What should Pasty Minnesotans do in LA? (WEST SIDE EDITION: Part 2)

When I first posted What should Pasty Minnesotans do in LA? Paige Appel (aka The Ambassador of Fun) busted me for being east-side-centric.

Hello.

I still wouldn't want to live on the west side. But this series does make me want to cross La Brea a little more often.

Here's Paige on Westwood/West LA + Brentwood:

In my opinion, the west side doesn't go east of the 405, but I have to cover the neighborhoods slighted in the previous posts. I'm breaking it down by location and categories for easy reference in case those Minnesotans can only hit up a few neighborhoods. All of these recs have been tried and loved by me and mine. 

Westwood/West L.A.

Eat.

Apple Pan for the longest running mom and pop burger house in the city. 

Westside Tavern for chicken liver mousse and a great Sazerac.

Native Foods for vegan twinkies and flavorful brown rice bowls.

Junior's Deli for potato latkes and matzo ball soup.

Stan's Donuts for the peanut butter and chocolate filled monster donut.

In N Out near UCLA for the design and burger.

Sunnin for Lebanese amazingness.

Shabu Shabu, Ramen, and Sushi on Sawtelle. 

Diddy Riese for the UCLA student gawking and overrated cookies. 

(Stan's Donuts)

Shop. 

Wally's for wine, handcrafted liquors, and gourmet cheeses.

Children's Book World for a vast curated selection of kids books.

HAMMER Museum book store for art books. 

Buy rare movies at Cinefile.

Buy rare used books at Alias Books

See + buy the most beautiful bonsai trees at the nurseries on Sawtelle

Do.

HAMMER Museum for the best contemporary art shows in the city. See Paul Thek now.

See local live theatre at The Geffen Playhouse.

Movies at The Fox and The Bruin, the dying breed of the huge single screen theatre.

See the Farmer's Classic tennis tournament live at UCLA every July. (ya know, if you like tennis)

See the best midnight movies (aka THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH) at Landmark's Nuart

Fall asleep on a leather couch eating chocolate with sea salt at Landmark's Westside Pavillion

Paul Thek Untitled (Meat Piece with Flies) at The Hammer

Brentwood

Eat.

Tavern for butter crumbed eggs and brisket hash.

Sugarfish for no frills, high quality sushi.

FARMSHOP for a considered, but light lunch in the mart.

Reddi Chick for cheap and good fried chicken and BBQ sauce.

Sweet Rose Creamery for small batch, homemade ice cream. Get the Basil, Salted Caramel or Black Sesame Soy.

Pressed Juicery for fresh concoctions straight from the cold press. Fave is pear ginger pineapple mint.

Osteria Latini for spaghetti bolognese straight from Northern Italy.

SusieCakes for sour cream cheesecake and whoopie pies.

Luxxe Cafe has the best beans and best espresso drinks in the city. (yes, I'm claiming that) Mr. Appel has had the acclaimed versions at Intelligentsia, LAMILL, and the likes and demands Luxxe is as close to Italian coffee as he has ever had in the states.

Shop.

Compartes for geometric and tasty chocolates.

Selima et Benjamin for sunglasses. 

Poppy for well-made, unique, european kids clothes.

Turpan for curated eclectica.

Union Made for Steven Alan-esque menswear. 

Post26 for new and vintage fashions.

James Perse for linen Repetto flats and what else? James Perse.

Diesel bookstore. A disappearing breed of books.

Broken English for interesting jewelry.

Trading Post for a post office straight out of Mayberry complete with unique sundries.

(Broken English)

Do.

Drive up Kenter Canyon to Crestwood Hills Park and on the way marvel at the cluster of Case Study post and beams.

Obviously, go to the Getty. 

Hike Mandeville Canyon.

Have a drink at the top of the Hotel Angeleno for a breathtaking view. 

Walk, shop, eat. See above.

Ride bikes down San Vincente to Ocean Blvd. 

Be sure to catch Part 1 (West Hollywood + Beverly Hills) and Part 3 (Santa Monica + Venice)

Top Photo by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin for Vogue Paris August 2011

what should pasty Minnesotans do in LA?

