Los Angeles magazine - October 2021 by The Lifestyle Magazines of SoCal

CANCELED ROCK ICON RYAN ADAMS ON LIFE AS A PARIAH

WHY EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT WILDFIRES MAY BE WRONG

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ORE AND M

THE DEFINITIVE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO THE THRIFTING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

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G A N G ST E R R A P

DAVID CHASE ON HIS SOPRANOS PREQUEL, THE FALL OF LES MOONVES & JAMES GANDOLFINI’S LAST DAYS

JEWELS THAT TELL TIME

HARRYWINSTON.COM

O CTOBE R 2021

T H E AC C US E D

Ryan Adams was not ready for his close-up.

Features 56

Pol Joey A controversial San Pedro councilman and former cop known as Joey Buckets has emerged as a surprisingly strong contender in the 2022 mayoral race. Can blustery Joe Buscaino become L.A.’s answer to New York City’s Eric Adams, or will progressives take him out?

Scenes From a Canceled Life

Fire Fight

Rags to Riches

Two years after a series of #MeToo allegations turned Ryan Adams into a pariah, the struggling singer is finally breaking his silence. But does anyone want to hear what he has to say?

Governor Gavin Newsom recently launched a $2.6 billion plan to tame California’s wildfire epidemic. But experts warn that major aspects of the policy are out of step with the shifting science of fire management and climate change.

Grandma’s old garments are now the trendiest fashion craze in L.A., as scores of secondhand shops turn vintage clothing into mountains of cash. The who, what, when, and wear of thrifting in 2021.

BY STEVE APPLEFORD

BY BOB SIPCHEN

BY SUSAN CAMPOS AND MERLE GINSBERG

BY HILLEL ARON

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P H O T O G R A P H E D BY I A N S PA N I E R

O CTOBE R 2021

Buzz KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES » The brave new boss of L.A.’s hometown paper gets ready to tackle one of the most dangerous jobs in journalism. BY KALI HAYS PAGE 11

THE BRIEF » Kanye releases his biggest album in ages and makes friends with accused sex criminal Marilyn Manson; the homeless battle brewing in Marina del Rey; a gay bar in WeHo is very “cocaine chic”; and how to sleep with Marilyn Monroe forever. PAGE 14

LOCKDOWN LUXE » Meet the new breed of over-the-top homes tricked-out for every pandemic possibility. BY ALEXANDRIA ABRAMIAN PAGE 16

Ask Chris The king salmon sushi sampler from the Brothers Sushi features fresh, dry-aged, and caviar-topped pieces.

Incoming » Tips from Elvira for a fabulously frightening Halloween; David Chase on the Sopranos prequel and Gandolfini’s final days; revealing rarities from Joni Mitchell; a Valley sushi superstar lands in Santa Monica; the vegan vs. plant-based debate; and the coolest new electric cars. PAG E 1 9

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» How did Pinkie and The Blue Boy at the Huntington end up on all kinds of weird merch? What’s with the metal squares on all the old buildings in Hollywood? How many folks are employed full time by the city? Our resident historian answers all your burning questions. BY CHRIS NICHOLS PAGE 112

ON THE COVER Photograph by Justin Bettman. Produced by Anderson Hopkins. Styled by Alison Brooks and Merle Ginsberg. Featuring clothes and accessories from Decades, Paper Moon, Crossroads, Wasteland, and The Real Real. Hair and makeup by Lisa-Marie Powell for Art Department. Prop and set design by Chloe Kirk. Models: Heidi Jane, Ana Bergman, Ricky Estrella, Rebkey, Christina Zapolski/L.A. Models. Location: The Forge L.A.

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L A M AG . C O M 7

Editor’s Note

BY MAER ROSHAN

O N E O F T H E B E S T —and hardest—parts of being editor-inchief is that I’m the one who decides every month which stories are worth telling in our pages and which are best left untold. A thousand considerations go into these deliberations: Is the story newsy? Is it enlightening or illuminating or even just entertaining? Will our readers care? Should they care? Even under the best of circumstances, it can be a struggle to arrive at the correct answers. But these days, in our fraught political climate, there’s an added variable that I ﬁnd particularly vexing—is it going to make some readers angry? Steve Appleford’s proﬁle of one-time rock god Ryan Adams is likely going to be one of those stories. Once a revered troubadour on the alt-country circuit, the 46-year-old singer-songwriter found himself and his career 8 L A M AG . C O M

“As one secondhand shop owner put it, hipsters today ‘prefer wearing fantasy to reality. And can you blame them right now?’ ”

completely derailed in 2019 when the New York Times published a report accusing him of an array of sexual misdeeds ranging from engaging in explicit online messaging with an underage girl to emotional abuse of his thenwife Mandy Moore. Although Adams has denied the most serious allegations and hasn’t been criminally charged with anything, he’s lost most of his friends and hasn’t worked in more than two years. He also hasn’t done any interviews—until Appleford sat down with him at his home in the Hollywood Hills for a lengthy discussion about his career, his downfall, and his life today as a ghost of the cancelculture era. Should Adams’s story be told? He certainly has a lot to say. Or are the allegations against him enough to warrant keeping his voice from being heard? There will almost certainly be some readers who’ll be upset with how I’ve answered those questions. But even they might want to give this story a read. After all, simply hearing what Adams has to say isn’t the same thing as believing his side of the story or forgiving him for those mistakes he does admit to making. Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Sipchen’s story on the incendiary politics roiling behind the scenes in California’s fire-fighting community was an easier story to green-light, especially as the Dixie and Caldor blazes continue to rage up north. As it turns out, not everyone is thrilled with Governor Gavin Newsom’s warfooting-like approach to battling wildfires— some fire experts believe the state is fighting a losing battle, that infernos are inevitable as the globe continues to warm, and that the only way to win is to stop building homes in areas most vulnerable to flames. As for this month’s cover on the thrifting craze sweeping the city, deciding to run that story was pretty much a no-brainer. It’s all but impossible to miss the explosion of high-end secondhand shops in L.A. these days—or the army of mostly younger fashionistas who’ve made dressing up in vintage clothing the hottest fashion statement of the last couple of years. As one secondhand shop owner put it, hipsters today “prefer wearing fantasy to reality. And can you blame them right now? It’s a great escape.”

@MAERROSHAN

Maer Roshan, Editor-in-Chief P H O T O G R A P H E D BY J I L L G R E E N B E R G

10.21

Keeping Up With the Times THE BRAVE NEW BOSS OF L.A.’S HOMETOWN PAPER, KEVIN MERIDA IS READY TO TAKE ON ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS JOBS IN JOURNALISM.

B Y K A L I H AY S

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY N E I L JA M I E S O N

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WO R K I N G P R E SS

become the top editor at the Los Angeles Times, a paper he’d never worked at, in a city he’s never lived in. But since he accepted the job in June—besting a stable of Times insiders and high-profile outsiders—Merida says he’s eager to turn the beleaguered publication around, a mission that more than a dozen top editors and executives before him failed to accomplish. Merida, 64, moved from the Washington, DC, area to temporary digs on L.A.’s Westside last June while he and his wife, the writer and columnist Donna Britt, look for more permanent quarters. Merida says he thought about moving here long before he got a call from the headhunters at the Times—his three adult sons all live in L.A., and it seemed a good place to retire. After 40 years in East Coast media—half of them at the Washington Post—he thought he might teach a class or two at USC, spend more time with his family, relax and enjoy the weather. Instead, Merida is now taking over one of the largest and oldest newspapers in the country, which, for the last decade, has been in turmoil. “It’s a great challenge,” Merida says, with conper coincided with the most disruptive decade to hit news siderable understatement, in a video call from the Times’s media since the advent of television. While the New York El Segundo offices. He acknowledges being “approached” Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal eventuabout taking over from Post editor Marty Baron, who left ally pivoted to credible online operations, the L.A. Times the paper earlier this year, but says, “Ultimately, I didn’t struggled to keep up. Meanwhile, employees were enraged put my hat in the ring.” He hastens to add that he’s “very after Tribune fired Dean Baquet—now the outgoing editor happy” to be at the Times. of the New York Times and the paper’s first Black executive Reversing the declining fortunes of a 139-year-old instieditor—when he refused to furlough even more staff after tution is bound to pose a few challenges. Among them are holding the top job for just two years. winning over a newly unionized and famously fractious To head up his new media empire, newsroom skeptical of management afSoon-Shiong hired Norman Pearlstine, a ter years of layoffs, and rebooting the legendary veteran of the Wall Street Jourpaper’s web operations. “There’s always nal and Time Inc., to steer the paper into a “Most importantly, his job is to move new golden era. But though the paper won us into the digital arena,” said Patrick a place for three Pulitzers during Pearlstine’s brief Soon-Shiong, the Times’s billionaire something like editorship, his tenure was complicated by owner, when he announced Merida’s hirthe L. A. Times,” the pandemic and its attendant decimaing. “We want this paper to be around tion of advertising, as well as a wave of for another 139 years.” says Merida, “but social activism ignited by the murder of Soon-Shiong, a South African–born we can get better, George Floyd. Plagiarism by one reporter pharmaceutical mogul, spent $500 milright? This could be came to light; another was found to have lion to acquire the Times, along with crossed ethical lines. Pearlstine, 74, came the San Diego Union Tribune, from Tria new golden age.” from a much different social and news bune Publishing in mid-2018, rescuing culture than the one bubbling up around the paper from oblivion. Pre-Tribune, him, where younger staffers were increasthe Times boasted an editorial staff of ingly unafraid to confront their bosses. He made a sudden 1,200, the largest in the nation; when Soon-Shiong took exit last October, about a month after the Times concluded over the paper, it had shrunk to 400 or so. (It currently an investigation into its recent “turmoil and scandals.” By stands at 550.) then, sources say, Soon-Shiong and his star editor were only After years of fat profits—the Sunday edition was once talking about once a month. freighted with so much advertising that a paper hurled by “The pain of the past has never healed,” Marques Harpa delivery boy supposedly struck and killed a small dog— er, an editor at the paper, said during the Times’s internal the Times was already beginning to falter when Tribune investigation. “After the sale, we were expecting a reimagacquired it in 2000. The company’s purchase of the pa1 2 L A M AG . C O M

K E V I N M E R I DA never imagined he’d

G E T T Y I M AG E S

online subscribers in a county with ten million residents and a region with more than double that. Meanwhile, the New York Times boasts close to eight million online subscribers; the Wall Street Journal has around three million, as does the Washington Post. Merida acknowledges the challenges that these and other dismal data points portend if they are not reversed but professes to be unfazed. “The opportunities are bigger than the challenges. Absolutely,” he says. Merida started his career as a reporter for the Dallas Morning News in 1979 and later landed at the Washington Post, covering Congress during the 1996 election and writing profiles on the likes of Strom Thurmond and Hillary Clinton before he was promoted to national editor and then managing editor. His career aligns with some of the industry’s brightest and most wrenching moments of the past 30 years, and he ination and rejuvenation would believes the Times is positioned for unfold. Instead, we’ve had controan unambiguous return to form. versies and scandals.” “There’s always a place for Merida, who was selected for something like the L. A. Times, but the post over a slew of internal we can all get better, right? This candidates, is an online innovacan be a new golden age,” Meritor with a reputation for being da says. “I came for the challenge. well-liked by staff and respected And it’s a great challenge. We’re within the industry. Soon-Shiong not like the other big newspaper said his choice of yet another companies. We’re kind of on our Times outsider was a step toward own, which means we can create M E E T T H E N E W B OSS increasing diversity at the paper, our own image, our own thing. Opposite: Merida is a former Washington Post editor and which he called “mission critical You don’t need a big, Disney-like ESPN executive. Above, clockwise: lobby at the Times’s old for our business.” entertainment company to make a headquarters; ex-Times editor Pearlstine; owner Soon-Shiong. Refurbishing the Times’s busidocumentary film.” ness model is one of Merida’s top Merida would know—he was a priorities. “Revenue is good wherever you can get it,” he senior vice president at Disney-owned ESPN before joining says, “and there are lots of ways to get revenue.” He wants the Times, leading The Undefeated since 2015. His tenure at the Times to expand into documentaries, podcasts, influthe popular sports and culture website—which, when he took encer content, town halls, movies, neighborhood events— over, was mired in reports of a toxic work environment unwhile preserving its core mission built around “elite” jourder original editor in chief Jason Whitlock—gives him a sense nalism, the importance of which, he notes, “will never of what is possible at the Times and how long it may take to shrink.” He’s soliciting ideas from the Times staff, distribachieve it. Within five years of Merida’s arrival, The Undefeatuting his personal cell-phone number so they can text him ed was scoring speakers like Barack Obama for its events, its directly. “Maybe that was a mistake, but with your staff, journalism was winning industry awards, and it had entered you know . . . this is my family now,” he says. And he seems book publishing and music production. to genuinely believe that the Times can reclaim its former Now that Merida oversees a diminished but viable media glory. “To really change what you’re doing dramatically brand with worldwide name recognition and a deep-pockis hard, but I think the times really call for that. We’re in eted owner in his corner, he’s cautiously bullish about the the same game as everybody, asking for their money. But Times’s prospects. you’ve got to earn that.” “I’m impatient, I’m aggressive,” he says. “But you have to The Times has pushed digital subscriptions for years to build it piece by piece, so I don’t know the exact timeline. But little avail—it currently counts less than a million paying here, we’ve got nothing but advantages.” L A M AG . C O M 13

N E WS & N OT E S F R O M A L L OV E R

BAD C O M PA N Y

Kanye West, DaBaby, and Marilyn Manson at the Donda event in Chicago.

