Los Angeles Wine-wine & dineLA - September 7-21, 2008

August 1, 2008

Raise a Glass – and a Fork – for One-of-a-Kind Dining Experience During wine & dineLA

(Los Angeles, CA) – dineLA and LA INC. The Convention and Visitors Bureau are partnering with American Express for wine & dineLA – a two week culinary celebration introducing innovative menus at some of LA’s highly acclaimed restaurants. Taking place from September 7 – 21, 2008 in honor of California Wine Month, the multi-course menus are paired with delicious California wines. Created exclusively for American Express© Cardmembers, this customized program highlights 48 of LA’s top restaurants and will provide a premium dining experience to passionate foodies and wine connoisseurs.

“LA’s dining scene now rivals the most revered culinary destinations in the world, and the main reason is our innovative chefs,” said Mark Liberman, president and CEO of LA INC. “During wine & dineLA, diners will get to experience both tempting and unique menus, as well as some of the world’s best wine produced right here in California.”

wine & dineLA allows chefs to showcase their creativity and flair by designing seasonally crafted dinner menus with specially chosen California wine pairings. These tailored, prix fixe menus promise to titillate the senses and awaken the taste buds. Reflecting LA’s diverse dining scene, participating restaurants hail from every corner of the metropolitan area. Participating restaurants range from Bashan in Glendale to Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City to Trachts in Long Beach, and include top-notch establishments such as Spago, Valentino and Nobu LA.

"American Express is pleased to build on the success of Restaurant Week earlier this year with this new program that encourages chefs to demonstrate their creativity and offers our Cardmembers exclusive access to some great food and wine pairings," said Tom Mullen, vice president of large market development, Los Angeles, American Express Merchant Services.

Participating restaurants include:

3 on Fourth Mastro’s Steakhouse Thousand Oaks

All’ Angelo Ristorante Michael’s on Naples

AOC Michael’s Restaurant

Asia de Cuba Nobu Los Angeles

Bashan Restaurant One Pico

Bistro 45 One Sunset

Cafe Pinot Paperfish

Catch Patina

Chinois on Main Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine Downtown

Circa 55 Restaurant Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine Pasadena

Citrus at Social Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine Woodland Hills

Ciudad Saddle Peak Lodge

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse El Segundo Simon LA

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse Woodland Hills Spago

Ford’s Filling Station STK

Foxtail The Foundry on Melrose

Grace Restaurant The Grill on the Alley

Jar The Madison

JiRaffe Restaurant The Penthouse at The Huntley Santa Monica Beach

Katsuya Brentwood The Restaurant at Hotel Bel-Air

Katsuya Glendale Tracht’s

Katsuya Hollywood Valentino

L’Opera Ristorante Whist

Mastro’s Steakhouse Beverly Hills Wilshire

Detailed menus and wine pairings can be found on the dineLA.com website (www.dineLA.com).

“JiRaffe is participating in wine & dineLA to be a part of what’s great in Los Angeles,” said Raphael Lunetta, owner/executive chef of JiRaffe, “as we have some of the best restaurants in the world right here. During the promotion, our customers and new customers can try seasonal special menus and pair them with fun wines, and still afford to go out and explore the city – even in these tough economic times. I am looking forward to September.”

ABOUT dineLA:

dineLA is a dynamic marketing initiative created by LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau in partnership with American Express and the LA restaurant community to promote the scale and variety of LA restaurant and food experiences to locals and visitors. dineLA’s comprehensive Web site provides detailed information and search capabilities for more than 2,000 area restaurants; chef profiles; food and wine event calendar; monthly enter-to-win giveaways; chef and restaurant videos; as well as engaging and timely editorial content. dineLA seeks to position Los Angeles among the top restaurant cities in the world and to build awareness, traffic and revenue for restaurants throughout the greater LA area.

CONTACTS:

Corinne Bourdeau

360 Degrees Communications

310.454.8933

Corinne@360DegreeComm.net

Carrie Kommers

Director

dineLA/LA INC.

213.236.2345

CKommers@dineLA.com