The Los Angeles Design Festival is an annual series of events focused on the role good design can play in enhancing the quality of our lives. The Festival embraces a diverse array of design disciplines and recognizes the significant creative talent that exists in greater Los Angeles. The events span across a two and half week period in which the public can simply RSVP for free or pay an admission fee depending on the event admission criteria.
The event I chose to attend was the Sweetlife LA Block Party hosted by Sweetgreen which is a fast casual healthy salad chain hailing from the East coast. Their new location sprung up in May on West 3rd and I started to hear chatter about the organic vegan friendly spot so naturally my ears perked up. After seeing the event on the LADF website I was intrigued to dive a little deeper into Sweetgreen to see what they were all about. It seemed after snooping around their site the values and vibe of the brand really connected with me and the values of BEETxBEET. I was really liking what I was seeing. I love that they use local and organic produce, practice sustainability, educate children in schools and throw awesome music events to top it off. Healthy food, music, education. The bells and whistles were all going off. But there was just one thing. Here's the message they promote:
"THE CHOICES WE MAKE EVERY DAY ABOUT WHAT WE EAT, WHERE IT COMES FROM AND HOW IT WAS RAISED HAVE POWERFUL CONSEQUENCES ON THE HEALTH OF INDIVIDUALS, COMMUNITIES AND THE PLANET."
This is AMAZING. I love this. It's such a great message to promote while helping educate the masses which is the big picture. Now here's the but. For me personally there's a bit of a struggle because they do sell animal products which is no where near sustainable and obviously something that i'm against. They also state they source "humanely raised" livestock. I have a problem with this term because I believe there is NO SUCH THING. There's nothing humane about slaughtering an innocent animal no matter if it is free to roam outside in a field eating organic feed, not pumped full of antibiotics or locked in cage of it's own feces within a giant warehouse.
So besides that little number everything else is awesome. I will say this though. I do applaud them for what they do. Even though they are a company who sells animal products the message they are putting out does educate the consumer to think about where their food comes from and that is definitely a step in the right direction. Especially with the education to children which I feel is very important.
Now back to the event! Ha! Once you walked in they had free green tote bags with the saying "Beets don't kale my vibe". Clever. I immediately was wanting to discover the food. They had a section inside with small bites in cups of their different salad options. One was vegan, The Spicy Sabzi which was pretty good. I glanced over the menu on the wall and made a mental note of a few things I wanted to come back to try like the falafel. You can also have the option of making your own salad bowl.
I was grooving to the tunes of DJ Tamara Sky until it was time for the opening act, a Canadian Indie Pop band called Alvvays totally killed it. In between sets they were passing out vegan Fonuts! Of course I snagged one. To close the night there was local LA temptress who makes you melt at the sound of her enchanting emotion filled voice - BANKS. She played the favorites and the crowd couldn't get enough. Overall a great night of locals, food and music.
