For anyone flying into or out of John F. Kennedy International Airport, we highly recommend taking some time to check out the new, beautifully done TWA Hotel, adjoining Terminal Five (Jet Blue’s terminal). Its center is housed in the old Trans World Flight Center, originally designed + built in 1962 by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen, and flawlessly renovated by New York’s own Beyer Blinder Belle.

Walking into the common space of the new hotel feels like stepping back in time to 1960s New York, complete with a sunken main bar, hidden away little lounges, a red-carpeted arching tunnel connecting the terminal to the new space, and fully immersed staff, many wearing the original Stan Herman TWA uniforms (that’s a 1975 one below being modeled by our new friend, Donna).

Everything we saw was impeccably + thoughtfully designed, and—this being a quick stop in on our way into the city for a long-overdue visit—there’s a lot we didn’t see too, like the Connie Cocktail Lounge inside of a 1958 Lockheed Constellation airplane parked on the tarmac, a pool bar, and a rooftop deck.

We’re guessing pretty nice hotel rooms too.

The hotel was easily the most thoughtfully designed space we’ve seen of late.

Read more about the space and book your stay at TWA Hotel’s site.

We just got turned on to a fun new food happening here in LA (like, literally this morning)—Zoë Food Party, which is pretty much what it sounds like.

The Zoë in question is Zoë Komarin, Jersey native, artist, and former chef at Tel Aviv’s Cafe Xoho who now, with her husband Udi, happily calls Los Angeles home, where she orchestrates food parties with spontaneity and craveability at their core.

We caught her at her weekly Wednesday morning pop-up in the back yard of Highland Park’s Collage Coffee (who, by the way, makes THE ((full stop)). BEST ((full stop)). Almond milk lattes in town ((regular full stop because grammar, I guess? But at this point…)).)

Granted, this was our first encounter, but from what we can gather, these weekly hump day pop-ups center around egg or vegan turmeric-chia-chickpea patty breakfast sammies with nearly everything—the puffy freshly steamed pita bread, the vegan patties, the tehina, the variant toppers—made from scratch by Zoë. And it’s all awesome and packed with popping flavor.

Our sandwiches featured the aforementioned savory vegan patties (seen frying on the spot below) and a broccoli salad in Zoë’s super-soft, super-fresh pita bread with her homemade sesame tahina sauce and topped with marinated pine nuts, a sweet tomato jam, fresh herbs, and edible flowers foraged by hand.

But the bread and butter (hah) of Zoë’s business model are these food parties, gatherings in homes, parks, or anywhere centered around Zoë’s cooking—as she puts it “I am your witchy food wizard entertainment clown bouncy castle.”

So clearly there’s a lot more to experience.

Explore Zoë’s site if you either want to find out more about these food parties or you want to see what is now our favorite site of the week. Or both.

In this day and age of utter overwhelmment (not a word) at every turn, we sometimes need to hear things twice to have them break through to our collective, social-media-soaked consciousness.

So, to reiterate what we shared last month, our mixtape series that we’ve been sharing on a monthly basis since 2015 has now grown into a partnership with our friends at Whalebone. Like them, we don’t really dig the term ‘lifestyle brand’, but, in their words—”Whalebone is an authentic, positive lifestyle brand that feels like a friend. One who was born and raised on the East End and who seeks out good things and the good in things everywhere.”

The yearly, massive SXSW Music Festival is now in the rear view, but our SXSW mix is evergreen and should live, roughly, for as long as the internet does—check it out over Whalebone and look for next month’s soon; we’ve got something special planned.

And again, if you’re worried about missing upcoming mixes, especially ones not posted here in the future, be sure to sign up for Whalebone’s newsletter. You can also follow us directly on our Mixcloud page and on Instagram, where we’ll be sure keep announcing these.

We’ve been a bit quiet here of late, especially on the new music front. But we assure you, it’s with good reason.

Since January of 2015, we’ve been sharing our monthly mixes of new music. But going into this new year, we felt the need to evolve the series into something new for fear of it all getting a bit tired.

So, after four years of sifting through thousands of new artists + songs and sharing with you over 700 tracks (no really, we did the math), we’re undergoing a bit of a brand refresh for these monthly mixtapes, partnering with our friends over at Whalebone Media, where these mixes will live from now on.

We’re also taking a new approach to both the artwork and the actual formats of the mixes. We’ll still be keeping to 15 songs most times and avoiding too much repetition, but we’re hitting the restart button à la dying right away in Super Mario Brothers, easing up on our usual one-year-rest rule for repeating artists. We’re also making the coverage of the mixes a little more conversational and exploratory with Whalebone and start doing some themed mixes, some of which will likely feature older favorite + hard-to-find tracks rather than just new music.

But what are you doing reading this still? Head over to Whalebone now to hear the new mix and read our conversation with them on some of our favorite tracks and the inspiration behind everything.

We’ll be following up sooner than later there with a new March mix that features our favorite picks for the upcoming SXSW Music Festival.

