03-16-09

LOS ANGELES

DOWNTOWN

NEWS Civic park adds some new details.

2

Rising comments on Downtown economy.

5

Supportive housing doesn’t meet demand.

7

Noah’s Flood at Cathedral.

9

Health: Three new Downtown gyms.

11

Review: Frost/Nixon at the Ahmanson.

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22 CALENDAR LISTINGS 24 MAP 25 CLASSIFIEDS

13-19

2

Blossom bankrupt, film permitting and other happenings Around Town.

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Editorial: Some good news about Downtown and the recession.

W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M

March 16, 2009

Volume 38, Number 10

INSIDE

Restaurants

Marquee Downtown Office Tower for Sale Maguire Partnership Agrees to Unload One California Plaza

by Ryan Vaillancourt staff writer

T

he owners of One California Plaza, a 42-story Bunker Hill office tower, are looking for a buyer.

Purchased by Maguire Properties in 2003 from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for $225 million, the building was later folded into a joint ownership venture with Sydney, Australia-based Macquarie Office Trust in 2006.

Macquarie owns an 80% stake in the building, along with five other jointly owned projects with Maguire. It was Macquarie’s

initiative that led the partnership to put One California Plaza — the only Downtown property in the group’s portfolio — on the market, said Peggy Moretti, a spokesperson for Maguire Properties.

“Earlier this year, Macquarie, our longstanding partner, reached out to us regarding disposing of the asset and in the spirit of the partnership we agreed,” Moretti said.

In addition to One California Plaza, the companies are also looking to sell the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Denver, a 52-story trophy office tower. see One Cal Plaza, page 8

photo by Gary Leonard

One California Plaza, purchased by Maguire Properties in 2003 for $225 million, is for sale.

Round Two for Palmer Lawsuit

Meruelo Maddux Considers Bankruptcy

Developer’s Challenge to Affordable Housing Could Hamper Citywide Policy

Prominent Downtown Landowner Likely To Default on $226 Million in Loans

by Anna Scott

by Ryan Vaillancourt

staff writer

staff writer

W

ith one victory already in hand, a Downtown Los Angeles developer is once again challenging the city’s affordable housing requirements in a court case that could have repercussions across town.

The dispute involves the wellknown developer Geoffrey Palmer, who in 2001 sued the city to avoid having to offer cheaper rents in his Visconti apartment project. The case was settled in 2004 and Palmer was allowed to build his project without the affordable units.

This time around Palmer is suing the city on largely the same grounds.

In this case the issue is whether Palmer must include affordable units in his upcoming Piero II apartment building.

If successful, Palmer’s latest case, now before a state appellate court, could put a major dent in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to create a citywide affordable housing requirement.

Palmer is one of Downtown’s biggest investors and is known for his collection of Italian villa-inspired apartment buildings in the area west of the 110 Freeway. He has built 2,200 units and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the area since he announced plans for the $90 million, 600-unit Medici at Seventh and Bixel streets in 1998.

M

ereuloMadduxProperties, one of Downtown’s largest landowners and developers, has stopped making interest and principal payments on 26 loans totaling $266 million, and is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The company has been trying to sell many of its Downtown properties in order to raise cash, and while it has some properties in escrow, no deals have closed so far in 2009, the company told investors on March 12.

The Downtown real estate giant

wrote down the value of 20 of its properties in the fourth quarter, resulting in a $117.4 million impairment loss; its net loss for the quarter was $85.8 million. Meruelo Maddux began this year with $4.5 million in unrestricted cash, enough to satisfy its monthly debt obligations for two and a half months.

“Consequently, we have stopped making interest and principal payments on, and therefore are likely in default under, these 26 loans totaling $266 million,” company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Meruelo said. see Maddux, page 10

photo by Gary Leonard

Developer Geoff Palmer has sued the city to avoid including affordable housing in his upcoming Piero II project. The case is currently in state appellate court.

While Palmer has been praised by some as a pioneer who brought housing to the once barren City West, he has also been heavily criticized for refusing to include affordable units in his projects.

Under the City West Specific Plan, at least 15% of the units in area developments must be affordable and priced for low-income workers. If the units are not included, the developer must pay a fee that the city can use to build the units elsewhere. see Palmer, page 6

photo by Gary Leonard

Meruelo Maddux Properties, led by president and chief executive officer Richard Meruelo, is considering filing for voluntary bankruptcy.

Since 1972, an independent, locally owned and edited newspaper, go figure.

2 Downtown News

March 16, 2009

DowntownNews.com

AROUNDTOWN New Civic Park Details Unveiled

Memorial Coliseum Plans Downsized

D

W

esigners of the proposed 16-acre Civic Park, to rise on county-owned land stretching from the Music Center on Grand Avenue to City Hall on Spring Street, displayed their latest model during last Wednesday’s Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council meeting. The park, part of the Related Companies’ $3 billion, multi-phase Grand Avenue Project, has been in the works for years. Architects from Rios Clementi Hale Studios revealed two preliminary park designs last spring, but recently added some new details.

The new model closely resembles the simpler of the two designs presented last year.

It features a renovated, historic fountain between the County Hall of Administration and the County Courthouse, new lawns, gardens and promenades along the edges. “It’s been refined and more developed,� said Rios Clementi Hale Senior Associate Tony Paradowski. “We reduced the paving from past designs and looked for existing paved areas that could be greened.

We’ve been able to refine the terraces and expanded one right above the fountain to provide an overlook space.�

Though the Grand Avenue Project is on hold due to the current credit crunch, the park is already funded with $56 million from Related’s ground lease payment to develop the land. Another $26.4 million in Proposition 1C funds, approved by the Assembly in June, will be issued only after the rest of the Grand Avenue Project breaks ground, said Paradowski. The park is expected to break ground next year.

Construction will take at least two years.

ith a long-stalled campaign to bring a professional football team to Exposition Park’s Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the City Planning Commission last Thursday scrapped a plan to turn the stadium into a modern NFL venue. On March 12, the Commission voted unanimously to amend the Coliseum District Specific Plan, a development guide enacted in 1996 that laid the groundwork for renovating the site to accommodate a professional football team. The Specific Plan called for eventually building a new stadium within the historic Coliseum bowl and allowing extensive advertising signage in and around the venue. The vote eliminated references to the NFL from the Specific Plan, reduced the amount of permitted offsite signage from 385,000 to 44,000 square feet and reduced the Specific Plan from 160 acres (most of Exposition Park) to 85 acres.

The commission retained the right to build up to 200 new luxury suites and make general infrastructure improvements.

Blossom Plaza Files for Bankruptcy

C

hinatown Blossom Plaza LLC, developers of the long awaited $165 million Blossom Plaza project in Chinatown, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to stop foreclosure on the property. Developer Larry Bond said the action, filed on March 5, was necessary to halt Morgan Stanley Real Estate and its Prime Property Fund, the first mort-

rendering courtesy of Rios Clemente Hale Studios

A new model of Grand Avenue’s proposed 16-acre Civic Park was released last week revealing a renovated fountain, grassy expanses and lush gardens. Construction is set to begin next year.

gage lender for the project, from foreclosing and killing the development. “Our perspective is the project needs to get built. We are now in the hands of the legal process; if the courts rule in our favor we’ll get the project done,� Bond said.

In February Los Angeles Downtown News reported that the project was halted after Morgan Stanley backed out due to the “changing financial situation,� which meant Bond needed to pay off the lender

in order to find a new partner. “We had a deal to buy them out but they reversed course,� Bond said. Officials with Morgan Stanley would not comment but instead released a statement saying that the company is “taking the appropriate action to fulfill its obligations to its investors and to move this project forward with the City of Los Angeles.� The project had been slated to receive $41 million from the city and has see Around Town, page 8

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$950 Million In Stimulus Funds Sought For LA County Metro moved swiftly to secure up to $950 million of stimulus funding to preserve and create jobs for LA County under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 recently signed by the president. The Metro Board called for a 135-day deadline for submitting all highway and transit projects which began March 3.

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March 16, 2009

Downtown News 3

SearchDowntownLA.com

Industrial Policy Gets Creative Planning Officials Consider How to Modernize Ailing Commercial Zone

by Anna Scott staff writer

T

he city may consider an adaptive reuse ordinance to modernize industrial properties, modeled after a 1999 measure that paved the way for converting Downtown’s underutilized office buildings into housing, a Community Redevelopment Agency official said last week.

Cecilia Estolano, chief executive of the CRA, said that in recent talks with local development groups, the idea surfaced to create an adaptive reuse program to help modernize Downtown’s industrial properties.

“We love that idea,” said Estolano during last Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting, where she was joined by city Planning Director Gail Goldberg to update a controversial, year-old initiative to preserve the city’s industrial-zoned land, including large swaths of Downtown.

The original Adaptive Reuse Ordinance provided an expedited approval process and loosened code requirements for developers to convert historic and fallow structures into new housing. An industrial version of the policy would provide incentives for developers to update industrial-zoned properties while keeping them commerical. Though only a suggestion at this point, Estolano and Goldberg emphasized that they are willing to think outside the box to reinvigorate Downtown’s industrial core.

“We have heard loudly and clearly … that merely protecting this land for a use that might be outmoded … is not the way to promote job creation in this city,” said Goldberg.

The message seemed to sit well with some former opponents of the industrial preservation initiative.

Russell Brown, president of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, praised Goldberg and Estolano for their “new realism and flexibility that we did not see several years ago” in considering industrial land policy.

Still, the long-standing debate between city planners and the local business community over industrial-zoned land simmers

on, and much of last week’s discussion rehashed old arguments.

Seeking Compromise The city’s Planning Department and the Community Redevelopment Agency in late 2007 released a report that recommended retaining approximately 80% of Downtown’s industrial-zoned land for exclusively industrial uses.

The Industrial Land Use Policy aims to help retain middleclass jobs in areas where industrial land has been turned over to residential and commercial development. photo by Gary Leonard

‘Merely protecting this land for a use that might be outmoded is not the way to promote job creation in this city.’

— Gail Goldberg, City Planning Director

Downtown’s development community and City Council representatives have charged that the ILUP is too little, too late.

Downtown is already obsolete as an industrial center, they say, and the policy could hamper mixed-use development.

Central City East Executive Director Estela Lopez said during last week’s meeting that streets too narrow for trucks and an inadequate power grid are just two of the obstacles facing Downtown’s industrial business owners. “What they are trying to preserve,” she said of the ILUP, “that horse is dead.”

Greg Fischer, Planning Deputy for Ninth District

CRA CEO Cecilia Estolano and Planning Director Gail Goldberg at last week’s Planning Commission meeting, where they said that they would consider an adaptive reuse ordinance to reinvigorate Downtown’s industrial properties.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, took Lopez’s comments a step further. “Not only has that horse left the barn,” he said, “it has jumped the fence … died years ago and has been beaten to death so many times there is nothing left.”

Goldberg and Estolano acknowledged that Downtown lacks the infrastructure to serve heavy industry. Estolano said that the CRA has committed to providing $15 million a year in citywide infrastructure investment, much of it for industrial-zoned areas. The funds, she said, will come from tax increments and will hopefully be matched by federal sources.

In the meantime, Goldberg and Estolano listed several new Downtown developments as examples of the job-fostering industrial land use they hope to encourage.

They cited clothing manufacturer American Apparel signing a 10-year lease on a six-story building adjacent to the Arts District’s Biscuit Company Lofts; the $8 million project at 915 Mateo St. that houses 38 units of creative flex space; and Urth Café’s new Arts District headquarters and bakery, employing 100 workers.

Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com.

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March 16, 2009

DowntownNews.com

EDITORIALS Moving Forward With the Recession Allowing the Thaw to Begin – Downtown’s Special Circumstances

by Sue Laris editor and publisher

D

espite the painful subject, the recession, what follows are forward-looking thoughts about some of what it will take to begin to breathe, to once again take steps to build positive momentum in our lives.

Downtown, like the rest of the nation, has been pretty much paralyzed since the upheaval of the financial world in October.

Even the 90% of us who are still employed have paused, watching day after day of mostly bad news, transfixed a little.

There is no question that what the world is going through is brutal, but it is now time for those who can move forward to do so. We can’t do much but let whatever is going to happen play out.

The reality is that it’s stiff-upper-lip time. Don’t bother to look for a silver lining. There’s no pony in the pile of you-knowwhat, but there are things we can do to get our own lives moving again, one by one, person by person, taking responsibility for our own attitude toward the world. It’s one thing to let an unbearable reality paralyze us, but this is not that. What we’re partly afraid of right now are ghosts. Not entirely real.

As bad as things are, we are reminded that there are special circumstances in Downtown Los Angeles, ones that bode a bit better for Downtown’s recovery than elsewhere.

But let’s start with broadening the acknowledgment of what we’re going through: People show signs of being in various stages of grief over the financial crisis. Like the rest of the nation and the financial system itself, people have been frozen, almost breathless, waiting for the next bad news.

Most have kept open panic at bay, though that deer-inthe-headlights expression still flits by. Worries about careers, kids’ college funds, weakened retirement accounts and other unknowns run as a mostly silent crawl across the screens of our day-to-day activities.

People seem to be grieving not only the loss of financial security but also the loss of predictability about the future. Most are beyond the first stage of what looks like grief: denial (“I feel fine.

This can’t be happening to me”). They know quite well that their lives have been redefined, perhaps forever, but they are not

LETTERS Olvera President Responds Dear Editor, n response to the March 10, 2009 article, “Ruckus at Olvera Street,” Olvera Street has a problem because city government has absolutely failed in its stewardship of this historic treasure. With constant turnover in its management, a plan gone-awry to have all of El Pueblo’s major functions shipped out to different city departments at a cost many times more than in-house administration, along with failed attempts to bring closure to the leasing situation with a majority of merchants, it’s no doubt El Pueblo officials, including General Manager Robert Andrade, have some very difficult situations to resolve.

It’s much easier to blame the Olvera merchant rents and lease terms as the culprit while city hands are dishonestly wiped clean of any responsibility or accountability of the current situation.

In 1998, the City Council unanimously approved a 55year lease for the founding families of Olvera Street in recognition of our generations-long commitment to safeguarding this historical site as well as our continued cultural contributions to the city. David Louie does not recognize the valuable role that Olvera Street merchants have played in the cultural enrichment of the Los Angeles community over the last 79 years. We question why he seems to be at the helm of efforts to unravel all previous City Council commitments that acknowledged our cultural role. The 55year lease term that disturbs him and his colleagues was recommended by former Councilman Richard Alatorre, who received the support of every other City Council member in Los Angeles, the mayor and the city attorney, who in unison

I

Urban Scrawl Cartoonist Doug Davis is on bereavement leave.

yet sure how deeply or how long they are going to have to cope.

Even though they are beyond the first of five classic stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance – many have not moved to acceptance, the point at which someone who has experienced catastrophic loss can contemplate the future. But it is time to do so. After all, most have not experienced true tragedy. We are here.

We have our health, knock wood. Our families are here.

Our cars or at least our feet get us where we want to go. We can’t bear to look at our 401Ks, but time will take care of that one way or the other. Again, not much we can do at this point but wait it out.

The experts say that the stages of grief cannot be rushed.

But it helps, a little, to know what’s coming. We should all be patient while our colleagues, families and friends move through each stage. And it helps that tough as it is, this is not a true catastrophe. People will soon be at “I am beginning to actually get some work done” and “I can make plans for the future.” It’s been five rocky months. It’s time to accept that some level of change has happened and move on.

I think I hear signs of it in the office and on street corners.

There’s a bit more laughter, a bit more willingness to socialize. “Maybe five percent improvement,” one friend says. The recession may not be quite ready to turn, but I think people’s attitude toward it is beginning to shift.

For myself, I am pretty much at acceptance (though “this isn’t fair” still pops to mind). The recession of the 1990s taught me a great deal. What panicked me then only concerns me now. Mostly I can do what I have to do to think clearly: I can blot out the news, which both fascinates and repels me. I can make plans for contingencies. Personally, I wasn’t going to retire anyway, but the future is less secure, just as it is for everyone I know. But we didn’t die. As I say, we are still here.

At some point we have to get going. We have to step forward.

At the paper we are at Plan B (tiny staff reduction, decision to print only the number of pages we can afford, keep status of no debt), but I have a mental outline of Plans C, D, and E, none of which I expect to be necessary. It’s rough, very rough, but it is what it is.

approved our leases.

Today, Mr. Louie proposes a five-year term to replace the agreement adopted by the full City Council.

Proposition H, approved by the voters of Los Angeles, guarantees Olvera Street merchants a long-term, negotiated lease and the protection of Olvera Street as a Mexican marketplace. He may not like it, but it is city law.

In the adopted lease, presently signed by 17 Olvera merchants, the city listed specific commitments for increased parking spaces, and repairs and renovations to the historic buildings and public areas in exchange for regular rent increases. Eleven years later we are just beginning to see some upgrades and repairs. How does this translate to a problem “created” by the Olvera Street merchants? Should merchants be blamed for the city’s multi-decade disregard of El Pueblo Monument or their trail of broken promises, including those laid out in the adopted leases?

The fact is that neither Robert Andrade nor Commissioner Louie can legally propose rent increases on the 17 merchants who possess an official signed lease until those committed repairs and improvements are made.

They figure the next best thing is to deny the other 65 merchants any rights to the officially adopted lease, raise our rents and give us five years to wrap up our lineage on Olvera Street so they can survive the economic downturn.

Such a deal. If anyone thinks the merchants are getting rich these days, we invite visitors to see for themselves.

Just once, we’d love city officials to finally own up to the fact that they, not the merchants, have created a legal and managerial nightmare at El Pueblo and ought to work with the merchants to solve it instead of intimidating tenants with huge rent increases during the worst economic crisis in recent history.

