What better way to say goodbye to everyone’s favorite controversial animal organ treat but with a 15 minute fire alarm and verbal warning to evacuate the building.

More on that later.

Unless you’ve been living under a Himalayan salt rock recently, you’d know that California is banning the production and sale of foie gras starting July 1st, which has caused quite a kerfuffle in the culinary community.

A FEW FUN FOIE FACTS:

1. Foie Gras literally translates to “Fatty Liver”

2. Its made by harvesting the fattened up livers of geese and ducks, often utilizing force feeding methods.

3. The method of force feeding is called “gavage”.

4. Foie Gras is a delicacy stemming back to the ancient Egyptians. They discovered geese and ducks would over eat before their long winter migration.

5. This produced a fattened liver which was yummy.

6. Many folks think the force feeding tube and purposely enlarging the liver is inhumane.

7. Some farmers produce cruelty-free foie gras by leaving excess amounts of food out and letting the ducks and geese pig out naturally.

8. Donna Summers probably liked foie gras. Now, we’ll never know.

OK. So tonight’s event was to showcase a few foie gras dishes Takami Sushi will be offering before the ban goes into effect.

The very chic Takami is located downtown, on the 21st floor, offering some pretty great views of the city. How have I not heard of this place before??

I’ve only had a few experiences with Foie Gras (worthy of capitalization) in the past and after tonight’s delicious feast, it’s like being reunited with an old friend who’s just told you he’s only got one month to live!

Us lucky bloggin’ SOB’s were given the chance to force feed ourselves for six delicious courses, expertly paired with Chilean wines from Montes Winery.

No feeding tube required, so it was cruelty free! Pretty ironic.

Takami will be offering these foie dishes paired with the quite tasty Montes Wines starting in June. So go soon and experience the nirvana that I did or risk my constant ridicule.

And if you’re too lazy to make the trek downtown, I just noticed my local Trader Joes carried Montes.

Right after the first course, the fire alarm sounded and the flashing strobe began. It would not stop.

Neither would the succession of strobe-induced seizures I feared would be imminent.

Then the announcement came that we were to evacuate the building immediately.

Some people in the restaurant started to get out of their seats, but our defiant group stood our ground.

We know a false alarm when we smell one.

The chef had just seared some foie gras in an unventilated area so the pending course would be extra fresh.

We much appreciated the Chef’s thoughtfulness in bringing forth several honking fire trucks just so we’d have some good stuff to write about.

CHECK OUT MONTES HERE:

www.monteswines.com

811 Wilshire Blvd
Ste 2100
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 236-9600
http://www.elevatelounge.com