bar for cheap PBR or Coors Light? Not in this Village. Our...

Marie-Anne Cantin, arguably the queen of the cheese world, runs a fromagerie palace in Paris that smells of the most pungent rocquefort—and is situated in a cave made of cheese. It is impossible to leave Chez Cantin without ten pounds of Brie and chevre in your grasp and reeking of their...

While I was studying in Paris last spring, a French friend of mine asked if we should get a group together for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien. Normally, with chain restaurants so ubiquitous that their websites have a “choose a country” option, I would stick up my nose in disgust at the...

Texas barbeque is all about the beef. Beef brisket or beef ribs, it doesn’t matter: your beef is grilled with the sauce on the side, because the beef is the focus of your meal. An outstanding barbequed brisket can be so tender, a plastic spoon could cut through it. While the brisket at...

For a small city like Claremont, the number of Italian restaurants—none of them named the Olive Garden!—we have to choose from is fairly astounding. We could be in San Gimignano for the sheer quantity of Italian food, except the freeways and Indian Hill don’t look much like...

The moment diners set foot in the Bazaar by Jose Andres at the impossibly hip SLS Hotel in West Hollywood, an ordinary evening becomes surreal. The taste of liquefied olives mingles with an Alice in Wonderland-esque décor of mismatched chairs and vibrant colors, exuding a...

Sandwiched between a New York pizzeria and a Shell gas station, most people probably miss Inka Trails unless they’re driving at a bumper-to-bumper crawl. This is a shame. There on Foothill Boulevard, just shy of the westernmost border of Claremont, resides the home to the narrowest...

I have never dined at a restaurant suffering from more of an identity crisis than the year-old Christophe’s in downtown Upland. Far, far away from that In-N-Out-laden and Tropical Lei’d stretch of Foothill Boulevard that 5C students know as Upland, there is such a place as downtown,...

There is certainly no shortage of places around L.A. County to sample Mexican cuisine. Trucks roam the valley by the hundreds, dispensing al pastor tacos sliced freshly off the trampo spit, Mom-and-Pop, hole-in-the-wall institutions fill diners with carne asada burritos and chicken enchiladas,...

Chino, California is best known as the hometown of Ryan from The O.C., or perhaps as the agricultural area responsible for the pleasant smell of fertilizers (reminiscent of Limburger cheese) to which Claremont students wake up approximately once a month. Although the town is a mere...

While abroad in Europe last spring, I was fortunate to eat my way through many of the continent’s grand capital cities, which just so happen to be some of the world’s premier gastronomic destinations. Nothing can beat a few tapas and the Prado in Madrid, gelato and the Colosseum...

Across the country, the reddening foliage signals the beginning of autumn, the waning days before months of snowfall, and the commencement of that time when each month requires yet another layer of clothing to protect against fall’s crispness and winter’s biting winds. Yet here in...

Sandwiched between Honduras and Costa Rica, halfway between the southern tip of Mexico and the northernmost point of Colombia in South America, Nicaragua is smack-dab in the middle of Central America. However, to find a restaurant in the L.A. area that specializes in the cuisine of Nicaragua,...

The Buffalo Inn sits along historic Route 66, that magnificent stretch of road now known as Foothill Boulevard, just beyond the eastern border of L.A. County. Located in the ever-so-scenic town of Upland, it’s actually as close to the 5Cs miles-wise as the Claremont Village. Yet...

I turned 21 while abroad in France, so, having enjoyed lenient European drinking laws for months beforehand, my monumental birthday leap into the bar world wasn’t that special. The real moment I realized I had come of age was the final night of August, my first night in Claremont this year,...

Every day—whether it’s in class, at a café, or walking through one of Paris’s spectacular gardens—someone in my study abroad program inevitably poses the question: How do Parisians stay so fit?It is an excellent question, since food is the lifeline of this city like...

As I will be spending the next few months eating croissants and brie in a small town called Paris that knows a little about food, I have been thinking about what I consider my favorite part of the Los Angeles dining scene. In a day and age characterized by Wal-Mart and Olive Garden, these...

I never order chicken at a restaurant—ever. It’s always the same boring bird marinated in various herbs with a spritz of lemon juice, and it spends far too long spinning in the rotisserie, sucking out all the juices the chicken originally had. Until recently, I had only eaten four...

I first heard about La Piccoletta from a good friend who always takes his girlfriend there for Valentine’s Day dinner. For a city of somewhat small size, Claremont has a surprisingly large number of Italian restaurants, yet I had never heard of this place after more than a semester of...

We’ve all been in this situation. You just went clubbing in West Hollywood, or just landed at LAX at midnight, or just went to Dodger Stadium and a Dodger Dog simply didn’t do the job. You’re stuck in Los Angeles at a late hour, and waiting another 40 minutes to eat in Claremont...

We’ve all been in this situation. You just went clubbing in West Hollywood, or just landed at LAX at midnight, or just went to Dodger Stadium and a Dodger Dog simply didn’t do the job. You’re stuck in Los Angeles at a late hour, and waiting another 40 minutes to eat in Claremont...

I first heard about La Piccoletta from a good friend who always takes his girlfriend there for Valentine’s Day dinner. For a city of somewhat small size, Claremont has a surprisingly large number of Italian restaurants, yet I had never heard of this place after more than a semester of...

When staring down a creamy lobe of seared foie gras, what is the one ingredient that would best compliment this already unhealthy appetizer? Or what could add a salty dimension to a chocolate dessert besides a sprinkle of sea salt? Or what goes best with duck tongues and kale?In the minds of Jon...

I had driven by Euro Café at least two dozen times en route to Vons for groceries before noticing that it was more than just another strip mall eatery. The café is in an isolated location off of Mills Avenue, just before Baseline Road. If you’re going to Vons from any of the...

Malan Noodle Shop, located in one of the thousands of nondescript mini-malls that dot the San Gabriel Valley, is a paradise for noodle aficionados. Before even choosing what to have with your noodles (and a meal here would be pointless without noodles) you must choose the noodle size and shape....

Making you wait a long time to hear my opinion is the only appropriate way to write a review of Viva Madrid, the boisterous tapas, paella, and sangria hot spot in the village. Viva Madrid is like Los Angeles traffic: very occasionally you get lucky and there is no wait, and sometimes the wait can...

The 5Cs boast several intense rivalries that cause constant debate among students. There is, of course, the Sagehens vs. Stags rivalry as well as non-athletic hostilities like TNC or Pub? The Coop or the Mudd Hole at 1 a.m? However, I would argue that the most intense rivalry right now among...

The food world is experiencing a pop-culture renaissance like never before. Chef and author Anthony Bourdain is as famous as any rock star, Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking is once again a New York Times bestseller 48 years after its first printing, and even college...