K12 Goes Atlantic City Boardwalk Empire for YELP

K12 Goes Atlantic City Boardwalk Empire for YELP

It’s that time people. Yelp has invited us (again) to do our thang at the second annual Yelp LA Party at Exchange LA nightclub on 618 S. Spring this June 22nd from 8-11. After proving ourselves worthy of the repeat honor (last year rocked checkout Air12000.com for photos), Yelp’s very own community represetive (Katie Burbank) gave us the “working with you guys is so awesome, it’s as though you single handily complete the responsibilities of what I’d have to find 10 other vendors to do.” So with that said, let’s go over what happened.

It goes a little something like this. We fed savory dishes (potato & sausage station, pasta & meatball kitchen, olive bar), decorating (flowers, props, furniture), designing (floor planning, theme building) and staffing (cooks, servers, character actors, coordinator, hosts, vip services) & supplying the wonderful vendors who danced, photo-boothed, sweet toothed and boozed everybody up – all night. But don’t take our word for it. Checkout the photos that our very own Eduard Gabrielyan of TorinoCreative.com took all night.

NOTE: Near the end of the party (just moments ago), I swung out the club with my MacBookPro & a Canon 5D full of photos, to post (here) some of my favorite photos from the night…

Light posts, crates, lagers, oil drums. You name it. We brought what we could to remake the Atlantic City Boardwalk vibe right here in the walls of Exchange LA’s “eclectic meets ultra-modern” style.  With the help of some candles and rustic high tables, the main floor went from feeling like a dance floor, to a planked pier.

In the background, hair and makeup by our very own Blonde Doctor (Christopher Enlow, Angus Mitchell Salon) & crew.

S0 how about the food? Olive Bar upstairs (in the casino) featuring bulgarian feta cheese, colossal kalamata olives, roasted baby zucchini, fresh grape tomatoes accompanied by various artisans breads. Less is more.

Cousin Leo spreading his aunty’s spaghetti and meatballs. As uncle Ed caused a ruckus, greeting old friends and messing with grandma’s old recipe. Italian basil pesto sauces, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers & fresh block shaved parmesan topped by pomegranate + balsamic reductions.

K12_yelp-xla-470

And of course, who could forget the sweets? An entire room full actually – at the “High Roller Sweet” downstairs in the EXLA art gallery. From Cheesecake poppers to fried donuts and coffee. This room was the place to hang out in for  sugar bliss.

Hyped and ready to rock, the crowd continued to eat, drink and eventually…

DANCE!!!!

K12_yelp-xla-640

Best of all, our K12 husband and wife team Mary and Alex Kay proving capable of more than just moral support, by jumping behind the sausage station (& taring it up thoroughly) during Yelper Rush Hour.

K12_yelp-xla-378

Who’s to forget of course, our shwag table, featuring last year’s switch the addition campaign along with cards that directed yelpers to this blog post.

Well. That’s the highlight reel. Big ups to all the amazing people that did their part to make this event such a success. And a special thanks to Katie B. and all those at Yelp Corporate for trusting us to be in control of the party. Yelp loves us, and we love Yelp. Now on to the next one. We got events to cater all summer. Keep up with us at Facebook.com/Kitchen12000 & Twitter.com/Kitchen12000 – video of event’s setup and execution to come.

BTW – we’re always looking for great people to join our team of party planners, so if you think you got what it takes to keep up with us, contact luana@kitchen12000.com to setup a phone interview.

“Planet earth, is the greatest venue in the universe (I think).” -Michael Kay (K12 Janitor)

K12_team_michael-kay

Took it to the Sky for Yelp

So when Yelp asked us if we’d grace the floor for their first ever Los Angeles Open Party, we thought…sure. Our original request was for them to allow the entire coordination of the event (located at the Jlounge Restaurant and Nightclub in Downtown LA) to be our responsibility. Apparently, they we’rent “comfortable” with that, so we accepted the challenge (per request) of turning the entire outdoor patio into an “Air” inspired party environment.

Their original suggestions were for us to serve cotton candy, whipped cream and other “airy” foods, along with putting up some balloons and stuff. We instead, came up with the AIR12000 campaign, and airport inspired party environment designed, catered and executed by Kitchen12000. Check it out…

So we had our cocktail waitresses dressed in custom A12K flight attendant gear as DJ Armen Abajian was decked in a full A12K captain outfit. Armen spun the hottest in electro house & progressive music from his cockpit style stage setup in front of 144″ projection screen. The video featured the prospective of a flight captain flying through blue skies and clouds. It was f**king rad. He straight killed it on the 1s and 2s as expected from the Minister of Sound.

Our AIR12000 Fly High campaign was conjured by parent company Black Garlic Creative. The graphic design execution was through Torino, featuring a complete family of unique Airport Brands, ranging from a Package Claim Station, “Sue Vaneer” booth, Coffee Clinic, I <3 Pho King bar, and Killer Kabob Express setup. Think of an Airport whose purpose it is to get you ready to fly high into party land. No seat-belts required here…

Make-up and hair for all the boys and girls came compliments of Katy Sah and Ms. Teal. Trust that everyone looked quite hot…

The plexi-glass runway streaked through the patio, between chairs (setup as they would be in first class of any charter airplane). Ladies pushed Air12000 food/drink carts up and down the runway, serving guests packaged A12K “airplane” food (Braised Short Ribs, Blue Cheese Bacon Smashed Potatoes & Steamed Green Beans with Champagne Butter Sauce). It made for quite a show. Straight up…

So instead of having the classic coffee and cookie airport booth, we went with a “Coffee Clinic” concept. Assuming coffee was an illegal drug (versus a legal one as it is now) we served coffee as would a coffee healing center. Filtered coffee, un-filtered coffee, coffee brownies + crisps & even 1/8 oz and 1/4 oz prescription bottles of coffee (as seen above). The “legalize it” campaign subliminally hinted the theme throughout all articles at the station.

The unfiltered coffee (whose potency was the highest) was an absolute hit. It played the role of master kush for the night.

Rastaman Nick Joseph educated guests on how and when to use the various coffee products. Fly high, that’s the motto.

Over 1,500 guests came through the spot, rounded the stations, and sampled all that Air12000 had to offer. People we’re tripping, asking “what is this? I don’t get it.” A good sign, as we see it.

Lady Meline performed endless life vest safety performances in a G-Rated Stripper/Gogo Dancer fashion – all while shining the brightest in brite-whites.

I mean s**t, we had our flight attendants putting on a show all night.

Catwalk style…over and over. Sometimes with food, other times with drinks, and most of the time – just strutting their stuff.

And of course, showing the highest level of respect to our captain at the DJ Booth, whose noble efforts took our guests from walking into our spot in shock, to staying way past their bed-time. “We don’t want to leave,” was our top compliment. But thanks to our friends at JLounge (who had trouble swallowing the fact that we stole the show) our outdoor area got closed down early, so that guests could actually go inside the venue – which was ghost town for most the night. Two thumbs (and big-toes) down to JLounge for being wack like that. Anyway, we took it in stride. On to the next one…

A kiss goodbye. Air12000 was a one time effort specifically designed for our friends at Yelp. K12 = Never duplicate, sometimes re-create, always innovate.

Visit Air12000.com for more photos and a step by step creative timeline for the party’s inception.

To see what they think about us on Yelp, checkout our profile – http://www.yelp.com/biz/kitchen12000-glendale

A Sweet September Party