A KANYE IS A KANYE IS A KANYE THE CONTROVERSIAL SINGER RELEASES HIS BIGGEST ALBUM IN AGES, MAKES PALS WITH ACCUSED SEX CRIMINAL MARILYN MANSON, AND—JUST TO KEEP THINGS INTERESTING—CHANGES HIS NAME BY IAN SPIEGELMAN

S U R E , he’s a crazy

blowhard who once described slavery as “a choice,” praised Donald Trump for his “dragon energy,” and made Taylor Swift cry at the MTV Video Music Awards. But you’ve got to give credit where credit’s due: Kanye West is a deranged genius when it comes to selling records. His tenth and latest, the long-delayed Donda, ﬁnally dropped on August 29, and the 44-year-old one-time presidential candidate and husband to Kim Kardashian made sure it made a splash by doing everything possible to blow off the politically correct dictates of the music industry and tick off just about everyone he could think of. West held a series of listening parties, including an August 26 fete at Soldier Field in 14 L A M AG . C O M

his hometown of Chicago, where he ushered a couple of special guests onstage: accused sex criminal Marilyn Manson and DaBaby, aka Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, a Cleveland-born rapper known for his frequent homophobic rants. How West befriended these two beauties isn’t entirely clear—Manson, of course, is being investigated by the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department for abuse claims leveled by several women and is being sued for rape and trafficking by his ex-girlfriend, actress Esmé Bianco, while DaBaby has been kicked off several lineups, including Lollapalooza and Gov Ball, for his anti-gay outbursts— but West’s association with them clearly hasn’t dented his appeal to fans. At this writing, Donda occupies the entire top 10 on Spotify,

plus 19 of 20 spots on Apple Music, and is on a glide path to sell some 300,000 copies its ﬁrst week. If those projections hold, it’ll land Donda at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making West the artist with the most No. 1 albums on the charts this century. Oh, and in other Kanye news, his name isn’t Kanye anymore; he ﬁled paperwork in Los Angeles Superior Court in August to legally change it to “Ye.”

HOW TO SLEEP WITH MARILYN MONROE (FOREVER) E V E N I N T H E afterlife,

location is everything. And for a cool $2 million, you can spend eternity wedged near Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner. The grave site adjacent to Monroe’s at Westwood Village Memorial Park, where the iconic sex symbol has been interred for almost 60 years, was, until recently, owned by Broadway lyricist Jerry Herman, composer of La Cage Aux Folles. But when Herman died in 2019, he was buried next to his mother in New Jersey, and his heirs have just put his old, unused plot on the market for one of the highest prices in L.A. cemetery history. It’s a tony piece of property, to be sure, just CANDLE IN THE WIND

A fan leaves red roses for Marilyn.

to the right of the Seven Year Itch star. To Monroe’s left are the remains of the Playboy founder, who purchased his plot for a mere $75,000 in 1992 and was interred there in 2017. “There’s Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner, then Jerry’s,” Herman’s goddaughter, Jane Dorian, told the Wall Street Journal. “[It’s] next to the two sexiest people that were ever alive.” Full disclosure: It’s sometimes a rowdy neighborhood. Monroe’s crypt has been vandalized multiple times over the decades. The bronze plaque marking her grave has been stolen more than once while the crypt itself was damaged in 1976 by marauding college students. It can also be noisy: Every August, a memorial service is held at her crypt, attended by scores of lookalikes and conspiracy theorists who believe the actress was the victim of foul play. “A couple of years ago there was an incident where one fan club was outside the chapel screaming at another fan club,” recalls Scott Michaels of Dearly Departed Tours. “I think one loony got arrested.” — C H R I S N I C H O L S

KA N Y E W E ST G A N G , M A R I LY N M O N R O E P O RT R A I T: G E T T Y I M AG E S ; M A R I LY N M O N R O E FA N : # D O L LY P O L LYV I N TAG E

The Brief

AMOUNT AMAZON IS OFFERING FOR MGM, WHICH HASN’T RELEASED A SINGLE FILM SINCE THE PANDEMIC BEGAN. THE STRUGGLING STUDIO, HOME OF ROCKY AND ROBOCOP, IS OPENING NO TIME TO DIE IN THEATERS THIS MONTH, A TEST OF ITS MOST VALUABLE ASSET, JAMES BOND.

$8.45B

R A I S I NG T H E B A R

WEHO’S GAY BARS: “VERY MICHELLE PFEIFFER”

G O L D COAST B A R : # G E O R G E KOTS I ; M I K E B O N I N ; M A R I N A D E L R E Y: G E T T Y I M AG E S

F O R A W H I L E , it didn’t

look like the gay bar scene in West Hollywood was going to survive the pandemic. The Gold Coast, a legendary dive for 40 years, shut down in September 2020 after its building’s owner, controversial real estate baron Monte Overstreet—the so-called King of Boystown—took a hard line with rent negotiations. The month before, Flaming Saddles (also owned by Overstreet) closed its doors, as did Rage, another gay bar in the Rainbow District. But it’s hard to keep a good bar down, and now two of these establishments are poised for comebacks. Rage will be returning this fall, with new owner Lance Bass, the former NSYNC singer, vowing that his revamped Santa Monica Boulevard disco will reopen as the biggest gay nightclub in the world. Meanwhile, Gold Coast is under reconstruction by its new owners—West Hollywood entrepreneur Rob Novinger, lawyer and one-time TV host Stephanie Schestag, and celebrity stylist and Joan Rivers’s Fashion Police cohost George Kotsiopoulos—who plan on opening the revamped club under the name Or Bar. “Rob and I have always talked about working together,” says Kotsiopoulos. “And we’ve always complained about WeHo’s bar scene. So when we heard that Gold Coast was closing, everything suddenly

George Kotsiopoulos, Stephanie Schestag, and Rob Novinger revamp Gold Coast.

clicked. We’ve both wanted to build a bar that would be an alternative to all the loud gay WeHo places with bad drinks and awful lighting.” Adds Novinger of the club’s new ambiance: “It’s going to be very Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface—cocaine chic, you could call it. But I don’t mean literally.” —MERLE GINSBERG

MARINA DEL REY: HOMELESS MECCA? H E T R I E D a parking lot at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, but that was too controversial. He tried a park in Mar Vista, but that was too controversial as well. He tried another park in Westchester, but guess what? It was too controversial. But now L.A. councilman Mike Bonin may have finally found a place to relocate hundreds of homeless people that might be just right—a boat ramp in Marina del Rey. And the best part, at least from the city’s point of view, is that the marina is located on unincorporated land in L.A. County, which means it has zilch political clout to oppose the project. When residents of Marina del Rey first heard last March that Bonin had targeted their neighborhood as one of four options for a city-run homeless shelter—

the others being the abovementioned Palisades, Mar Vista, and Westchester— they didn’t take it too seriously. They felt conﬁdent that like the other implausible sites listed in Bonin’s proposal, their seaside community would be too expensive and that the marina’s wealthy stakeholders would push back. But without a mayor or city council, that pushback hasn’t materialized, and it’s looking more and more likely that Marina del Rey is it. The only one with any power in the area is 4th District Supervisor Janice Hahn, and she isn’t exactly jumping into the fray. (“Right now, we don’t have a comment,” a spokesman for her office told Los Angeles.) The precise location of the future shelter appears to be Lot 2, a boat ramp parking lot on Fiji Way,

which a city administrator’s feasibility report earlier this spring identiﬁed as the spot least likely to interfere with boating traffic. But that study somehow missed a fairly important element of the location: Lot 2 is part of the LAX Airport Emergency Air/Sea Disaster Plan and would be used for staging needs in the event of an airplane crash. It’s also designated as an emergency landing zone for helicopters to airlift crash victims to nearby trauma centers. “No one’s asked for input from the sheriff ’s department,” sniffs Chris Johnson, captain of the Marina del Rey sheriff ’s substation, who adds that the lot’s function during emergencies is well-known to law enforcement and other ﬁrst responders. “You S T I NG R E Y

Mike Bonin’s homeless camp experiment may be heading to the Marina.

don’t have to care about our opinion, but at least you can ask.” Bonin, for now, is urging patience from Marina del Rey as the process moves into the community-impact phase. Hearings on the project could begin by the end of this year. —JAS O N M CG A H A N L A M AG . C O M 15

BUZZ

S U R R E A L E S TAT E

Lockdown Luxe MEET THE NEW BREED OF OVER-THE-TOP HOMES COMPLETED IN 2021—TRICKED-OUT FOR EVERY PANDEMIC PROPOSITION BY ALEXANDRIA ABRAMIAN

What You Get for $1.1m in Mid City > Mid City may be the last bastion of

affordability for ﬁrst-time single-family home buyers looking to stay in L.A. Here’s how much house less than $1.2 million buys. $

S PA N I S H BU NG A L OW SIZE 1,188 square feet HIGHLIGHTS Heavy on the original charm, this

1923 Spanish bungalow also has a light-flooded, open-plan space. The original wood floors and fireplace have been restored, and the kitchen and both baths are updated.

The “When Can I Get Back to the Four Seasons?” Home

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> Perched at the tippy-top of Lago Vista Drive, on one of the highest hills in Beverly Hills, this Richard Landry-designed compound offers 360-degree ocean/canyon/city views. Thirteenthousand square feet of indoor living space includes resort requisites like a sauna and steam rooms, a gym, multiple bars, twin kitchens, and an inﬁnity pool with a pop-up big screen.

1.14 m

PRICE $32 million | Represented by Rayni Williams and Branden Williams, The Beverly Hills Estates and Tyrone McKillen, Compass

The “Travel Ban Antidote” Home > With eight bedrooms, 21 baths, a 36-seat theater, a 20-car garage, plus an indoor basketball court and service kitchen in 41,000 square feet of space, all this BelAir Xanadu—reduced from $100 million— lacks is a front desk and concierge. PRICE $78 million | Represented by David Kramer, Hilton & Hyland

The “I’m Never Going to the Office Again” Home > Even the home office in this 19,000square-foot Brentwood contemporary has ocean views. Not that it’s all work and no play—there’s an indoor lap pool, a 3,500-square-foot covered patio, a dog bath (seriously), Mitsubishi backup generators, and a 1,650-bottle wine room. It was designed by architect Noah Walker and interior designer Jamie Bush. PRICE $70 million | Represented by Blair Chang, The Agency

V I N TAG E C H A R M E R SIZE 1,227 square feet HIGHLIGHTS This restored traditional is big on original features: beamed ceilings, arched doorways, intricate crown moldings, and a mint-condition, mint-green-on-white kitchen. Located on a tree-lined street in Picfair Village, the two-bedroom home is within easy walking distance to some of Pico’s best shops, cafes, and restaurants. 1 YEAR AGO $1.05 million ⁄ TODAY $1.14 million CONTACT Debbie Weiss, Keller Williams

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H OT TA K E S I

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16 L A M AG . C O M

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Plus > David Chase sounds off on network execs, Nikki Finke, and James Gandolﬁni PAGE 22

> A new, must-visit Chinatown market PAGE 32

> The electric vehicles that’ll make you want to upgrade from petrol to plug-in PAGE 42

H A L LOW E E N

Fright This Way FROM GOTH-CHIC DECOR TO TOP COSTUME SHOPS, MISTRESS OF THE DARK ELVIRA SHARES ENLIGHTENING IDEAS FOR A SPOOKTACULAR HOLIDAY BY CHRIS NICHOLS

P H O T O G R A P H Y BY Q U E E N B P R O D U C T I O NS

L A M AG . C O M 19

Incoming

O R T H E PA S T 30 years, most Halloweens

you’d find Elvira—née Cassandra Peterson— doing her “Mistress of the Dark” show at Knott’s Scary Farm. But 2017 was the last time she performanced at the iconic amusement park. In the years since, the horror hostess has been focusing on other projects, namely her autobiography, Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark (Hachette Books). After a delay, it finally hit bookstores in September. “I’ve been working on this five days a week for three years,” says Peterson, 69, who has also been organizing a massive auction of costumes, scripts, and memorabilia at Julien’s Auctions set for December. “I had to keep cutting back. I didn’t want it to be as long as the Bible.” Born in Kansas and raised in Colorado Springs, Peterson itched to perform from a young age, and she put on shows for kids in her neighborhood. When she was in the second grade, a cousin took her to see her first horror movie, House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price, and things were never the same. “It was a game changer,” she says. “I threw away Barbie and Ken and started collecting Aurora model kits of Dracula, the Mummy, and the Wolfman. I just became obsessed.” At 14, she won a contest for go-go girls. “Someone asked me if I wanted to work as a showgirl, and I was like ‘Really?’ ” she says. “My dream had been to be a showgirl in Vegas.” Three years later, she headed to Sin City to live out her fantasy, but soon found another passion: performing comedy bits between musical numbers. In her twenties, Peterson made it to L.A. where she discovered improvisational comedy and ended up in the 20 L A M AG . C O M

H AV E A L O OK

Elvira loves Gold Bug (above) for high-end oddities, including skulls (below). For other spooky specialties (left and bottom), she recommends Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum and Monster-A-GoGo.

