Opened in 2014, Faith & Flower was part of the first wave of DTLA hotspots that sprung up near Staples Center, and the seductively lit spot remains an essential stop for any wine geek. Jared Hooper’s wine program is omnivorous, but his domestic selections are especially eclectic, from Vocal’s spicy Enz Vineyard cabernet pfeffer to the Pape Star red from the late Seth Kunin. If you order a bottle, it’s likely to come in a one-of-a-kind decanter, part of a collection that includes repurposed bongs. Tip: Don’t leave without trying Mike Lay’s English Milk Punch, made with rum, rum and rum, coriander and clarified milk…impossible not to gulp down.
705 W. Ninth St., Los Angeles, California
Californian
(213) 239-0642
Karen started her career in wine as an enologist at Araujo in Napa Valley, having graduated with a BA in International Relations and French from UC Davis. She went on to handle education and sales support for Indie Wineries in California before joining the sommelier team at Spago for a year. For the past several years, she has been working with the publishing group behind the Somm Journal, part of the launch team for The Clever Root, where she served as Managing Editor for two years, then going freelance as a Senior Editor, to raise her daughter, who is now two years old. She also contributes to the Josephine Porter Institute’s newsletter on Applied Biodynamics. Karen has studied in Bordeaux and worked in the Rhône, led there by a glass of Domaine du Pegau, which sparked her interest in the Rhône. And it was a bottle of Diamond Creek’s Gravelly Meadow from the early 1990s that had shifted her view of Napa Valley—her family has been in the Valley for five generations, and once had a dairy farm on the land that became Lake Berryessa.
This story appears in the print issue of April 2019.
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