And if you’re worried about missing upcoming mix announcements, be sure to sign up for Whalebone’s newsletter. You can also follow us directly on our Mixcloud page and on Instagram, where we’ll be sure keep announcing these.

Thanks for the continued listening as we grow this series, friends.

Growing up with a German grandmother who spent her youth and much of her adulthood in Deutschland, there were a few mainstay old world traditions that she made sure to integrate into my and my brother’s upbringing; the most memorable being her yearly holiday cookies—buttery crescents that she made shortly after Thanksgiving and then aged in cookie tins until Christmas. The ones that survived my grandfather’s diligent search-and-devour regimen in the intervening weeks—combatted by an equally diligent hand-swatting-and-scolding regimen by Mutti (German for mom—a moniker passed down to us by our dad)—were a childhood delicacy and something we looked forward to every year.

I’ve talked about these cookies for years, but never actually followed through and found a recipe that seemed right. Maybe it was the fact that we were having a child of our own and I subconsciously wanted to instill a similar fond memory and tradition in our son’s mind, but last year I finally buckled down and did it, reaching out to friends via socials to see if my description of the cookies rang a bell for anyone.

One of the hurdles in the past to finding an accurate recipe was the fact that everyone in my family called these butterhorns growing up. But if you look up German butterhorns, the recipes are way off—most use eggs and yeast, which I have no recollection of, and they’re flattened and rolled into layered crescent shapes, looking nothing like what I remember. But through the crowdsourcing magic of Facebook, I narrowed in on two recipes that seemed right—one an old Peace Corps friend found from the Ottawa-based food blog Plated Cravings for Vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) and another from a friend’s old spiral-bound Emmanuel Lutheran cookbook (scanned + pictured below) for Kippfvln (Frisian or West Germanic for ’tilt’ or ‘crescent’). They’re also commonly called Mandelkipferl (almond crescent) or Mandelsichel (almond sickle), which makes a little more sense in our minds since the raw almond is really what gives these cookies their distinct, craveable flavor. We’ve read that the common crescent or sickle shape in European holiday baking is to pay homage to the citizens of Vienna who repelled soldiers from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) when they played siege to the city in 1529AD.

I made both recipes and we ended up being a house somewhat divided on which was better—Katie preferred the Vanillekipferl from the Canadian blog (slightly more uniform in texture and consistency, maybe a little more vanilla-y); I preferred the Kippfvln (more almond-y and less uniform with the larger pieces of chopped nuts coating the cookies). But only slightly on both counts—they turned out pretty similarly and both are wonderful and very much in-line with what I remember.

Neither recipe mentions letting the cookies stand for weeks, so I’m not sure if that element’s something my grandmother added herself or it was maybe a larger geographical derivation in her part of Germany. Though I think the aging is less about fermentation (though Mutti did make a mean, embarrassingly stinky sauerkraut) and more about giving the very dry, crumbly dough time to absorb the moisture and sweetness of the powdered sugar that coats them. Or maybe it’s a trick of the mind—make these things once a year and tell everyone they have to wait three weeks to eat them and they’ll think they’re the best things in the world.

Regardless, they’re the best things in the world. And pretty easy to make. As with many simple recipes, the key is quality ingredients—key among them here, the butter. I urge you not to use your standard vegan supermarket butter or margarine. California-based vegan creamery Miyoko’s makes a vegan butter that’s worlds apart from the others in the field and will make all the difference in a butter-heavy recipe like this. And they’re much more available these days, in both health food stores/Whole Foods and in mainstream supermarkets in many cities. You can also order it directly from the company online. Other than that, we highly recommend using a good flour (we’re longtime King Arthur Flour fans, and they’re a B Corp, which is awesome).

The only other alteration I made was using the vanilla sugar from Plated Cravings‘ Vanillekipferl recipe in the recipe that appears above too, because why would you not? The stuff’s stellar.

Und Fröhliche Feiertage!

At this point, it feels like we’ve been talking about mid-term elections since…well, basically November 9th, 2016 (for those of us who regained the ability to speak so soon after the previous evening’s general insanity). So in many ways it seems unreal that the big day is tomorrow. Unreal and scary—for many of us, it’ll likely be an awesome or awful day, if we’re erring on the side of hyperbolic dramatics (we usually do).

For those of us in California—the land of voter initiatives, ballot measures, and bond-driven, power-to-the-people-be-them-informed-or-not change—the 37 offices and 16 measures (the actual count in our district) we’re voting on can be totally overwhelming, especially when we’re choosing between two pretty progressive Democrats for US Senate and said measures involve complicated, longterm change with results that are difficult to predict at best.

Take Proposition 10, the statewide measure that attempts to address rent control—for one, the rent’s too damn high, as the various billboards and ads tell us. Who besides landlords would argue with that? But experts agree that allowing localities to provide and/or strengthen rent control doesn’t directly address the housing crisis which can only really be done by creating much more new affordable housing. And people who study rent control closely over time largely agree that rent control can actually increase gentrification as landlords tend to convert formerly rent controlled units to high income for-sale homes when the time eventually does come.