—Vivien Bonzo, president of the Olvera Street Merchants Association.

Having started the paper on my kitchen table, I was at an advantage when it became necessary to be more careful with the print bill, for instance. I know how to think small when necessary. To save print costs, we now put some information, such as some calendar listings, on the web. I miss seeing the full listings in the paper – it was a favorite project that we funded for years ‑ but it is a necessary sacrifice at this time. I look forward to being able to print them again.

While pain can be found on every street corner and in every industry, the good news we can build on is that Downtown remains primarily an employed community. A concentration of employment is the reason Downtown exists, good news for anyone who wants to do business here.

There are dollars Downtown, and employed people will be the first to spend a few, once they can breathe again, once they accept a new reality that may be diminished but is not nonexistent.

Here are some facts to back up an optimistic, by comparison, view of the future of Downtown: Downtown is the largest employment center in Southern California. For a while the Westside competed with Downtown on that front, but according to CB Richard Ellis, the Westside office community has experienced massive layoffs while Downtown has not.

The high-rise office community is still the largest presence Downtown. The Civic Center is the largest concentration of public buildings and public employees west of Washington, D.C. Studies show that about half the robust new residential community commutes outside Downtown to work, and the other half works Downtown. Again, this is an employed community.

Downtown is the hub of the regional transportation system of buses, trains and freeways.

Banish the ghosts. There is enough reason to move forward.

Contact Sue Laris at sue@downtownnews.com.

A key member of our editorial board, Executive Editor Jon Regardie, is off this week with his wife Julia Schacter, daughter Vivian Ruby, parents Bill and Renay, and new baby, a son, George Oliver Regardie, born March 10. Mom and baby are doing well.

How to reach us Main office: (213) 481-1448 MAIL your Letter Letters to the Editor • L.A. Downtown News 1264 W. First Street • Los Angeles, CA 90026 Email your Letter realpeople@downtownnews.com FAX your Letter (213) 250-4617 Read Us on the Web DowntownNews.com

Editor & PublishEr: Sue Laris GENErAl MANAGEr: Dawn Eastin ExEcutivE Editor: Jon Regardie citY Editor: Richard Guzmán stAFF writErs: Anna Scott, Ryan Vaillancourt coNtributiNG Editors: David Friedman, Kathryn Maese coNtributiNG writErs: Jay Berman, Jeff Favre, Michael X. Ferraro, Kristin Friedrich, Howard Leff, Rod Riggs Marc Porter Zasada Art dirEctor: Brian Allison AssistANt Art dirEctor: Yumi Kanegawa ProductioN ANd GrAPhics: Alexis Rawlins ProductioN AssistANt / EvENt coordiNAtor: Claudia Hernandez PhotoGrAPhEr: Gary Leonard AccouNtiNG: Ashley Vandervort sAlEs MANAGEr: Dawn Eastin sAlEs AssistANt: Annette Cruz clAssiFiEd AdvErtisiNG MANAGEr: Catherine Holloway AccouNt ExEcutivEs: Vanessa Acuña, Robert Dutcher, Catherine Holloway, Kelley Smith circulAtioN: Norma Rodas distributioN MANAGEr: Salvador Ingles distributioN AssistANts: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo Bonilla The Los Angeles Downtown News is the must-read newspaper for Downtown Los Angeles and is distributed every Monday throughout the offices and residences of Downtown Los Angeles. It is also distributed to the extended urban communities of Glendale, Hollywood, Wilshire Center, Los Feliz, Silver Lake & Larchmont Village.

One copy per person.

March 16, 2009

Unprecedented Recession Downtown Business Leader Nelson Rising Looks to Past to Understand Current Downturn

N

elson Rising, the president and chief executive officer of commercial real estate giant Maguire Properties, has been a student of the Downtown office market for decades. Besides his role as top executive at one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate companies, Rising is also chairman of the Grand Avenue Committee, which is overseeing the delayed Grand Avenue Project. At the Downtown News’ recent Downtowners of Distinction awards ceremony, the former chair of the Federal Reserve in San Francisco took the podium to give his take on how we got into the current financial downturn and how long it might take to turn it back around.

Nelson Rising: Let me make a comment first of all about Downtown. Downtown, I’m extremely positive about. I saw Ted Tanner [senior vice president for real estate at AEG] a few nights ago and here tonight and what he’s doing down there at L.A. Live is fantastic. Ted and I are former colleagues back in the Catellus days. It has been a long journey to bring L.A. Live to where it is, and with Ted’s leadership and tenacity, it is a great part of the life of Downtown and making this the 24-hour community that we, when working on the Downtown Specific Plan almost three decades ago, all talked about.

I wear another hat, which is chairman of the Grand Avenue Committee, and I’m thrilled to see Councilwoman Jan Perry here today. Jan is vice chairman of the Joint Powers Authority, which is going to give life to a wonderful project, the Grand Avenue Project right across from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It’s been a long time in coming about; the economy now has obviously made it very difficult to get construction financing but the project is going to be an extremely beneficial one to

SearchDowntownLA.com Downtown, with a Marriott hotel, with condominiums, with retail. It will be the different side of the scale from LA Live. It will kind of anchor the northern part of the Downtown area, just like L.A. Live does the southern part And just one more comment about what they’re doing there at L.A. Live. I was very much involved with [former Mayor] Tom Bradley. I was chairman of his campaign in ’73, ’77 and ’81, and in 1974 Tom brought me into his office and said, “You know what, Nelson, we really need to have a convention center hotel Downtown.” Nineteen seventy-four.

Well, Ted is finally building that hotel and it’s going to be such an important factor because with that convention center hotel we’ll have the retail consumer, which will make retail more exciting, which will make residential more exciting and it’s all a part of making a greater Downtown.

Now, I’d like to be just as optimistic about the economy. You know in the last 40 years we’ve lived through six recessions. The longest was 17 months and there were two of them, the shortest was two months and there was one of those, and the average was 11 months. So people are trying to find their way, looking at how bad it’s going to be, how much worse it’s going to get and how long it will last. I can’t say the past is proof but one indication is, that if you take the longest lasting recession, 17 months, and if you use the definition of a recession of two consecutive negative quarters, that means it will end in July 2010.

If you look at the shortest, that means the end of next quarter.

So somewhere between the two we might find ourselves getting to our heads above water. But this recession, if you just think of how we got here, it’s a combination of the recession and the financial crisis. It didn’t happen over night.

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 had many provisions, one of which was it made the home mortgage a financial instrument. Right before that you could deduct your interest on credit cards but the only thing you could then deduct your interest from was your first home or second home. So people started using their home as a piggy bank, the home equity. Then we had the home equity mortgage and everyone thought this was going to be fantastic. I can deduct my interest, I can count that and I can take it when I need it. But what happened was, using the home equity as a piggy bank, we became a consumer society of unparalleled proportions and we were buying things we didn’t need with money we didn’t have as a society. And when things are unsustainable, a wise man once said, they can’t work and it was not sustainable.

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Nelson Rising, president and chief executive officer of Downtown real estate firm Maguire Properties, says the current recession is unprecedented, but an end is not necessarily out of sight.

It was all based on, in many respects, the boom that we’ve now seen bust. It was a boom that was created by excess liquidity from home equity mortgages and then sub-prime mortgages. So what happened was the economy got skewed and now we’re in a situation with unprecedented financial crisis.

I’m very anxious to see the president’s economic program.

There’s no simple answer. That’s for sure. As a wise man once said, for every complex problem there’s a simple solution, which is wrong, so it’s going to be complex, it’s going to take time. We have to face reality. Many people have questioned the stimulus package and why we are doing it. If you look at the fact that $2 trillion of consumer spending has been taken out of the economy, most of that money was the result of 11 credit cards per family or the home equity mortgage or the sub-prime mortgage; that has to be replaced if we’re going to bounce back. We have to replace that spending and the stimulus package is designed to do that. Will it work? It’s anybody’s guess. I’m optimistic it will.

I think our best days in our city and in our country are ahead of us. This is a tough time for everyone. I wish I could say I have a crystal ball and say when is it going to end, but it’s something we all have to work through. Years ago in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt said in a similar situation, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” and that’s the attitude that I think we need to get people spending again and people back to work, because people are spending, and that’s the economic engine.

6 Downtown News

March 16, 2009

DowntownNews.com

Palmer Continued from page 1 As part of the settlement involving the 297-unit Visconti, on Third Street near Beaudry Avenue, Palmer agreed to pay $2.8 million to the city and was exempted from including low-income units in the Visconti.

The city did not settle in the ongoing case involving Piero II, a 350-unit complex planned to rise on a parking lot at Sixth and Bixel streets, and a trial court judge ruled in Palmer’s favor in December 2007.

The city has appealed that ruling, which is a potentially risky move. The trial court decision applies only to Palmer’s specific case, but the appellate court ruling would be precedent setting.

The first hearing on the appeal is expected by early summer and, if Palmer wins, some say it could open the door to further challenges to the City West affordable housing requirement. It could also impact the Mayor’s plan to enact a similar program citywide.

“I would expect some sort of advocacy group, such as the Apartment Owners Association, to come in and fund a challenge” to the affordable housing requirement as a whole, using the Palmer case precedent, said real estate attorney Paul Rohrer of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. “If they lose this, it’s really, really bad for the city.”

Best Laid Plans The Central City West Specific Plan lays out the area’s affordable housing requirement, also known as inclusionary zoning. The Redevelopment Plan was conceived during the 1980s and adopted in 1991 and is essentially a neighborhood development guide.

“It was envisioned that there was going to be a lot of intense high-rise office development in the area,” said City Planner Patricia Diefenderfer. “There was a concern that new development should help provide affordable housing that would be displaced by the new development.”

Under the Redevelopment Plan, Palmer would have had

to include 60 low-income units in Piero II, build the units nearby, or pay $5.7 million of so-called in lieu fees to fund the housing elsewhere.

Palmer has argued in the past that the 20-year-old City West plan is outdated, and the high-rise commercial development it envisioned never came to fruition. He has also argued that not much housing was displaced because much of City West was parking lots.

Pointing out that he has built approximately 1,000 lowincome apartments throughout the county, Palmer said by email last week, “I am no opponent to affordable and mixed

‘If they lose this, it’s really bad for the city.’

—Paul Rohrer, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

income housing … What I am against is ‘mandatory’ mixed income housing as is proposed, and is being currently illegally extracted by the city.”

The crux of Palmer’s legal argument in the current case is that by imposing the Redevelopment Plan requirement on his project, the city violated the statewide rent-decontrol measure known as the Costa-Hawkins Act. The law, passed by the Legislature in 1995, entitles owners of apartment buildings built in the past 14 years to set the rents for their units once they are vacated.

“It basically says that no city or other government body can make a law that has the effect of telling landlords what they can charge for their initial and subsequent rents,” said

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Palmer’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lee Costell of Costell & Cornelius Law. Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, declined to comment on the case, citing attorneyclient confidentiality.

Michael Rawson, co-director of the nonprofit Public Interest Law Project, recently filed a brief in the Palmer case on behalf of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now and the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, supporting the city.

“If you read the history of Costa-Hawkins,” said Rawson, “it wasn’t intended to apply to inclusionary zoning. While the development community tries to glom onto it, I think it’s a red herring.”

Citywide Implications In September, Villaraigosa announced a sweeping $5 billion plan to create more affordable housing throughout the city. While only approximately $1 billion has been secured so far, a key component of the plan already in the works is the creation of a citywide inclusionary zoning policy, dubbed the Mixed Income Ordinance. The measure is similar to the City West requirement and would demand that residential developers either include affordable units in their projects or pay an in lieu fee.

Multiple attempts to create such a law in L.A. have failed, although similar laws are on the books in other cities in the United States. The most recent effort by City Council members Eric Garcetti and Ed Reyes died in 2005 and never made it to a vote.

The mayor’s office declined to comment on the case. But a Palmer win would likely impact any future effort to try affordable housing requirements in Los Angeles.

A victory “would have a lot of influence as to how that policy would be written,” said land use attorney Shiraz Tangri of the Downtown-based Alston + Bird LLP. Rawson agreed, but noted that Palmer is not the first to use Costa-Hawkins to challenge an inclusionary zoning policy. “I think you can draft around the Costa-Hawkins problem,” he said. “This issue has been raised many times.”

Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com.

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Downtown News 7

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A Very Dear Abbey At Skid Row Housing Trust’s New Apartment Complex, Emphasis Is on In-House Services

by Ryan VaillancouRt staff wRiteR

F

rom the top-floor terrace of a new apartment complex on San Pedro Street, resident Kelvin McClelland looks down at the roof of the adjacent Midnight Mission and points to his former sleeping place.

“See that skylight there?” he asks. “Right under there, that’s where I stayed.”

McClelland slept on the top level of a bunk bed in a dorm shared with other homeless men, many of them battling substance abuse. While he no longer stays there, he is fond of the mission, mostly because it’s where he got clean. The services he received there have led McClelland to consider the mission his “mother.”

But since January, the place he calls home has been the Abbey Apartments, a 115-unit permanent supportive housing complex from nonprofit developer Skid Row Housing Trust. The 645 San Pedro St. building, which is between the Midnight Mission and the SRHT’s Rainbow Apartments, is more than just a place to sleep — like other permanent supportive housing complexes, it provides a suite of social services to ensure that residents do not succumb to the temptations of Skid Row and wind up back on the streets.

The facility opened in January to overwhelming demand.

In two weeks of leasing, the company received 600 applications from individuals like McClelland who didn’t, or still don’t, have permanent shelter, said Molly Rysman, director of special projects for SRHT. “There’s giant demand to get into permanent supportive housing,” Rysman said. “Someone like Kelvin, where else is he going to be able to afford an apartment? Even traditional affordable housing is aimed at people who work full-time and have an income he doesn’t have.”

A Funding Puzzle The $28 million Abbey secured capital and operating dollars from six public agencies, a nonprofit investor and one bank.

The city Housing Authority awarded rental subsidies from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

With the Abbey, SRHT’s funding recipe included, for the first time in its 20-year existence, a chunk of money from Los Angeles County to support in-house social services, Rysman said. A three-year, $1.8 million county grant will fund a medical clinic, a substance abuse recovery program, case management and assistance for tenants seeking public benefits.

While other SRHT projects have onsite social services, none can boast the range and quality that the county funding will support at the Abbey, Rysman said.

SRHT started building Single Room Occupancy housing in 1989. The developer targeted old, dilapidated hotels for rehab.

The company soon realized that shelter alone is not sufficient for helping a residential population largely suffering from mental illness, substance addiction and chronic health problems. By 1992, SRHT began to staff projects with case managers to refer residents to social services in Skid Row. It wasn’t that easy.

“The way we do homeless services in Los Angeles is so fragmented that it really doesn’t work for people,” said Rysman. “So what we’re trying to do is reassemble the system in one place.”

Thus, in the Abbey, all the resources and services typically sought out by low-income residents, from medical and mental health treatment to substance abuse recovery programs, are under one roof. The building also has case managers on staff to work with tenants, helping them secure and retain benefits like Medi-Cal and steering them toward needed services.

Asterisk Marks the Spot Perched above the building’s entrance is a 12-inch metal asterisk. It’s a subtle touch, but it is more than a small aesthetic detail, said Brian Lane, a principal with Santa-Monicabased architecture firm Koning Eizenberg.

“We hoped it would communicate that hey, something special is going on here,” Lane said. “Like when you see an asterisk when you’re reading, it calls attention.”

photo by Gary Leonard

Kelvin McClelland in his unit at the new Abbey Apartments. The $28 million Skid Row complex mixes apartments with a suite of services in the effort to keep people off the streets.

The 51,000-square foot Abbey is the latest SRHT project to employ a prominent architect (the Rainbow, which opened in 2006, was designed by Michael Maltzan). Koning Eizenberg recently received the 2009 Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects.

Units in the building, which come furnished, measure about 315 square feet and include a small kitchen and multiple windows. The six-story structure wraps around an interior courtyard, where green plants flow visually into the lime green apartment doors.

The building also includes two recreation rooms with flat screen televisions, meeting space and a large commercial kitchen.

“It was important for us to have this common space because we want people to build those friendships and create a new community for themselves, because one of the things about homelessness is you’re so isolated,” Rysman said.

McClelland, however, has been reminded that there is a big difference between isolation and privacy, something he is cherishing in his new apartment.

“It’s so quiet and peaceful here,” said McClelland, who joked that the mission was too loud because people snored too much. “Here you have your own private bathroom, shower; I can wake up, cook my breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Man, this is beautiful.”

Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.

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8 Downtown News

One Cal Plaza Continued from page 1 The plan to sell both properties comes after a difficult year for the Australia-based real estate investment firm. In the later half of last year, it posted a $701 million loss, according to company filings.

“In line with our strategy, we will continue to make selective asset sales where it makes sense,” Macquarie said in a statement. “Proceeds from sales are used to further strengthen the balance sheet and reduce debt and gearing.”

Maguire, one of Downtown’s (and the nation’s,) most prominent commercial real estate owners with holdings that include US Bank Tower and the Gas Company Tower, is facing its own financial woes.

Despite increasing its quarterly revenue in the fourth quar-

March 16, 2009

DowntownNews.com ter to $146 million from $138 million the previous quarter, the company posted a $96.3 million quarterly loss, according to SEC filings.

Going forward, Maguire Properties has $80 million in unrestricted cash in the face of $260 million in debt maturing in 2009, company President and Chief Executive Officer Nelson Rising recently told investors.

But Rising has said repeatedly that, despite the company’s need for cash, he doesn’t want to offload any of its eight Downtown office properties.