Groundlings alongside Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman. “I couldn’t believe it when I found the Groundlings,” she recalls. “ ‘They make it up as they go along? This is the job for me.’ I had no idea what improv was, but I became hell-bent.” In 1981, when she was in her late twenties, a friend called her to tell her that L.A.’s KHJ (Channel 9) was looking for a horror hostess. She went to the TV station to audition. “Nobody told me you were supposed to dress as your character,” Peterson says. “I had a turquoise dress and my Farrah Fawcett hairdo. Everybody else was wearing black leotards and Cher wigs. I was standing there like a dope, and luckily I was the last person to go in. I had the chance to change the script to be funny, and I got the part.” In the years

that followed, she established herself as L.A.’s reigning queen of horror, so naturally she’s got tips for celebrating Halloween. She loves shopping at Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum (3204 W. Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, bearded ladysmysticmuseum.square.site) for everything from Ouija boards and witch supplies to human skulls and candy buckets bearing her likeness. It’s “a goth superstore,” she gushes. For eerie home decor, Gold Bug (34 E. Union St., Pasadena, goldbug pasadena.com) is a personal favorite. “It’s the high-end place for beautifully handcrafted, fantastical jewelry and ghoulishly gruesome objets d’ art,” she says. “It’s jam-packed with unique and unusual oddities.” For dressing up, she recommends Monster-A-GoGo (1026 S. Atlantic Blvd., East L.A., store.kreepsville666 .com) “It’s a state-of-the-art emporium for all your scarewear needs and so much more,” she quips. “If you’ve got a penchant for spiderwebs and studs— and who doesn’t?—you’ve come to the right place!” On the way out, get a glimpse of Elvira herself in the mural with Vincent Price. “It’s sure to give you unpleasant dreams,” she purrs.

S H O P I N T E R I O R A N D S KU L L : CO U R T E SY O F G O L D B U G ; O U I JA B OA R D : CO U R T E SY O F B E A R D E D L A DY ’ S M YST I C M U S E U M ; T E E : CO U R T E SY O F M O N ST E R -A- G - G O ; B E A R D E D L A DY ’ S M YST I C M U S E U M I N T E R I O R : # E M M A M O U ZO N ; H AU N T E D H O U S E S : JA R E D COWA N

H A L LOW E E N

on Sunset Boulevard was also a plus. 1428 N. Genesee Ave., Hollywood.

TIME TO GET FREAKY

Elvira shares more of her favorite Halloween haunts Dark Delicacies

It’s the go-to bookstore for all things spooky, ooky, and kooky. Keep an eye on the events schedule and meet your favorite demented authors and artists in person. 822 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, darkdel.com

Halloween Town

This cavernous den is packed with terrifying toys, T-shirts, and temporary tattoos. Browse to your little black heart’s content as snippets of B horror movies play in the background. 2921 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, halloweentownstore .com

Bob Baker Marionette Theater

It came back from the dead when it moved from downtown to Highland Park in 2019, but then came COVID. Now they’re bringing back their “Halloween Spooktacular” show with puppet vampires, alien invaders, and groovy sets from the ’60s. 4949 York Blvd., Highland Park, bobbakermarionette theater.com

Unsafe Houses Forget the haunted hayrides. Instead, hit the road and check out these local homes that starred in classic scary movies. Just remember to keep your distance and not frighten current residents. BY JARED COWAN The Myers House, Halloween (1978) > The late-nineteeth-century home, once located on Meridian Avenue, was being used by a nearby nursing home for storing medical supplies when the ﬁlmmakers stumbled upon it. A South Pasadena city council member later bought the house and moved it to its current site where it has become one of the most visited movie houses in Los Angeles. 1000 Mission St., South Pasadena.

Anthony’s House, Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) > This gorgeous Queen Anne Victorian was the exterior location for Joe Dante’s vibrant, Looney Tunes-inspired segment about a little boy with dastardly, supernatural wishing powers. According to the Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources, the house was originally constructed in Pacoima in 1887 and moved to its current location in the 1970s. 17410 Mayerling St., Granada Hills.

The Moran House, The Entity (1982) > In the mid-’70s, a divorced single mother claimed to have been raped and her children violently attacked by a group of unrelenting entities in their Culver City home. The bizarre paranormal story became the basis of the 1978 best-seller The Entity, which spawned a ﬁlm adaptation shot on a hilly street in El Segundo. 523 Sheldon St., El Segundo.

Nancy’s House, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) > The street this home sits on resembles a middle-class suburban neighborhood in the Midwest, making it an ideal location for Wes Craven’s genre-altering hit. The fact that the ﬁlm’s production offices were located a stone’s throw away

The Freeling House, Poltergeist (1982) > This unique home was chosen in part because the various rooﬂines suggested the house had a life of its own. 4267 Roxbury St., Simi Valley.

Roger Cobb’s House, House (1986) The historic Milton S. Monroe house in the foothills of Monrovia serves as the main location in the horrorcomedy mash-up about a recently divorced, best-selling novelist who inherits his aunt’s imposing (and haunted) mansion. Also known as Mills View, the well-preserved Victorian was built in 1887, the same year that Monrovia was incorporated. 329 Melrose Ave., Monrovia.

The Robeson Funeral Home, The People Under the Stairs (1991) The main setting of this Wes Craven fan favorite is a house with so many sinister secrets that it became the focal point of the ﬁlm’s poster and the cover art for various home video releases. The 1905 Thomas W. Phillips residence was named a Los Angeles HistoricCultural Monument two weeks after the ﬁlm was released. 2215 S. Harvard Blvd., Adams-Normandie.

Christine’s House, Drag Me to Hell (2009) > This 1908 craftsman perched atop Everett Park recently sold for just over $1.3 million. While it appeared in cop ﬁlms like Blue Streak and, most famously, Training Day, it was later the home of a wholesome banking associate who ﬁnds herself on the receiving end of a demonic curse in Sam Raimi’s scare fest. 1031 Everett St., Echo Park.

The Lambert House, Insidious (2010) > Leigh Whannell and James Wan’s successful franchise kicks off with a young couple and their three kids moving into this cavernous 1909 home. Then the eldest son falls into an inexplicable coma, setting off a series of bone-chilling paranormal occurrences throughout the house. 4350 Victoria Park Dr., Victoria Park. L A M AG . C O M 2 1

Incoming

ORIGINALS

Deuce, but I saw his work in Ocean’s Eight. He was a busboy, and he was on screen for a total of 17 seconds. But he was great. He’s terriﬁc in the ﬁlm. I was surprised to read that, before he auditioned for the part, he hadn’t actually watched The Sopranos. Did you know that? > Yes, I did. But I didn’t know it until after he’d been cast. Did he explain why? It’s his father’s most notable role. > I believe he said why, but I don’t recall now. I can assume it would be too painful. And it would take him all the way through his life, almost—he was born during the show.

Gangster Rap

DAVID CHASE ON CASTING JAMES GANDOLFINI’S SON IN THE SOPRANOS PREQUEL, LES MOONVES’S DOWNFALL, AND HOW HE FEELS ABOUT HIS CRITICS BY ANDREW GOLDMAN

T ’ S F I T T I N G T H AT The Many Saints of Newark, The Sopranos prequel, would arrive in movie theaters on the same day—Oct. 1—that the TV show premieres on HBO Max. David Chase, the cranky genius behind them both, tortured himself throughout his successful TV-writing career because all he’d ever wanted to make was great ﬁlms like his hero Federico Fellini. Having created The Sopranos, a show that spawned the genre of “prestige television” when it debuted in 1999, might he he have ﬁnally become a convert to the medium and agnostic about how audiences consume his newest work? Nope. Says the famously intransigent Chase, “The one thing I wish for For more of Andrew is for everyone to see this movGoldman’s conversation ie in theaters.” Like his masterwith David Chase, check out The Originals piece and legacy Tony Soprano, on Apple Podcasts he’s asking nicely—for now. 22 L A M AG . C O M

Much of the interest in Many Saints before the trailer came out was in the casting of Michael Gandolfini, James’s son, to play young Tony Soprano. When I first heard it, I thought, “Maybe it’s a good idea,” but I also wondered if it might be a little gimmicky? > I had hesitations about it on the level of gimmicky. I had no hesitation in any other sense. Even though Alan Taylor directed the film, I gather you had a role in casting. When did the idea come to you? > Well, we saw a bunch of guys that age, and it wasn’t really going that well, although that’s the typical casting process—it’s not going well until that one person walks in, and all of a sudden it’s going great. During that period, I just thought it had to be Michael. I knew Michael was an actor. I hadn’t seen his work in The

Les Moonves [once chairman of CBS] famously saw the script of The Sopranos and said, “I like it, but can we take out the psychiatry?” > He said, “Look, I don’t mind the robbing and the killing and all that, but does he have to go to a psychiatrist? Is he going to take Prozac? Really? Does he have to do that?” And I said, “Yes,” and he said, “Well, OK, then—no, thank you.” But when a Moonves is felled by a sex scandal and is run out of town, is part of you like, “Finally”? > Part of me goes, “Well, that’s interesting.” Les and I didn’t get along. I had a twoyear deal at Lorimar TV that Les organized. I remember two public-relations guys came up from Washington and all the executive producers and potential executive producers on the lot were called to this meeting in which these guys explained what it was they were there for and asked if TV drama I L LU S T R AT I O N BY C H R I S M O R R I S

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WATCH

could help with the war on drugs. And I didn’t say a lot. And they went around the table, and people were saying, “Well, if we did this and we did that . . .” And then I said, “I think the best thing we could do to ﬁght against kids using drugs is to not make drugs ourselves: boring, stupid, irrelevant shows, one ripping off another. What we could do is to make really great television. That would keep kids off drugs maybe.” And Les went, “Why don’t you get out of the business, David? Get out of it!”

Did you experience any kind of grief when she died? > No.

You’ve said how close the Livia Soprano character was to your late mother, Norma. You’ve said when Nancy Marchand ﬁrst appeared in your office to read for Livia, you found it uncanny how much she resembled her. > Yeah, it was as if she was channeling her.

“I believe that [James Gandolﬁni] had a problem with authority ﬁgures. I was one of them.”

Your mother didn’t live to see The Sopranos, but she was alive to see you win an Emmy in 1980 for Off the Minnesota Strip. Did she at least bathe in your success? > No. She made out like she didn’t know about it. Or maybe she didn’t know about it. I don’t know. Could you have written The Sopranos had she still been alive? > No. When it became famous, I remember thinking, “Oh, it’s a good thing she’s passed away.” Do you feel like your mother didn’t wish for success or happiness for you? > She wanted for me to succeed in a way that would bring acceptance and glory to her and to my father. In other words, a schoolteacher, a minister—something like that. This whole show-business thing and stardom, she just didn’t get it. 24 L A M AG . C O M

You come off to some people as a scary character. I once read the rap sheet for Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Walnuts, and I have to say some of the things he did back in the day were pretty frightening. But Tony once said, “I’ve met a lot of tough guys in my life, but when I see David, I step back.” What is about you that scares people?