Or how about Proposition 12, widely billed and accepted as the measure to  prevent cruelty to farmed animals. You’d think, as longtime ethical vegans, we’d be all for that, but it’s actually much more complicated and convoluted than it seems. The measure is basically a follow-up to 2008’s Prop. 2, which was also billed as cruelty prevention measure and promised the banning of chicken cages in California by 2015 (which didn’t happen). But it was mired by lack of specific language (it vaguely requires caged egg-laying chickens be given enough room to stretch their wings) and a decent amount of controversy. In ways, this is an attempt to rectify the errors of that past work, but Prop. 12 is equally or maybe even more flawed according to some. It states that we’ll tentatively be cage-free by 2022, but the cage-free environments might be even worse for the lives of chickens (picture a dark warehouse, not a bucolic pasture—this is still factory farming, after all); the proposed protections for pigs and calves seem thin, at best; and some people in the animal rights community just feel that the whole thing is too permissive of a cruel, animal-centric diet.

So, shrug emoji, right?

Even though, often, the more we look into a particular measure or candidate, the more discouraged we get, we remain forever very, very, very pro-vote. Our vote is our voice and when we stay silent, we make the voices of those who don’t all the more loud and all the better heard, diluting our say in how we run this city, county, state, country, and how all that influences the rest of the world. And even with these very flawed measures, they can do some good, even when they’re far from perfect, especially when you look at California’s long history of legal influence on the rest of the country (we’re a house split on Prop. 12, to be honest, but trending towards the ‘it will hopefully do some good’ camp).

A couple of years back, then 1st Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley and a self-described a progressive activist and proposition nerd, Damian Carroll, gave us a little guidance as then-still-new Californians in the form of propositional haikus. He’s doing the same again this year, which you can check out below. These are primarily for fun—some of these are in fact no-brainers for a lot of us but, again, most are pretty complicated and nuanced.

So we encourage everyone to check out a few of our favorite voters guides too, especially with the all-important local races, judges, sheriffs, and other elected officials that really set the day-to-day rules and directly affect so many citizens. And totally do the work and fill out your sample ballot beforehand and look into every single measure and candidate. Whether we think we should be deciding all these things or not as citizens, we are, and people fought and died for these votes (see above note about tendencies toward the dramatic, but true nonetheless). Let’s not just throw our hands up and say the system is broken, why bother; let’s use the tools we have now and work to improve them later.

Here’s a list of our favorite voter guides, some of which rather objectively detail candidates’ views and platforms, some of which straight-up give their endorsements:

League of Women Voters’ Education Fund + Women’s March LA
Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Los Angeles County
LA Forward (props. + measures only)
ACLU SoCal (props + measures only, partial)
Democratic Socialists of America—LA
Curbed LA
Paige Elkington/Westwood Westwood (who wins for best design; this one’s also great for the nonpartisan, yes/no offices)
Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal’s Two Evils Guide (also great for the nonpartisan offices, with some nice, entertaining explanation on many and an award for Most Disingenuous Measure)

Most sane people, I think it’s fair to say, love fall; anyone who doesn’t, I simply don’t trust (same goes for people who don’t love pickles, the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Kylie Minogue’s “Love at First Sight”). Fall in our old home of New York is a beautiful-yet-fleeting time, usually a week long, in terms of weather, at best; here in Los Angeles, it’s less established in terms of traditional timing (this week, mid-October, it’s regularly in the mid-80s), therefore even more important to replicate in other, more controllable facets of life, like, say, giant, heavily themed pumpkin patches.

Flash back to the fall of 2014—we’d just moved from Brookyln to Los Angeles and, being longtime samhainophiles (kind of a word), we sought the best of pumpkin patches in a town that we realized was equally samhainophilic. Our search brought us pretty definitively to Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch, a very well-curated patch in Beverly Hills (it’s since moved to Culver City) that verged on tiny Halloween-themed amusement park, with games, rides, way too many celebrities, set-decorator-caliber staging, and refreshments (we enjoyed the snow cones, as you can see). Oh, and pumpkins. One thing they didn’t have at the time—a petting zoo.

Cut to today—we have an adorable kid (no, it’s proven, we had him tested; also, see above) who we now want to introduce to the over-the-top LA pumpkin experience. But checking Mr. Bones’ Instagram feed, we learn that they now DO have a petting zoo. And that the celebrities seem to bring along professional photographers, makeup artists, and lighting crews, judging by the photos (ah, 2014 Instagram vs 2018 Instagram).

Our beef (pun kind of intended) with petting zoos? By and large, they’re sourced by meat and/or dairy farms, which we’re morally opposed to supporting, being longtime ethical vegans. But even more so in this particular context: How fucked up is it to take you kid—who you’re constantly exposing to these books and stories personifying animals and empathizing children with them from an early age—to meet, pet, appreciate, look in the eyes of all these real animals that are going straight to slaughter and/or cruel confinement as soon as this adorable pumpkin patch calls it a season? Very fucked up is the answer.

