Los Angeles 1

Edgy art takes center stage in city of stars

BY MARTHA ROSS

For decades, many in the Bay Area have looked down on Los Angeles, viewing the bigger, brasher metropolis as a place to avoid except for during school breaks because that’s when we can take the kids to Disneyland.

But, in truth, it’s been a long time since theme parks were the main reason to go to Los Angeles. That’s even true for star-struck fans for whom the Hollywood Walk of Fame and other flashy, industry-related attractions are the primary lure.

Los Angeles is shedding its reputation as a culturally backward sprawl of freeways, suburbs and soulless strip malls and is making a strong case for itself as destination for premiere museums and world-class culture. Movers and shakers at Vanity Fair’s 2017 New Establishment conference in Beverly Hills pondered the possibility that the region has become America’s capital for the 21st century.

Spread across 469 square miles, the country’s second-most populous city boasts something that the Bay Area is losing — neighborhoods where artists, restaurateurs and others in creative callings can afford to live and work.

In Los Angeles, one of these eclectic, happening neighborhoods might still be clustered around a strip mall that’s anchored by a check-cashing outlet, but it nonetheless has drawn a community of energetic residents right out of “La La Land” who are making art, or staging adventurous performances in storefront theaters, or maybe pioneering the next food trend.

Los Angeles is a year-round destination, but January offers special enticements. For theme park fans, fewer tourists means shorter lines at Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios and other attractions.

Los Angeles’ mild January weather also means you can soak in the sun at one of its famous beaches and might only need a sweater to enjoy an evening cocktail on a rooftop bar.

Occasional rain showers may cause traffic jams, but they also rinse away the smog to offer clear views of snow dusting the distant mountaintops, the Hollywood sign or maybe the city’s skyline from the third floor of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

One sign of the art scene’s growing cachet is that the hottest tickets in town aren’t just for major movie premieres but for gallery openings and galas at one of its top museums, like November’s LACMA extravaganza co-chaired by Leonardo DiCaprio.

But you don’t have to be a VIP to enjoy what’s fun and exciting about Los Angeles.

Head downtown to the Broad, the new contemporary art museum that features works by some of today’s top artists, charges no admission and is now one of the city’s top attractions.

Here local couples, families and groups of young friends view paintings or pose for selfies in front of Jeff Koons’ sculptures. They might also catch a bite to eat at Otium, the chic restaurant next door that’s helmed by Timothy

Hollingsworth, the former chef de cuisine at The French Laundry.

The Broad’s opening in 2015 helped crystallize downtown LA’s transformation from a weekend wasteland of office towers and crumbling art deco facades into a thriving region of lofts, new apartment towers, stylish restaurants and bars, and the historic Grand Central Market food hall.

Southeast of downtown is the 50-block Arts District, named for the murals that cover its former factories and warehouses. Those up on their history of urban renewal say the district reminds them of gritty 1970s New York City. Still, it wouldn’t be out of place for someone famous to pull up in a chauffeur-driven SUV to shop at one of the home design boutiques or to dine at Bestia, a wildly popular rustic Italian eatery.

About 10 miles up the 101 is another evolving district — North Hollywood, nicked-named NoHo. Things feel a little more relaxed in this pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, where young women carry yoga mats to Vinyasa classes and friendly actors invite passers-by to see their show at one of the storefront theaters.

Here you’ll find the Republic of Pie — a funky cafe with sofas, WiFi and really good coffee and pie. And, true to a Los Angeles cliché, everyone hunkered over a laptop looks like they’re tweaking their screenplay.

But there’s also something more going on. And as a vocalist and her guitar-playing partner cover mellow alt-rock hits, another side of today’s Los Angeles emerges, one in which aspiring writers pause and sit back to enjoy the company of their table mates and take in the music.

3where To See Art

1 Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Spread out over a 20-acre complex, the museum’s collections have long been one of the most impressive in the city: Greek and Roman sculpture, galleries of 17th-century Dutch landscapes and classic pieces by Picasso, Mondrian, Klee and Kandinsky. Ray’s and Stark Bar, located behind the museum’s iconic Urban Light installation on Wilshire Boulevard, has also become a happening place for al fresco lunch or brunch or, if you just want a drink, an elegant cocktail or a glass of wine from its California-centric wine list. Through 2018, LACMA is one 70 institutions throughout the city participating in the Pacific Standard Time: LA/ LA, an ambitious exploration of the city’s relationship to Latin American art and artists.

Details: Admission is $15, free for kids under 17. Open daily at 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles; www.lacma.org.

2 The Huntington

If you can, devote a day to visiting the one-time winter home of railway magnate Henry E. Huntington and his arts patron wife Arabella in San

Marino. Stroll the 120 acres of botanical gardens, including areas devoted to the design landscapes of Japan, China and the California desert, see European and American artworks in Huntington’s former Beaux Arts mansion, or visit the library he built to house his collection of rare books and see a Gutenberg Bible and a manuscript of Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”.

Details: Admission is $25-$29, free for kids under 4. Open Wednesday-Monday at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino; www.huntington.org.

3 The Broad Homebuilding billionaires Eli and Edythe Broad amassed such a large collection of contemporary art that the philanthropists needed to build a downtown museum to showcase their 2000 pieces in rotating exhibitions. They also wanted to prove their hometown is “the cultural capital of the United States.”

Details: Admission is free, but the museum is popular, so be sure to reserve your spot. Open Tuesday-Sunday at 221 S. Grand Ave.; Los Angeles; www.thebroad.org.

The NoHo Arts District in North Hollywood was established in 1992 and is now home to theaters, art galleries and the Art Institute of California.

WHERE TO EAT RAMENDON’T MISS

1 Tatsu Ramen

At Tatsu, there are no real waiters, just iPads where you enter your customized order, grab a table and wait for your steaming bowl of noodles to arrive. Tatsu also bills itself as “ramen with a soul,” and the umami-rich tonkotsu broth certainly makes that case.

Details: 2123 Sawtelle Blvd. and 7111 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; www.tatsuramen.com.

2 Tsujita LA Artisan Noodles

Tsujita LA Artisan Noodles offers a new twist on the ramen experience. Patrons order dry tsukemen noodles that they can dip into savory broth and mix with sliced barbecue pork and other toppings. Of course, you also can go the traditional route.

Details: 2057 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles; www.tsujita-la.com.

Elena Orio, right, has her picture taken by Tracy Ikari as she stands next to Marilyn Monroe’s crypt in Westwood.

The 114-yearold cemetery is the final resting place of Monroe, Natalie Wood, Truman Capote and Jack Lemmon.

Tragical History Tour

If you want to go Hollywood while visiting Los Angeles, you can of course sign on to a tour of studios or the stars’ homes.

But why bother when the darker side of Hollywood is so much more fascinating?

Instead there’s the Tragical History Tour which ferries you to the sites of celebrity crimes, scandals and tragedies, from the starlet who threw herself to her death from the Hollywood sign in 1932 to the sad tales of talents including Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin and Whitney Houston who all died much too young.

The three-hour tour is not for the faint of heart, but its star-struck guides are fierce students of L.A. life and history, so even the most tragedy-tinged locations are placed in a broader popular culture context.

The guides also deploy humor and biting social commentary when warranted, which it often is, of course.

Highlights of the tour include El Coyote restaurant where Sharon Tate ate her last meal, Aaron Spelling’s “stupid rich” 123-room mega-mansion in Holmby Hills where Tori Spelling grew up, the park where Hugh Grant met a hooker named Divine Brown and the Sunset Boulevard phone booth outside Johnny Depp’s Viper Room where Joaquin Phoenix called 911 to report his brother River’s fatal overdose.