> I don’t know. Well, in high school, I was extremely shy, had a very low self-esteem when it came to girls because I wasn’t playing sports. But I was in a rock and roll band. And girls said about me, “He seems like a criminal, always so sour.” All my aunts told me that when I was a little, I was never smiling—even before I could talk. I remember my Aunt Mary saying, “You could stand on your head to make him laugh, and he wouldn’t do it.” I just didn’t. I don’t know. When The Sopranos was shooting, there was a suspicion that because of James Gandolﬁni’s partying and erratic behavior he might not survive until the end of the series. Were you surprised when he died? > I was not surprised. Were you destroyed? > No. No? > He and I were sick of each other by that time. Was I

sad? Yeah, sure. Was I upset? Yeah. But I wasn’t destroyed. At his funeral, I said I felt like his brother because brothers don’t always get along. And we did have something that we both understood that I can’t even name about where we were in the universe. We both got it. And I don’t know that anybody else got it. But I believe that he had a problem with authority ﬁgures. I was one of them.

It never seemed like Gandolﬁni enjoyed his fame outside the show. You would see him in the tabloids looking miserable, shooing away paparazzi. It could have been a neverending party. > He partied quite a bit. But in the end, I don’t think he enjoyed it. I had intimate conversations with him, and he was not happy. He blamed his problems on the role: “Playing Tony Soprano is what makes me an asshole.” Had you not cast Gandolﬁni, do you think that the show would have become the phenomenon it did? > No, I do not. Something was going on in the universe there. In the second or third season, Brad Grey [The Sopranos’s executive producer, who died in 2017] said to me, “You know, this is it; this is never going to happen again. You know the expression, ‘Lightning in a bottle’?” And I took that seriously. Tony is 15 at the end of The Many Saints of Newark.

When The Sopranos started, Tony was about 35. There’s a lot of terrain that could be covered in those 20 years. Do you have any plans or hopes to continue the story? > I’d have to be asked first. Warner Bros. would have to say, “Do you want to do this?” And I would [only] be interested in it if Terry Winter [The Sopranos’s writer and executive producer] and I could do it together—write and produce. Otherwise, it’s just too much work. I’m not going to ask you if Tony died in The Sopranos finale that aired in 2007. At times, you’ve suggested he was alive and at other times that he was dead, and you’ve gotten angry when people have inquired about it. Why does it bother you so much when people ask? > Well, it doesn’t really bother me now. I mean, at that time, it bothered me that people were so offended by the ending. That’s what got me—not that they didn’t like it—that they were offended. I couldn’t believe it. You know, I was in France [when it aired], and people said, “He ran away to France.” That’s where I had a house. And we used to go there every year. Looking back now, I was shocked by how invested the critics seemed to be about the finale. Nikki Finke wrote, “Chase clearly didn’t give a damn about his fans. Instead, he crapped in their faces. This is why America hates Hollywood.” > Well, you know what? Everybody hates Nikki Finke. Probably all her life, people have hated Nikki Finke. So I would crap in Nikki Finke’s face but not the audience’s. For more of Andrew Goldman’s conversation with David Chase, go to lamag.com.

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legedly found Grahame, at that time his wife, in bed with his teenage son from a previous marriage, and though such a thing could happen in any city, in no other city would it surprise you less. Meanwhile, 15 miles away at the other end of town, far from the toxic frolics of Hollywood, 1995’s Devil in a Blue CLASSIC MOVIES SET IN LOS ANGELES—SOME WELLKNOWN, SOME LESS SO—OFFER CANDID GLIMPSES Dress incorporates L.A.’s classic private-eye narrative into OF A CITY GETTING READY FOR ITS CLOSE-UP the postwar African American experience. Denzel Washington is the Black Philip Marlowe named Easy Rawlins, and BY STEVE ERICKSON Jennifer Beals is the titular devil, both struggling mightily if futilely not to have the movie stolen from under them by TA RT I NG I N T H E E A R LY 1 9 0 0 s and continuing Don Cheadle’s breakthrough as Rawlins’s unhinged, trigover the course of cinema’s first 30 or 40 years, ger-happy pal Mouse. If the story from Walter Mosley’s novLos Angeles was the setting of virtually every el is serviceable enough, Devil in a Blue Dress’s greatest atAmerican movie made, even when it was a standtraction is how it captures L.A.’s legendary Central Avenue in for ancient Rome and African jungles, English moors nightlife: exultant and full of irrepressible jazz even in the and the antebellum South. But sometime around the midface of a white mob, white political decadence, and oppresdle of the twentieth century, the city evolved from a burg of sive white cops looking for a lone detective of color to stick haciendas and hayseeds into a with a murder or two. At the cenself-conscious world metropole. ter of Devil in a Blue Dress is a seSince then, some of Hollycret having to do with that most wood’s most remarkable movAmerican madness, racial idenies (from Sunset Boulevard to tity. If it’s a secret to be found in Chinatown to L. A. Confidential every other American city as well, to Once Upon a Time in Hollyin no other city would it prove as wood) have been about L.A. itrevelatory or consequential. self and how it became the ultiMeanwhile, 15 years later in mate American city—the city at L.A.’s lonelier places, Hal Ashby’s the end of America. Shampoo reduces the utopia of the Released the same year as late 1960s to 48 hours in the life of a Sunset Boulevard but subtler motorcycling hairdresser played by and more unsettling, 1950’s In Warren Beatty. Less than a couple of a Lonely Place (directed by decades have transpired since BogNicholas Ray, who would go on art careened his way up PCH with to immortalize James Dean a a vengeance, but it feels like it could few years later in Rebel Without have been a couple of centuries. a Cause) unfolds across an L.A. For the first time, on the eve that must have struck audiences of the 1968 election, SoCal is as something between paradise about to send one of its own to lost and a ghost town. The small Since 1950, some of Hollywood’s the White House as an angel of garden villa of Hollywood apartdeath for not only tens of thoumost remarkable movies have ments across whose bewitchsands of young Americans in been about L.A. itself. ing courtyard Gloria Grahame Southeast Asia but also L.A.’s lures over-the-hill screenwriter own groovy naiveté. Shot down and murder suspect Humphrey at the Ambassador Hotel only Bogart couldn’t signify any other American city—in fact, months earlier, Robert Kennedy’s shadow hangs over Shamit’s a re-creation of Ray’s actual apartment near Fountain poo along with Richard Nixon’s (the silhouette in the disand Harper—and if you’re familiar with the shadowy Patance is Manson). When it was released in 1975, Shampoo cific Palisades where Bogart chases his ever-darkening rofelt like a galaxy away from 1968, when L.A. was a universe mantic vision, you’ll recognize the hills and hairpin turns unto itself with celestial coordinates called Rodeo and Canaround Chautauqua. on, and Laurel and Benedict. At the movie’s climactic psyA study in violence and paranoia, In a Lonely Place is chedelic bash, everyone knows something is coming to an one of American film’s great sleepend in a haze of illicit drugs that L.A. billboards now adverers, accruing stature every mintise half a century later. C I T Y OF N I G H T Warren Beatty, Goldie ute since its modest release. It also Vintage L.A. was always a state of mind as well as place, Hawn, and Julie Christie seems worth mentioning that around and Shampoo is about the night that left L.A. stranded from star in Hal Ashby’s portrait of 1968 L.A. the time the movie opened, Ray alits darkly glamorous past.

26 L A M AG . C O M

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY C H R I S T O P H E R H U G H E S

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MUSIC

song for a CBC show, and the whimsical “Dr. Junk,” with its Bo Diddley beat and lyrics about a garbage-collecting dentist, vanished into oblivion—until now. On October 29, Rhino will release Joni Mitchell Archives Vol 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971). The five-CD or ten-LP box set features a wealth of home recordings, live sets, studio outtakes, and some unfinished songs unheard by even Mitchell’s most dogged fans. The release comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of her seminal album Blue in June and ahead of her receiving long-overdue Kennedy Center honors in December. At age 77, six years after a life-altering aneurysm, Mitchell is back in the spotlight and, with this set, letting us into her world a little more. Among the previously unreleased studio tracks is a take of “Both Sides, Now,” rejected because it didn’t fit the concept of Song to a Seagull. It would be the biggest hit of her life, and she’d decided to let it wait. What other artist would sacrifice commerce for artistic vision? The box set also features stunning alterF E E L I NG I T nate versions of some beloved tracks, like Mitchell says “River” with French horns and “Urge for initially Blue was criticized Going” with strings. The versions originally for being too released were sparse, just guitar and vocals. personal. The songs on Blue came from a time when Mitchell felt, as she put it, “as vulnerable as a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes.” In an interview with Cameron Crowe accompanying the box set, she recalls that early reactions to Blue weren’t glowing. “The initial response I got was critical, A NEW JONI MITCHELL BOX SET SHOWCASES NEVER-BEFORE-HEARD mostly from the male singer-songwritTRACKS FROM THE ENIGMATIC SONGBIRD’S EARLY DAYS ers,” she said. “It was kind of like Dylan B Y D AV I D YA F F E going electric. They were afraid: ‘Is this contagious. Do we all have to get this O N M A R C H 1 9 , 1 9 6 8 , Jimi Hendrix walked honest now?’ That’s what the boys were telling me. ‘Save into Ottawa’s Café Le Hibou to record a something of yourself, Joni. Nobody’s ever gonna cover 24-year-old singer-songwriter who had just these songs. They’re too personal.’ ” been signed to his label. Her name was Joni The set also includes a restoration of Song to a Seagull Mitchell, and while she appeared winsome and wan, she that corrects the sins of David Crosby, who really didn’t was really a diva on a stealth mission to get her great know how to produce a record. The original tapes were songs out there. Hendrix later wrote in his journals that exposed to too much surface noise: Judy Collins said it she was a “fantastic girl with heaven words.” sounded like a bell jar, Mitchell said it sounded like a bowl Mitchell and Hendrix were both on the cusp of fame, of Jell-O. The debut was so glorious, people listened past and they went back to his hotel that night to listen to the the audio issue. Now we don’t have to. recording. Soon after, the tapes were stolen. “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone,” Mitchell told Decades later, they mysteriously resurfaced in a private us all those years ago. But with this collection, you do know. collection and were returned to Mitchell. Many of the David Yaffe is a humanities professor at Syracuse Unisongs on the tapes would end up on her debut album, versity and the author of Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Song to a Seagull, released days after the Ottawa perforJoni Mitchell. mance. Others, such as “The Way It Is,” a rejected theme

More Sides Now

28 L A M AG . C O M

P H O T O G R A P H Y BY J O E L B E R NS T E I N

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W H E R E T O E AT N O W

New & Notable Agnes Restaurant & Cheesery PA S A D E NA O This low-key charm-

Westside Story AFTER GAINING ACCLAIM IN THE VALLEY WITH CREATIVE, IMPECCABLY SOURCED OMAKASE , THE BROTHERS SUSHI IS READY TO TEST THE WATERS IN SANTA MONICA B Y A N D Y WA N G

ALLEY SUSHI SUPERSTAR Mark

for four or five cooked dishes, ten to 15 pieces of Okuda has some things to prove on sushi, and dessert. the Westside. As he was coming up in the sushi scene, “People see Valley sushi as more Okuda remembers mentors telling him to folike rolls,” says Okuda, who’s working cus on getting the best ingredients from Jato open a Santa Monica outpost of the Brothers pan. But what he’s learned over the years is Sushi this month. “I want to show them that we that he should just get the best ingredients he use fresh, seasonal, and dry-aged ingredients.” can find, no matter their provenance. At the In 2018, Okuda took over the Brothers Sushi Brothers Sushi, Okuda is dry-aging Ora King in Woodland Hills and transformed a neighborsalmon from New Zealand, and he’s serving hood restaurant into one of the city’s top spots it with local arugula and Italian truffles. He’s for serious omakase. He believes Santa Monica so devoted to procuring superior ingredients and the surrounding areas have an even larger that he regularly drives to the Saturday farmappetite for blowout meals, ers market in Torrance, so he’s looking forward to more than 35 miles from showcasing super-premium Woodland Hills, to buy ingredients like hairy crab, produce such as berries, king crab, and abalone. ice plants, and Japanese T he Santa Monica green onions. restaurant will serve à la “I’m pretty picky,” carte sushi and familyOkuda says. “If you’re gostyle shared plates in its ing to spend this much 40-seat dining room and money, I want to provide on its 12-seat patio. There the best ingredients poswill also be a six-to-eightsible.” 1008 Montana SMALL DELIGHTS seat counter for omakase, Ave., Santa Monica, Okuda takes pains to source unique ingredients like these firefly squid. which will cost about $180 thebrotherssushi.com.