So we embarked on a mission to suss out the few area pumpkin patches and general purveyors of these emblematic autumnal gourds that don’t include amongst their attractions petting zoos, pony rides, pig races (no really), or anything else we felt unfair to our voiceless friends. We’re sharing our findings herein but if you’re reading this and have any additions or edits, let us know—this is far from an exhaustive list. And a huge thanks to Jordyn from PETA Kids who gave us so much initial information about some of these places when we reached out.

Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch, Culver City, CA
Oct5-30, Sun-Thu 9AM-8PM, Fri+Sat 9AM-9PM
I know, I know—they were the whole reason for this journey of animal-friendly pumpkin patch discovery in the first place.  But, turns out, while they do indeed feature a petting zoo this year, the company’s owner was raised vegetarian and they went out of their way to not source animals from a meat or dairy farm, instead tapping friends in Ventura who have a farm where the chicken, sheep, and goats roam free—”the ranch is essentially a sanctuary and they are basically family members of the people who own and operate the ranch,” they told us (you can see our full back-and-forth here). Some hardliners take the ‘animal use is animal abuse’ stance, but, for us, that’s pretty good and much more faithful to the whole animal-bonding idea behind these petting zoos.

Photo: Ksenia Moore.

Irvine Railroad Park, Orange, CA
Sep15-Oct31, weekdays 10AM–5PM, weekends 8AM-6PM
The top feature photo was taken here this past weekend and, though it is indeed a hike from Los Angeles proper (about an hour and a half, depending on traffic and from where you’re coming), it’s pretty great. As the name implies, there’s a miniature railroad that runs around the park with narration that sheds light on some history of the park and surrounding area and some holiday-specific decor, in this case including a not-very-scary (in a good way for tiny kids) haunted tunnel the train runs through. The overall park theme is pretty old west, with wanted poster stands you can pose behind for photos, themed building facades, and even an area where kids can pan for gold and strike it rich! As mentioned above, we went on the weekend and it was indeed pretty packed, so be forewarned—expect crowds and a potentially full parking lot if you go on Saturday or Sunday. Their pumpkin selection (and photo ops) are pretty stellar though. The park is adjacent to the Orange County Zoo but is totally unaffiliated with it, so your dollar isn’t going to support them if zoo’s aren’t your things either (same goes for the pony rides which the zoo operates right next to the pumpkin patch).

Riley’s Farm, Oak Glen, CA
Oct1-30, weekdays 10AM-4PM, Saturday 9AM-4PM (closed Sundays)
Riley’s Farm is heretofore unknown to us working apple orchard + living history farm, featuring pick-your-own fruit, living history education, dinner theatre, group banquet facilities, and extended, historically-themed overnight stays. So, yeah, awesome. For any fellow east-coasters who grew up taking yearly field trips to Colonial Williamsburg, this sounds like our new local version. The farm let’s you hike out into their acres of pumpkin fields and pick your own or you can purchase pre-picked pumpkins (say that five times fast) in the farm store if you’re not looking to haul it all the way back. The farm does have some resident farm animals that they sometimes use in their public house in terms of dairy; other than that, we were told they just kind of hang out on the farm.

Your Local Farmers Market
If you’re not looking for a themed experience and are good without all the rides and games but still want something more locally minded, check your local farmers market—many vendors make an effort this time of year to bring their own locally grown pumpkins to market.

Like we said, if you’ve got more tips for us, let us know; otherwise, we hope this list helps you celebrate compassionately this autumn.

Like we mentioned at the open of our last mixtape, one of our favorite things about putting those together is having to push past what we already know and are exposed to in terms of music and seeking out the very new, things we’d almost certainly miss or never hear otherwise. Doing so results in some beautiful discoveries more often than not. With this most recent foray into the unknown, our big take-away was New Orleans band, People Museum, an experimental pop duo comprising producer/trombonist Jeremy Phipps + composer/singer Claire Givens. As we’d mentioned last month, we’d hoped to interview the band to find out more about them and were lucky enough to do so recently, talking about the band origins, the music scene in New Orleans, and more.

You can read the full interview below, stream their debut full-length here or via Spotify, and purchase the album via iTunes or your favorite discerning local record store. Photos by Daniel Grey.

raven + crow: Alright, first thing’s first—how’d you two meet and how did the band develop? Were you both in bands previously and already on the hunt for a new project or did this just naturally develop from an existing mutual friendship?

Claire Givens: We met at a spot in the French Quarter in New Orleans called Marigny Brasserie after a mutual friend suggested we would be good collaborators. Jeremy had just gotten back from living in Los Angeles for a few months pursuing a solo project and I had just come off of a music project that broke up pretty dramatically after 3 or 4 shows. I was definitely itching for a new musical partner. We went to our buddy’s house in the Treme the same day and started writing songs. We finished two complete songs and realized it was a perfect match. The music basically developed our friendship.