“If [Macquarie] had not requested our support here, it is not likely that we would have initiated this,” Moretti said.

Trophy Tower Office workers know the building as one of the two distinct towers that make up the mixed-use development Cal Plaza.

Across from Two California Plaza, One California Plaza rises on the northern half of a three-acre plot bound by Grand Avenue to the west and Olive Street to the east, between

Third and Fourth streets.

The development has gained considerable cultural recognition for hosting the popular Grand Performances, a series of free summer concerts in the 1.5-acre open-air plaza and water court between the towers.

Adjacent to MOCA Grand Avenue and perched above retail and restaurants, including Noé and Mendocino Farms, the 992,000-square-foot building is amenity rich and no doubt an attractive opportunity to deep-pocketed investors, said Jack Kyser, senior economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.

But in these recessionary days, there may be few buyers willing to pay market value. While foreign investors from places like the United Arab Emirates have been looking to scoop up discounted American real estate, that interest is waning as the economic downturn goes global, Kyser said.

“A couple of years ago, you’d have people knocking one another down to make an offer,” Kyser said. “This time it’s going to be someone with deep pockets, if anyone at all.

You’ll probably have a couple of bargain hunters make offers, but the question is whether that’ll be acceptable to Maguire.

It’s going to be interesting.”

If the bargain hunters come knocking, chances are, they will be turned away, Moretti said.

One California Plaza will only sell if presented with an offer “with terms and pricing that the partnership agrees to,” Moretti said. “If the pricing and terms aren’t right, we won’t sell.”

Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.

Around Town Continued from page 2 already received about $9 million, Bond said. The bankruptcy protects the city’s investment.

Slated for a 1.9-acre plot at Broadway and College Street, Blossom Plaza has long been anticipated as a new eastern gateway to Chinatown. It would connect the Gold Line station to Broadway and the heart of the community with 262 apartments, 20% of them dedicated to affordable housing, in two towers with 43,000 square feet of retail, a 372-car garage and a 17,500-square-foot plaza. City officials did not return calls for comment.

DLANC Approves Filming Regulations

T

he Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council unanimously approved on March 10 a set of new filming regulations that limit the hours production crews can operate in the area. According to the special permit conditions, which still require City Council approval, crews can film between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. in Downtown, except for in the Old Bank District, where the window is between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and Broadway, where the window is broader, from 6 a.m. to midnight, DLANC President Russell Brown said. Though the rules are not yet official, FilmL.A., the nonprofit that coordinates film permitting in the city, has already been honoring the special rules on a good faith basis for more than one year, Brown said. The new regulations have helped smooth once rocky community relations with FilmL.A. and the production industry, Brown said. “I think more than 90% of the problems have been solved by having the conditions agreed on and even though they haven’t been official they have been voluntary and the majority of time it has been enforced,” he said. No meeting has yet been scheduled for a final City Council vote.

Japan America Society Hits 100

T

he Downtown-based Japan American Society of Southern California, formed as a “friendship society” during a meeting at the old YMCA building on Hope Street in 1909, was honored recently by the county Board of Supervisors. “We were very honored by the recognition. This is the most exciting time we’ve ever had here,” said Douglas Erber, president of the organization that was established to help promote understanding of Asian-American culture. The group’s anniversary celebration will take place June 15 at the Globe Theater in Hollywood where they will give away a $110,000 Lexus donated by Toyota. “It’s a drawing with only 1,000 tickets being sold,” he said, with tickets starting at $200. For more information visit jas-socal.org.

March 16, 2009

Downtown News 9

SearchDowntownLA.com

‘Noah’s Flood’ Flows Strong L.A. Opera Brings Interactive, Biblical Story to Life at Downtown Cathedral

by Rod Riggs contRibuting wRiteR

T

he anticipation was tangible as the audience gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on a recent Saturday afternoon.

The crowd had come together to take in L.A. Opera’s production of Noah’s Flood. But this was no ordinary show.

On March 7, the L.A. Opera gave two free performances of the 40-minute chamber opera at the cathedral on Temple Street. The interactive productions featured hundreds of performers, with L.A. Opera Orchestra members joined by volunteer musicians from Hamilton High School and the Colburn School String Orchestra, and singers from the Colburn School Children’s Choir and the cathedral’s own adult choir, among other groups. Audience members joined in for the opening and closing hymns.

Though the professionals led Noah’s Flood, it flowed on the enthusiasm of hundreds of volunteer actors, singers and musicians. The

Conductor James Conlon.

opera is based on Noye’s Fludde, a medieval text. The story is familiar: God tells Noah to build a ship because Earth is to be flooded.

Noah collects his family and fills the ark with animals. A great storm follows. When all is calm, Noah sends out a dove, which returns with an olive branch, indicating that the waters have receded. Everyone leaves the ark.

God promises not to send another flood.

Composer Benjamin Britten wrote the music for the short opera in 1956, after hearing a boys’ choir perform another version.

Britten scored the music to include many voices, choirs and instruments, and decreed that it should not be performed in a theater or on stage.

“Britten was a great teacher,” said L.A. Opera Music Director James Conlon, conductor of Noah’s Flood. “The whole idea is for a lot of people to get a piece of opera, just as I did when I was young.”

The score is written so that “the music is accessible to community musicians as well as professionals,” added principal bass David Young, one of a handful of Opera orchestra members who played on Saturday.

In that spirit of accessibility, page two of the opera’s program has the words and music to the three hymns that the audience sings.

Conlon rehearsed them to introduce the production.

The cathedral audience was torn between singing and watching, perhaps because so many costumed performers appeared from so many directions.

As the opera begins, Noah hears the voice of God. He gathers his family and begins to build the ark. From the “wings” of the auditorium, elements of the scenery are brought in. The ark unfolds to accept the animals — prancing deer, camels, monkeys, a peacock, raccoons, other small creatures and birds all go into the ark.

The storm struck with impressive force.

photos courtesy of LA Opera

L.A. Opera presented two free community productions of Noah’s Flood at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on March 7.

Waves tossed the ark around enough to cause mild seasickness until finally, it was over.

Noah sent a raven to find land, but the raven dashed away and failed to return. A dove sent later returned with an olive branch. A rainbow bloomed at the horizon as the animals and Noah’s family left the ark.

Prolonged applause ended the program.

It takes a long time for 400 performers to take a bow.

The free event, in its third year, took weeks

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Maddux Continued from page 1 The company has also ceased all major development activity, except for its underconstruction apartment project 717 Ninth in South Park, which is being financed by an $84 million loan that the company continues to pay interest on.

“This company is in big trouble,” said Tracy Seslen, a professor in the Department of Finance and Business Economics at USC’s Marshall School. “If they could only sell some of their properties then they could use some of that cash to service the debt that they have, but it just looks like nobody is buying right now, at least not at the price they want to sell.”

Their struggles mark a dark chapter for a company whose narrative under Meruelo has worked its way into Downtown lore. As the story goes, Meruelo’s real estate-savvy mother amassed a modest portfolio starting with her South Broadway dress shop, and her son grew it into an empire that at its height spanned 50 properties and more than five million square feet.

“In a different underwriting time, [Meruelo] would have been able to extend his loans and continue forward as a going concern, however, once the ability to get credit and extend credit was dried up he was in trouble,” said broker Mark Tarczynski, senior vice president of real estate firm CB Richard Ellis. “Then the declining economy further exacerbated this situation and finally it just got to the point where he was overextended and now I think on a good number of their properties, the value is less than the loan amount.”

A Steady Decline Co-run by President and Chief Operating

Officer John Maddux, the company went public in January 2007, when its stock debuted at $10.60 per share. On March 13 it closed at 7 cents.

The company acknowledged that investors have reason to doubt whether it will be able to continue, but pledged to improve cash flows from operations, trim staff and refinance or extend existing debt obligations.

“There can be no assurances that such efforts will prove successful,” the statement continued. “Potential strategic alternatives include a voluntary bankruptcy filing under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code.”

If Meruelo Maddux’s efforts to sell assets, restructure or extend its debt do not work, Chapter 11 could be its best option, Seslen said.

“Chapter 11 would allow it to continue to operate, presumably under new management, and they’d be able to break any contracts that might encumber the reorganization process,” Seslen said.

Despite the slumping real estate market, the company was able to sell three properties in the fourth quarter last year, including the Overland Terminal building at 1807 W. Olympic, and industrial buildings at 801 E. Seventh St. and 816 Stanford Ave., generating $8.3 million.

It remains unclear how tenants in Meruelo Maddux’s distressed properties will be affected, but one key Downtown tenant in potential limbo is American Apparel.

Meruelo Maddux owes $58.8 million in loans on its Alameda Square property at 761 Terminal St., where the garment giant occupies 750,000 square feet, or about half of the property. American Apparel’s lease on its marquee pink factory expired on Dec. 31, but it remains in the building on a month-to-month basis, without an extended lease.

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Meruelo Maddux Chief Financial Officer Andrew Murray declined to comment on what he called “ongoing lease negotiations” with American Apparel, but said the company continues to pay rent. Representatives for American Apparel also declined to comment.

If the lender on the Terminal Street property were to foreclose, it wouldn’t necessarily be trouble for American Apparel, said Dennis Nelson, a partner in Downtown law firm Gibson Dunn and Crutcher, who specializes in real estate law.

“We’re in a marketplace where a tenant that can perform and pay market rent should be embraced by a rational lender as a valuable asset to keep,” Nelson said.

Perhaps the lone bright spot for Meruelo Maddux is its under-construction, 35-story apartment project, which Meruelo said is

March 16, 2009

on track for completion and move-ins by fall 2009. The glass-encased South Park trophy tower would be the tallest purely residential tower Downtown.

The company, whose portfolio is comprised mostly of industrial property, also stands to benefit from an extremely tight industrial real estate market: as of the fourth quarter last year, the vacancy rate for Downtown industrial properties was 1.1%, according to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.

“That’s good news for them because they have a lot of industrial,” said Jack Kyser, LAEDC’s chief economist. “So if you have anything that is good you’d probably find some buyers for that.”

Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.

ON THE MOVE ARCHITECTURE n The firm HNTB has hired Christopher Roades as senior project architect. He has more than 15 years of experience with a focus on aviation, and most recently served as project architect at Jacobs Carter Burgess in Orange County. n HNTB has also hired John Bingham as vice president and program management core practice leader. He was previously with DMJM H&N. ARTS n The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced that it has hired Sophie Jeffries as Director of Public Relations. She will start in 2009. She is currently Director of International Marketing and Promotion at EMI Classics.

BUSINESS n Javier Cano has been named general manager of the RitzCarlton at L.A. Live, which is scheduled to open in 2010. Cano, who has more than 30 years of experience in Javier Cano the hospitality industry, was previously named general manager of the JW Marriott Hotel, which will be in the same building as the RitzCarlton. n The construction management firm Gafcon Inc. has announced that Ron Takaki has been promoted to department manager of the firm’s Los Angeles office, which is in Downtown. He has more than 30 years of management-level experience. n City National Bank has hired G. Michael Dowling as senior vice president and manager for its personal trust division. He will oversee all personal trust division activities at City National. n The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce has appointed Carlos Valderrama as senior vice president of global initiatives. He has more than two decades of international trade and business experience. n Chanchanit (Chancee) Martorell and Michael Banner have been named to Union Bank’s Community Advisory Board. The members help guide the bank in its community reinvestment activities and outreach efforts. Martorell is the executive director of the Thai Community Development Center. Banner is the president and CEO of Los Angeles Local Development Corp. Inc. n Dwayne Gathers has been elected to the board of directors of the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles. He is president and CEO of Gathers Strategies Inc., a business devel-

opment/government relations practice.

MEDICAL n White Memorial Medical Center has announced that Dr. Ray Morales has been hired as vice president of medical affairs. He previously was at WellPoint Health Networks inc.

OPENINGS n Comerica Bank has opened its Los Angeles Regional Banking Center at 601 S. Spring St., in the Figueroa at Wilshire building. n The teahouse Siptea has opened at 852 S. Broadway. The establishment serves hot and cold teas, sandwiches, salads and deserts.

REAL ESTATE n Stan Ross, chair of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, has been appointed the first distinguished fellow in the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development. Ross was formerly vice chair of Real Estate Industry Services for Ernst & Young. n Doug Haney has joined IDS Real Estate Group as a director.

He was formerly president of CB Richard Ellis’ Valuation & Advisory Services Division. He has more Doug Haney than three decades of experience. n Darren Eades has been promoted to senior vice president of the Downtown office of Jones Lang LaSalle.

Eades, a tenant representation office speDarren Eades cialist, has more than 14 years of experience representing major corporations and law firms. n The firm Jones Lang LaSalle announced that it has hired John Carver as executive vice president. He is a 28-year veteran of the real estate industry.

John Carver

n Doug Earnhart has been elected the 2009 president of the Downtown-based AIR Commercial Real Estate Association.

He is a 25-year real estate veteran and is se- Doug Earnhart nior vice president in the Ontario office of Lee & Associates.

March 16, 2009

Downtown News 11

SearchDowntownLA.com

HEALTH Shape Up in Downtown Three New Gyms Offer a Unique Workout Approach to Fit All Types

by RichaRd Guzmán

nonsense approach that can be done in less than half your lunch hour; a fat busting, inyour-face self defense course that will help you lose weight while you kick butt; and a serene rooftop oasis where yoga and even wine is mixed with hard exercise.

The following details about this trio of Downtown gyms is aimed at helping you jumpstart your fitness routine. .

Don’t Mess With Me: While a lot of martial arts techniques will help you find inner peace while teaching you self defense, the Counter Violence Academy isn’t having any of that wussy nonsense. Working with martial arts moves derived directly from Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do style, the Industrial District fighting school teaches rapid assault tactics, the Navy Seals fighting style.

“It was designed for pure self preservation,” said Eddie Quan, an instructor at the academy. “It’s not about self perfection as an art per se, it’s just hands down about how to quickly neutralize an attacker or an aggressor.

The premise is that we don’t want to have

city editoR

T

hings may be bad out there, but that doesn’t have to mean you need to look bad.

It’s obvious that with ever expanding waistlines plaguing many people, the economy isn’t the only thing in bad shape. And like the economy, things are getting worse when it comes to weight issues. According to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, by 2015, 75% of adults will be overweight and 41% will be obese.

It’s a figure as worrisome as the recession.

But for Downtowners, and even the office crowd who only have a few free minutes during lunch, there’s little excuse not to be in shape, and more importantly, in good health. With numerous gyms in the area it’s not hard to get in at least a few minutes of exercise a week.

Three new gyms in particular make it even easier by focusing their efforts on exactly what you may be looking for: a quick no-

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Educogym, billed as the highest gym in the world, specializes in time-efficient workouts tailor-made for those with little time to get in shape.

anything that’s just defense oriented, because that’s considered passive and that just takes too long.”

In other words, when trouble approaches; they’re going to teach you how to kick some behind.

“We want to work on destroying the attacker’s weapons, so instead of blocking a fist, we want to destroy that fist. Instead of blocking that kick, we want to destroy that leg.”

Following Bruce Lee’s teachings, and who could argue with “The Way of the Fist,” the academy emphasizes hurting your attacker before he has a chance to hurt you. “In essence

we’re beating them to the punch,” Quan said.

Learning how to become a human weapon is also a good workout, Quan added, but you don’t already have to be in fighting shape to learn these moves. “It’s something anyone can learn.”

The academy is located on the ground floor of the Biscuit Company Lofts on Industrial Street. It’s in a nice street next to French restaurant Church and State, but it’s surrounded by a sketchy neighborhood, so it’s a good thing you’ll know how to foil an attacker if you plan on walking. see Gym, page 12

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12 Downtown News

March 16, 2009 photo by Gary Leonard

Health

Gym Continued from page 11 At 1855 Industrial St., #103, (323) 930-2026 or counterviolence.com.

No Nonsense Workout: If you go to the gym to socialize, to watch pretty people work out or to just get out of the house, then Educogym is not the place for you. This gym, located on the 57th floor of the U.S. Bank Tower, bills itself as the highest gym in America and is part of a large international chain.

The 8,500-square-foot gym is also perfect for the working crowd, said CEO Thurston Pym. “It’s a very different concept in the fitness industry. Our whole focus is on results. The average person doesn’t get any results and most gyms operate like kind of a warehouse rental equipment business,” he said.

Educogym’s secret is a mix of closely supervised training, a

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Good Samaritan physicians accept all major insurance plans. Just call the member service number on your insurance card and choose a doctor from Good Samaritan Medical Practice Association in Los Angeles. Many languages and ethnicities are available and scheduling an appointment during your work day will be easy and convenient. You can even ride the DASH (E line) to Good Samaritan for only 25¢. Convenient parking is also available.

800-611-9847 ext. 262 www.gsmpa.net

Everything’s Zen at Juliet Kaska’s Zen Fitness at Evo, where the VIP views come with the crunches.

nutrition program and “The Time Machine.”

Under the supervision of a trainer, the machine allows you to do numerous exercises without pausing between workouts, which leads to better results, Pym said. “It’s important to be able to do the exercise without resting in between. In a normal gym 10 minutes out of 20 is wasted just going from one exercise to another so we designed a machine to allow training and going from one station to the next without resting.”

What’s more, the gym is appointment-based. “What we found is it really suits the corporate market and people that are very busy because it’s very time efficient.”

The Time Machine won’t send you back to high school when you were skinny, but it will make you work you buns off in an intense 20-minute workout.

At 633 W. Fifth St., suite 5750, (213) 617-8229 or educogym. com.

The Zen Carpet: For those who like a little sophistication and bliss with their workout, Evo-South, the newest condo building in South Park, has opened its 24th-floor rooftop to Juliet Kaska’s Zen Fitness.