30 L A M AG . C O M

Moo’s Craft Barbecue L I NC O L N H E I G H T S O The beloved Smorgas-

burg vendor and pop-up now has a brick-andmortar space to call its own. Andrew and Michelle Muñoz serve up great Texas-style brisket and ribs, along with Mexican American riffs, like pork verde sausage. 2118 N. Broadway, mooscraftbarbecue.com.

Grandmaster Recorders H O L LY WO O D O A former recording

studio to legends like Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, and Beck is being turned into a restaurant with a 130-seat dining room, a bar, and a rooftop patio. Australian chef-couple Monty and Jaci Koludrovic will serve modern ItalianAustralian cuisine. 1518 N. Cahuenga Blvd. —HAILEY EBER AND H E AT H E R P L AT T

JA KO B L AY M A N

F R E S H C AT C H

Chef Mark Okuda looks to Japan, local purveyors, and even New Zealand for ﬂavorful, pristine ﬁsh for his sushi.

er—the work of two alums of acclaimed San Francisco Italian joint Flour + Water—deftly mixes midwestern hospitality and European technique. The casual lunch is all about cheese and charcuterie boards and sandwiches. At dinner, excellent pastas, smartly prepared proteins, thoughtfully selected wines, and great cocktails join the party on the spacious patio. 40 W. Green St., agnesla.com.

Incoming

M A R K E T WAT C H

Shelf Involved WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING TO SPICE UP DINNER OR CURE A COLD, CHINATOWN’S SESAME L.A. STOCKS A PERFECT MIX OF THOUGHTFUL PANTRY ESSENTIALS B Y H E AT H E R P L AT T

“ M Y H E A R T WA S bursting when I came here—it just felt right,” says Linda Sivrican of Sesame L.A. (936 N. Hill St., sesamela .com), her new pan-Asian market in Chinatown’s Central Plaza. The neighborhood is a nostalgic place for Sivrican, who was born in Vietnam and grew up in Upland, California. As a child, she used to spend weekends shopping and eating in Chinatown with her family. As a young adult, she studied at the nearby Institute for Art and Olfaction and went on to work as a perfumer, opening her own shop, Capsule Parfumerie, in Beverly Grove. Now she also has Sesame L.A., with its stylish, carefully selected mix of pantry staples. “We have a super-small space, so everything we put in here we really, really love,” she says. Have a look.

CAM PHOROUS S T E A M I NG HERBS » “When you get sick or when you’re about to get sick, you boil these leaves in a big pot of water and hold a sheet over yourself and give yourself a whole-body sauna,” says Sivrican. “They really work. I grew up on the herbs, so I wanted to introduce them to people who aren’t familiar with them.”

3 2 L A M AG . C O M

D E S T R OY E R JA M S A N D N U T BU T T E R » Sivrican became friends with Jordan Kahn after he hired her to make fragrances for his famed avant-garde restaurant, Vespertine. She was keen to carry some of the gourmet-toast accoutrements he makes. “He’s been super supportive.”

OMSOM SPICE PAC K E T S » “They make it easy to create popular Asian meals at home,” she says of these pre-blended seasoning packs. “I love that they’re made by Vietnamese sisters who are loud and proud of our culture. I’m partial to their Vietnamese blend.”

LEMONG R A S S SAT E » “This is made by my mom’s former business partner in Orange County,” Sivrican says. “It’s a rich, fragrant dip, marinade, and sauté sauce with just the right amount of umami and spice. It’s really versatile and works with all types of protein and vegetables.”

P R E PA R E D FOODS » Sivrican’s mother, who has worked in food for years, offers up comfort fare like veggie curry, beef bourguignon, and crab-andasparagus soup in the refrigerated case. Sivrican says, “The food tastes like an elder makes it. So if you grew up around it, it would remind you of home.”

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HEN ALICE CHERNG

and Belinda Wei met in 2015, they became fast friends. The duo bonded over their both being Taiwanese Americans and alums of Café Gratitude. “Our friendship was forged over eating a lot of vegan food,” Cherng recalls, “but when it came to desserts, we couldn’t find good ice cream.” Their complaints? Vegan ice cream flavors were basic and missing the creamy mouthfeel of their dairy counterparts. Two years later, they launched Cocobella Creamery, one of the first 3 4 L A M AG . C O M

Baskin-Robbins-style vegan ice cream shops in Los Angeles. Initially, they primarily used coconut milk in their ice cream bases to achieve rich, smooth scoops, but as the years passed, they started to branch out and use other dairy alternatives like oat milk. To reﬂect their new formula, they’re now relaunching as Dear Bella and have added softserve to their rich array of offerings—from sauces to seasonal ﬂavors like candy apple—most of which are made from scratch. “Our philosophy is it has to taste and look good, but be good for you, too,” Cherng says.

It’s not an easy feat figuring out the science behind vegan ice cream. Getting each flavor right requires extensive trial and error. The move away from coconut milk was motivated by a need for a dairy alternative with a more neutral flavor, one that wouldn’t lend a coconut edge to everything. Perfecting flavors can take, on average, three months from the seed of an idea to fruition. For their ube casserole ice cream, they slowroast purple yam as a way to dehydrate it so there aren’t potential ice crystals. Then they add natural colorings like red beet powder and blue spirulina to get a purple pop of color. Toasted marshmallows and candied pecans get mixed in to complete the recipe. “Sometimes we hit the nail on the head right off the bat, but there are some, like the red velvet, that took a two-year process,” Wei says. 1253 Vine St., Ste. 12, Hollywood, 323-8484672, dearbellacreamery.com.

L E F T PAG E : D E A R B E L L A C R E A M E RY; N U G G E TS : I M P O SS I B L E FO O DS ; TA B L E TA L K : P I X E D E N ; V E G E TA B L E S : E N VATO E L E M E N TS

Dear Bella Creamery is now making its ice creams with mostly oat—not coconut—milk, for better ﬂavor.

CLUCK YEAH! A NEW VEGAN CHICKEN NUGGET FROM IMPOSSIBLE FOODS IS THE LATEST IN A STRING OF HIGH-PROFILE FAUX POULTRY PRODUCTS. CAN IT RULE THE ROOST? BY HAILEY EBER

SHOTS FIRED! After conquering the meatless burger landscape, Impossible Foods is now entering the so-called vegan-chicken wars. In September, the Silicon Valley company released its Impossible Chicken Nuggets, available in Los Angeles at the upscale vegan restaurant Crossroads, along with various Fatburgers, and Vons, Albertsons, and Pavilions markets. “They’re even more convincing than the burger,” Crossroads chef

Where to Find Impossible Chicken Nuggets > Crossroads Kitchen 8284 Melrose Ave., Beverly Grove, crossroadskitchen.com

> Fatburger Multiple locations at fatburger.com

> Vons Multiple locations at vons.com

NO T - S O - G OL D E N N U G G E T S

“A lot of them can be rubbery. Most of them are dry,” Crossroads chef-owner Tal Ronnen says of plant-based chicken bites that have preceded Impossible Foods's new products.

Tal Ronnen says of the new nuggets. “They're insane.” Impossible's director of new-product development Laura Kliman says the nuggets, which are made with soy and sunﬂower oil, only took a year to develop, compared with ﬁve for the burger, which many consider to be best in class. “Once we understood how to break meat down to molecular building blocks, it was actually easier and faster for us to apply the same approach to other proteins,” she says. The nuggets are the latest in a string of faux poultry advancements. Recent developments include rival Beyond Meat launching tenders this past July, and Field Roast partnering with Costco to carry its products earlier this year. The plant-based meat market is estimated to be worth $13.8 billion by 2027, according to the market research database Million Insights. Impossible, which many believe has the superior plant-based burger, is said to be eyeing an IPO in 2022 with a valuation of $10 billion. But, Kliman notes, “many consumers still have plant-based skepticism.” The breaded nuggets, however, are surprisingly tasty and have performed quite well in blind taste tests. If ever there was a gateway drug to vegan proteins, Impossible's latest may be it. Pass the agave-sweetened barbecue sauce.

Is it vegan or plant-based?

> When it was announced in August that the annual Met Gala would not be serving any animal products, reports were quick to declare that Anna Wintour’s notorious prom was “going vegan.” But within the Condé Nast empire, a different word was used: “plant-based.” Savvy marketers are increasingly using the term in lieu of “vegan,” believing it to be more palatable. “It’s a brilliant replacement,” says Oberon Sinclair, the founder of My Young Auntie PR agency, who is credited with popularizing kale in the 2010s. “It just sounds cleaner. But that might have something to do with ’80s crusty vegan cafes.” “Plant-based” also implies a level of ﬂexibility, as in “I eat plant-based during the week, but on weekends, I put on a leather dress and pound cheeseburgers.” Sinclair notes that “vegan,” on the other hand, isn’t so ﬂexible, which might ultimately be what keeps it around. “It’s 100 percent trustworthy.” —H.E.

L A M AG . C O M 35

Incoming

T R AV E L

Better With Age GO FOR THE GRAPES BUT STAY FOR DINNER. THESE EXCITING NEW SANTA YNEZ VALLEY RESTAURANTS ARE TAKING WINE COUNTRY DINING TO NEW LEVELS BY HAILEY EBER

I N 2 01 9 , Lincoln Carson

had one of the city’s most acclaimed new restaurants. With its elegant, perfectly executed continental fare and gorgeous desserts, Carson’s Bon Temps made it onto just about every “best of” list. Then COVID-19 hit, and Carson had to close the business he’d spent years creating. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that he and his family lived in the same building as the shuttered restaurant. “It was not good for my mental health,” he says. In the wake of the closure, he headed to the Santa Ynez Valley, initially just to get away; he and his wife had long loved the area and thought they might live or retire there someday. But amid the pandemic, they decided to move sooner. “It was the catalyst to say, ‘You know what? Fuck it. What

are we waiting for? The world just ﬂipped upside down,’ ” he recalls. In June 2020, they relocated to the wine region full time, settling in the town of Buellton. Shortly after, an irresistible restaurant space in Solvang became available. This past April, Carson and fellow veteran chefs Anthony Carron and Steven Fretz debuted the ﬁrst phase of a dual concept in the historic Danish village: Coast Range and Vaquero Bar. The former is a beautiful steak house that will eventually also function as a casual café and pastry counter during the day. The latter is a charming watering hole serving elevated drinking snacks, from pristinely fresh crudo to a wedge salad. For dessert, there’s a not-to-be missed Meyer lemon tart. Both spots are exciting additions to the dining scene in Solvang, a town

A CUT ABOVE

At Coast Range and Vaquero Bar, chefs Lincoln Carson (right), Anthony Carron, and Steven Fretz serve a great Wagyu steak tartare (above).

that has been known more for its windmill kitsch but is seeing more and more serious cooking. Carson, who also just opened Mes Amis in Hollywood, is loving living in the country. “It’s just breathtaking,” he says. “You drive over the pass on 154 coming up from Santa Barbara, and as soon as you get to the top, it all opens up in front of you. It’s unbelievable that places like this exist.” 1635 Mission Dr., Solvang, coastrange.restaurant.

THE TAVERN AT ZACA CREEK W I T H I T S RUS T I C - LU X E

setting and a menu of indulgences—caviar lasagna, buttered rock crab—eating here feels like an occasion. Make it one by booking a room at the romantic adjoining inn. 1297 Jonata Park Rd., Buellton.

