WORK • Thursday Routine
BEN SZILAGYI & CHRISTA BLUMENTHAL • co-founders • Manou
Neighborhood you work & live in: Venice
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Workplace and home are one and the same, a welcome change after an hour-plus morning commute before founding Manou protein bars. Checking for the latest order updates serves as a quick dopamine hit before rolling out of bed.
If it isn’t overcast first thing in Venice (rare), we’re stepping out for some sun before making a fresh pour-over with Canyon Coffee beans. Being just about six months into launching our brand means a hodgepodge of activities. Fulfilling orders, followed by virtual meetings with potential distributors and retail partners curious to engage us, a veteran-owned company making clean ingredient, high protein bars. Getting all that out of the way early allows for a late morning outdoor workout (followed by a Manou bar, of course) and an afternoon of right-brained creative brand and packaging conversations.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Using our beloved vintage Minolta X-700 film camera passed down from my dad to get some new product shots. Our brand aesthetic is earthy, through and through, with ourselves and our core customer base being active, outdoors enthusiasts. While we haven’t been able to revisit our favorite west side hiking spot, Temescal Canyon, since the fires, Torrey Pines is well worth the jaunt and a good excuse to see friends in the area.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Ever since goop Kitchen opened a quick walk away, it’s become our go-to take-out routine on a weeknight. Guilt-free with seasonally rotating menu items means it never gets old, and the herb-roasted salmon and jammy eggs always hit. This weekend, we’re skipping up the street to Mar Vista’s newest Cal-Italian restaurant Beethoven Market for housemade pasta and skin contact wine.
How about a little leisure or culture?
Hyperlocal leisure usually looks like playing tennis at Ocean View Park and hopping in a hot dry sauna at Open. Crossing the 405 to Elysian Park for some hiking followed by breakfast at Honey Hi on a Saturday morning before the traffic gets too heavy is usually the move.
Any weekend getaways?
Ojai is our go-to weekend getaway, in no small part for the wine club pick-up parties at The Naturalist once a season. Talented local artists performing live, the friendliest folks, and snacks to nosh on while tasting the newest wines — can’t say enough great things about the place and, equally important, that their natural and organic wines never leave us hungover. Three Birds is a new-ish spot that has quickly become a favorite for a pre-hike breakfast alongside our tried and true Rory’s Other Place.
What was your last great vacation?
A high-velocity trip to South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. We really enjoyed staying at the Figo in Sheung Wan, eating grilled octopus and imbibing on orange wine at Call Me Al down the street, and catching the stunning cityscape and tropical island vista from Victoria Peak. In contrast to Hong Kong’s highly developed and bustling nature, staying at the family-run Scenic Garden Villa by Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan, in the jungle surrounded by fields of Camellia sinensis tea, was a truly enchanting experience. Just bring your mosquito spray!
Where are you donating your time or money?
With kitten season in full swing, we’ve been fostering when we’re in town for a few volunteer-run organizations in west LA. It’s incredibly rewarding. We’ve also donated money and time volunteering for Pasadena Humane Society, most recently participating in their annual 5K. Worth crossing the city to help PHS as they offer free board for animals whose owners were impacted by the fires in addition to their adoption and other services year round.