The celebrity trainer has worked the famous abs of people like Pink, Kelly Hu, Kelly Rowan and Rachel Leigh Cook. She calls her newest 1,200-square-foot gym her most exclusive location, so think of it as the VIP area for gyms, and if you can get behind the velvet rope you’re in for some tough workouts mixed with a soft touch.

“Most of our clients are people who appreciate the finer things in life so walking into a corporate gym won’t really work for them. Evo was a perfect fit for us since it’s a high-end space,” Kaska said. “What’s most breathtaking about it is the view.”

Indeed, it is a great view, but that would be pointless if you didn’t see any results from your workout.

“We’re making the environment one that’s enjoyable as well as a place to get in good shape, so that you’re actually in a space you want to be in and you won’t jump on a machine and just want to get out,” she said.

Zen is open to residents of Evo, but there are monthly events that are open to the public that include activities like wine tasting and yoga. Non-residents can also use the gym by signing up with Zen fitness, Kaska said. “We’ll design a specific program, whether it’s Pilates, boxing, circuit training,” she said. “I specialize in makeover programs, getting ready for reunions, weddings, the red carpet.”

At jkzenfitness.com. To attend the monthly public events sign up for the Evo guest list at evosouth.com.

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Downtown News 13

RESTAURANTS Food Courts in Session Financial District Malls Offer Some Surprisingly Tasty Lunch Options

by RichaRd Guzmán city editoR

I

t could very well be one of the most difficult decisions you will have to make all day.

With a busy workday and only an hour for lunch to decompress, deciding where to eat can create unnecessary stress. So to help make it easier for those who need to fuel up, mankind invented the food court.

It’s nothing fancy, just a nice area where you can walk around and look at what’s available without the pressure of having to commit right away. It’s kind of like a menu for restaurants, and even if you go with a big group, everyone can choose something different for lunch.

With that goal in mind, Los Angeles Downtown News scoped out three Financial District food courts, at City National Plaza, Macy’s Plaza and 7+Fig. Our recommendations fall in the following categories: “Can’t Miss” spots that have a good track record and can almost guarantee satisfaction; “Must Try” locations where you can try something you may otherwise overlook; and “Take a Chance,” for restaurants that may not satisfy all taste buds, but could be the right spot for you.

We also checked out the ambience of each plaza since that goes a long way in contributing to a stress free and rejuvenating lunch break.

Underground Support The long escalator ride that takes you down into the City National Plaza from Figueroa

Street can really make you feel like you’re leaving the working world and heading into your own underground bunker where you will be safe and warm.

It’s not as cozy as that, but it is a good escape from the hectic urban environment above and with inspirational messages written on the walls and other areas of the plaza, it can make you feel safe and warm on the inside.

“Be True to Yourself,” “Life is Worth Living” and “Take a Big Step,” are some of the messages emblazoned on the walls. But kind words alone don’t make for a good lunch, and that’s where the diverse food choices and close to 20 restaurants come into play.

Can’t Miss: There’s a reason why bars have happy hours —it’s because you’re happy to be there after work. Well, you can be almost as happy during your lunch break if you hit Weiland’s Brewery Restaurant. It’s the sister location of the Little Tokyo staple and no, you don’t have to order a round to have a good lunch break. Weiland’s has a great menu with quick food that includes burgers like the half-pound Kobe beef burger and even a veggie option. The appetizers can be perfect if you’re just looking for a small afternoon snack like the Weiland’s Wings or the Cajun crusted ahi.

Must Try: Rowdy Red Wine & Burger Bar recently opened at the plaza and it’s already a popular spot. It resembles a small sports bar with a few flat screens tuned to games, but the real superstars are the burg-

ST. VINCENT FOOD COURT Tulip Cafe Super Grill St. Vincent Deli World Famous Crystal Deli Sevan Mediterranean Kabob House Gigi Cafe Garo’s Deli & Sandwiches Pizza Italia Bonjour Cafe Farid Restaurant Persian Cuisine

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photo by Gary Leonard

Financial District food courts have a buffet of choices for undecided and busy eaters.

ers. The sliders are great for a quick bite, the Classic Burger and the BBQ Cheeseburger comes with the housemade sauce and bacon.

Take a Chance: There aren’t that many Indian “fast food” restaurants around, but Saffron, with its motto of “Fast. Fresh.

Indian,” may be leading the way. It’s a small spot with some big items usually found in bigger, fancier places. The lunch entrees include chicken tikka masala, marinated chicken breast in tomato sauce and tofu daal, seasoned tofu in lentil sauce.

City National Plaza is at 505 S. Flower St., cnp-la.com.

Outdoor Dining If you want to enjoy a little bit of sunshine, or even some of the rain we’ve been getting lately, while still being in the middle of it all, 7+Fig at Ernst & Young Plaza is ideal for lunch. Outdoor art performances unfold on the plaza, which is in the midst of a makeover with new paint and furniture.

The food court at the plaza offers quick and inexpensive bites with a commanding view of traffic and great people watching if you stay on the street level. But even if you venture into the lower levels, the open-air plaza still allows some sunrays in as you eat.

Can’t Miss: The noisy crowd is an instant and not so subtle hint that California Pizza Kitchen is the spot to be at the plaza. Sure it’s a big chain restaurant that you can find just

about everywhere, but you can’t go wrong with pizza for lunch. And at CPK, the choices are endless. There’s the original barbecue chicken, Italian tomato basil and the new Buffalo chicken pizza with spicy sauce.

Must Try: Mexican food is a staple of the L.A. diet, and since you shouldn’t go off your diet while at work, there’s Adoro Mexican Grille. The restaurant serves all the Mexican favorites like tacos, burritos and carnitas.

They also have specialties like mignon Patron, a filet mignon with house-made mole poblano and the pork loin with mole verde.

Take a Chance: OK, it’s not your typical lunch but with so much stress at work why not treat yourself with some delicious chocolate. At Godiva Chocolatier you can do just that with everything from brownies to caramels to their new lemon-thyme shortbread cookies, which are dipped in chocolate for a sinful indulgence.

7+Fig is at 735 S. Figueroa St., (213) 9557150 or 7fig.com.

Shop for Food Although the Macy’s food court offers the least amount of choices and variety when it comes to restaurants, with only about a dozen, there is the added benefit that it’s located in a mall, so you can run some shopping errands and also get some grub. And there are a few places that will definitely satisfy your hunger. see Food, page 14

14 Downtown News

Grub With Guzmán

♦♦♦

Continued from page 13 Can’t Miss: It’s kind of hidden under the escalators so make sure you make a U-turn to the right when you step off or you’ll miss the Brasserie American Bistro at the Sheraton Downtown. The restaurant offers both a buffet lunch and menu selections. It serves traditional American favorites and the patio, although technically indoors since it’s under the mall roof, makes you feel like you’re somehow still dinning outdoors.

Must Try: Italian food is always a popular choice for a business lunch and at Macy’s Plaza’s Checker Cab Pizza is a must hit spot.

It’s nothing fancy with a typical New York

Spitz, a Little Tokyo Arrival, Offers Up Recession Specials

by RichaRd Guzmán

I

city editoR

f constant news of how bad the economy is and how much worse it could get has you feeling down, you can at least have some comfort in knowing that you are not alone.

Many Downtown Los Angeles food spots have begun adding recession specials to their menus. Some are even trying to bring the “happy” back to Happy Hour with cheaper drink and appetizer specials.

Spitz is the latest of the local joints to declare war on the recession. The new Little Tokyo establishment is waging its campaign with a little bit of street food and deals that won’t require you to apply for a government bailout.

Spitz, which launched in Eagle Rock and has expanded with a Downtown location, is offering a menu that includes the Yes We CAN Tuesdays where yes, you can order cans of Premium Oskar Blues Beer ($3) from 3 p.m. until closing time at 10 p.m. After a few of those, you’ll feel like it’s the good ol’ days again when dot.coms were booming, everyone was buying houses and you had so many credit cards that you forgot what Washington looked like.

Monday through Friday, Spitz’s Not-Unhappy Hour specials include the $1 basket of pita strips with hummus and, again, the $3 beers. Add the $4 Sangria Saturdays and it may look like the only cure for the RevisedThinkGreen.pdf

2/16/09

recession blues is to drink them away.

Actually, that’s not the case. Spitz has a unique and affordable menu. The highlight is the Doner Kebab, a slow-roasted meat that is similar to shawarma and is shaved into thin strips and served as a sandwich or a salad. It’s a traditional street food that originated in Turkey.

I recommend the Classic Doner ($6.47 a la carte, or $9.24 as a meal with a drink and a side of fries, pita strips or a salad). The meat is half-lamb, halfbeef and can be wrapped in focaccia bread, which is close to the European-style doner, or in a lavash wrap (think pita bread). The sandwich is topped with tzatziki and chili sauce.

I went with the lavash and was not disappointed. Those who don’t eat meat can try The Veg ($6 or $8.50 in the combo) with hummus, feta cheese, olives and vegetables. The Chicken Doner ($6.47/$9.24) is another must-try, with a lightly spiced bird and green peppers.

Spitz may not single-handedly save the economy, but along with other local restaurants willing to serve up good deals during hard times, they make a tough situation go down a little easier.

At 371 E. Second St., (213) 613-0101 or at eatatspitz.com.

Contact Richard Guzman at richard@downtownnews.com.

4:25:08 PM

THINK GREEN

M

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Downtown’s St. Patrick’s Day Weekend festivities begin Thursday at Casey’s Irish Bar & Grill where you can enjoy the flow of green beer, or a pint of Guinness for $5.

Not only that, Paddy’s Pig will perform Friday and Saturday night, while a traditional Irish Bagpiper joins DJs to commemorate the sacred day.

Best of all, there’s no cover charge. $30 will get you a seat on top of Casey’s double-decker bus and mobile

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photo by Gary Leonard

Outdoor dining and dozens of restaurants attract lunch crowds to 7+Fig.

pub where you can wave to all your downtown-dwelling friends and coworkers while riding in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. $20 will buy you a seat inside the bus so you can hide from your downtowndwelling friends and co-workers.

Call 213.629.2353 now to reserve your seat. The Guinness may flow all St. Patrick’s Day Weekend, but the bus to Casey’s fills up fast.

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pizzeria theme, but it offers several classics like the penne Alfredo, fettuccine Alfredo and, of course, spaghetti with meat sauce or meatballs.

Take a Chance: Sushi makes for a great lunch, as long as it’s fresh and the chef knows what he’s doing. Sushi Wakana, a tiny little place at the plaza, makes its own sushi on the spot, so it’s definitely fresh.

Of course, it does not compare to a highend sushi restaurant, since it’s geared more towards speed and convenience, but it still offers choices found at most places like sashimi, yellow tail tuna, spicy tuna and salmon. So if you have a fish craving and you’re on the run or in between meetings, Wakana is worth a chance.

Macy’s Plaza is at 750 W. Seventh St., (213) 624-2891 or macysplaza.com.

Food

Kebabbing for Dinner

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March 16, 2009

Restaurants

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F r e e P a r k i n g

Fr FIND OUT WHAT TO EAT AND WHERE TO EAT

LADOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

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SPOTLIGHT ON

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Read

March 16, 2009

Downtown News 15

Restaurants

Side Dish

breakfast at 11 a.m. At 1855 Industrial St., (213) 622-0512.

Spring Street Smoke House

Royal Claytons Many were skeptical that retail and nightlife would flock to the tiny loft hub springing up in the Industrial District. But developer Paul Solomon has managed to pull off what seemed like the impossible by snagging several unique commercial tenants. One of the most popular is an inviting urban tavern on the bottom of the Toy Factory Lofts. The industrial/chic space attracts a diverse crowd well into the evening thanks to occasional DJs and music. There are 30 or so brews offered and a tasty menu of pub comfort food — fish and chips with jalapeño tartar sauce, Philly steak spring rolls and a cheese plate. Neighborhood touches include a pool table and flat screen TVs. It’s also open for

photo by Gary Leonard

Royal Claytons serves up brews and food to a diverse Industrial District crowd.

Spring Street Smoke House is one of the best hole-in-the-wall American barbecue joints in Los Angeles. The aroma of barbecue hits as soon as one enters the compact space, overwhelming the no-nonsense approach: The tables are covered with simple white paper, very little hangs on the walls, and the menus are 8-by-11 sheets that look they were copied at Kinkos. But what the menu lacks in glamour it makes up in variety, with options including beef and pork ribs, Louisiana hot links ($5.95), burnt ends ($6.95), Cajun stuffed chicken ($8.75) and BBQ pasta ($5.75). There is even a smoked jumbo turkey leg ($7.95).

The sampler plate — recommended by the staff for newbies — overflows with chicken, baby back ribs, St. Louis ribs, hot links and sliced beef brisket ($10.95). There are

also a constellation of side dishes including baked beans, potato salad and hush puppies ($2.75 à la carte, though two come with each entree or sandwich). At 640 N. Spring St., (213) 626-0535. Open Mon.Fri.10:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. noon-8 p.m. No alcohol served.

Takeout available.

Izayoi This minimalist spot on Central Avenue in Little Tokyo is a favorite among foodies, and you can often find local chefs sampling the restaurant’s Japanese pub-style fare with sake and beer. The grub here is sushi and small plates, with items such as the marinated black cod, seafood dumplings and grilled mussels with garlic butter.

Dishes are simple but elegantly prepared and are priced between $6 and $10. For lunch, try the bento box special, a veritable feast for under $10. At 132 S. Central Ave., (213) 613-9554. Open for lunch 11:30-2 p.m.; dinner 5-10 p.m. Free lot parking.

Weiland BreWery restaurant

c k i r ’ s t a d P ay! . t S Join Us Tuesday, March 17th

Join us Tuesday march 17th for our

st. patrick’s day celebration

Beer Garden Open From 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Live Entertainment Drink and Shot Specials All Day Traditional Irish Food Specials Free Giveaways and Special Guests • music • • specialty drinks • • fixed menu (includes pint of ale) for $24.95 • 875 South Figueroa

(corner of 9th and Figueroa)

213.627.6879

400 E. First strEEt 213/ 680-2881 an

RECESSION MONDAYS

At Suede Bar & Lounge • All Day – 4pm to 2am

$3 Wells, $3 all Beers, $3 House Wines, $3 appetizers small plates, cigars, smoking patio

available for private parties, bottle service, location shoots

Open M-F 4pm-2am, Sat 7pm-2am Happy HOur M-F 4pm-8pm: $4 Drafts, Wines, Wells & Appetizers 404 s. figueroa st.

on flower st. at the bonaventure hotel (between fourth & fifth st.) valet parking: $4.50 for up to 5 hours with validation.

213-489-3590

www.suedebarla.com

myspace.com/suedebarla

american Bistro in little tokyo WWW.WeilandBreWery.net

y r a s r e v i 78th Ann *

$4.95+tax Special El Coyote

*All combination dinners. 1 thru 10.

Mon. - Thurs. For the entire month of March. Extra charge for beef or chicken enchiladas & fajitas tacos. No coupon needed. Dine in only. No substitutions.

