So we've made lists of our favorite things to see, do, and eat in the L.A. area.
Note: restaurant reservations are recommended for popular spots, and often can be made online at OpenTable.com.
Nick's List:
1. ArcLight Hollywood, 6360 W. Sunset Blvd (between Vine and Ivar, with DeLongpre to the south), Los Angeles. The best place in Los Angeles to see a movie, period. Online seat reservations mean no waiting in lines.
2. Amoeba Music, 6400 W. Sunset Blvd. (next door to the ArcLight), Los Angeles. An airplane hangar-sized cornucopia of new and used music (and movies), including the best selection of vinyl anywhere. I've wasted many a non-precious hour pawing through the $1 record bins, but the awesome collection of 70s/80s LPs I've accumulated as a result speaks for itself.
3. Largo at the Coronet, 366 N. La Cienega Blvd (between Beverly and Melrose), Los Angeles. An amazing, intimate live performance venue for music and comedy (and sometimes both). Very reasonable ticket prices for really great acts.
4. Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, 3922 W. Sunset Blvd. (between Santa Monica Blvd. and Hyperion), Los Angeles; or 1331 Abbott Kinney Blvd., Venice. If you're the kind of person who'd drive half an hour out of your way for a really good cup of coffee (and I'm very much that kind of person), this is your place.
5. Lou, 724 Vine St. (just north of Melrose), Los Angeles. Nestled in an ugly strip mall is one of the best food and wine joints in the city. (Curtains and darkened windows prevent you from having to look out at the adjacent laundromat.)
6. Father's Office, 1018 Montana Ave. (at 10th St.), Santa Monica; or 3229 Helms Ave. (at Venice Blvd.), Los Angeles. A lot of L.A. bars have depressing beer selections (more than two taps is rare), but F.O. makes up for this local shortcoming with an entire wall of on-tap beers, and none of them is boring. They also have what many Angelenos consider the best burger in the city. Being a vegetarian I can't corroborate that claim, but I can attest to the high quality (and relative cheapness) of the rest of the food. (Note: both locations are frequently mobbed, but the L.A. spot has much higher seating capacity.)
7. Larchmont Boulevard (between Beverly Blvd. and 3rd Street), Los Angeles. One of my favorite pedestrian-friendly zones in the city, with lots of great food and shopping. If you stroll over to one of the adjacent residential streets (Beachwood or Plymouth), you can see some amazing early 20th-century houses. (That's really old by L.A. standards, okay?) Paramount Studios is just to the north.
Nick's List:
1. ArcLight Hollywood, 6360 W. Sunset Blvd (between Vine and Ivar, with DeLongpre to the south), Los Angeles. The best place in Los Angeles to see a movie, period. Online seat reservations mean no waiting in lines.
2. Amoeba Music, 6400 W. Sunset Blvd. (next door to the ArcLight), Los Angeles. An airplane hangar-sized cornucopia of new and used music (and movies), including the best selection of vinyl anywhere. I've wasted many a non-precious hour pawing through the $1 record bins, but the awesome collection of 70s/80s LPs I've accumulated as a result speaks for itself.
3. Largo at the Coronet, 366 N. La Cienega Blvd (between Beverly and Melrose), Los Angeles. An amazing, intimate live performance venue for music and comedy (and sometimes both). Very reasonable ticket prices for really great acts.
4. Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, 3922 W. Sunset Blvd. (between Santa Monica Blvd. and Hyperion), Los Angeles; or 1331 Abbott Kinney Blvd., Venice. If you're the kind of person who'd drive half an hour out of your way for a really good cup of coffee (and I'm very much that kind of person), this is your place.
5. Lou, 724 Vine St. (just north of Melrose), Los Angeles. Nestled in an ugly strip mall is one of the best food and wine joints in the city. (Curtains and darkened windows prevent you from having to look out at the adjacent laundromat.)
6. Father's Office, 1018 Montana Ave. (at 10th St.), Santa Monica; or 3229 Helms Ave. (at Venice Blvd.), Los Angeles. A lot of L.A. bars have depressing beer selections (more than two taps is rare), but F.O. makes up for this local shortcoming with an entire wall of on-tap beers, and none of them is boring. They also have what many Angelenos consider the best burger in the city. Being a vegetarian I can't corroborate that claim, but I can attest to the high quality (and relative cheapness) of the rest of the food. (Note: both locations are frequently mobbed, but the L.A. spot has much higher seating capacity.)
7. Larchmont Boulevard (between Beverly Blvd. and 3rd Street), Los Angeles. One of my favorite pedestrian-friendly zones in the city, with lots of great food and shopping. If you stroll over to one of the adjacent residential streets (Beachwood or Plymouth), you can see some amazing early 20th-century houses. (That's really old by L.A. standards, okay?) Paramount Studios is just to the north.