May 11

Dear ESB,

I have a close-knit group of high school friends from Minnesota. Over time we've all moved away from home and live in various parts of the country, but we still keep in contact and are involved in each other's lives. We get to see each other during holidays, but that's usually a hectic time filled with family obligations. Weddings are our best chance to party together, and now one of my dear friends is getting married in L.A.! All of us are super excited about our friend's wedding. Not only is he marrying a kick ass girl, but we will be meeting up in California instead of Minnesota, which will be a fun vacation for us pasty Northerns. We are planning to stay several days for the wedding and explore the city as much as possible.

I thought maybe you and your L.A. readers, as insiders and very cool people, could suggest fun and interesting things for us to do in L.A. Or restaurants. We love food, especially strange food. The wedding is in July.

On a related note, I'm also getting married this summer, and my FH and I are going to Coronado for our honeymoon. If people in the San Diego area have any suggestions, those would also be welcome as well.

Sincerely,
Wannabe in LA

*****

June 13

Make a reservation at Animal (ANY RESERVATION YOU CAN GET, trust me) and await further instructions.

*****

July approaches!

Hokay. Rather than giving you an exhaustive list of my favorite spots in LA, I thought I'd narrow it down to five or so and let everyone else chime in.

Animal
I hope you made that reservation. Be sure to order the foie gras loco moco. It's the most expensive item on the menu, but I swear to you it's one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. The bacon chocolate crunch bar is also killer. All of it is killer.

Yuca's
A James Beard Award-winning taco stand. You have to get the cochinita pibil torta (slow-roasted pork sandwich), which is the specialty of the house. I can't do tortas because of the whole gluten thing -- I get the tacos -- but H always orders at least two tortas for himself.

In-N-Out Burger
You know you have to visit In-N-Out while you're here, right? There are all kinds of secret ways to order that are not listed on the menu. I order my burgers "animal style" (with pickles and grilled onions), "protein style" (on a bun made of lettuce), "with mustard instead" (mustard instead of the special sauce).

Jumbo's Clown Room
This is a super fun place to have drinks in the early evening, when it's easy to get a table and the hipster pole dancers are the most skilful. Legend has it Courtney Love once danced at Jumbo's, and David Lynch used to come here to write. Bonus: It's just a few blocks away from Thai Patio, one of our perennial faves. The food is delish and there's usually an ambiguously gendered Thai person singing very sincere covers of 80's/90's hits.

Flore Vegan
LA it up for realz and go to Silver Lake for a vegan smoothie. (I mean, you did just eat all that meat.) The raw avocado & citrus smoothie from Flore is sooooo good. Bonus: You can stop into Reform School and the Mohawk General Store while you're in the neighborhood.

Polaroid by Raymond Molinar

I. Dig. This. Wedding.

Hey ESB!

We just got back our wedding pictures and we couldn't be happier. Our wedding turned out to be way better than we imagined it could be. We had a blast!

The planning was easy since we had a teeny tiny budget and only had 2 months to do it so we knew it wasn't possible to obsess over details. We had the wedding in my family house that my grandparents have lived in since the 60s. My cousin played the viola as we walked down the aisle.

My husband's mom & sister took care of the dessert bar & wedding cake (they thrifted all the cake stands and bowls and made all the desserts themselves!). We filled the ipod with all our favorite music (lots of Elvis, Ronettes, and Ramones) and just let it play. We got the In-N-Out truck to pull right up to the garage to sling burgers out.

A friend helped me load up on flowers at the LA flower mart and fill tons of vases and bottles with flower arrangements. Another friend married us (we wrote our own ceremony... it was about 3 minutes long). Our friend Andy Riddle did all the photography. It was an amazing group effort.

When the day came, it was just overwhelming how everything came together and it felt so fantastic to be surrounded by family and friends. Our not so perfect road leading up to our wedding helped us lower our expectations and let us relax and just let things be. Thanks for the advice, not just for my dress (which I didn't end up needing after all) but for all the advice from past brides who've written to you. It all just helped me remember that the whole point of this all is to be a fun & happy time for the two of us. It was.

-Lisa aka Shotgun Bride

*****

What could be better than In-N-Out Burger + a gorgeous beau?

Srsly.