Mexican cafe

7312 Beverly Blvd. L.A. CA, 90036 • (323) 939-2255 • www.elcoyotecafe.com

16 Downtown News

March 16, 2009

Restaurants

THE LIST

Downtown’s Largest Restaurants: Ranked by seating capacity profile • Seating capacity • Year founded • No. of employees

Average bill (for one) • Lunch • Dinner

food/beverage • Type of cuisine • Most popular dish • Type of bar / Meal service

Contacts • Owner • Manager • Head chef

1

Clifton’s Cafeteria and Bakery 1 648 S. Broadway, 90014 627-1673, cliftonscafeteria.com

600 1931 65

$10 $12

Americana Roast turkey and dressing NA / B, L, D, W

The Clinton Family N. Villamil & N. Armendariz NA

2

Yard House 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite A-115, 90015 745-9273, yardhouse.com

515 2008 NA

$14 $22

American Fusion Mac & Cheese, grille burgers, pan seared Ahi, pepper-crusted filet Full service / L, D, W

Steele Platt Tim Dolah Carlito Jocson

3

Levy Restaurants at Dodger Stadium 1000 Elysian Park Avenue, 90012 224-1480, levyrestaurants.com

500 1962 2000

$36.95-40 $26

N/A Dodger Dogs Full bar optional with specialty beverages upon request. 2

Levy Restaurants Kelly Cho Joseph Martin

4

Empress Pavilion 1 988 N. Hill St., 90012 617-9898, empresspavilion.com

500 1989 115

$10 $15

Hong Kong-style Chinese cuisine Dim sum, shrimp har gow and pork dumplings Full bar / NA

Davis L. Chen Ken Poon Nam Chow, Bill Lee

5

Lucky Strike Lanes & Lounge 800 W. Olympic Blvd., #250, 90015 542-4880, bowlluckystrike.com

500 2008 100

$8.50-11.50 $8.50-14.00

American Casual Mini burgers, mini chicken sandwiches Full service / L, D, W

N/A David Katz Hugo Montoya

6

McCormick & Schmick’s 1 633 W. Fifth St. Fourth Floor, 90071 629-1929, mccormickandschmicks.com

450 1992 NA

NA NA

Seafood Cedar plank salmon Full bar / NA

Doug Schmick and Bill McCormick Paul Roohani Ray Hayes

7

Taix French Restaurant 1911 Sunset Blvd., 90026 484-1265, taixfrench.com

450 1927 55

$14 $22

Country French Onion soup, escargot Full, large wine cellar / L, D, W

Mike & Ray Taix Jill Lembke/Lance Dupuis Dominique Theval

8

The Palm 1 1100 S. Flower St., 90015 763-4600, thepalm.com

430 2002 96

$25 $75

Steak & Lobster Surf & turf (NY 16 oz & 3 lb lobster) Full bar / L, D, W

WND Jonathan Scott Kay Lee

9

Bonaventure Brewing Co. 404 S. Figueroa St. Suite 418A, 90071 236-0802, bonaventurebrewing.com

400 1999 50

$13 $20

American with international flair Bonaventure Brewery burger & Lamb Chop salad Full bar / L, D, W

David Hansen, Dave Lott, Suzanne Nelson Suzanne Nelson, Meagan Kennedy, Michael Medina Ben Gonzales

10

Philippe, The Original 1001 N. Alameda St., 90012 628-3781, philippes.com

380 1908 75

$9.50 $9.50

French dip sandwiches, salads Beef French dip, Lamb dip, cole slaw, pickle lemonade Wine and beer / B, L, D, W

Binder & Downey Families Richard & John Binder NA

11

Maddalena Restaurant at the San Antonio Winery 737 Lamar St., 90031 (323) 223-1401, sanantoniowinery.com

350 1917 150

$15 $25

Northern Italian Linguini with scampi. wine and beer / NA

The Riboli Family Cathy Riboli Seferino Pelaya

12

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar 800 W. Olympic Blvd., 90015 745-9911, flemmingssteakhouse.com

320 2008 100

$12-20 $30-60

Steakhose Prime steaks Full bar / L, D, W

Jennifer Adams 3 Jennifer Adams Calvin Holladay

13

Casey’s Irish Bar and Grill 613 S. Grand Ave., 90027 629-2353, bigcaseys.com

320 1970 30

$10 $10

American with a focus on Ireland Fish & chips Full bar with great selection of Irish whiskeys / L, D, W

NA Jake Tringali Bart Allen

14

Cicada Restaurant 1 617 S. Olive St., 90014 488-9488, cicadarestaurant.com

300 1997 40

NA $75

Northern Italian with California flair Dover Sole & Filet Mignon Full bar / D, W

Adelmo Zarif Richard Liberman Suzay Cha

15

Senor Fish 1 422 E. First St., 90012 625-0566, senor-fish.com

300 1988 15

$8 $10

Mexican Fish tacos, shrimp burritos & grilled fresh fish Full bar / B, L, D, W

Enrique, Alicia & Jimmy Ramirez Jimmy Ramirez Rolando Zamora

16

Fox Sports Sky Box (at Staples Center) 1 1111 S. Figueroa St., 90015 742-7345

300 1999 N/A

NA $25-$30

American style bar food Cheesburgers, sandwiches, nachos & salads Full bar / D

Staples Center/AEG N/A N/A

17

Chop Suey Cafe 1 347 E. First St., 90012 617-9990

300 2008 12

$8 $10

Chinese Chow Mein Full bar with a magical patio / L, D, W

Don Tahara, mike Gin & Enrique Ramorez Ming Troung Sam Yu

18

Barragan’s Mexican Restaurant 1 1538 W. Sunset Blvd., 90026 250-4256, barragansrestaurants.com

275 1961 40

$10 $15

Mexican Ropa vieja and caldo de pollo Full bar / B, L, D, W

Armando and Rose Barragan NA NA

19

Plum Tree Inn 1 913 N. Broadway, 90012 613-1819, plumtreerestaurant.com

250 1979 30

$9 $12

Mandarin Cuisine Shrimp with honey walnuts Full bar / L, D, W

Amy Ting Alan Cheung Zhao

20

Morton’s The Steakhouse 735 S. Figueroa St., 90017 553-4566, mortons.com

250 1978 75

$35 $90

American Steakhouse Filet mignon Full premium bar & lounge / L, D, W

Morton’s Restaurant Group Gerald Bullock Fernando Ubario & Heriberto Gomez

21

Patina 141 S. Grand Ave., 90012 972-3331, patinagroup.com

250 1989 50

$47 $115

California French Foie gras, lobster & chef tasting menu Full bar / L, D, W

Patina Restaurant Group Christian Phillipo David Feau

22

Kendall’s Brasserie and Bar 135 N. Grand Ave., 90012 972-7322, patinagroup.com

250 2004 80

$24 $48

Parisian Brasserie Croque Monsieur & Rotisserie Chicken Full bar & oyster bar / L, D, W

Patina Restaurant Group Erwan Ehanno Jose Javier

23

The Barkley 1 1933 S. Broadway, 90037 763-5774

250 2000 15

$15.00 N/A

American Mango papaya chicken salad Full / L

Bob Campbell Bobby Rivas Danny Battifura

24

Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine 800 S. Figueroa St. Suite100, 90017 488-4994, roysrestaurant.com

250 1988 WND

$35 $55

Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine Roy’s classic Hawaiian style Misoyaki Butterfish Full bar / L, D, W

Roy Yamaguchi Matt Dochin 4 Curtis Mar

25

El Paseo Inn Restaurant 11 E. Olvera St., 90012 626-1361, elpaseoinn.com

242 1830 43

NA NA

Mexican Tortilla soup Full bar / B, L, D, W

Andy M. Camacho Everardo Gallegos Jorge Torres

26

City Grill (at Wilshire Grand Hotel) 1 930 Wilshire Blvd., 90017 627-4289, wilshiregrand.com

242 1994 NA

$18 $19

American Salad & sandwich bar, breakfast buffet & steak NA / B, L, D, W

Wilshire Grand Hotel Sean Swofford Adel Rofeil

27

CASA Cocina y Cantina 350 S. Grand Ave., 90071 621-2249, casadowntown.com

240 2009 40

$10 $18

Mexican - Authentic Chile Relleno Full - Indoor/outdoor bar / L, D, W

Sean Krajewski, Mario del Pero, Ellen Chen Michael Adams Judy Han

28

Rock’n Fish 800 S. Olympic Blvd., Suite A-160, 90015 748-4020, rocknfishlalive.com

240 2009 120

$18 $30

Seafood & steakhouse Kapalua rib-eye beef Full bar / L, D, W

The Zislis Group, Michael Zislis Susie Moon Hondo Houston

29

Cardini Ristorante (at Wilshire Grand Hotel) 1 930 Wilshire Blvd., 90017 896-3822, wilshiregrand.com

222 1986 NA

$22 $35

Northern Italian Pasta, fish & chicken Full bar / L, D, W

Wilshire Grand Hotel NA Antonio Chavez

March 16, 2009

Downtown News 17

Restaurants profile • Seating capacity • Year founded • No. of employees

Average bill (for one) • Lunch • Dinner

food/beverage • Type of cuisine • Most popular dish • Type of bar / Meal service

Contacts • Owner • Manager • Head chef

30

Liberty Grill 1037 S. Flower St., 90015 746-3400, libertygrill.com

220 2006 60

$15-20 $20-25

American Cuisine Grilled salmon Full bar / L, D, W

Andy M. Camacho Jay Fernandez Felipe Chavez

31

Cafe Pinot 700 W. Fifth St., 90071 239-6500, patinagroup.com

200 1995 30

$30 $70

French American Fusion Mustard chicken Wine bar / L, D, W

Patina Restaurant Group Brin Cousins Kevin Meehan

32

Orchid Garden at the Mayfair Hotel 1 1256 W. Seventh St., 90017 484-9789, mayfairla.com

200 1928 16

$9.99 $28

California Cuisine Daily buffet (Lunch) N/A / B, L, D, W

Mayfair LLC N/A Ricardo Ruiz

33

Zita Restaurant and Bar 1 865 S. Figueroa St., 90015 488-0400, zitala.com

200 1999 20

$18 $27

Northern Italian Rigatoni and funghie with truffle oil Full bar / NA

Luis Tovar Luis Tovar Napolean Nejia

34

Fisherman’s Outlet 529 S. Central Ave., 90013 627-7231, fishermansoutlet.net

200 1961 26

$8-15 NA

Seafood Giant shrimp, salmon, fish & chips Beer and wine / L, W

Bill Shinbane Frank Lopez NA

35

Aon Center Cafe 1 707 Wilshire Blvd., 90017 614-4983, NA

198 1982 16

$8 NA

American Salmon & Sandwiches/Turkey Tuesday.

NA / B, L

Guckenheinner Inc. Richard B. Stefan Lammel

36

California Pizza Kitchen (7+Fig) 735 S. Figueroa St., 90017 228-8500, cpk.com

185 1985 65

$10 $12

California cuisine Barbecue chicken pizza Full bar / L, D, W

California Pizza Kitchen Inc. NA NA

37

Smeraldi’s Restaurant (at Millennium Biltmore Hotel) 1 506 S. Grand Ave., 90071 612-1562, thebiltmore.com

184 1984 NA

$20 $30

Mediterranean Homemade lasagna, seafood buffet, tiramasu NA / B, L, D

Millennium Biltmore Hotel Remy Dahan Franco de Dominicis& Orazio Parisi

38

Lakeview Bistro 1 404 S. Figueroa St., 90071 624-1000, NA

182 1976 22

$20 N/A

American Kobe hamburger NA / NA

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites William Hodura Dougles Jones

39

CBS Seafood Restaurant 1 700 N. Spring St., 90012 617-2323, NA

180 1999 48

$10 $15

Chinese Dim Sum Shrimp with honey walnut Beer and wine / B, L, D, W

Wai C. Ho David Ho Yao Guan

40

Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse 330 S. Hope St., 90071 680-0330, patinagroup.com

180 1998 50

$30 $80

Steakhouse Dry-aged beef, rib-eye & N.Y. steak Full bar / L, D, W

Patina Restaurant Group Paul Tilsa Brian Kiepler

41

Kyoto (at Wilshire Grand Hotel) 1 930 Wilshire Blvd., 90017 896-3812, wilshiregrand.com

178 1997 NA

$23 $40

Japanese Sushi, hand roll & lunch buffet (Thurs. & Fri.) Full bar / L, D

Wilshire Grand Hotel Dennis Choo Norio Kasuya

42

Pacific Dining Car 1 1310 W. Sixth St., 90017 483-6000, pacificdiningcar.com

175 1921 70

$35 $60

Steakhouse Filet mignon Full bar / NA

Pacific Dining Car Inc. Nick Lerner Berty Siegels

43

Water Grill 1 544 S. Grand Ave., 90071 891-0900, kingsseafood.com

175 1991 100

$52 $83

Seafood Wild bass, lobster Full bar / NA

Jeff and Sam King Barbara Marie David LeFevre

44

Ciudad 1 445 S. Figueroa St., 90071 486-5171, ciudad-la.com

175 1998 NA

$22 $39

Latin Peruvian ceviche, Argentine empanadas, chicken milanesa Full bar / L, D, W

Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger Doug Rausenberger Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger

45

Wokcano 800 W. Seventh St., 90071 623-2288, wokcanocafe.com

175 2008 120

$20 $40

Asian Fusion Volcano Roll Full liquor / L, D, W

Wokano Restaurant Group Timothy Sutton Dong Qing De

46

Drago Centro 525 S. Flower St. #120, 90071 228-8998, dragocentro.com

175 NA NA

$33 $65

Italian Pappardelle al Fagiano Full / L, D

Celestino Drago/Matteo Ferdinandi Matteo Ferdinandi Celestino Drago

47

Oiwake Restaurant 1 122 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, 90012 628-2678, oiwake.com

170 1989 25

$7.50 $9

Japanese All-you-can-eat Japanese buffet Full bar / NA

Mr. Motoyama Curtis Moyer Mr. Nakamura

48

California Pizza Kitchen (Wells Fargo Center) 330 S. Hope St., 90071 626-2616, cpk.com

160 1985 50

$10 $12

California cuisine Barbecue chicken pizza Full bar / L, D, W

California Pizza Kitchen, Inc. NA NA

49

Pete’s Cafe & Bar 400 S. Main St., 90013 617-1000, petescafe.com

160 2005 75

$17 $25-30

Contemporary American Bistro Grilled Flatiron steak w/blue cheese french fries & balsamic demi-glace Upbeat casual / L, D, W

Tom Gilmore & Associates Michael Tumino Nicholas Shipp

50

Azalea Restaurant and Bar (Kyoto Grand Hotel anf Garden) 1 120 S. Los Angeles St., 90012 253-9235, kyotograndhotel.com

158 1993 20

$12 $18

California Napa chicken Full bar / NA

New Otani Hotel Akira Yuhara David Boteilho

51

Jyokamachi Japanese Restaurant 1 404 S. Figueroa St. Sixth Floor, 90071 629-9929, jyokamachi.com

150 1996 38

$12 $30

Japanese cuisine Sushi, teppan, shabu shabu Full bar / NA

David Leung David Leung David Leung

52

Promenade Ristorante 1 710 W. First St., 90012 437-4937, promenaderistorante.com

150 2000 7

$9 $16

Italian Pasta Beer and wine / L, D, W

Vivere LLC Steve Yuan Michele Cremonese

53

Origami Bistro & Bar 257 S. Spring St., #101, 90012 687-8606, origamibistro.com

150 2008 9

$15 $25

Japanese/Sushi Albacore Marilyn Mon Roll Full service martini lounge / L, D, W

Stacey Lee Brian Lee Shigeki Nakamura

54

Zip Fusion Sushi 1 744 E. Third St., 90013 680-3770, zipfusion.com

150 2002 15

$12 $18

Pacific fusion Alva-Cado (avocado and albacore), ravioli Soju cocktail, beer, sake, wine / NA

Jason Ha Ugi Luvsandorj Ken Bae

55

Flix Cafe at Los Angeles Center Studios 1201 W. Fifth St., 90017 534-2337, lancenterstudios.com

150 2003 NA

$8 N/A 5

California, world cuisine Chicken tortilla soup NA / L, D

LA Center Studios Christina Curtin Celso Renteria

56

French Garden 1 1936 E. Seventh St., 90021 623-4028, NA

150 1998 10

$15 NA

European fusion Shrimp pasta, chicken and brie Full bar / L

Benoit Lesure Benoit Lesure Simon Tapia

57

El Compadre 1 1449 W. Sunset Blvd., 90026 250-4505, NA

150 2004 20

$20 $35

Mexican Cancun shrimp, mole & carnitas Full bar / NA

Mario Jimenez Cesar Jimenez Felipe Floweres

58

Hop Li Seafood Restaurant 1 526 Alpine St., 90012 680-3939, NA

150 1983 20

$5.50 $10

Chinese seafood Mango chicken, honey walnut shrimp Beer and wine / NA

NA NA NA

59

J Restaurant and Lounge 1119 S. Olive St., 90015 746-7746, jloungela.com

150 2006 50

$20 $50

French-Italian J Burger, Capellacci Full bar - Upstairs lounge / L, D, W

Sergio Dovarro Daniela Quiroga Oz Ramuco

60

e3rd Steakhouse and Lounge 1 734 E. Third St., 90013 680-3003, eastthird.com

150 2006 20

$12 $25

Seakhouse Imperial rib Full bar / L, D, W

Jason Ha Dustin Seya

61

The Pitfire Pizza Company 1 108 W. Second St., 90012 808-1200, pitfirepizza.com

146 NA 30

$10 $14

Pizza, pasta, panini and salad NA Beer and wine / NA

Paul Hibler and David Sanfield Edgar Duran Milton Reyes

62

Grand Cafe 251 S. Olive St., 90012 617-3300, omnilosnageles.com

140 NA NA

NA NA

Contemporary California cuisine Coriander pesto crusted salmon with balsamic glaze N/A / B, L, W

Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza Mark Kessler Peter Dean

Continued on page 18

18 Downtown News

March 16, 2009

Restaurants

Continued from page 17 profile • Seating capacity • Year founded • No. of employees

Average bill (for one) • Lunch • Dinner

food/beverage • Type of cuisine • Most popular dish • Type of bar / Meal service

Contacts • Owner • Manager • Head chef

63

Redwood Bar and Grill 1 316 W. Second St., 90012 680-2600

137 1775 20

$15-20 $17-23

GastroPub Redwood burger Full bar / NA

Thirsty Pockets Liam Phillpot Jason Michaud

64

Lawry’s Carvery 1011 S. Figueroa St., Suite B115, 91105 222-2212, lawryscarvery.com

134 2008 WND

$20 $30

American Prime rib sandwich Premium beers and wine by the glass / L, D, W

Lawry’s Restaurants, Inc. Angela Kibodeaux Ryan Wilson

65

Original Pantry Cafe 1 877 S. Figueroa St., 90017 972-9279, NA

130 1973 102

$8-10 $8-10

American Roast beef & rib roast. no alcohol / NA

Leuen Inc., Richard Riordan David Wall Raul Blanco

66

Engine Co. No. 28 1 644 S. Figueroa St., 90017 624-6996, engineco.com

130 1989 50

$25 $37

Classic American Fare Meatloaf & pan fried chicken, crab cakes Full bar / L, D, W

Linda Griego & Figueroa Partners Arthur Burg , Cynthia Quick Alex Reyes

67

Takami Sushi & Robata Restaurant and Elevate Lounge 811 Wilshire Blvd., 21st Floor, 90017 236-9600, takamisushi.com

130 2007 100

$20 $40

Japanese Japanese tacos, spicy tuna on crispy rice.