Are you both originally from New Orleans?

Claire: I am from North Louisiana, Monroe, which is basically the polar opposite of New Orleans culturally. Jeremy is from Uptown in New Orleans.

What’s the music scene like in and around New Orleans? I know a band from Baton Rouge (thought they’re here now—Moon Honey, do y’all know them? Nicest people in the world), but I can’t off the top of my head think of many bands from NO that don’t live very precisely in the jazz or swamp rock worlds.

Claire: I LOVE Moon Honey! They seem to be killing it in LA. The New Orleans music scene is really difficult to describe. Parts of it are the exactly the same way they’ve been for 50 years (Frenchmen street jazz/funk scene), but if you go downtown or to the Bywater, some pretty radical things are going on. We love what the Pink Room Project and people connected with them are doing. It’s a mix of house, hip-hop, and punk that is what New Orleans is to us in this moment. Nondi is also a very interesting performer who mixes meditation with R&B vocals. It’s a shame that a lot of great music and musicians here don’t get the credit they should because it isn’t what people expect or are trying to take away from New Orleans. They want a Disneyland experience.

Right, no, I can’t imagine a ton of people coming to New Orleans from the outside are looking for anything beyond the traditional or even cliché—New Orleans playing New Orleans. But I’d read that you all view the band as a kind of means to explore the sounds of future New Orleans—can you explain that a bit? What do you see as the future of New Orleans sound and music and even the arts there?

Jeremy Phipps: When I said future New Orleans I meant we’re taking elements involved in traditional New Orleans music like my primary instrument, trombone, but filtering it through effects.

It wasn’t a concept I created in the beginning. It was a practical way of trying to fit inside the soundscape I created with synthesizers and other futuristic instruments.

I think the future of New Orleans art is building a bridge between tradition and progression. It’s inspiring some amazing art.

If your music is any indication, then definitely. How do you two break up song-writing tasks? Or is it different song to song? I know you’re primarily the singer, Claire, and, Jeremy, you play trombone, but there’s a lot more going on there song-to-song.

Jeremy: I usually make a full instrumental track and send it to Claire. She spends some time with it, writes the lyrics and melody, then when she tells me she’s ready I’d go to her house and record a demo. That was the process for the 9 songs on the album and all the other songs that didn’t make IDYTC.

There’s not much debate between us, she gave me the freedom to express myself and I gave her the freedom to express herself. We trust each other a lot.

That’s great. And I feel like that freedom plays out in the creativity shown in the songs too.

I don’t generally like to play the comparison game, but I did find it interesting to discover you toured with Rubblebucket, Jeremy—that’s honestly one of the only sonic parallels that I can think of for your particular sound. I feel like there is this shared approach to the song structure—layered, hyper-melodic, vocal-forward, beat-driven and even a little dance-y at times. All aspects of sound that draws me to both of your bands. Do you feel like that very general musical umbrella is some of what you’re exploring in terms of the future of pop music?

Jeremy: I’m a huge fan of Rubblebucket, so when I got the opportunity to tour with them I soaked in as much as I could. Alex Toth, their leader/trumpet player and Adam Dotson, their old trombonist, are big influences my horn playing. I don’t listen to many horn players so they are definitely the exception.

The album cover immediately brings to mind modern dance and movement to me—does anything like that enter your live shows ever?

Jeremy: I’m constantly dancing on stage. Our weird drum beats inspires the atypical movements.

And is it just you two on-stage for those or do you build out the band for live performances?

Jeremy: It’s a 3 piece live band at the moment. We have an amazing drummer and producer Aaron Boudreaux playing with us.

Any plans to tour out west? We’d love to see y’all live.

Jeremy: I lived in LA, Koreatown for awhile, so I’m dying to play a show in LA. We’re definitely wanting to go west early next year.

Oh, excellent. Finally, we love talking names—can you explain yours?

Jeremy: This is a funny story actually. When I lived in LA, way before People Museum started, a friend of mine brought me to stand outside the arena the VMAs was held in. Along with a couple thousand people you could watch the stars walk back and forth to their dressing rooms through a huge glass.

It’s a surreal and a bit invasive experience. Most of the stars would just ignore us but every now and then one would wave and everyone would cheer.

I felt pretty jaded from it until I saw Willow Smith wave at us! Hah! I love Willow Smith. After that I could see the appeal in it.

Anyway, I said to myself “this feels like a People Museum.” I wrote that name down and held on to it until I started this project with Claire a year later.

Yeah, I’ve never done that. Maybe I should. That place is right down the street, I think. What about the album title, I Dreamt You in Technicolor?

Claire : This came from one of our first songs we ever wrote together that we never released called “Technicolor Dream”. We decided to not include that song on the album, but we felt like “I Dreamt You in Technicolor” perfectly summed up this soundscape we made. It’s all this crazy dream, full of our memories and color and life.

