Echo Lake Productions and Lionsgate Films Host Oscar Party at Spark Woodfire Grill on Pico

An Oscar party is being hosted at Spark Restaurant in Beverly Hills. Echo Lake Productions along with Lionsgate Films is hosting a party for their two Oscar nominees Julie Christie for Best Actress and Sarah Polley for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie Away From Her.

Spark’s Oscar party will take place on Academy Awards night, Sunday, February 24th, 2008, at 4:30pm and is closed to the public. The Oscars will be broadcast in Spark’s tri-level Italian Brownstone which offers three bars, a lounge, outdoor patio plus three dining rooms. It’s the perfect spot for private parties! For the Oscar party, four giant screens will be set up so the 300 expected guests can view the Academy Awards while enjoying a culinary feast and luscious martinis. The menu for the evening includes Spark’s most popular dishes. The appetizers include Maryland Blue Crab Cakes with chipotle aioli, Ahi Tuna Tartar on homemade potato crisp, Gourmet Woodfire Roman style pizzas including the mouth-watering asparagus goat cheese.

A lavish buffet will then be offered which will include Spark’s famous Cesar salad with polenta croutons, falling-of-the-bone tender slowly cooked Iowa baby back ribs with the BEST BBQ sauce west of the Mississippi, Chicken breast stuffed and tied with asparagus and goat cheese, Santa Rosa Tri-tip, Wood Grilled Atlantic Salmon with a killer tarragon sauce and an artichoke lasagna that will make all the vegetarian guests feel that they are in heaven. After the broadcast, a wickedly decadent dessert buffet will be offered that will include a variety of dessert bars such as Pecan Chocolate, Luscious Lemon Squares, Meltaways- Dark chocolate, walnuts, butterscotch, coconut, Caramel Apple Granny, Brulee Cheese Cake, to name a few. Guests will be able to enjoy a variety of signature martinis from three bars. Spark’s most popular is the Cantaloupe Martini.

Partner/Special Events Coordinator Elizabeth Chait is very excited that Echo Lake Productions chose to host another Oscar party at Spark. “We have a wonderful partnership with Doug Mankoff, President, and Andrew Spaulding, Executive Vice President, of Echo Lake . They often choose Spark to host many of their power lunches. It’s especially convenient because Spark is only two blocks away from Echo Lake ’s Beverly Hills office.

This is the third Oscar party that has been hosted at Spark. Two Foreign Film nominees "Water" and "Tsotsi " have been hosted at Spark in the last two years. Yes, Oscar has been in the building! It was VERY exciting when "Tsotsi" won for South Africa's first Best Foriegn Film Award!”

For more information about Private Parties or Special Events, please visit here or contact Elizabeth Chait directly at 310-999-5319.

Spark Red Fish opens in Simi Valley

Press Release
(For Immediate Release - Simi Valley, Calif.) Very fresh fish, simply prepared with the best of ingredients, in a contemporary and welcoming atmosphere, all complimented by an exhibition mesquite fired grill and a "community table" with views of a raw seafood bar and exhibition fish cutting room. This is the latest concept from the team behind Spark Woodfire Grill. The newly opened Red Fish, located in the Simi Valley Town Center, serves a variety of fresh fish and shellfish brought in daily from the local seafood markets of the west coast and the famous Fulton Fish Market in New York City. For those who prefer their protein from land, a fine selection of prime meats is also featured on the menu. At the helm of Red Fish are Chef Fredy Escobar formerly of Alto Palato and Rex Il Ristorante and Manager & Operating Partner Brad Wood, an eight-year veteran of Ruth's Chris Steak House.

Conceived in the modern style of a contemporary fish house, Red Fish features a fresh raw seafood bar offering a variety of oysters, clams and shellfish from spicy tuna tartare made with sashimi grade tuna to chilled oysters with green apple jalapeño and grapefruit mint granita. The restaurant's policy of serving only "very fresh fish" is a big part of the experience at Red Fish, where guests are privy to observe the techniques essential to keeping fish at its optimum at the exhibition fish cutting room. Also on view, is a masterfully crafted glass walled walk-in refrigerator that incorporates a unique fish filing system where temperatures are kept at 33º to assure the highest integrity of the fish.

