Just Charge It

Century City Shopping Center and Marketplace, home of a Gelson’s Market and a whole food court full of restaurants, has installed free vehicle-charging stations in its parking structure for customers who drive electric-powered cars. “Currently, about 35% of all EVs on U.S. roads are owned by residents in our neighborhood,” explains Douglas Rascoe, vice president and general manager.

Of course, that’s not terribly many--only a couple of hundred electric cars have been sold--so, like so many things in life, this is either a far-seeing effort to help along the inevitable wave of the future or something that will look embarrassing 20 years from now. Still, now electric car owners know where to shop.

Top Wine Dude

The triumphant-looking guy in the photo, Joseph Spellman, is holding a trophy that represents either a rooster symbolic of France or a model of Frank Gehry’s proposed Disney Hall. Probably the former, since he’d just beaten 23 others to win the ’97 Grand Prix Sopexa International Sommelier Competition in Paris on June 14, making Spellman, of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, officially the world’s champion wine waiter.

You don’t win this by saying, “I’ll be your wine steward tonight.” Hurdles included a written exam, a blind tasting and a wine and food matching test, as well as a wine service test. Second place went to Alain Belanger of Canada and third to Edwin Raben of Holland.

The French candidate, you’ll notice, wasn’t among the top three. Maybe this explain’s Spellman’s you’ll-get-my-trophy-away-when-you-pry-my-cold-dead-fingers-off-it look.

In-Flight Organic

As of June 3, Swissair became the first airline to serve organic food in all flight classes. This means fertilizer- and pesticide-free produce and meat from free-range animals. But there’s some fine print.

In the beginning, it will apply to all flights departing from Switzerland but not necessarily to other flights. And it won’t cover all food, just breakfasts and hot entrees, which account for only 30% of the food the airline serves. Salads are scheduled to go organic in October, appetizers and snacks in June of next year and cold meals and desserts in October ’98.

It’s clearly hard for a big, tightly scheduled operation like an airline to guarantee organic food, so Swissair drops a few gossamer qualifications (“for the most part,” “wherever possible”). CEO Philippe Bruggisser claims only to be aiming at 90% organic food as of 2000.

Still, if organic is a high priority for you, Swissair wants to be your airline, promising organic baby food and even organic beer (organic wine and fruit juices too, at least in first and business classes).