Los Angeles, CA

Insatiable shoeaholics who desire to be as happy as a kid in a candy store will find FOOTCANDY offers high heel nirvana.

Located at 11934 San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood, true expressions of your obsession await your feet, from coveted shoe designers including Manolo, Christian Louboutin, and Casadei, all wrapped in a Parisian chocolaterie ambience. Arm candy connoisseurs will be equally pleased, with handbags from Jimmy Choo and more.

Xiomara Zelaya and Robyne Wilson are the co-owners of the Brentwood salon, which is the first Southern California franchise location for founders Perry and Carolyn Butler of Napa Valley. Proving to be more than just a shoe salon, what sets FOOTCANDY apart is the art gallery presence of shoe displays, attention to detail, and -most importantly- customer service.

And if that’s not enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, indulge in one of their treats, which involve in-store private shopping and goodie bags…

YUM!!!

Ahh, drive-ins; vivid memories of my parents taking advantage of my small build by concealing me on the floor of the back seat. Now that I think of it, maybe that’s why I’m not keen on sitting in the back seat of cars…

In lieu of your diminuitive children, take advantage of balmy nights and stellar movie openings at Pacific Vineland Drive-in. One of the dinosaurs left to enjoy summer cinematic enjoyment, this drive-in is open year-round, has expanded to 4 screens, with an overall capacity for over 1500 cars. Part of the drive-in experience was the raggedy intercom, threaded thorugh the cracked car window that never stopped the mosquitoes from feasting. Fortunately, Vineland’s audio is provided by FM stereo radio broadcast.

Tomorrow, August 2nd, former fashion entrepreneur Murray Moss will open a 3,500-square-foot gallery space at 8444 Melrose Avenue. Moss, known for the SoHo gallery since 1994, will feature furniture, lighting, tabletops, and objects tricked out in a fire-and-ice illumination. The space will be embellished with a Swarovski Crystal Palace installation of eighteen 8-foot high Vertical Glitterbox chandeliers by Georg Baldele, with a 1938 Steinway Baby Grand fire-sculpted by Maarten Baas as the focal point.

The Melrose gallery will be his first outside of New York.

I don’t think I ask for much when it comes to a man’s attributes: culinary skills, honesty, and the ability to formulate a sentence. But what definitely classifies as a deal breaker is possessing talons for toenails. I can think of one ex in particular that’s in dire need of detailing at Mark Matthew Fine Gentlemen’s Grooming Club, the posh, men’s-only spa located at 12175 Ventura Blvd., 2nd Floor, in Studio City.

What better place to get a haircut, facial, and a quick fingernail buff. Additional services available are a line of grooming products to purchase, dry cleaning, and shoe repair and shine, making it a one-stop maintenance visit. The decor is a manly man’s playground: flat panel TV’s, jazz music, complimentary drinks, and leather club chairs, which dissolve any perceptions of personal grooming being a feminine thing.

Because we women like attractive feet as much as you men do.

I once was an ice cream-aholic, going into cosmic brain freezes from a flavor which echoed my sentiment - Death By Chocolate. It was a weekly summer ritual, indulging in this textured scoop of nirvana perched atop a sugar cone. It was followed by the purchase of a clear cylinder containing Carvel’s chocolate & vanilla Flying Saucers (round ice cream sandwich cookies); the dairy version of a tea party for me and my grandmother. Her banana split was also ordered to go, for I knew she was waiting back home for the sugary soirée . Yeah, I had it bad…

About seven years ago, lactose intolerance entered my world, ending my enjoyment of all things relevant to dairy AND chocolate. I’m not crying any more, thanks to MILK. Located at 7290 Beverly Blvd. in West Hollywood, its homemade ice cream is reminiscent of the happy days when ice cream parlors were not associated with calories or shipped-in deliveries. Most importantly, they are showing love for the lactose-intolerant, with a selection of soy vanilla, chocolate and coffee toffee for our reactive bellies.

I know my grandmother is smiling down from heaven, knowing that we would still be able to sit and enjoy ice cream together at MILK; she enjoying her banana split, and I creating custom-built ice cream sandwiches from their soy milk ice cream.