PEASANTS FEAST F R O M T O M AT O S O U P

BAR LE CÔTÉ T H I S B RA N D - N E W seafood tavern from a dynamic team—Per Se alums Daisy and Greg Ryan, who have the highly acclaimed Bell’s in Los Alamos, and Brad Mathews from Manhattan Beach’s Fishing with Dynamite and the Arthur J—has been hotly anticipated. “It is truly the culmination of an incredible group of creative energy,” says Mathews, who did a Bar Le Côté tour around L.A. over the summer to build buzz and preview dishes like halibut tartare with buttermilk vinaigrette. Daisy Ryan, who grew up in the area, is thrilled to witness its culinary trajectory. “There are some very exciting and relevant projects starting to pop up.” 2375 Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos, barlecote.com. 36 L A M AG . C O M

to tacos (below), whatever husband-and-wife team Michael and Sarah Cherney make, they make with care. The decadent housesmoked pastrami salmon sandwich is great winetasting picnic fare. 487 Atterdag Rd., Solvang, peasantsfeast.com.

COAST R A N G E : J E R E M Y B A L L ; B A R L E CÔT É : C A RT E R H I YA M A ; P E ASA N TS F E AST: CO U RT E SY O F P E ASA N TS F E AST

COAST RANGE

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A Shore Bet

DELTA VARIANT BE DAMNED, YOU CAN STILL HAVE A VENICE GETAWAY THIS FALL. A STYLISH NEW BEACH HOTEL MAKES A COMPELLING CASE FOR STAYING CLOSE TO HOME B Y V I C T O R I A M I R A N D A

H U NG W I T H C A R E

The lobby’s custom-designed blackenedsteel chandelier and brass-inlaid ﬂoor make for a dramatic welcome. “A good hotel entrance should be enchanting,” says Bell.

HE VENICE V HOTEL

leads with Hollywood glamour and a gleaming lobby. But take the elevator—said to be among the oldest in operation west of the Mississippi—to one of the 34 guest rooms, and you’ll see Venice’s multiple personalities on display. Designed by Relativity Architects, some rooms have beachy boho vibes, some allude to ’80s skateboard culture, and others have a warm minimalism. All feature pieces from local artists that have been curated by Relativity cofounder and longtime Venice local Tima Bell. “The design,” he says, “exudes the authenticity of place.” Rooms from $225, 5 Westminster Ave., Venice, venicevhotel.com. 40 L A M AG . C O M

G O OD OL D T I M E S

The hotel occupies a landmark 1915 apartment building that was built as the Waldorf, a residence for stars like Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, and Fatty Arbuckle.

P H OTOS BY M A R K D U R L I N G

In the oceanfront penthouse, stunning beach views look almost like paintings hung on the exposed-brick walls. “You've got this beautiful light-colored sand and bright-blue water and green palm trees as a backdrop,” says designer Tima Bell.

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AUTOMOBILIA

GOOD SPORT Audi has relentlessly upped its game in the EV category. The 2022 e-tron GT adds a particularly sharp arrow to that quiver. Built on the same platform as Porsche’s Taycan, the Audi GT ﬂaunts 637 horsepower, face-ﬂattening acceleration, and a mug that asks, “You talkin’ to me?” From $100,945.

Plug ’n’ Play SOONER OR LATER, WE’LL ALL BE DRIVING ELECTRIC VEHICLES. UNTIL THEN, THIS SWEET FLEET OF WIRED RIDES WILL BE LEADING THE CHARGE B Y M I C H A E L WA L K E R

JOY RIDER

GLASS ACT Mercedes-Benz dropped more than a billion euros developing its EQS sedan, the ﬁrst cleansheet, all-electric model to enter its hallowed S-Class stable of luxury barges. While the EQS’s performance stats are state-of-the-art—350 miles of range and a super-slippery 0.20 drag coefficient—it’s the interior that has jaws dropping, particularly this optional Hyperscreen that unfurls across the entire dash, From $125,000, available for order later this fall.

MARCH OF THE TESLA KILLERS Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz were blindsided when Tesla swooped in and started eating their luxury lunch with the game-changing Model S. The Germans have since regrouped; now, another California upstart, Lucid Motors, aims to out-Tesla Tesla with the dreamy Air all-electric sedans, with an industry-leading 517 miles of range, über-fast charging (300 miles in 20 minutes), and a cabin like the ﬂight deck of the Starship Enterprise as rendered by the Bauhaus. From $77,400, available for preorder. 4 2 L A M AG . C O M

Now that cheap, ugly e-scooters from Bird, Lime, and other fauxpopulist “personal mobility” startups are littering L.A.’s sidewalks again, Unagi’s The Model One offers a good alternative to bad motor scooters. The folding frame is constructed from carbon ﬁber and aluminum, with a magnesiumalloy handlebar imbedded with intuitive electronic controls. Safety is enhanced with a brilliant 47lumen LED headlight and ABS braking. From $840.

AU D I : CO U RT E SY AU D I O F A M E R I C A ; M E R C E D E S - B E N Z : M E R C E D E S - B E N Z U SA ; E - S CO OT E R : U N AG I S CO OT E R S

F T E R A D E C A D E O F O V E R H E AT E D H Y P E , EVs are approaching the threshold of crossing over from virtue-signaling early adoption to genuine mainstream acceptance. Yes, they still represent just four percent of new-car sales and are propped up by generous state and federal incentives. But the fasttracking impacts from climate change—and President Biden’s executive order that EVs account for 50 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030—are prodding marques from Ford to Ferrari, Buick to Bentley, to plug in and get the unleaded out. In the meantime, behold these power players from autodom’s big boys and some feisty new kids on the block.

SITTING PRETTY Tesla’s Model S gets high marks for exterior styling, but the nine-year-old sedan’s interior has always taken a back seat to those of comparably priced rides from Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW. Enter the Model S Plaid, which upgrades the cabin from steerage to business class with Zen-like wood and earth tones, and a control yoke straight out of a 787. The Plaid also pimps the Model S performance specs with 1,020 horsepower, 396 miles of range, and a 0-to-60 time of 1.9 seconds. From $131,190.

FRESH JUICE When Rolls-Royce and Bentley deigned to add SUVs to their lineups, it was to their everlasting beneﬁt— the Cullinan SUV quickly became the best-selling Roller. Now Bentley has pledged it will banish gasolinepowered models by 2030; the 2022 Flying Spur Hybrid, the marque’s second electric offering, is hand-built in Crewe, England. From $200,000, available in 2022.

TESLA: TESLA MOTORS; BENTLEY: BENTLEY MOTORS; RIVIAN: LUCID MOTORS

FUNNY FACE Amazon-funded startup Rivian Automotive’s longgestating R1S electric SUV—along with its R1T pickup—should ﬁnally start hitting streets this fall. Besides the enigmatic fascia with its lozenge-shaped peepers, what differentiates the R1S from other e-SUVs? For one, a dedicated national network of fast-charging stations like Tesla’s, capable of dosing power-hungry Rivians with 140 miles of range in 20 minutes. From $70,000.

L A M AG . C O M 43

Incoming

H OW I G OT T H I S LO O K

Mad About Hue FOR CHIC HOSPITALITY MAVEN PATTI RŐCKENWAGNER, VIBRANT COLORS, WHIMSICAL DETAILS, AND SUSTAINABLE FABRICS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME BY HAILEY EBER

Patti Röckenwagner, 52, Mar Vista For two decades, Patti Röckenwagner worked in corporate communications at companies like Paramount and Condé Nast. Such jobs required a muted wardrobe. But working in restaurants has allowed her to break away from the neutrals. “I love color,” says Röckenwagner, who co-owns the Röckenwagner Bakery Group and the retro steakhouse Dear John’s. “I spent 20 years in boardrooms where I wore the black, the navy, the gray, the beige.” Her love of bold shades is something of a signature; her friend, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, referred the costume designer on Knives Out to Röckenwagner’s Instagram as inspiration for her character’s colorful wardrobe. With her own wardrobe, Röckenwagner has embraced an evolutionary philosophy. “You can develop your style at every point in your life,” she says. “It’s actually really fun knowing yourself more, feeling comfortable in your skin, and knowing how you want to present. You know that way better in your ﬁfties than you do in your twenties.”

“I love color. I spent 20 years in boardrooms where I wore the black, the navy, the gray, the beige.” 4 4 L A M AG . C O M

HAIR

» I went gray six years ago. It was patchy—not a cool gray—so I started dyeing it. But my hair grew so fast, I was having to do it every few weeks. I thought, “I’m going through all this to look ‘natural’? I might as well do something fun.” So Sabrina Johnson [now at Vito Esposito Salon] helped me ﬁnd the perfect shade of platinum. Bonus, I love how it looks with the roots growing in, so I only have to dye it every six weeks. L E AT H E R B L A Z E R

» It’s Carolina Herrera, and I’ve had it for over a decade. It’s structured, but the leather is also really thin, so it’s not bulky. It moves really well. P R E TZ E L L A P E L P I N

» Pretzels are our signature item at the bakery, so my husband, Hans, and I will frequently wear some kind of a pretzel accessory, whether it’s a pin, a necklace, or a bag. I probably have 40 or 50 pretzel items. B LO U S E A N D PA N TS

» They’re from a brand called Another Tomorrow. What I love about them is every piece has a QR code, and you can scan it and see where things are sourced from. But the clothes are also really beautiful. This top and trousers are such a rich color. H A N D B AG

» Just like everyone, I wanted an Hermès Birkin or Kelly. But we can’t afford a $10,000 bag, so Hans made me one. It’s a Kelly bag he carved out of beautiful walnut burl wood 20 years ago for our second anniversary. It’s got leather straps and a suede lining, and it’s actually very functional. If there’s an earthquake or the house is on ﬁre, this is the one thing I would take from my closet. SHOES

» They’re Gucci from a couple years ago. They have pink lips embroidered on the T-bar. You can wear anything with them, and they elevate it. TO E N A I L P O L I S H

» Orly Glowstick is the only color I wear. It’s kind of a neon yellow, like a tennis ball. It’s bright but also oddly neutral. And it just makes me happy, since I’m an avid tennis player. P H O T O G R A P H E D BY I RV I N R I V E R A

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Politics

BY HILLEL ARON

RE GU LA R JOE

“We need to speak the truth about what’s happening on our streets,” Buscaino says.

T H E C O N G A D RU M

Pol Joey A CONTROVERSIAL SAN PEDRO COUNCILMAN AND FORMER COP KNOWN AS JOEY BUCKETS HAS EMERGED AS A SURPRISINGLY STRONG CONTENDER IN THE 2022 MAYORAL RACE. CAN BLUSTERY DEMOCRAT JOE BUSCAINO BECOME L.A.’S ANSWER TO NEW YORK CITY ’S ERIC ADAMS, OR WILL PROGRESSIVES TAKE HIM OUT?

56 L A M AG . C O M

started 90 seconds into the candidate’s speech, shortly after he declared, “Our city has devolved into a place where chaos is common.” A man wearing an American-flag bandana over his face had planted himself down on the asphalt in the middle of the crowd, legs crossed, and begun to play: doonk koonka-doonk, doonk koonka-doonk. It was a sound as familiar on the Venice boardwalk as that of spoken language. “Get the fuck out of here!” someone yelled. “You’re a piece of shit,” a man straddling a beach cruiser said, wagging his index finger at the drummer. “You’re being a fucking piece of shit!” City Councilman Joe Buscaino had come to Venice Beach at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday for his first campaign event of the 2022 mayor’s race. He was standing in a parking lot not ten yards from the boardwalk and from a very large and very strange homeless encampment, recently described by the L.A. Times as a “milelong ribbon of tents and shanties.” The surrounding beachfront real estate is among the most expensive in Southern California, and a clique of Venice homeowners have become some of the most virulently anti-homeless agitators around. About a hundred of them were there that morning, armed with Starbucks cups and handmade signs that read, “Public Beach—No Encampments!!!” and “SAVE US JOE.” Buscaino, a 15-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, read forcefully from a speech that laid out his three-part plan to tackle homelessness in L.A.: build shelters quickly; send outreach workers out to connect the homeless with shelters and housing; and if unhoused residents repeatedly refused shelters and/or treatment, “order them to get off the streets. And if that means using law enforcement, I support it.” He spoke for ten minutes and was greeted by a scrum of Venetians eager for handshakes and small talk. And then someone shouted, “Knife! She’s got a knife!” Buscaino’s private security team bundled him away as LAPD officers surrounded a girl in overalls and a bucket hat. Her name was Alaia Smith, or Angel, as she is called, a 19-year-old from Vancouver, Washington, who was living at the Venice encampment and carrying a six-inch hunting knife—for, she said, cutting fruit and to ward off wouldP H O T O G R A P H E D BY S H AYA N A S G H A R N I A

be rapists. The knife had fallen out of her sweatshirt, and someone in the crowd had noticed it as she hurriedly picked it up. After a brief struggle, Angel was disarmed, handcuffed, and arrested. And so L.A.’s 2022 mayor’s race had begun with a perfect Rashomon moment. To those who want the city’s homeless residents packed up and shipped off to Palmdale (or worse), here was a dangerous vagrant who had attempted to knife an elected official. “Homeless Lunatic Pulls Knife On Councilman Joe Buscaino” read a typically hysterical headline on the website of KFI (640-AM), L.A.’s right-leaning talk radio. To left-wing activists affiliated with organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, StreetWatchLA, and Ktown For All, who often protest encampment cleanups in aggressive and confrontational ways, this was only the latest instance of the city criminalizing homelessness and poverty or else it was a false ﬂag event.