Nice. Well thank you both for taking the time to talk and we’ll keep an eye out for a live show in 2019.

It might seem odd or overly precious to fixate on a corn chip, but there’s something to be said for the perfection of the simplest of things in our diets, especially those things that hold up other foods (literally in this case). And for anyone who hasn’t had Chicas chips, take it on good authority that they’re really, really good.

Doing some light research online, we couldn’t find out a ton about the company beyond your standard About web page, but were intrigued by some of the messaging on the packaging and what exactly makes them so very good. So we reached out to the Southern California company that makes the chips, Arboleda Foods, to find out more. We ending up talking with their head of marketing + design and daughter of company owners, Sarah Chaidez (below, first row, far left), about the origins of the family-run business, what it means to be an immigrant-run business that bills itself as ‘proudly American’ in the current socio-political environment, and why we can’t stop eating these chips. Seriously. Can’t stop.

raven + crow: So, first thing’s first—we love your chips and salsa. We’re honestly pretty obsessed with the chips especially at this point. I think we’re mainly interested in finding out a little more about the history of the company and how it came to be—can you tell us a little about how it all started?

Sarah Chaidez: We started in 2010 selling a homemade salsa at several So-Cal Farmers Markets. The recipe originated from the owner Irlanda Montes’ mother. The salsa was so good that it needed good chips to sample it with. Fortunately for us, none of the chips Irlanda found in markets got of her approval so she decided to make her own. To her surprise, people started requesting the chips and she started getting up at 5am to make a few batches before heading to the farmer’s markets. The chips started to become so popular that she soon had to rent a small commercial kitchen to be able to produce them.

That’s awesome. Like I said, we LOVE the chips, so it makes sense. Cool to see such a direct supply-and-demand relationship though. Was food culture a really big part of Irlanda’s upbringing?

Yes, she was born in Ecuador. During her upbringing she saw her father and mother go to the open air market every day to buy fresh ingredients for their daily meals. When she came to the United States, she continued the tradition of having fresh cooked meals daily. Good homemade food was always on the menu and it always brought the family together.

That’s something that I feel like has only recently again become more common in our post-war culture and upbringings here in the States even though it’s so deeply rooted in so many other cultures. The salsa really is great too, but what do you think it is about the chips that make people love them so much?

The salsa that we have right now is a new recipe originating from the original. The original recipe had to be refrigerated and we needed a shelf-stable salsa to be able to place it along the chips. On the other hand, we have kept the original recipe for our chips from the beginning. What makes them great is not only the recipe, but the process of how they are made. Chicas™ recipe is not a common chip recipe. Therefore, the process of making them and frying them is different than what you see out there. Also, we added the uniqueness of rice bran oil which makes the chips lighter, fresher, and healthier.

What goes into making the chips, in terms of ingredient sourcing and then actually producing them?

We make sure that our ingredients come from very reliable companies. They work hand-in-hand with our needs and the needs of our customers. We believe it is not just the ingredients that make the chip, but the time and labor it takes to make them. The process itself is similar to most other chips, but we proudly can say that we put lots of love and care into their production. The biggest difference is that some of the processes is done by hand to keep the unique flavor and texture of our chip.

Why do you all use rice bran oil? Is that a family tradition or something more born from recipe testing?

We did very extensive research about all types of different oils. We found out about rice bran oil having lots of health benefits and having a high smoke point. This made it a perfect match for our chip. Even though this oil is more complicated to get and more expensive, we definitely wanted to add some good-for-you ingredients into our chips.

Yeah, we had no idea we loved rice bran oil so much. Who knew? Can you tell us about the name, Chicas—‘girls’ in Spanish—is that a reflection in the people that run the company?

When we had just started the company, Irlanda’s sisters came along to help. They spent endless hours in the commercial kitchen frying. This was new to them since they all worked in office environments before, but this became a time of bonding and laughter. Traditionally in South America, instead of calling each other by name, they would all call each other ‘Chica’, which means girl in Spanish. With Irlanda and her three sisters in the kitchen, you can imagine this word was used a lot. At that time the chips were called Arboleda Chips, named after the company. Eventually Irlanda’s sisters moved on to do other things, but Irlanda never forgot those times she spent with her sisters. Later on we wanted a simpler and catchier name. So, in honor of her sisters, Irlanda named them Chicas Chips.

I know you’ve said that the company started out and remains very much a family endeavor—can you tell us a little more about that?

When the company first started in 2010, Ray and Irlanda invited various family members to help including her mom, brothers, sisters, a sister-in-law, nieces, nephews, son and daughters. Time passed where many came and went, but to this day it is still a family business. Ray and Irlanda, as husband and wife (above, first row, middle), are heads of the business, and their two daughters—myself and my sister, Nastassia (above, first row, far right)—handle marketing, accounting, and purchasing.

Very cool. You all are based out of Harbor City, right? Is most everyone at the company Los Angeles natives?