Full bar / L, D, W

Downtown Entertainment Group Francesco Taormina Kenny Yamada & Stan Ota

68

Seoul Jung (at Wilshire Grand Hotel) 1 930 Wilshire Blvd., 90017 688-7880, wilshiregrand.com

127 1996 NA

$25 $40

Korean Table top barbecue Full bar / L, D, W

Wilshire Grand Hotel Jung Wook Choi Han Bae Lee

69

Zucca Ristorante 801 S. Figueroa St., 90017 614-7800, patinagroup.com

125 NA NA

$15 $30

Italian Wood-fired Neopolitan pizza Full bar / L, D, W

Patina Restaurant Group Valerie Gerstle Lucio Bedon

70

Back Porch (at L.A. Marriott) 1 333 S. Figueroa St., 90071 617-1133, losangelesmarriottdowntown.com

125 1983 NA

$15 NA

American Turkey and brie sandwich, salmon entree Full bar / B, L, D

NAMCO Mohmad Malak Keith Roberts

71

Tiara Cafe 127 E. Ninth St., 90015 623-3663, tiara-cafe-la.com

125 2007 NA

$12 $25

Californian NA Beer & wine / B, L, D, W

La Tiera Cafe LLC WND Fred Eric

72

La Serenata De Garibaldi 1 1842 E. First St., 90033 265-2887, www.laserenataonline.com

125 1985 75

$15 $25

Fine Mexican Cuisine Fresh fish with choice of 30+ homemade sauces Wine, beer, margaritas / L, D, W

Jose & Aurora Rodriguez Aurora Rodriguez Jose Rodriguez

73

Ciao Trattoria 1 815 W. Seventh St., 90017 624-2244, ciaotrattoria.com

120 1992 38

$18 $35

Italian Pasta Full bar / NA

Ciao Bmp, Inc. Kate Byeon Pablo Ruiz

74

Traxx Restaurant (at Union Station) 1 800 N. Alameda St., 90012 625-1999, traxxrestaurant.com

120 1997 30

$25 $40

Contemporary American Woldorf salad with apples, caramelized walnuts & Reyes blue cheese Full bar / L, D, W

Tara Thomas Barrett Kye Justin Cropper

75

The Brasserie (Sheraton Hotel) 1 711 S. Hope St., 90017 488-3500, sheraton.com/losangeles

120 1977 12

$16.00 closed

American & Buffet Buffet Lobby bar / L, D, W

Sheraton Hotel Rim Jerry Slulty

76

Sai Sai (at Millennium Biltmore Hotel) 1 506 S. Olive, 90071 624-1100, thebiltmore.com

120 NA NA

$25 $40

Modern Asian, sushi bar Bento boxes, saketinis, braised kobe short ribs Full bar / L, D, W

NA Jan Hovmoeller David Bartnes

77

Pacific Grille 1 601 S. Figueroa St., 90017 485-0927, pacific-grille.com

120 2004 23

$27 NA

Calfornia-Asian-Mexican fusion Citrus marinaded carne asada with avocado pico de gallo Full bar / B, L, D, W

Aileen Riako Watanabe Aileen Riako Watanabe Jesus Manuel “Manny” Diaz

78

Papa Cristos Greek Grill 1 2771 W. Pico Blvd., 90006 737-2970, papacristos.com

120 1998 NA

$10 $12

Greek Gyro, kabobs, sizzling feta Beer & wine / NA

Chrys Chrys NA Papa Cristo

79

Urth Caffe 451 S. Hewitt St., 90013 797-4534, urthcaffe.com

120 1989 45

NA NA

Cafe Grilled chicken pesto salad & spanish latte NA / B, L, D

NA NA NA

80

Blue Velvet 1 750 S. Garland, 90017 239-0061, bluevelvetrestaurant.com

110 2006 50

$20 $50

California Contemporary Prime T-Bone Steak Lounge - Upscale - DJ / L, D, W

Bret Mosher Bobby Quintong Jonathan McDowell

81

Weiland Brewery Restaurant 1 400 E. First St., 90026 680-2881, weilandbrewery.net

105 1999 NA

$9 $20

American regional Burgers and pasta (lunch); ahi and filet (dinner). full bar / NA

Rick Bennett, Dave Vargas Rick Bennett, Dave Vargas Juan Gonzales

82

Eastside Market Italian Deli 1 1013 Alpine St., 90012 250-2464, NA

100 1974 NA

$9 NA

Italian Roast beef and pastrami NA / B, L

Johnny Angiuli Anthony Angiuli Vito Angiuli

83

Cafe Metropol 923 E. Third St., 90013 613-1537, cafemetropol.com

100 1998 15

$15 $25

European Oven baked sweet potato fries & Chicken Marsala Beer, wine, Soju cocktail / L, D, W

Angie An, Guido Ganschow Angie An Osvaldo Perez/Xiomara Sotto

84

Rodeo Mexican Grill 1 1721 W. Sunset Blvd., 90026 483-8311, N/A

100 1998 45

$4.50 $5.50

Mexican Enchiladas no alcohol / B, L, D, W

Happy Rodeo Inc. Liliana Juarez Santiago Carballo

85

Farmer Boys 726 S. Alameda St., 90021 228-8999, farmerboysla.com

100 2000 35

$8 $10

American Burgers, zuchinni, onion rings, salads & fish none / B, L, D, W

Dennis Smith Patrick Brown NA

86

Tamon Restaurant 1 328 E. First St., 90012 617-7839, tamon-ten.com

100 2007 20

$15 $30

Traditional Japanese Sushi & Japanese menu NA / B, D, W

Takaaki Koyama Takao Inoue Yutaro “Iron chef” Ebata

87

Adoro Mexican Grille 735 S. Figueroa St., Suite 315, 90017 955-9204, adorogrille.com

98 1907 25

$15.00 $18.00

Authentic Mexican Fine Dining Mole, with chicken breast Full bar with tequila bar specialty / L, D

Jacques Darakjian & Catherine Darakjian Owner Operator Emilio Ortez

88

Shekarchi Restaurant 1 914 S. Hill St., 90015 892-8535

95 NA NA

$9-17 N/A

Mediterranean (Persian cuisine) Kabobs with rice N/A / L

Alex Shekarchi WND WND

89

Yorkshire Grill 1 610 W. Sixth St., 90017 629-3020, NA

93 1940 12

$8 NA

Jewish deli Yorkshire special, New York special NA / NA

Ellie Palk Marisa Leonardo Gonzales, Jose Don Lucos

90

Moody’s Sports Bar and Grille (at L.A. Marriott) 1 333 S. Figueroa St., 90071 617-1133, losangelesmarriottdowntown.com

90 1990 NA

NA $25

American Salmon Full bar / D, W

NAMCO Mohmad Malak Keith Roberts

91

A Thousand Cranes (Kyoto Grand Hotel & Garden) 1 120 S. Los Angeles St., 90012 253-9255, kyotograndhotel.com

86 1977 22

$26 $45

Japanese sushi and tempura Tenshin (lunch), Kaiseki Full bar / NA

New Otani Hotel Ichiro Fujita Nobuo Saga

92

Homegirl Cafe 1 130 W. Bruno St., 90012 526-1254, homeboy-industries.org

86 2004 25

$6-8 NA

Contemporary Mexican and vegetarian Three taco plate, green mole with chicken N/A / B, L, W

Homeboy Industries Shannon Smith Patty Zarate

93

Seven Restaurant Bar 555 W. Seventh St., 90014 223-0777, sevenrestaurantbar.com

85 2008 25

NA $40

New Californian Bone-In beef tenderloin with red wine reduction Full bar / D

Joseph Tahanian April Paton WND

94

Pentolino/Atrium 330 S. Hope St., 90071 680-7387, www.patinagroup.com

84 1998 6

28.79 NA

Sandwiches, pizza, salads & antipaste Hand carved entree of the day.

NA / B, L

Patina Restaurant Group Kristin Howard Brian Kiepler

95

Liliya China Bistro 108 W. Second St. No. 102, 90012 620-1717, liliyachinabistro.com

83 2006 NA

$10 $15

Chinese(Mandarine) Orange Chicken, spicy seafood noodle platter Beer, Sake, wine / L, D, W

Joanna Lee Ho Lili Lee Ho/Gregory Lee Ho Hsien Chien Ho

March 16, 2009

Downtown News 19

Restaurants PROFiLE • Seating capacity • Year founded • No. of employees

AvERAGE BiLL (for one) • Lunch • Dinner

FOOD/BEvERAGE • Type of cuisine • Most popular dish • Type of bar / Meal service

CONTACTS • Owner • Manager • Head chef

96

The Grill at Sheraton Los Angeles 1 711 S. Hope St., 90017 488-3500

80 1977 10

NA $29

Americana Chef’s daily special Lobby bar / D, W

Sheraton Hotel Rim Jerry Shulty

97

Checkers Downtown (at Hilton Checkers Hotel) 1 535 S. Grand Ave., 90071 624-0000, hiltoncheckers.com

80 1927 15

$30 $50

California Checkers Cobb salad with bleu cheese Full bar / B, L, D

Tarsadia Inc. Kathy Faulk Twain Shreiber

98

Daily Grill - Downtown L.A. 1 612 S. Flower St., 90017 622-4500, dailygrill.com

80 NA NA

$30 $30

American, steak Chicken pot pie, cobb & caesar salads Full bar / NA

NA Waldo Cesoni Israel Camacho

99

Boca inside the Conga Room 800 W. Olympic Blvd., 90015 749-0445, congaroom.com

80 2008 100

NA $25-28

Pan-Latin Churrasco Papaya & Broadeast Bars / D, W

Brad Gluckstein 6 Eddie Cienfuegos Alex Garcia

100

Cuba Central 1 333 S. Spring St., 90012 687-3193, NA

75 2005 NA

$7-10 $9-12

Cuban Spanish paella, mojito chicken Full bar / NA

WND Ray Rick

101

Teresitas Restaurant 3826 E. First St., 90063 (323) 266-6045, teresitasrestaurant.com

74 1983 12

$10 $13

Authentic Mexican Cuisine Costillas de puerco en chile negro Beer & wine only / B, L, D, W

Teresa Campos Antonio Campos Teresa Campos

102

Oomasa Restaurant 1 100 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, 90012 623-9048, NA

70 1970 25

$15 $30

Japanese Sushi Beer and wine / NA

Mr. Motoyama Mr. Kawabata Mr. Ebata

103

Koo Koo Roo 1 445 S. Figueroa St., 90071 629-1246, kookooroo.com

70 1995 11

$9 $9

Poultry, fish Chicken ceasar salad, skinless breast NA / NA

Fuddruckers Jeffrey Fernandez NA

104

Riordan’s Tavern 1 875 S. Figueroa St., 90017 627-6879, riordanstavern.com

70 2007 N/A

$14 $23

American/Prime Steak/Carvery sandwiches Steak salad Full bar / L, D, W

WND WND WND

105

Emerald Grille 1020 S. Figueroa St., 90015 748-1291, hicitycenter.com

65 1999 21

NA NA

American Coconut shrimp sandwich Full bar/Sports bar / B, L, D, W

John B. Kelly Nadene Nevarez Milo Dorman

106

Capperi Ristorante 318A E. Second St., 90012 613-1003, capperila.com

65 2003 10

$15 $30

Italian Linguini alla pescatore Beer and wine / L, D, W

Fred Ehuan Jeff Bernardo Roberto Moso

107

McKay’s Restaurant Bar & Lounge 3540 S. Figueroa St., 90007 743-4141, mckays.usc.edu

65 2008 25

$30 $45

American Penne pasta fra diavolo Full Service / B, L, D

University of Southern California Mr. Robert Reilly Mr. Andrew Bice

108

New Moon Restaurant 102 W. Ninth St., 90015 624-0186, newmoonrestaurants.com

60 1974 15

$15 N/A

Cantonese Chloe shrimp, chicken salad, shelby’s sweet & spicy chicken NA / L, W

Candice Tom Juan Galindo Wei Chi Young

109

L.A.’s Best Deli and Cafe 1 605 S. Central Ave., 90021 622-7437, NA

60 2004 NA

$7-12 NA

American breakfast & Deli, Italian Chicken tortilla soup, L.A. chop salad no alcohol / B, L, W

Kelly Hwang NA NA

110

Rocket Pizza Lounge 1 122 W. Fourth St., 90013 687-4992, rocketpizzalounge.com

60 2005 15

$12 $12

Italian pizza, pasta, sandwiches & salads Kobe beef lasagna Wine & beer / L, D, W

Gilmore associates Ivan Garcia Nelson Ramos

111

Spitz Home of the Döner Kebab 1 375 E. Second St., 90012 eatatspitz.com

60 2008 NA

$10 $10

Mediterranean, European sandwiches, Turkish The classic Döner sandwich Mico-brew beer & select wines / L, D, W

Robert Wicklund & Bryce Rademan Bradly Lockridge & Alex Rocha NA

112

Aloha Cafe 410 E. Second St., 90012 346-9930, eatatalohacafe.com

60 1995 10

$6-8 $8-10

Hawaiian Loco Moco NA / B, L, D

Jennifer Lee Jennifer Lee/Adriana Tang Jennifer Lee

113

Mendocino Farms 300 S. Grand Ave, 90071 620-1114, mendocinofarms.com

60 7 2007 25

10 NA

Gourmet Sandwiches Kurobuta pork belly banh mi NA / B, L, D, W

Mario del Pero, Ellen Chen, Sean Krajewski Lenny Fejeran Judy Han

114

El Conquistador Restaurant 3701 Sunset Blvd., 90026 323-666-5136, elconquistadorrestaurant.com

59 1973 12

$18 $25

Mexican Mole dishes, Sonorense Full bar / L, D, W

Jesse Pinto Albert Curiel Adela Aviles

115

Lady Effie’s Tea Parlor 453 E. Adams Blvd., 90011 749-2204, ladyeffiesteaparlor.com

59 1999 3

$21.65 $25.98

Tea Chicken salad Tea Parlor / L, D, W

Vonnie M. Gipson Sonia D. Gipson Vonnie M. Gipson

116

O Bar & Kitchen 819 South Flower St., 90017 623-9904, ohotelgroup.com

55 2008 20

$16 $30

California Mediteran tapas Shrimp & grits Full service / L, D, W

Michael Rahimi Zapa Afshar Vahan Tokmadjian

117

Noé Restaurant and Bar 251 S. Olive St., 90012 356-4100, noerestaurant.com

52 2003 NA

NA NA

Progressive American cuisine with Japanese Aesthetics Liberty Farm duck with morel mushrooms Full bar 8 / D,W

Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza Mark Kessler Glen Ishii

118

626 Reserve Wine Bar 1 626 S. Spring St. Ste B, 90014 627-9800, 626reserve.com

52 2006 2

$12 $25

Panini’s, salads, tapas Maryland crab cakes Beer & wine / D

Virgil & Tyree Mclyn 9 Barbara Taylor-Gray N/A

119

Warung Cafe & Bar 1 118 W. Fourth St., 90013 626-0662, warungcafela.com

51 2007 12

$15 $24

Pan Asian(small plates menu) Grilled filet minon Wine, beer, Sake & extensive Soju infusion cocktail list / L, D, W

Gilmore Associates Ivan Garcia Angel Ortin

120

Authentic Thai Cuisine 1 637 N. Spring St., 90012 613-1115, authenticthaila.com

50 2005 NA

$5.50 $9.00

Thai Curry and pan fried noodles N/A / L, D, W

Mark B. Pisit Tee Pong Sak

NA= Not Available

N/A=Not Applicable

WND=Would Not Disclose

1. According to the most recent information available.

2. Non game days dining is available for breakfast, lunch or dinner for private events any day of the week.

3. Operating Partner.

4. Partner.

5. Catered events only.

6. Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez, Sheila E., Will. I. AM, Black Eyed Peas, & Baron Davis 7. Patio seating 8. Full menu of signature matini’s & humidor with 16 varieties of quality cigars, cigar friendly outdoor patio.

9. Jacky Pratt, Lynora Miller & Deborah Taylor, Newring

General Disclaimer Unless otherwise indicated, this list is determined by responses to telephone, fax and email inquiries. To the best of our knowledge, all information is factual as of publication date. Please email additions or corrections to Claudia Hernandez, claudia@downtownnews, or send to Los Angeles Downtown News, 1264 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90026. If you have questions or would like to reprint the list, please call (213) 481-1448. © 2008 Los Angeles Downtown News.

Researched by Claudia Hernandez

Be On The Lookout!

On March 30th the Downtown News will publish its annual Restaurant Guide.

A comprehensive guide to restaurants in and around Downtown Los Angeles. An excellent reference for your office, car and home.

Call for your copies today!

213-481-1448

DowntownNews.com

March 16, 2009

CALENDAR

photo by Carol Rosegg

20 Downtown News

Tuning In To Frost/Nixon

Alan Cox, as David Frost, interviews Stacy Keach as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon at the Ahmanson Theatre.

A Blend of Fiction and Reality Create an Exciting Battle of Wits at the Ahmanson

S

photo by Carol Rosegg

urprise is not the reason Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon captivates for two hours without intermission.

After all, anyone who saw the original 1977 television interviews between talk show host David Frost and former President Richard Nixon, or the recent movie adaptation of Morgan’s play, knows how it’s going to end.

But surprise isn’t necessary when the dialogue is smart, the performances are engaging and the story is loaded with legitimate gravitas.

In fact, the only inescapable problem is that to reach mass audiences, the national tour directed (as it was on Broadway)

by Michael Grandage is being booked into huge halls, including Downtown’s Ahmanson Theatre, which is too cavernous for a story that seeks intimacy.

It is a price worth paying, however, for the opportunity to witness Stacy Keach in the role made famous by Frank Langella. There will be detractors who say that Langella, with

his spot-on impersonation, cannot be replaced. That’s like saying that Keach should never again portray Shakespeare’s King Lear because Laurence Olivier beat him to it.

Fortunately, Keach enjoys a challenge, as does Alan Cox, who as Frost is in inadvertent competition with his predecessor, Michael Sheen.