8. & 9. The Grove / The Farmers Market, 189 The Grove Drive (at the intersection of 3rd & Fairfax), Los Angeles. The Farmers Market has been an L.A. institution for the better part of this century (again I say: that passes for ancient around here) and is made up of dozens of permanent stalls purveying every kind of food and drink you can imagine. Right next to it is The Grove, an outdoor faux-city-square mall that looks like something Walt Disney would have designed if he were really into retail. Both are definitely worth a visit. (Shop at The Grove, then eat at the Farmers Market.)
10. Malibu Creek State Park, Las Virgenes/Malibu Canyon Rd. (directions here). Incredible hiking and views, natural beauty of all kinds, rock climbing, waterfalls -- in a nutshell, the perfect antidote to everything else on this list.
Alexis's list:
1. Real Food Daily, 514 Santa Monica Blvd. (at 5th St.), Santa Monica; or 414 N. La Cienega Blvd. (at Oakwood Ave.) (See our Besufado blog post). Either location is good, but the SM spot gives you the added benefit of ambling over to the Third Street Promenade for a little post-prandial retail therapy.
2. The Venice Beach Boardwalk, Ocean Front Walk (at Venice Blvd.), Venice. I liked it so much that I moved there, and stayed--that is, until I met this guy who was really sweet to me and talked me into moving in with him. You can meet him on May 15 at a party we're having at Inn of the Seventh Ray. A delightfully eccentric-tacky collection of odd stores and stands assembled by equally bizarre folks. Turn inland at Westminster Av. to see the powder-blue building where Jim Morrison, W.C. Fields, and yours truly all lived (not concurrently). The Boardwalk is also an integral portion of my next selection...
3. The Santa Monica/Venice Bike and Skate Path. This wheels-only paved path runs right through the sand of some of the most beautiful coast that LA has to offer. Bring your own mode of transport, or rent at one of the many stands located all along its course. If you're feeling really industrious, you can ride all the way to Redondo Beach.
4. Urth Caffe, many locations (see website). Snooty coffee that's totally as good as it thinks it is, purveyed by a socially-conscious business that pays its workers a living wage. Healthy, organic food done impeccably, too. There is a location near our place (the primary reason we moved to this apartment), where the whole morning staff knows me by name, but for tourist purposes, I suggest visiting the Santa Monica location and strolling around Main Street while you sip your drink. (For that, I can't endorse highly enough the iced cappuccino, American style, with soy and the strong-flavored espresso.)
5. Franklin Ave (a.k.a. Franklin Village, between Tamarind Ave. and Bronson Ave.). If you're going to trek over to Hollywood, see the real thing. This is it. For all the shopping I do around this town, I have to say that Native Boutique stands out. This may be influenced by the fact that they gave me wine last time I was shopping there. Yeah, I guess you can go over to the Walk of Fame afterwards.
6. Exhale Center for Sacred Movement, 245 South Main St. (at Navy St.), Venice. The home of many a yoga celebrity, if you can call them that without violating all that the practice yoga stands for. But that's not the point. This is a beautiful studio with many, many amazing teachers. You can't go wrong, so if you're thinking about squeezing in a class while in LA, do it here. The Santa Monica location has no classes, but boasts a more-than-decent spa, if you're in search of that kind of thing while you're here. 101 Wilshire Blvd. (at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows), Santa Monica.
7. The Beverly Center, 8500 Beverly Blvd. (at La Cienega), Los Angeles. Shopping. Usher mentions it in Confessions Part I, and for good reason. I can't imagine how much more time I'd spend there if I had the revenue that a rapper has. Good, good stores. Skip the theater, though, and if you're hungry pass up the food court and go around the corner to almost anywhere on West 3rd Street--but bring quarters for the parking meters.
8. The Groundlings Theater, 7307 Melrose Ave. (at La Brea), Los Angeles. If there were a little more leg room, I definitely would have fallen out of my seat laughing more than once at this humble improv theater. Don't be fooled by appearances; it boasts impressive roster of now-renowned comics and actors that this place can say it knew way back when. Bring a jacket. And maybe a scarf and gloves.
9. The LA Public Library--Central Library Branch, 630 W. 5th St. (at Grand Ave.), Los Angeles. I love Downtown, and I'd recommend a trip there to anyone because I think it's thrilling and delightfully different from the rest of LA. But I have a hunch that not everyone will see it this way--you might notice a maze of one-way streets and even-more-than-usual congestion. The library is worth it--a stand-alone draw. Breathtaking architecture, amazing gardens, a satellite Getty art collection, silence like you won't find in any other gigantic, vaulted-ceiling structure in the city. Eat lunch at Grand Central Market or Olvera Street, and consider popping by Disney Hall while you're at it, and if you want to avoid the hassle of motoring in LA, be adventurous and take the Metro in.
10. Hungry Cat, 1535 Vine Street (between Sunset Blvd. and Hollywood Blvd.), Hollywood. This place's main claim to fame is its uberfresh seafood--to the point that there's hardly anything on the menu that we herbivores eat. But we go back again and again for the impressive rotating cast of innovative (and potent) cocktails that are based on local, seasonal farmers' market produce availability. Paired with a trip to the Arclight theater just down the street, this has made many a Friday night date for us.