The dining room is highlighted by a refrigerated wine room and Cruvinet with an extensive wine selection by the glass, an au courant lounge with full service bar offering a menu of "food drinks" from honey bourbon whiskey with cantaloupe on the rocks to a lychee fruit cocktail. Libations have been carefully created to enhance the flavor of the seafood. There's also a cobra head draft beer system for a fine selection of micro brews and a "community table" where guests can observe the fish cutting area, seafood bar and delight in this vehicle for gathering rarely seen in the North Valley.

The organic fresh salmon promises to be one of Red Fish's most popular dishes. Rich in Omega-3 oils, this fish is perfect for cooking over the restaurant's displayed mesquite fired grill. Grilled lemons accompany the salmon atop the grill and onto the plate, caramelizing from the heat to complement and accent the fish with their subtle sweet juice. Delicate white fish is prepared in a variety of ways in a combi-oven with steam and convection heat. In addition to delicious exclusively fresh seafood, the menu features certified prime rib chops, Colorado lamb, Berkshire pork and barrel center cut filet mignon supplied by Newport Meats, the premier vendor of certified Angus beef and prime meats, and prepared under a 1600º Southbend Broiler. Protein whether it's from the air, land or sea is served with a choice of one side: charcoal roasted baby red & golden beets, creamed spinach, charred broccolini with roasted peppers, sea salt "smashed" potatoes with chives, grilled asparagus with lemon and more. A wide array of appetizers, salads and specialty dishes round out the menu from wild gulf prawn cocktail, oysters Rockefeller, crab and shrimp salad, 20 garlic chicken to lobster macaroni and cheese.

Red Fish is a restaurant concept created by Bill Chait, Jeff Sladicka, Danilo Terribili and Tom Shields owners of Spark Woodfire Grill in Studio City, Huntington Beach and Beverly Hills (http://www.sparkwoodfiregrill.com/). Chef Fredy Escobar (Alto Palato and Rex Il Ristorante), Tom Shields and Jeff Sladicka were instrumental in the development of the menu. Escobar's father and grandmother both owned restaurants in Guatemala and taught him early on that quality and freshness were the key to preparing fish. The restaurant is managed by Operating Partner Brad Wood (Ruth's Chris Steak House, Black Angus and Restaurant Enterprises Group). "We really liked the Town Center and felt that the North Valley really needed a restaurant like Red Fish," comments Managing Partner and Co-Founder Bill Chait of Red Fish and Spark Woodfire Grill. "With Spark, we have taken great pride in the quality of our ingredients and our distinctive cooking processes. Two of our most popular menu items are wood grilled seafood, and we felt there were very few restaurants in the area offering high quality seafood prepared in our style at Spark which is healthy, full flavored and simple. We hope to continue that tradition with Red Fish and anticipate this to be the first of many."

The owners collaborated on the development of the concept with selected designer Osvaldo Maiozzi (Angelini Osteria, La Terza, Palmieri, Il Grano, Valentino at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Testavere, Alto Palato and all the Spark Locations) to create an atmosphere that is sophisticated yet casual, modern but comfortable, and stylish with high energy. Interior designer Debra Gregory of DiG Interiors augmented Maiozzi's effort.

The bar is made entirely of redwood from Eureka, California, and the community table with reclaimed Brazilian hardwoods from the rainforest. Redwood burl slabs are used throughout the design of the restaurant, which are cut from redwood stumps that have been dead for 100 years. The distinctive exhibition kitchen was designed by Abrams and Tanaka (Katsuya, Bastide and Chaya Venice). A large patio area adjacent to the restaurant is ideal for al fresco dining. There are views throughout the 8000 square foot restaurant (250 occupancy) into the open kitchen areas.

Red Fish is located at 1555 Simi Valley Town Center Way (in the Simi Valley Towne Center), Simi Valley, CA 93065; telephone 805.823.4756 and tollfree 866.480.1146. The Website is http://www.sparkredfish.com/. Open seven days a week; hours are 11a.m. - 3p.m. Monday through Friday for lunch and 5p.m. to 11p.m. for dinner; 11a.m.- midnight on Saturday and Sunday. Take-out and online ordering is available as well as off-site catering. There is ample parking.

For media relations, contact Alexia Haidos at Double A Public Relations and Marketing, 310.450.6890 or alexia@doublea-pr.com.