While the last contested mayoral election in L.A. was fought over the thinnest of ideological territory by two liberal Democrats with prounion backgrounds, this one promises to be a contest over a divisive set of issues: crime, police reform, and, above all, homelessness. Buscaino’s positions on those issues are hardly extreme, and his campaign raised an impressive $800,000 in its first two and a half months. But his rhetoric, his supporters’ rhetoric, and some of his staff’s rhetoric have a way of inflaming the opposition, and Buscaino has become the bête noire of L.A.’s progressive activist community. After the Venice press conference, the People’s City Council tweeted that Buscaino is “L.A.’s Donald Trump.” A tweet from the L.A. Community Action Network called him the “Messiah of Segregation” and “a willing servant of structural racism,” adding, “His vision for bringing L.A. out of houselessness is by force, banishment, and ultimately death.” I first met Buscaino a decade

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5 8 L A M AG . C O M

ago, when he was running for city council. We spent an afternoon driving around the council district, which, in addition to San Pedro, where he was born and raised, includes Wilmington, Watts, and parts of South L.A. He was generically handsome, a bit doughy, with a winning, chipmunk smile. And he was nonconfrontational and full of insipid talking points like, “People are fed up with the standard politics as usual.” Although he was registered as a Republican from 2005 to 2010, his positions lined up with that of a moderate Democrat. Buscaino won the election, and went about his job in much the same way most council members do: not making too many waves, cozying up to the mayor, voting along with everyone else. (The city council was once notorious for voting unanimously 99 percent of the time; now it’s more like 98 percent.) During his ﬁrst term, Buscaino wanted to put a ballot measure before voters to raise sales tax in order

fix the city’s crumbling streets. But the idea was repeatedly shot down, first by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, then by Mayor Eric Garcetti, both of whom had their sights set on tax hikes for other causes (closing the budget deficit and building out L.A.’s rail network, respectively), and Buscaino essentially gave up without a fight, a decision he says he now regrets. At some point, he developed a pushy side. There had long been a proposal to renovate Jordan Downs, a 700-unit, 1940s-era public housing project in Watts. But the project had stalled after the city’s housing authority failed to secure funding. Frustrated, Buscaino wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times blasting the housing authority for not making the project a priority and called for the removal of the agency’s head, Doug Guthrie. The gambit worked—$50 million of funding was secured for the Jordan Downs redevelopment, which is now halfway completed and will double

G I V E T H E M S H E LT E R

Buscaino’s critics acknowledge he has taken a more aggressive approach to secure permanent housing for the homeless than fellow council members.

the number of units. It also created a shopping center that includes a supermarket and a Starbucks, the ﬁrst new commercial development in Watts in recent memory. I recently spent another afternoon with Buscaino, touring the district again. He wanted to show me how much it had changed. But I was struck by how much he’d changed. He’d lost a bit of weight during the pandemic (he recently took up running). Within minutes of meeting him at his large, Spanish-style house

Christmas

blocks from the Paciﬁc Ocean in San Pedro, he was taking shots at his fellow council members. Of the ﬁrst-time politician Nithya Raman, a progressive: “I don’t think she knows what she signed up for.” Buscaino’s chief spokesman, Branimir Kvartuc, who joined us for the afternoon, was even less politic. He dismissed City Councilman Kevin de Leon, widely rumored to be running for mayor, as “a scrub,” and said, “He doesn’t know what he’s doing.” I asked them about the criticism Buscaino gets from left-wing activists, which the councilman at times seems to almost relish. Kvartuc explained, “We have sort of a no-fear attitude. Every other council

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T H E C A N D I DAT E

Buscaino on the Venice boardwalk during his ﬁrst campaign appearance in the 2022 mayor’s race.

council districts when it comes to how many solutions we have open and in the pipeline,” says Amber Sheikh, who heads the Council District 15 working group on homelessness. It’s hard to know how many people are still sleeping on the streets of Buscaino’s district since there was no homeless count this year due to the pandemic. But Sheikh says the largest encampments in San Pedro have shrunk considerably, and she guesses that the number of unsheltered people in the district has gone down. “We’ve said yes to solutions,” is Buscaino’s constant refrain, and that story largely checks out. Even some of his critics agree. “He has taken a much more urgent approach to building and supporting permanent supportive housing in his district than other members,” says Sabrina Johnson, an organizer with the People’s City Council. But she adds, “I think a lot of that is an excuse to ramp up sweeps.” Buscaino was the ﬁrst councilman to restart cleanups of homeless encampments, which the council had placed on hold during the pandemic. And he pushed the city council to pass an ordinance that would have placed strict limits on where the homeless could pitch tents and banned them from sleeping outside if they’d been offered shelter. The council passed a narrower version giving council members authority to decide where the tents would be allowed in their districts, which Buscaino supported and vowed to use aggressively. “There’s got to be consequences,” Buscaino says. “Because right now, it’s lawlessness on our city streets.” Talk like this can make Buscaino sound like a bit of a reactionary. He

LO S A N G E L E S T I M E S V I A G E T T Y I M AG E S

member is so afraid. Even Nury,” he continued, referring to City Council President Nury Martinez, who has said she’s considering a run for mayor. “She’s been such a disappointment.” He added, “You have to be combative.” When Buscaino began running for city council, Kvartuc had just returned to the U.S. from three years in Croatia, where he’d been working as a photojournalist and, later, the owner of a standup paddle-boarding business. (“I’m the godfather of stand-up paddling in Croatia,” he informed me). Kvartuc and Buscaino had been friends growing up, and Kvartuc deemed a sign was too close Kvartuc joined the campaign as a volto his boss’s face and grabbed it, unteer. Buscaino’s first chief of staff, causing a scuffle that forced Buscaino Doanne Liu, was impressed with to cut his speech. Kvartuc’s ability to shoot and edit Says de Leon, “It’s unfortunate video quickly and hired him to be how public officials don’t think this director of communications. Kvartuc kind of behavior is horrible.” calls the councilman “Joe”; Buscaino In his own district, Buscaino has calls Kvartuc “Branny.” drawn criticism over his handling of In April, the two were inspecting homelessness, both from progressives a homeless encampment in Los Feliz like de Leon but also from NIMBY (well outside Buscaino’s district) groups, who have opposed the conwhen they were approached by an struction of shelters and supportive activist with StreetWatchLA, Jeffrey housing. Both sides Perez de Leon. Kvartuc have held protests took a few photos of outside his home. the councilman stepFive years ago, Busping around a makeBuscaino has caino tried to put up a shift shelter. De Leon, become the storage bin facility for who says he thought unhoused residents to Kvartuc was shooting bête noire use two blocks from video, took offense and of L.A.’s an elementary school. shouted, “Yo! What He was met by angry the fuck are you doing progressive throngs of homeownhere? Stop that.” The community. ers opposing the proj5-foot-8 Kvartuc was “We have a no- ect. He withdrew it. startled and, he says, felt threatened by the fear attitude,” But Buscaino pressed ahead with another 6-foot-4 de Leon. Kvarsays his chief site, this time near a tuc responded by going spokesman. police station. When head to chest with de the storage center Leon and shouted, opened, it was the first “Fuck off! Fuck off! of its kind outside Skid Turn around and fuck Row. In the last few years, the counoff!” All the while, Buscaino, annoyed, cil office has opened up three parking was calling out, “Branny. Branny. lots for safe camping, four homeless Branny.” The incident was captured shelters totaling 340 beds, and a on video and posted to Twitter. parking lot full of 75 “pallet shel“I’m pretty proud of what I did,” ters,” or tiny 64-square foot homes Kvartuc tells me. His boss was no equipped with electrical outlets, heat, more contrite. “I understood his outand air-conditioning. He’s converted rage,” Buscaino says. “I think Branimir three motels into temporary shelters represented a majority in the city that via state and federal government are outraged about these advocates.” programs and built a complex of 160 Then at a campaign event in Aupermanent supportive housing units. gust, as Buscaino, flanked by hostile “We’re doing better than most protestors, tried to read a speech,

has referred to seeing “buckets of feces” at homeless encampments so often that activists have taken to calling him Joey Buckets. “He takes the worst of what he’s seen and repeats it over and over,” says Johnson. “He really plays up the ‘buckets of feces.’ They don’t have any bathrooms. Where would you shit?” Buscaino likes to speak about the need for compassion and empathy but offers no apology for his charged rhetoric. “We need to either speak the truth of what’s happening on our streets or paint a rosy picture that all is ﬁne in the city of L.A.,” he says. My tour with Buscaino took us to a large complex of permanent supportive housing built during his tenure. Buscaino wanted to see a woman whom he had helped move in. We knocked on her door. He called: “Blanca! Concejal Buscaino. Buenas Tardes.” He was clearly excited to see her. “I’d just love to give her a hug.” No one answered. There’s a side of Buscaino that can be a living dad joke: loud, genuine, maybe a little offensive. When we were walking through a Starbucks parking lot, we passed a young woman struggling to get out of her car and into a wheelchair. Buscaino began to cheer her on, saying, “You got this! You got this!” He went to help her, and she laughed good-naturedly. Later, we were in Watts with some of his staff when a man walked up to us and asked for some money. Buscaino pulled out a ﬁve-dollar bill and stretched it out, then asked, “What are you gonna do with this?” “I’m gonna go to Popeyes,” the man said, sounding dazed. “You’re gonna eat?” Buscaino asked, handing him the note. “Make sure you don’t drink.” One of Buscaino’s staffers asked the man if he needed shelter. “No, I stay somewhere,” he said. “What’s your name?” Buscaino asked. “Tony.” “Are you Italian?” “No, I’m Black,” the man said calmly, and we all laughed. “All right, man. I love you,” Buscaino said. The man started to walk away and then turned back to say, “Thanks for not making me feel bad.”

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Two years after a series of #MeToo allegations turned Ryan Adams into a

PARIAH the struggling singer is finally breaking his silence. But does anyone want to hear what he has to say?

