Mrs. Lime, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation in 06: 25, Design
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, IT
Engagement Date: July 7, 2006
Wedding Date: August 5, 2007
Venue: An historic estate
About Me: Between work and wedding planning, I try to squeeze in napping, drawing, random spurts of craftiness, tennis, and eating lots of Sprinkles cupcakes, dark chocolate, and noodles of all kinds. Mr. Lime and I have spent our adult lives growing up together, and we're very excited to finally be getting married!
Last Sunday, a dozen of my girlfriends and I went to a class at Hipcooks in downtown LA. The Hipcooks facility is located in the Brewery lofts, a former Pabst brewery that has been converted to lofts in which many hip, artsy folks live, work, or live/work.
Monika, the owner of Hipcooks with most of the Hipcooks loft in view.
[photo from hipcooks.com]
“How is this wedding-related?” you ask. Ah, I am glad you asked. This could be the perfect bridal shower, low key bachelorette activity, girls’ dinner party in the stead of either of the two, or part of some other pre-wedding festivity. If you’ve got a group of around a dozen, you can reserve an entire “private” class. Just you and your MOH want to do a girls’ night? Check out their schedule and sign up for a regularly scheduled class where you’d join 10 others. Regular classes cost $55 per person.
They do have a class geared specifically toward the bride:
Private - Here comes [sic] the Bride
A Hipcooks Bridal Shower class and party This is a private class, invitees only, for a Bridal Shower party. You bring the mimosas, I teach the crepes! We set up crepe-making stations with all the fixins’ for delicious sweet and savory crepes. There is time in this session to open presents and socialize, as well as cook to your heart (and belly’s) content! Please email me for more info on this fun and delightful class
I am definitely a fan of crepes, but I’d recommend choosing one of the other fabulous menus as crepes are much simpler than the other things you might never try on your own. However, the other classes may not provide you enough time to open gifts, if it’s for a bridal shower. I’m sure if you let Monika or your instructor know from the beginning, they’d suggest less time consuming menus. Also, a few menus will allow the loft to accommodate for more than a few dozen, so your event would have to be relatively small.
It’s been awhile since I’ve cooked, too, so I duly noted what equipment our instructor, Bonny, noted is necessary to have and which is a luxury or completely unnecessary. Perfect, as we’re registering this weekend.
For a summary of my personal experience, check out my girlfriend’s entry on her blog (she’s a recent bride, too, with fabulous photos on her blog). We were all in agreement about how we felt about the class (LOVED it!). For more reviews, check out yelp.com (where same said friend has a more detailed review). I will definitely be taking another class. Maybe next time it will be with Mr. Lime in tow for an educational and, more importantly, delicious date night.
4 Responses to “Hipcooks”
FUN idea! I like the idea of doing it for a shower with mimosas. 
the classes also make awesome gifts in general bec. u can buy a gift certificate for a friend, and then you can take it together! (u tend to pair up anyway) mine was a birthday present and we took the “healthy, fresh & zingy” class and it was great. our menu was very chopping-intensive (mangoes, bell peppers) so monika took the time to teach you good basics (proper cutting techniques, what to look for in knives, posture, etc.). monika is also absolutely gorgeous and her love for good food and life is really infectious. AND the food was yummay.
My MOH has been asking me for ideas for my shower and when I read about this here, I was excited. Unfortunately, my poor MOH has had the most frustrating time trying to coordinate with Monika for a private class. She doesn’t return phone calls, she responds to emails about every 3 days, and till today, we still haven’t been able to get her to tell us if she can do a private class for us on dates that we see are not booked on her calendar. We’re on a tight schedule as it is with the wedding in 2 mo. and unfortunately we have to figure out a Plan B now that we are 2 more weeks out of time. We were so looking forward to having fun with this from all the reviews, it’s really disappointing.