Keach and Cox, who spend most of the play’s second half verbally sparring, turn the well-tread story into a fresh and exciting battle of wits.

Before the interviews, though, there’s the setup, narrated

by Jim Reston (Brian Sgambati), who is part of Frost’s prep team. Reston explains that the American public feels Nixon should admit his crimes and apologize. Yet, no major hardhitting reporter seems poised to make that happen, let alone a lightweight talk show host.

Frost gains a multipart interview only by offering Nixon $600,000, much of it from Frost’s own pocket, even though he doesn’t have enough financial backing or advertisers to get the interview on the air.

On Frost’s side are Reston, John Birt (Antony Hagopian) and Bob Zelnick (Bob Ari). In the president’s corner are his chief of staff, Jack Brennan (Ted Koch) and his agent, Swifty Lazar (Stephen Rowe).

The lone woman of note is Frost’s girlfriend Caroline Cushing (Roxanna Hope), who offers Frost support but otherwise does nothing to further the plot.

There’s one other crucial character: a towering multisection video screen hanging upstage center. Though at first it serves merely as a way to change locales between scenes, the screen becomes the television during the interviews. Two onstage cameras project the action directly below the screen, which effectively divides the audience’s attention.

Morgan makes no apologies for altering some of the interview transcript, or for injecting entirely fictional scenes, including a crucial phone conversation between Frost and Nixon. By artfully weaving together history and theater, Morgan builds tension constantly.

As a result the play and its climax are more exciting than the real thing.

Keach also deserves kudos for not trying to recreate reality.

Instead of mimicking Nixon’s tone and cadence, he conveys the president’s essence. Yes, he hunches his shoulders and elicits a few vocal blusters, but more impressively he captures Nixon’s self-confidence, his short temper and his intelligence.

Morgan doesn’t paint Nixon as an easy target, and Keach complements that interpretation through a sense of humanity and regret that make the much-disliked president somewhat sympathetic.

Cox also refrains from impersonation by relying instead on

Frost’s swagger and happy-go-lucky attitude. There’s a spring in Cox’s step and a smile in his voice that paints Frost as a likable optimist, even in the face of possibly career-ending failure.

Christopher Oram’s costumes accurately reflect 1970s attire, complete with wide ties and busy pattern dresses. Oram’s set is spare, serving mostly as an empty arena for two men seated in opposing stuffed chairs.

The Ahmanson, ideal for musicals and more active plays, damages some of the subtitles, but the expansive venue accents the sharp contrast of the video. A telling freeze frame on Keach’s face reminds us that the televised close-up is a powerful entity, capable of knocking out even a once-mighty world leader.

And when that knockout occurs, it may not be a surprise, but it is thoroughly satisfying.

Frost/Nixon is running through March 29 at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 628-2772 or centertheatregroup.org. photo by Carol Rosegg

by Jeff favre

March 16, 2009

Downtown News 21

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Fifty Years of Dance Alvin Ailey Marks Golden Anniversary at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

by Richard Guzmán city editor

I

t started with a group of young African-American dancers lead by choreographer Alvin Ailey, who performed in 1958 at the 92nd Street Young Man’s Hebrew Association in New York.

Now, with performances that have spanned six continents and entertained 21 million people, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is celebrating 50 years as one of the nation’s best-known dance companies.

The Southern California leg of the anniversary tour kicks off at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with six performances March 18-22.

It will also be marked by a photography exhibit at the Library of Congress/Ira Gershwin Gallery at Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is now on display and runs through April 6.

Lead by Artistic Director Judith Jamison, who took over the company after Ailey’s death in 1989, the performance will feature the debut of Go in Grace, a piece choreographed by Hope Boykin with a live performance by Sweet Honey in the Rock, a Grammy Award-winning female a cappella ensemble.

It will also include new productions of Suite Otis, a tribute to Odis Redding, Blues Suite, a ballet choreographed by Alvin Ailey which launched the company in 1958 and Revelations, a piece that has become the company’s signature work.

Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, a dancer and co-director of Arts in Education and Community Programs for Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, spoke to Downtown News about the company’s impact as one of the most famed dance troupes as well as plans to encourage future dancers.

had a central theme that really connected with people spiritually and with everyday life situations. The beauty of the movement and choreography was one thing, but the story that he told through his ballets were universal, and I think that’s something that has helped sustain the company.

Q: What are some of the stories or themes the dance company touches on during the performances?

A: You have a ballet like Revelations, which is the company’s signature work, which takes you on a journey through dealing with hardships and various situations we all had to deal with; losing someone; not being able to have the life you want to have; just different hardships. It’s also about celebrating life and all the great gifts we have. There are a variety of stories and emotions the audience can experience and the dancers can portray through the storytelling, through the costumes and through the imagery.

Q: The company also does a lot of work with inner city youth.

Tell me about AileyCamp?

Downtown News: Why do you think the dance company has had so much success for so long?

A: AileyCamp is celebrating its 22nd anniversary. It’s a program for children ages 11 to 14, inner-city kids that have not been exposed to the arts or had access to professional classes and training. It gives them a chance to express their own voices and creativity through dance. It has a strong dance curriculum but the foundation of the program is really the personal development component where these young people get to work through and talk about situations like peer pressure, self esteem and goal setting.

Q: Is it hard to get middle school boys interested in ballet?

Nasha Thomas-Schmitt: I attribute the longevity to Alvin’s vision, which was to have a company that would celebrate modern dance and the African-American tradition through works that would appeal to the masses. All of Alvin’s ballets

A: We always have a lesser number of boys than girls. But I think from Hershel Walker taking a ballet class to the music industry and artists dancing, the field has been opened up to young males and it is not seen as a sissy thing now. In ballet

photo by Andrew Eccles

Alvin Ailey’s signature work Revelations will be a highlight of the 50th anniversary show.

they are learning things that can help them with their football and their baseball and their soccer and their volleyball. Dance is an athletic sport and that is something they see and they enjoy the classes. It might feel a little strange for them to be in ballet slippers but it is a process that incorporates a lot more than just the movements. It has the discipline, the focus and the music.

I’m in Los Angeles right now and we have seven boys in the AileyCamp and they’ve had a phenomenal time. Some turn out to be really strong dancers and they have talent and we can offer them scholarships so they can continue their training.

Q: What do you see in the next 50 years for the Ailey Dance Theater?

A: I think it is an institution and for a lot of people who work at the organization, that come and see the performances, that experience our art and education outreach program. It’s a way of life. The foundation that was laid has been maintained and has a place to grow.

At Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213)365-3500 or musiccenter.org.

Think YOU Can Do It? Climb California Greater LA is the Southern California stair climb event benefitting the American Lung Association in California.

Join emcee Rick Dickert of Fox11’s Good Day LA for the climb of your life to support clean air and healthy lungs!

Saturday, April 18 at 9 a.m.

Aon Center 707 Wilshire Blvd, LA Thank you to our sponsors:

Register online: www.climbcalifornia.org

22 Downtown News

March 16, 2009

DowntownNews.com

LISTINGS EVENTS

Tuesday, March 17 Town Hall Los Angeles Visit townhall-la.org. Venues vary, but all listed take place Downtown.

Noon: Angela Braly, president and CEO of one of America’s largest health care companies, WellPoint, Inc., appears.

Zócalo Central Library 630 W. Fifth St., zocalopublicsquare.org 7:30 p.m.: From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to fearful mistrust of capital markets, powerful psychological forces seem to be endangering the global economy. George Akerlof, a Nobel laureate, and Yale University economics professor Robert Shiller stop by to discuss.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade Main St. and Arcadia St. to Pershing Square, lacity.org.

11:30 a.m.: Led by Grand Marshall Robert Patrick, the Los Angeles St. Patrick’s Day Parade winds its way through Downtown, culminating at Pershing Square, where the Young Dubliners will perform and Councilman Tom LaBonge may very well dance a jig.

Wednesday, March 18 SCI-Arc Lecture Series Sci-Arc, Keck Lecture Hall, 960 E. Third St., (213) 623-2200 or sciarc.edu.

7 p.m.: Eric Owen Moss first taught at SCI-Arc in 1974, and was appointed director in 2002. This lecture is titled “The Latest and the Latest.”

Zócalo Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., zocalopublicsquare.org 7:30 p.m.: With the game of getting into college growing increasingly competitive, a cottage industry of college counselors, applications consultants and test prep teachers has sprung up to serve students, for a price. A panel of higher education experts — including Los Angeles Community College District Board President Kelly Candaele, Inside Higher Ed Editor Scott Jaschik and Bruce Poch, Dean of Admissions at Pomona College — explore whether higher education has become inaccessible to all but the rich.

Thursday, March 19 Thursdays at Central 630 W. Fifth St., Meeting Room A, (213) 228-7241 or lapl.org.

St. Patrick, Old Hollywood and the Magic of Dance

by AnnA Scott, StAff writer

1C

alling all lads and lassies! If you can’t march the entirety of the city’s 10th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade this Tuesday, March 17, at least stop by Pershing Square during your lunch break to witness its culmination at 12:30 p.m. The parade begins at 11:30 at Main and Arcadia streets and ends at the Financial District park, where the Young Dubliners will perform. Also expect to see Fourth District Councilman Tom LaBonge, parade grand marshal Robert Patrick and lots of green.

2

Travel back in time this Friday and Saturday, March 20-21, when the theater collective Park Avenue Produce presents its second retro-influenced variety show at the Historic Core’s Alexandria Hotel, the Hooray for Hollywood Extravaganza. Like the group’s Valentine’s Day show, this latest work revolves around radio-style readings of mid-century comic book stories. This time, the festivities hearken to the 1920s and ’30s with a hardboiled Hollywood detective story and tales of starryeyed dreamers hoping to make it on the big screen.

Both shows are at 8 p.m., and will repeat next Friday and Saturday. 501 S. Spring St., myspace.com/capturedauralphantasy.

3 4

photo by John McCoy

Monday, March 16 ALOUD at Central Library 630 W. 5th St., (213) 228-7241 or lapl.org.

7 p.m.: Novelist Abraham Verghese in conversation with actor Hector Elizondo. Verghese, a bestselling nonfiction author and renowned physician, makes the leap to fiction with “Cutting for Stone: A Novel.”

The ‘Don’t Miss’ List photo by Gary Leonard

SPONSORED LISTINGS Specials at Bacaro LA Wine Bar 2308 S. Union St., (213) 748-7205 or bacarolosangeles.com.

Bacaro LA Wine Bar is now hosting a Sunday brunch with $5 carafes of sangria and, every Monday, the bar offers $1 off all wines by the glass all day.

Nature Photo and Poem Show Torrance Cultural Art Center Garden Room, 3330 Civic Center Dr., Torrance and Sunnyland Organic Warehouse, 800 E. Fourth Pl., Los Angeles.

March 19-21 and 28-29: This art show features hundreds of nature photographs from refuges like the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, as well as a series of poems by artist Suzi Leavens. The show opens at the Torrance Cultural Art Center Garden Room from March 19-21, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The following weekend, on March 28 from 11 a.m. – to 5 p.m. and March 29 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the show comes to Downtown at Sunnyland Organic Warehouse.

For more information, contact (310-257-9440), (310) 938-6942 or sleavens@sbcglobal.net.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at Bar 107 107 E. Fourth St., (213) 625-7382 or www. myspace.com/bar107 March 17, 6 a.m. – 3 p.m.: The bar hosts its fourth annual St. Patrick’s Day Blowout. Doors open at 6 a.m.; the only day of the year the bar opens before noon. Enjoy $3 Guinness and $4 Jameson shots from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Leprechauns, bagpipers and all the usual degenerates will be here.

Get your groove on this Saturday, March 21, when the Music Center Plaza hosts A Taste of Dance. The event, offering $1, 20-minute dance lessons from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., aims to highlight the diversity of African American dance styles and heritage. Classes include Afro-Brazilian, break dancing, hip hop, jazz and krumping. No experience necessary! 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 972-3660 or musiccenter.org.

With healthcare at the forefront of national issues, this Tuesday’s guest at the lecture forum Town Hall Los Angeles couldn’t be timelier. Angela F. Braly, president and CEO of WellPoint, Inc., one of America’s largest health care companies, will appear on March 17 for an afternoon discussion titled, “Achieving Responsible Health Care Reform … and Getting It Right.” The event begins with an 11:30 a.m. members-only reception, followed by a noon luncheon and talk open to the general public. Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 506 S. Grand Ave., (213) 489-3327 or townhall-la.org.

Teenagers take over the Museum of Contemporary Art this Saturday, March 21, for an extravaganza of art and music with live local bands, DJs, a student art exhibition and more. This year’s annual MOCA Teen Night, titled “Sin Factory: Generating Critique, Challenging Norms, and Provoking Society” (inspired by footage from a film by Dan Graham, whose retrospective is on display until May 25), invites teens to see the museum as a place for critique and provocation.

Bonus for parents: drop off the kids and have your own night on the town. 250 S. Grand Ave., (213) 621-1745 or moca.org.

Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com. photo by MOCA Education

March 16, 2009

Downtown News 23

SearchDowntownLA.com

But Wait, There’s More!

Additional Event Information on the Web

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM/CALENDAR : EVENTS | ROCK, POP & JAZZ | CLASSICAL MUSIC | THEATER, OPERA & DANCE ART SPACES | FILM | BARS & CLUBS | MUSEUMS | FARMERS MARKETS | TOURS

12:15-1 p.m.: Get ready for the new hiking season. Tips and first-hand accounts from two longtime recreational hikers.

ALOUD at Central Library 630 W. 5th St., (213) 228-7241 or lapl.org.

7 p.m.: Vanessa Place, Janet Sarbanes and Veronica Gonzalez discuss using nontraditional forms for an unconventional city, writing a polyvocal landscape for a polyvocal world, publishing with an independent press and why women write L.A. better than anybody.

Town Hall Los Angeles Visit townhall-la.org. Venues vary, but all listed take place Downtown.

Noon: Frank H. McCourt Jr. became the fourth owner of the franchise after receiving unanimous approval from Major League Baseball on January 29, 2004. In his first year, the Dodgers won their first division title in nine years.

Zócalo MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 S. Grand Ave., zocalopublicsquare.org 7:30 p.m.: University of Illinois at Chicago professor Lennard Davis, author of “Obsession: A History,” explains obsession’s growth, its treatment and its complex origin and deep cultural roots.

Friday, March 20 Farmlab Public Salons 1745 N. Spring St. #4, (323) 226-1158 or farmlab.org.

Noon: Join Christina Ulke for a reflection on collective cultural resistance practices in the Americas and beyond. She will talk about her work with the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, collective identity and representation and some of her public art work.

Saturday, March 21 California African American Museum 600 State Drive, (213) 744-2024 or caamuseum.org.

March 21, 1 p.m.: “Living the Legacy/Lessons Learned: A Dialogue with Black Panthers, Brown Berets and Community Activists” is a discussion moderated by Yusef Omowale, Director of the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research.

MOCA Grand Avenue 250 S. Grand Ave., (213) 621-1745 or moca.org.

7 p.m.: One night a year, teens take over the museum for an extravaganza of art, music, and more. SIN FACTORY: Generating Critique, Challenging Norms, and Provoking Society — whose name is inspired by footage from the Dan Graham film “Rock My Religion” — invites teens to see the museum as a place for critique and provocation. Live performances by local bands and DJs, a student art exhibition, art-making activities, and refreshments.

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 900 Exposition Blvd., (213) 763-DINO or nhm.org.

10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Junior Scientist events are for 6-9 year olds. This one is called “Inspecting Insects.”

Reading at Metropolis Books 440 S. Main St., (213) 612-0174 or metropolisbooksla.com.

4 p.m.: Author and doctor Kathleen Hood will discuss and sign her nonfiction work, “Music in Druze Life.”

Sunday, March 22 California African American Museum 600 State Drive, (213) 744-2024 or caamuseum.org.

2 p.m.: In “Women in Bike Culture,” hear first

hand what it’s like to be a woman motorcyclist from the women who ride.

Japanese American Cultural & Community Center Aratani/Japan America Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St., (213) 382-04886 or jaccc.org.

1-3 p.m.: Practitioners of the Ohara School of Ikebana will demonstrate and teach participants the art of traditional flower arrangement, utilizing some materials from the James Irvine Garden.

ROCK, POP & JAZZ

2nd Street Jazz 366 E. Second St., (213) 680-0047, 2ndstjazz.com or myspace.com/2ndstreetlivejazz.

Tuesdays: Jazz jam session. Music usually starts at 9 or 10 p.m.

626 Reserve 626 S. Spring St., (213) 627-9800 or 626reserve.com.

Tuesdays, 6 p.m.: Live music with Goh Kurosawa.

Thursdays, 6 p.m.: More live sounds, this time with Jessie Torrez.

Automat 936 Chung King Rd., (213) 617-0422.

Bar 107 107 W. Fourth St., (213) 625-7382 or myspace.com/ bar107.

Tuesdays: A classic island mix of reggae with attitude. Jah! Wednesdays: The world famous (or at least in L.A.) Bar 107 Karaoke Gong Show. Come join the fun and help the judges vote for the best act of the evening.

Sundays: DJ’s choice with 107’s Matt Dwyer, the comic-actor genius who plays music while serving the meanest drinks (in the nicest way) Downtown.

Blue Velvet 750 S. Garland Ave., (213) 239-0061.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 p.m.: Live music and DJs. Café Corsa 2238 S. Figueroa St., (213) 746-2604 or cafecorsala.com.

Café Metropol 923 E. Third St., (213) 613-1537 or cafemetropol.com.

March 20: Kai Kurosawa, who plays a unique 12-string instrument called the Bear Trax, returns with his trio.

March 21: Award winning jazz vocalist Susan Sinner.

