Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Earthy Approach

Dane Chapin is a mild-mannered ecological guerrilla. So when he was looking for a marketing tool for his new apartment complex, he decided to go green.

Chapin and partner Mel Plutsky developed Archview, a 126-unit Studio City facility that includes the usual upscale doodads such as a fireplace, washer and dryer, dishwasher, gas range and oven, and microwave in each apartment, as well as the requisite pool, spa, sauna and fitness center. The apartments go from $850 for a one-bedroom unit to $1,450 for a deluxe two-bedroom townhouse, and are being leased primarily by yuppie types and people who work at the nearby studios, Chapin said.

The something extra Chapin gives each new renter is a chance to home-base his or her concern for the environment, beginning with a bagful of ecologically correct goodies and a fact sheet outlining the complex’s environmentally correct features.

The sheet says the complex was built using high-efficiency, energy-saving central heating and air conditioning, has increased insulation in ceilings, low-flow shower heads and toilets, an aluminum can crusher in every unit, an air compressor for filling tires in the garage, a recycling and ride-sharing program for tenants, and drought-tolerant landscaping with a water-saving drip irrigation system.

In the canvas shopping bag are a newspaper stacking rack, compact fluorescent light bulb, tire-pressure gauge, cloth napkins and the book, “50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth,” as well as some information Chapin collected about the complex’s environmental features, to wit:

* The low-flow shower heads will save at least 1.5 million gallons of water in the complex every year.

* If everyone at Archview recycles newspapers, 126 trees a year will be saved.

* If the car-pool program is able to match just 10 people commuting downtown, at least 1,000 gallons of gasoline a year will be saved.

* It is estimated that 50% to 80% of all car tires are under-inflated, contributing to as much as a 5% decline in a car’s fuel efficiency. So if everyone at Archview keeps his tires properly inflated, it will save between 3,000 and 5,000 gallons of gasoline a year.

* If the canvas shopping bag allows each apartment to keep from using just two paper grocery bags per week, 20 trees per year could be saved from being cut down and sent to the paper mills.

Asked how prospective tenants were responding to the complex’s environmental emphasis, Chapin said enthusiastically: “People seem to be impressed with the effort we have put into bringing ecology into the home.”

So which features were of most interest to renters?

“Large closets,” Chapin said, with a laugh.

Tasty Goodies

It’s a foodaholic’s fantasy.

Try to picture all of the great area restaurants coming together to serve their best dishes at one giant festival.

You wander from restaurant booth to restaurant booth. Sample the specialite of each house. Gorge yourself for hours.

For only $1 to $4 a plate.

You can open your eyes now. Taste of Encino is here.

On Sunday, you can take your significant other or others to lunch at Cha Cha Cha and dinner at the Bistro Garden at Coldwater for a ridiculously low price.

This fourth annual gourmand glut will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Courtyard Shops of Encino, on Ventura Boulevard between Louise and White Oak avenues.

In the booths on all levels of the exterior space at the Courtyard Shops, there will be tasties from Adam’s Restaurant, Akbar, Alley Grill, the Bistro Garden at Coldwater, Cha Cha Cha, Chopstix Dim Sum, City Cuisine and Coco’s Bakery Restaurant.

Also Drews--An American Cafe, Forte’s Koo Koo Roo, L. A. Cabaret Comedy Club, Marix Tex Mex Norte, Miss Grace Lemon Cake, Monkees Seafood Restaurant, Nonno’s Italian Kitchen, Paradise Bar & Grill, Rusty Pelican Restaurant, Souplantation, Stratton’s Parkside Grill, Tribeca, Truly Yours, Valley Hilton Orion Restaurant, Viktor Bene’s Continental Bakery and Yum Yum Yogurt.

The restaurants like this event because people wander by their booths, sample their fare and a customer is born.

The tasters like this event because they can eat themselves into a gourmet food-induced stupor without having to refinance the house.

No samples cost more than $4, and each portion is generous, a sponsoring Encino Chamber of Commerce spokesman says. And the thirsty may try the fruits of a number of different wineries.

A word of advice:

Do bring a lot of people with you so you can all share the samples.

That’s called planning ahead so you can taste everything.

And do not make flying-tackle citizen’s arrests of the guys running away with the trays.

That’s called a waiter’s race.

Memorex Moment

Whoever said “Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess” was probably talking about the AIDS Project Los Angeles benefit at the Universal Amphitheater on Sunday night.

Among the stars appearing and/or performing at the anyone-can-come benefit will be Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Debbie Gibson, Melissa Manchester, Lauren Bacall, Sarah Brightman and Carol Channing.

Five Carol Channings, actually.

Show producer-director Joe Layton is having Channing joined on stage by four Carol Channing impersonators who are, in all probability, more Channing than Channing.

Daly will sing Steven Sondheim, and Lansbury will sing a new Jerry Herman song titled “I’ll Be Here Tomorrow.”

Ticketmaster says tickets can be bought through the agency or the Universal Amphitheater box office for $500, $250, $100, $50 and $25.

Sorry. Some very generous folks beat you to all the $1,000 tickets.

And corporate sponsors have kicked in between $10,000 and $50,000 each to support the cause.

Tutu Lucky

Vanessa Winfield considers herself a lucky lady, but 15 years of preparation probably had something to do with her winning a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet school next summer.

She won the scholarship to the New York school in competition with young women from throughout the country at the recent convention of the Professional Dance Teachers in Las Vegas.

Although Winfield is a senior and caught up in all the fun of her graduating year at North Hollywood High School, her heart is already in a rehearsal hall in New York City.

“I’ve been studying dance since I was 2 years old,” she said. “I don’t know what other kids do after school, but I go to class.”

Winfield doesn’t know if she wants to become a ballerina or work in musicals on Broadway, but she does know she wants to dance.

“I remember seeing the Joffrey Ballet perform at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion when I was 8 or 9,” she said. “It was such a thrill because they don’t limit themselves to the classics. I’m so lucky to get to train at the school.”

Overheard

“Don’t let the gray hairs fool you. I’m the Jimmy Connors of romance.”

--Man to a prospective woman friend at a Sherman Oaks