Pretty much! Irlanda came from Ecuador at the age of thirteen and Ray came from El Salvador at the age of six. Even though Irlanda kept a lot more of her Latin traditions, they both have embraced American cultures. Nastassia and I were born in the US and raised as LA natives. Our other employees are a mixed of Los Angeles natives and other immigrants from other Latin countries, like Mexico, Peru and Honduras.

On your chip bags, you have a graphic going across the top that reads ‘PROUDLY AMERICAN’—why was that important to put front-and-center for you all?

Ray and Irlanda are entrepreneurs. They have started different businesses in the past before becoming successful with Chicas™, and they are beyond thankful that America has given them the opportunity to do so. Where Chicas™ is now would not have been possible without all the opportunities that are given to us here in the states. We are proud to be here and proud to be able to give back by creating new jobs.

Do you feel like that sentiment has taken a different tone or is seen in a new light in what a lot of us see as a political and social climate that’s soundly anti-immigrant?

The political situation that is going on right now does not take away from the beauty this country represents. Throughout history there have been seasons of good and bad. There is a lot of negativity in our country today, but our focus is on the good of our country and the kindness of many Americans. We will continue doing our part to do the right thing and will continue to embrace our Proudly American representation.

Beautifully put. For the most part, has the experience of starting and running a business in Los Angeles been a good one? I mean, as a fellow small business owner, I know it’s tough, but seems like you all are doing really well.

Irlanda and Ray have had many ups-and-downs, especially since they started their business right after a very bad economic period. They are truly fighters, and the company has persevered even though many times they felt like giving it all up. The company is stable and growing now, but tough would be an understatement. It definitely takes everything you’ve got. We truly are fortunate to have a really good product that has kept our hopes high, and seeing the response we get from our customers gives us an eagerness to strive forward. We trust in God that soon we will be able to say that we are doing really well.

Likewise. We’ll do our part by buying as many chips as we can eat. Which is a lot, trust me. I have a kind of nerdy product packaging question—I know back in the day you did more of the traditional tie-closed bags for the chips, but now you have what I honestly have to say are the nicest chip bags; they open really easily and look really nice and non-crinkly after being opened. How did you manage that or who makes those for you, if you don’t mind me asking?

The reason we started with twisty-tie closed bags is because being a small company that was just starting, we only had the equipment and knowledge to seal them this way. To our surprise, people loved it! They felt like they were getting chips out of a home kitchen. The reason we upgraded is because as we grew we needed something more secure for shipping and food safety. The bags were now in store warehouses, exposed to cross contamination, or too easy to break open. At this point we needed to think of our customers and provide them with the same chip quality but better packaging. Ray, Irlanda, and I come from a graphic artist background, therefore we knew that presentation was essential, so we are proud of our creation in and out. In regards to the material, it has been a long journey to get the best film for our chips, making sure it is American-made. The company that makes our bags as well as our cardboard boxes are local family-owned business as we are.

Oh, cool—I had no idea the bags were American-made too. That’s great. Any future plans for expansion—either in terms of products beyond salsa and chips or into other markets—on the horizon?

We are striving for continued growth. We are working to get into new markets, expand our online store, and also expand into the food service industry. For now, we are just in the Southern California area, but soon we will be in some Northern California markets. With regards to other products, we are always fiddling with new recipes and products. But, as you can see, we have to be extremely happy with a product to be willing to put our effort into it. More than anything we want to provide our customers with lots of satisfaction that will keep them coming back for more.

Well we’re hooked.

If you’re interested in trying Chicas chips + salsa, check their locations page on their site for stores that carry them. Or just come to our house. We likely have a fresh bag.

All photos with the exception of the feature one courtesy of Arboleda Foods.

The social media platform Facebook has come a long way since it first started in 2004. Back when we first joined up in 2007 amid a scant few friends at the time, I don’t think anyone could have predicted that the platform would grow to become one of the largest companies in the world with 2.2 billion monthly active users or that it could unite and incite movements for socio-political change halfway around the world or, I don’t know, be used as a tool by foreign powers to help seat a reality TV star and all-around awful human being to the highest office in our land.

Now, with CEO + founder Mark Zuckerberg testifying the Senate Judiciary Committee in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, at the very least, this should prove to be a major turning point, not just for Facebook, but for social media in general. The loss of data and, with it, trust, has pushed many of us to re-examine how we use the web, what we make public, and how we value our information. But, as many point out, Facebook isn’t alone in how they treat their users and monetize their information. Writer Louise Matsakis put it most eloquently for WIRED recently: “Facebook collects arguably the most private information, but plenty of other popular social networking apps like Snapchat and Twitter collect your data too. That’s their entire business model: When you’re not paying for a product, you are the product.”

Even before all of the scandal, many within our own social circles seemed to be losing interest in Facebook and the like, for myriad reasons. But what many keep coming back to—ourselves included—was the now-Facebook-owned company, Instagram: What does all this mean for the much-beloved image-sharing platform?