Casey’s Irish Bar and Grill 613 S. Grand Ave., (213) 629-2353 or bigcaseys.com.

Fridays: Live Irish music.

Chop Suey Café 347 E. First St., (213) 617-9990 or chopsueycafe.com.

Thursdays, 7:30-9:30 p.m.: Live jazz on the patio of the restored landmark.

Cicada Cicada Restaurant, 617 S. Olive St., (213) 488-9488 or cicadarestaurant.com.

Thursdays, 8-11 p.m.: The velvet-voiced Max Vontaine recreates the sounds and styles of rat packers Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. His smoking jackets and tunes are vintage; his bawdy repartee is less so. Keep a close eye on the unlit cigarette.

Sundays, 6-11 p.m.: The restaurant is transformed into a vintage, old Hollywood-style dance club every Sunday. Come out to appreciate the big band, swank costumes, dinner and cocktails. Visit cicadaclub.com.

Club Nokia Corner of Olympic Blvd. and Figueroa St., clubnokia.com.

March 16, 8 p.m.: Longtime eye-lined rockers Primal Scream appear with Brian Jonestown Massacre and Kuroma.

Conga Room L.A. Live, 800 W. Olympic, (213) 749-0445 or congaroom.com.

March 19: KCRW Presents Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the male vocal group from South Africa, known best for their role on Paul Simon’s “Graceland.”

March 21: Salsero Angel Lebron.

Thursdays: “Azucar” features tropical rhythms from 9 p.m.-2 a.m.

Fridays: “The Beat Down” features global beats and dance groove starting at 9 p.m.

Saturdays: “Plata” brings an upscale Latin flavor from 9 p.m.-2 a.m. e3rd Steakhouse and Lounge 734 E Third St., (213) 680-3003 or www.myspace. com/therhythmsectionla.

Second Saturdays: The Rhythm Section brings in DJs and live acts to this Arts District restaurant, playing eclectic selections in nujazz, soul, rare groove, soul and hip-hop.

Grammy Museum LA Live, corner of Olympic Blvd and Figueroa St., (213) 765-6800 or grammymuseum.org.

March 25, 8 p.m.: In conjunction with its Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom exhibition, the museum hosts Los Angeles band Ozomatli. Josh Kun, a professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at USC, will interview the band about their activism, politics and the power of political song. During the interview, Ozomatli will also take questions from the audience and show film clips from their travels as U.S. State Department cultural ambassadors.

J Restaurant and Lounge 1119 S. Olive St., (213) 746-7746 or jloungela.com.

Tuesdays: Live acoustic performances in the lounge.

Wednesdays: Salsa in the City features complimentary salsa lessons at 8 p.m. At 9 p.m., a batch of live musicians takes over for a jam session.

Fridays: Live bands on select dates.

La Cita 336 S. Hill St., (213) 687-7111 or myspace.com/lacitabar.

Mondays, 9 p.m.: Mustache Mondays is a gay/ mixed theme night with the best in electro, dance and live performances.

Tuesdays, 9 p.m.: Cheap Souls, featuring DJs spinning funk, soul, old school and electro dance.

First and third Wednesdays, 9 p.m.: Mucho Wednesdays are dance nights with Latin music.

Second and fourth Wednesdays, 9 p.m.: Full Frontal features big-time DJs from LA and beyond. $5 cover.

Thursdays, 9 p.m.: Dance Right, voted Downtown’s best dance night. Free if you RSVP, $5 otherwise. So duh, RSVP. Fridays, 9 p.m.: Punky Reggae Party. That’s right: punk plus reggae equals party. Free before 11 p.m.

After that, it’s $5.

Saturdays, 6 p.m.: Hacienda Nights features live Tejano, Norteño and cumbia music. Cover $10.

Sundays, noon-10 p.m.: Hacienda Nights again, $8.

Millennium Biltmore Hotel – Gallery Bar 506 S. Grand Ave., (213) 624-1011 or millenniumhotels.com.

Mountain Bar 475 Gin Ling Way, (213) 625-7500 or themountainbar.com.

Every Tuesday “Broken Dreams” is DJ’ed by Chi-

Listings for additional concerts, exhibits and more in Downtown Los Angeles can be found on our website. Go to downtownnews.com/calendar for full information, including time and location, for all the happenings in Downtown.

na Art Objects’ Steve Hanson and the Red Krayolas’ Tom Watson.

Nokia Theatre 777 Chick Hearn Court, (213) 763-6000 or nokiatheatrelalive.com.

March 20, 8 p.m.: Spanish crooner Franco De Vita.

Orpheum Theatre 842 S. Broadway, (213) 622-1939 or laorpheum.com.

Pete’s Café and Bar 400 N. Main St., (213) 618-1759 or petescafe.com.

Tuesdays, 10 p.m.-1 a.m.: Pablo Calogero and Fabiano Nacimento play Brazilian jazz.

REDCAT 631 W. Second St., (213) 237-2800, redcat.org.

March 21, 8:30 p.m.: Inspired by the classic David Bowie pop hit, The E.A.R. Unit surveys fresh new works by young American mavericks from across the country. The ensemble plays Daniel Wohl’s +ou-, Oscar Bettison’s Gauze Vespers, Ryan Brown’s Our Friend Adam, Jamu by Christine Southworth, and a brand-new work from Matt McBane.

Redwood Bar & Grill 316 W. Second St., (213) 680-2600 or theredwoodbar.com.

March 16, 10 p.m.: Bluesy, country and rocking tunes from the Jake LaBotz Band.

March 17, 10 p.m.: Alt country boys Mike Stinson and Dave Gleason.

March 19, 10 p.m.: Quetzal Guerrero and The Warriors. Frontman Guerrero has a background of Native American, Brazilian and Mexican cultures, and as such, he plays many styles and instruments from violin and guitar to percussion and he also sings.

March 20, 10 p.m.: Mike Watt with Jason and The Punknecks. Watts co-founded The Minutemen and Firehose, and as of 2003 he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/ jazz/punk/improv group Banyan.

Rerax Fridays at Señor Fish 422 E. First St., (213) 625-0566 or senorfishla.com.

Fridays, 9 p.m.-3 a.m.: Music, art, VJ performances, silk screening and photos.

Royale 2619 Wilshire Blvd., (213) 388-8488 or royaleonwilshire.com.

Mondays, 9 p.m.-2 a.m.: A live musical showcase with bands, a DJ and an Eastside vibe.

Tuesdays, 9 p.m.-2 a.m.: An acoustic live set in the historic Royale lounge. A DJ spins between sets.

Wednesday (second of every month), 9 p.m.-2 a.m.: A fusion of spoken word and acoustic musical melodies.

Sundays, 9 p.m.-midnight: Rat pack protégé Max Vontaine.

2

Easy ways to submit Your

Event Info

4 WEB: www.DowntownNews.com 4 EMAIL: Calendar@DowntownNews.com

Email: Send a brief description, street address and public phone number. Submissions must be received 10 days prior to publication date to be considered for print.

A HAndy MAP RefeRence To food, ATTRAcTions & enTeRTAinMenT F

Where to Eat

_

Where to Shop

§ Where to Live

§F § §

C5 C5 B5

Grand Tower • 255 S. Grand Ave. Museum Tower • 225 S. Olive St. Promenade Towers • 123 S. Figueroa St.

229-9777 626-1500 617-3777

§

B8

The Metropolitan Apartments • 950 S. Flower St.

489-3300

EF m C6 FF_ C6 E# # F m B7 F F F

☞ C5

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel • 506 S. Grand Ave. California Plaza II • 4th St. & Grand Ave. • Watercourt • 4th St. & Grand Ave. • Angels Flight Railway • 4th St. & Hill St.

624-1011 687-2001 687-2190 626-1901

Wilshire Grand Hotel • 930 Wilshire Blvd.

• Cardini Ristorante • Seoul Jung • Kyoto

688-7777 896-3822 688-7880 896-3812

Downtown Dental Office • 255 S. Grand Ave., Suite 204

620-5777

F Where to Office F m D5 P

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Kyoto Grand Hotel & Garden • 120 S. Los Angeles St.

629-1200

Frying Fish Restaurant • 120 Japanese Village Plaza Mall

680-0567

The Los Angeles Athletic Club • 431 W. 7th St.

630-5200

Bunker Hill Real Estate • 800 W. 1st St., #401

680-1720

Dr. Silvia Kasparian DDS • 601 W. 5th St., Suite 1110

892-8172

CBS Seafood Restaurant • 700 N. Spring St.

617-2323

F C7

Clifton’s Brookdale Restaurant • 648 S. Broadway

627-1673

FF_ C2

Far East Plaza/Wing Hop Fung • 727 N. Broadway

626-7200

The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising/FIDM FIDM Museum Galleries & Shops • 919 S. Grand Ave.

624-1200

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels • 555 W. Temple St.

680-5200

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El Pollo Loco • 260 S. Broadway Orsini Apartments • 505 N. Figueroa St. Gus’s Drive-In • 1657 W. 3rd St. Medici • 725 S. Bixel St. Carl’s Jr. • 254 S. Broadway

626-7975 877-267-5911 483-8885 888-886-3731 625-1357

☞ B7

PIP Printing • 700 Wilshire Blvd.

489-2333

F NA

Tommy’s • 2575 W. Beverly Blvd.

389-9060

7+FIG • 7th & Figueroa Sts.

955-7150

Ernst & Young • 725 S. Figueroa St.

955-7100

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Contact Cartifact for the full-color, every-building version of this map and others. Available as a poster and in print, web, and mobile media.

700 S. Flower St, Ste. 1940 Los Angeles, CA 90017 213.327.0200 maps�cartifact.com

BAMBOO PLAZA

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March 16, 2009

Downtown News 25

SearchDowntownLA.com

CLASSIFIED

place your ad online at www.ladowntownnews.com

L.A. Downtown News Classifieds call: 213-481-1448 Classified Display & Line ads Deadlines: thursday 12 pm

“Be wary of out of area companies. Check with the local Better Business Bureau before you send any money for fees or services. Read and understand any contracts before you sign.

Shop around for rates.”

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Continued on next page

Selling Land?

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CROSSWORD PUZZLE

26 Downtown News

March 16, 2009

DowntownNews.com

Continued from previous page

for rent loft - unfurnished

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Lofts from $1,100. High ceilings.

A/C. Parking available.

High speed internet/T1 & direct T.V. Pets no charge. call 213-253-4777 LAloft.com

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JOB SECURIty: Be Great Looking. Fully stocked private gym personal training right in Downtown. Fast learning curve will result in high intensity workouts to get you fit and keep you in shape. Free parking. Email: Ronnie@HealthConquest. com (248) 980-5695. I have a degree in Exercise Science.

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Luxury Rooms in Downtown

We've got what you're searching for!

DowntownNews.com

Monthly Rents Start at $880 1 & 2 Rooms Available • Fully Furnished • 100% Utilities Paid • • Refrigerator, Microwave & TV In Each Room • • Wireless Access Throughout Bldg. • Gym • • Close to USC & Loyola Law School • • Presidential Suite with Kitchen • Parking Available Onsite

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adVertisinG CLASSIFIED ADVERtISInG in 240 Cal-SCAn newspapers for the best reach, coverage, and price. 25-words $550. Reach 6 million Californians!. Free email brochure. Call 916-288-6019. www.Cal-SCAn.com.

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announceMents Volunteer oPPortunitY HELPInG KIDS HEAL. Free Arts for Abused Children is looking for volunteers to integrate the healing power of the arts into the lives of abused and at-risk children and their families. today is the day to get involved! Contact Annie at volunteers@freearts. org or 310-313-4278 for more information. donations JUSt $5 CAn MAKE yOU feel good. www.homelessinamerica. blogspot.com. Make donations at www.servantsofthefather.org/ donation.

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Do you have something to sell?

All ads run for 2 weeks. Ads may be renewed after two weeks for 50% off the original price of the ad.

Ad prices (Marketplace and Automotive Categories ONLY): • Items under $300…12 words, 2 weeks FrEE! • Items $301 to $500…15 words, only $11.50 • Items $501 to $1200…15 words, only $14.00 • Items $1201 to $2000…15 words, only $16.50 • Items $2001+…15 words, only $19.00 Restrictions: Offer good on private party ads only.

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Deadline: Thursday at noon for next issue.

Name: Address: City Phone: Cash $ Credit card #: Exp. Date:

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March 16, 2009

Downtown News 27

SearchDowntownLA.com

legal civil summons LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NO. SC096622 CROSS-COMPLAINANT: ULTIMATE WATER CREATIONS, INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION; DONALD GOLDSTONE, AN INDIVIDUAL VS DEFENDANT: MILES ENGINEERING, ROUX ELECTRICAL, HA POOLS, INC. AND DOES 1 TO 50, INCLUSIVE You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form, if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form.

If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free

legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www. courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association.

The name and address of the court is: Los Angeles County Superior Court West District 1725 Main Street Santa Monica, CA 90401-3299 Case Number: SC096622 Dated: August 20, 2008 John A. Clarke, Executive Officer/Clerk By: D. McKinney, Deputy The name, address, telephone number, and fax number of Plaintiff’s attorney is: Willis J. King, III, Esq. (State Bar No. 193828) Bullard, Brown, Beal, LLP 234 E. Commonwealth Ave. Fullerton, CA 92832 Telephone: 714-578-4050 Fax: 714-578-4060 Notice to the person served: You are served on behalf of: H A Pools, Inc. under CCP 416.10 (corporation) Pub. 3/09, 3/16, 3/23, 3/30/09 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES NO. KC 053121 PLAINTIFF: RAFAEL CASTILLO; JOSE FLORES; VANESSA ZAMORA; KENIA FLORES, A MINOR,

BY VANESSA ZAMORA, HER GUARDIAN AD LITEM VS DEFENDANT: RENEE BELL; ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR; JOHN DOE AND DOES 1-20, INCLUSIVE You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal

papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form, if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form.

If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www. courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association.

The name and address of the court is: POMONA COURTHOUSESOUTH(EAST DISTRICT) 400 CIVIC CENTER PLAZA

POMONA, CA 91766 Case Number: KC053121 Dated: June 16,2008 John A Clarke, Clerk E. Leon, Deputy The name, address, telephone number, and fax number of Plaintiff’s attorney is: THE LAW OFFICES OF ARTHUR G. LESMEZ BERNARD WARE, ESQ (SBN 159833) A Professional Corporation 854 Pico Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90405-1325 Telephone: 310-399-1111 Fax: 310-399-3299 Pub. 2/23, 3/02, 3/09, 3/16/09

the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. if no

written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: 4/02/2009 Time: 1:30 p.m.

Dept.: G Room: 51 The address of the court is 415 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA, 90802. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior

to the date set for hearing on the petition in CIVIC CENTER NEWS, 1246 West First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026, of general circulation, printed in this county.

Date: Feb. 13, 2009 John A Clarke, Executive Officer/ Clerk Hon. Douglas M. Haigh, Judge Pro Tem Judge of the Superior Court Pub. 2/23, 3/02, 3/09, 3/16/09

name change SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES SOUTH DISTRICT LONG BEACH COURTHOUSE ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE NO. NS020883 PETITIONER (NAME OF EACH): LUIS ANGEL TOBON BARRAGAN, 4561 MONTAIR AVE., APT. D8, LONG BEACH, CA 90808 FILED A PETITION WITH THIS COURT FOR A DECREE CHANGING NAMES AS FOLLOWS: PRESENT NAME: LUIS ANGEL TOBON BARRAGAN PROPOSED NAME: LUIS ANGEL TOBON JR. THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter shall appear before this court at

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Downtown News THAI MASSAGE SPECIALIST VIP Room Available. The Best Way For Business Meetings & Entertainment

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Place your classified ad online, its safe and secure at DowntownNews.com/classified. Or call 213.481.1448

28 Downtown News

March 16, 2009

DowntownNews.com

We Got Games The Clippers Are Back to Full Strength, Which Should Make Losing Even Easier Los Angeles Lakers Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa St., (213) 742-7340 or nba.com/lakers.

Tuesday, March 17, 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, March 19, 7:30 p.m.: After dropping a tough game to Portland last week, the Lakers rounded off their road trip with two convincing wins in Houston and San Antonio, building momentum for this week’s home contests against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Golden State Warriors. After that, it’s back on the road again Willie Nelson-style, for a seven game road trip starting in Chicago (March 21).

Los Angeles Clippers Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa St., (213) 742-7340 or nba.com/clippers.

Wednesday, March 18, 7:30 p.m.: A one-point home loss to a Danny Granger-less Indiana Pacers team? Blowing a 20-point fourth quarter lead over the Cavaliers? We knew the Clippers were, well, bad, but these

two recent losses fall squarely on Coach and General Manager Mike DunLeavy. But hey, Chris Kaman is back! That’s good news, right?

Sort of. Against Cleveland, he played 30 minutes, scored six points and committed five fouls and four turnovers. He’ll look to shake the rust off this week against the Washington Wizards, and in road games verus Golden State (March 17), Detroit (March 20) and Toronto (March 22).

Los Angeles Kings Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa St., (213) 742-7340 or kings.nhl.com.

Monday, March 9, 7:30 p.m.: The Kings have 14 games left, and barring a ridiculous winning streak and the collapse of its division rivals, the purple and black aren’t headed for the playoffs. But they’ve had some spirited battles lately, coming out on top of three games last week against tough playoff-contending teams. If they’re going to go down, it seems like they’ll do so fighting.

—Ryan Vaillancourt

photo by Gary Leonard

Clippers center Chris Kaman has finally returned to the lineup after injury. In his first games back, he’s been as rusty as his reddish-blond hair.

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