California-based creative digital marketer and longtime friend of raven + crow John Capone put a timely edge on the whole affair for us—”I feel like in the ether now is that people like Instagram and it’s generally evolved pretty well and not become a pile of flaming garbage like Facebook and Snapchat have recently,” John told us. “But the fear is there for users and marketers alike no matter what perspective you have. There’s only so much a user can do (especially with Snap where the developers ruined it) but I’ll always advocate for good citizenship when it comes to these communities.”

With that in mind, we reached out to some of our favorite Instagram users—artists and entrepreneurs who we think use the platform well—for advice on how to keep the ship afloat in this sea of uncertainty. How do we keep Instagram fun and—especially for fellow business-owners—valid in this climate?

The resulting common thread: be true to yourself, your brand, and your community.

Below, we’ve collected advice from friends and colleagues in our various communities on how best to keep it all from burning down. Click their IG banner image to visit their accounts (they’re all awesome). And the last bit of advice from Tomoko is short + succinct, but you really do need to see what she does with stories—magical stuff.

Stacy Michelson—artist, designer, lover-of-food, and real-life Energizer Bunny
IG is my favorite tool to use to connect with people and showcase my brand and what I do. It also gives me a chance to allow people to get to know ME. I don’t have a formula for posts, but I try and do 75% biz and 25% Stacy the person, so you feel like you get a sense of who creates this stuff. And I love stories. I love watching people’s stories and I love making them. I really feel like you can know someone better that you’ve never met with video. It’s their voice, their face, their humor, their life. I have been able to post the day-to-day silliness of my life and interests, like what i’m eating, cooking, and the silly songs I make up all day long. People seem to really like that and tell me often—in comments or in person at events—that my songs and general goofball-ness is a favorite part of their day. How cool is that? Hopefully that connection they feel with me turns into internet friend and then customer. AND I always try and reply to comments unless it’s mean, in which case I just swipe delete and forget it. No point in putting energy into that nonsense.

Jacky Wasserman of vegan apparel company beetxbeet
I think the best thing is to stay true to yourself and your brand. IG is a place that started as a way to connect with others, so just going back to those roots no matter how IG choses to change their algorithm etc is a good way to look at it—finding new ways to stay engaged and connected with your audience through the tools IG provides. We don’t know what kind of future IG has but, for now, taking advantage of the ways it can help connect you to others and market your brand is what we have to work with. If you are concerned about losing the platform, I’d say make sure to have your customers visiting your site often through blog posts and newsletters so there’s still a way to connect outside of the app.

Carolyn Suzuki—artist, illustrator, and princess of pattern
To be a part of a community, I think it’s important that you leave supportive comments for others, follow those who inspire you, and post and share your work on a consistent basis. I think the last point is probably the most important—you want people to know you’re out there doing the work and showing up everyday. Regardless of the quality of work, this commitment is what’s inspiring and I think other makers out there can feel that!

John Sepal—photographer and style documentarian behind Tokyo Camera Style
I honestly don’t care about analytics or numbers—my interest in IG is based on using it to share/celebrate a slice of photographic culture with anyone interested. The popularity tokyocamerastyle has gained is due to consistent content that is informative and positive. The fact that there’s a documentary angle is interesting—the cameras I post are ones I see out on the streets being used. Recently I’ve been expanding from just gear to my real interests—photo exhibitions and photobooks. I try to present things in a fair and clear manner and people respond to this authentic aspect. I don’t like accounts that re-gram other peoples’ pictures or request of cameras or bags to gain a following. That’s boring. Everything on TCS is original stuff that celebrates something that film photographers around the world can feel a part of.

Allison Sherman—sustainable fashion blogger
First, be thoughtful in the content you post. You don’t have to write something personal or even relevant every time you post a photo, but the image and visuals are very important—that’s what catches people’s eye! If it’s something you like but that doesn’t necessarily match your feed or vibe, post it on Instagram stories or post multiple photos and do a swipe to see more feature and have the first photo match your vibe. Similar editing style is also very aesthetically pleasing!

And check out the explore page or search relevant tags that you’re interested in. Often times you’ll stumble upon great accounts. Like their photos, comment, and/or follow them! Not sure of who to engage with to increase your following? Pick an account that you have similar content with or a similar account you aspire to be like and go and see who likes their photos. Choose those people to connect with!

Find an Instagram planning app that works for you! I use an app called PLANN. It helps me plan posts ahead of time and keep photos in the queue for me to post later. If stuff is in my camera roll, it often gets lost with all the other photos I take and it’s nice to have all the solid insta-worthy photos in one spot. I know there are many other apps like this, but PLANN was only a one time payment of under $7 and works pretty well! I had a free trial of another app that wanted me to pay monthly making it over $100 a year—yikes! Some Instagram planning/analytics apps are free but don’t have many features, so do a little research and find one that works for you!

Tomoko Imade Dyen—Japanese food ambassador and IG story savant 

Use stories to tell a story! It doesn’t have to be an epic, but do tell more than what you are doing.