BY STEVE APPLEFORD PHOTOGRAPHED BY IAN SPANIER

64 L A M AG . C O M

OR SOME FLEETING MOMENTS, things seem good again in the home of Ryan Adams. It’s a warm summer afternoon in the Hollywood Hills, and the singer-songwriter has an acoustic guitar in his hands. As his colony of cats wanders in and out of the Tudor-style living room that he’s transformed into a recording studio, he begins strumming an unﬁnished country song of sadness and regret. “It’s cold here today, and the windows are frozen shut,” he begins, looking down at an open notebook, his voice soft and wounded. “I close my eyes and beg forgiveness before I sleep . . . It’s sad what we do to feel loved.” Adams laughs out loud and repeats the line—“It’s sad what we do to feel lo-o-o-ved”—then plucks the strings hard and stops. “I can never use that,” he says with a shrug. “I don’t know—how good can that be?” Self-doubt is a frequent companion these days for the once widely acclaimed recording artist and seven-time Grammy nominee. At 46, Adams’s life and career are shattered, and much of the vibrant circle of trusted friends and musicians he knew is gone. In most cases, they left without a word. Their exit abruptly followed an article published Feb. 13, 2019, in the New York Times under the headline: “Ryan Adams Dangled Success. Women Say They Paid a Price.” The newspaper alleged a pattern of sexual misconduct and emotional abuse, of obsessive and retaliatory behavior with several female artists, including one fast-rising discovery, Phoebe Bridgers. In the article, Adams’s ex-wife, actress-singer Mandy Moore, accused him of emotional cruelty and sabotaging her music career. And, most damaging, the Times said Adams traded sexually explicit messages online with an underage girl. Adams responded immediately via Twitter: “The picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate. Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false.” He also acknowledged “many mistakes” in his life and apologized to “anyone I have ever hurt.” But the damage was done, and it was severe. Adams’s record deal with Blue Note/Capitol quickly ended, along with release plans for a trilogy of albums he had just announced for the coming year. An upcoming tour of the U.K. was canceled. A few months later, his new manager very publicly split from Adams by leaking his client’s frustrated private messages: “I want my career back . . . I’m not interested in this healing crap.” More than two years of purgatory later, Adams is still ﬁnding his way to some redemption and seeking to restart his canceled career. He’s attempting to make new music again, hosting live-streaming concerts on Instagram almost nightly, as he performs entire albums, wanders his house alone, and talks up his cats. He’s also shared some of his darkest moments, alarming viewers and attracting unwanted attention from Variety and other media raising pointed questions about his state of mind. “I’m an emotional human being. Why can’t I communicate to people who are my fans and listen to my music?” he 6 6 L A M AG . C O M

asks. “If I don’t talk about it and I can only sing about it? It’s a ridiculous expectation of me.” Adams has done no interviews in the years since the Times article appeared. At ﬁrst, he was content to post public statements of apology in the hope of mollifying the music world that immediately shunned him. These messages were not well-received, and the music press that had frequently praised him no longer gave him any attention at all. He had been a jokester and a troublemaker in interviews, a thoughtful poet or shambolic party animal. A 2001 profile in Rolling Stone described the thenemerging star as “too prolific, a drunk, a mess, a shambles, a control freak, a genius.” Alongside genuine acclaim for his work from a range of SCENES FROM admirers, from Pitchfork to Elton John, A CANCELED he became known as an essential voice LIFE Ryan poses uneasily for connoisseurs of literate, deeply felt for a photographer songwriting, celebrated for his perforin his Hollywood Hills home in July 2021. mances at Carnegie Hall, L.A.’s Greek Theatre, and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. And now all of that was gone. “I felt like they were asking me to die,” Adams says now of the accusations, the loss of friends and professional support, the presumption of guilt. “So I’m losing my life’s work and my dream of who I am, my ability to provide for myself. And I now don’t have the emotional support to help ﬁx this. The door has slammed, and what am I going to do?” Adams’s new crisis publicist is concerned about him reopening a “can of worms” by talking about these issues—she asked not to be named in this story—but he’s also caught in his own catch-22: unable to move past negative perceptions without explaining himself and answering the charges. His early public apologies were met by criticism from Moore and others, who said that Adams should have expressed his remorse directly to the women involved. He’s since been in touch with at least two of the women in the Times story, including writing a personal letter to Moore. (His ex-wife has had no further comment and recently complained that an unnamed publication canceled a career-spanning interview because she refused to speak about Adams.) Immediately after the Times article was published, Adams’s world began to crumble. Friends and colleagues he’d spoken

looked horrible. He’s getting better and better now, but he needs some redemption.” Having already gone through the possible loss of a once-soaring career, Adams now fears he’s on the verge of losing much more. He has contemplated a take-it-orleave-it offer to sell the publishing rights to his songs; otherwise, he faces losing his rented house, his studio, everything. The possibilities of a comeback still seem far in the distance. His mood is ﬁlled with more doom than hope. The prospect of doing a long interview where he faces the accusations and tentatively contemplates his future is not comforting. “Are you going to kill me in this thing?” he asks, not for the ﬁrst or last time.

O N A N O T H E R A F T E R N O O N,

to just days before were simply gone. He compares the exodus to the movements of a “swarm of birds, and they all turn at the same time.” “I was in fucking shock,” he says. “I couldn’t sleep. Anxiety made me so sick. I couldn’t ﬁx it. I was functional in that I kept my house OK, and my cats were OK, but I was not well.” Adams began therapy immediately, which helped. One lifeline was his little sister, Courtney, back in North Carolina. They texted daily, spoke every few days. “Some of my best friends from back home were really worried,” he says. “Later, they said to me, ‘I didn’t think you would make it.’ ” Adams found that he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror. He didn’t change clothes for days at a time and spent most of his days alone on a couch with his cats in a small room with a TV. He survived on pad thai deliveries. During his ﬁrst year as a social pariah, one of his longtime female roadies was in Los Angeles to help a friend through a bad breakup. Adams let them both stay in his house, so she saw up close what had become of the once dynamic rock star she had toured with for years. “It’s the saddest thing ever,” she says. “He’s so screwed up. He’s so shamed. He feels so bad about himself.” (She asked to remain anonymous.) “He probably gained 40 pounds. He

visitors crowd into Adams’s home as he prepares for his first photo shoot in years. It’s a task he has ordinarily enjoyed since his earliest days in the alt-country band Whiskeytown, presenting himself as the image of a confident rock star, cool in denim and shades. But as he paces his living room, where a photographer is prepared to shoot, he can’t sit down. “I’m incredibly nervous right now,” he says, apologizing. Not helping is a flareup of his chronic Meniere’s

PHOTOGRAPHED BY IAN SPANIER

Immediately after the New York Times article was published, friends Adams had spoken to days before were simply gone. disease, an inner-ear disorder that for years has caused him hearing issues and moments of vertigo. He paces the room, then steps outside for a smoke. Adams eventually sits down to talk in his small TV room and reclines on a couch, feet up on a table. A cat lies beside him and falls asleep on a leopard-print blanket. Adams has spent a lot of time alone in this room, reading books, sleeping on the couch, ordering takeout. “Just having the TV on is like having a friend,” he says, then smiles. “I just realized how desperately remote and sad that sounded.” L A M AG . C O M 67

B O R N I N 1 9 74 , Adams came out of Jacksonville, North Caro-

lina, and landed in New York City to lead a new band of bristling country-ﬂavored indie rock called Whiskeytown. His solo career began in 2000, arriving fully formed as a musically gifted, disarmingly boyish wild man with big ideas and bad habits. From the beginning, romantic entanglements were the fuel behind his songwriting, much as they had been for Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, or Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. “I know that this is going to sound entirely shocking,” Adams says. “But musicians hook up sometimes, write songs about it, and break up.” On his ﬁrst postdivorce album, 2017’s Prisoner, Adams took

“I’m a guitar player-songwriter. I wasn’t trying to destroy anybody’s life.” ful singing and saw flowers and other offerings to the Hindu deities. Then the singing stopped as worshippers began to meditate. In that moment, Adams says, he felt something beyond his initial curiosity. It was like, he says, “waking up inside my body.” Adams began returning to the temple nightly. During one of those visits, a woman tapped him on the shoulder and said the swami wanted to eat with him. Adams immediately accepted. As they ate, he remembers the balding holy man gently telling him: “It’s so beautiful how sad you are because you are so broken. And all you’re doing is trying to put yourself back together. It’s exhausting, exhausting.” Adams wept right there. “For someone to tell me that to my face, who doesn’t know anything about my life . . . Talk about crying in front of a stranger,” the singer says. “He didn’t want anything from me. And it just fucked me up.” Adams was by then filled with self-loathing. Aside from the accusers named in the Times article, others had weighed in online. His sometime collaborator Jenny Lewis expressed solidarity with the women in the article and hasn’t spoken to him since. Then his guitar player, Todd Wisenbaker, a friend who had traveled the world with Adams for years and shared his obsession with Morrissey and the Smiths, very loudly quit. He posted a long, oblique message to Instagram that suggested a falling out over issues not in the Times article: “I chose to believe his insane version of the truth because it was easier than believing that anyone is capable of being this much of a monster.” Even now, Adams attacks no one. And he tears up for the first time when discussing the “deeply hurtful” exodus of the people in his life. “You know what? I love that guy,” he says of Wisenbaker. “I love that guy, and I support his journey and his disappointment, or whatever it is, with me. Because if I don’t love him now, someone I don’t speak to anymore, then I didn’t learn anything.” 68 L A M AG . C O M

no shots at his ex-wife but went typically inward with songs of romantic regret and loss. By most accounts, the breakup of Adams and Moore was difficult and drawn out. Even so, when the Times article landed, Adams says most surprising to him was that Moore was involved at all. “I was like, ‘What is the point of this now? Because this is going to hurt my family, and it’s going to hurt our friends.’ And we talked about this stuff years ago. Dissolving a marriage is MENTOR OR MONSTER Clockwise from below: Phoebe Bridgers, whom Adams discovered and recorded, performs at a release party for her E.P. Killer in Nashville. She later accused him of sexual improprieties; the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood, which Adams frequented after the scandal; Adams in 2006.

Phoebe Bridgers

FACEBOOK.COM/PHOEBEBRIDGERS; TEMPLE: VINCE COMPAGNONE/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES

He used to do so many interviews for each album release that, at times, he might be moved to say too much, to elaborate on drinking and drugging, struggles with mental illness, or to start a feud with other musicians (the Strokes, Father John Misty) or Sean Hannity. But now Adams feels the need to explain his situation and respond to the accusations. “I’m a guitar player-songwriter,” he says. “I wasn’t willfully trying to destroy anybody’s life. My actions as a human being, where I was on stage or in the studio the majority of all this time, does not leave this gaping-huge hole of time for me to be walking around like a romantic supervillain.” One afternoon, as he wandered his Hollywood neighborhood, he stepped into the Vedanta Temple, a gleaming miniature Taj Mahal built in 1938. Inside, Adams heard beauti-

RYAN: ANDY WILLSHER/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES; TODD: BLACKBIRD PRESENTS BY ROBERT RAUFFER

one of the most difficult and soul-crushing things you can do. And the best you can do is to do it with care. We did the best that we could. So, yeah, I was a little confused.” Their marriage ended unhappily in 2016 after a period of separation, but Adams believed they had finally got to a place of acceptance and understanding. There had been apologies, he says, and they had continued to communicate, in part to discuss care for the many animals they adopted together. That didn’t end after she met her second husband, Taylor Goldsmith, singer-guitarist for the band Dawes. “When she got engaged, I wrote her a letter saying that I am so proud of her and so happy for them,” Adams says. In the note, he made an awkward joke about being the “worst-ever FedEx delivery system, but our journey led you to this perfect, wonderful man.” “We had those kinds of exchanges and they meant a lot to me,” he says. Moore and Adams remained in communication for years, though there were also occasional comments in interviews blaming the other for failing the marriage. He once blurted that his ex had never once inspired him to write a song, which was obviously untrue. Their communication stopped six to eight months before the Times article came out. In the Times and in other interviews, Moore called her ex-husband controlling and said that he stood in the way of continuing her music career. She described a partner who was extremely needy and demanding. Their marriage became “unhealthy” and “codependent,” she recounted on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. As an established hitmaker with two pop albums certified gold and one platinum, Moore wasn’t without options and opportunities. Still, she turned to her famously gifted husband to help her with her songwriting. “I did write songs with my ex-wife and I did create music for her to write lyrics to sing to,” he says. “Those songs would not always be finished, but I was always excited when we did sit and play and sing together.” He introduced Moore to his friend, songwriter-producer Butch Walker, who guided hit albums by Pink, Katy Perry, Weezer, Green Day, and the Wallflowers. And a frequent visitor to their house in the hills above Griffith Park was storied producer and engineer Glyn Johns, who’d worked hit albums for the Who, the Rolling Stones, Linda Ronstadt and, in 2011, for Adams, for his understated fan favorite Ashes & Fire. Adams says Johns wanted to work with Moore and suggested recording an album of cover songs. In the Times, Moore alluded to emotional abuse during their marriage, though few specifics were in-

DISAPPEARING ACT

Adams’s longtime guitar player, Todd Wisenbaker, quit after the allegations against his old friend surfaced. “I love that guy,” Adams says. “Because if I don’t love him now, then I didn’t learn anything.”

cluded in the article. One example she gave was that Adams would often say to her: “You’re not a real musician, because you don’t play an instrument.” “If that were to ever come out of my mouth, I would have hoped that it was followed immediately by a sincere apology,” Adams says now. “I am capable of saying things that I later regret, and it sucks to ever have that happen.” He adds that he couldn’t have possibly meant it, since the ﬁrst time he saw Moore perform at the Roxy in West Hollywood, she closed her set playing a coveted Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar in a difficult tuning. “It was so good,” he says, “everyone’s mind was blown.” Asked if he held back Moore’s music career in any way, Adams takes a long pause. “Absolutely not,” he says emphatically. “Because the only thing I know is the guitar is in the next room, and I can go pick that up any time I want and I can be free on that instrument and there are no wrong answers on it . . . I don’t know how I would’ve prevented her from exploring that or pursuing it with someone else if I couldn’t offer it. I understand her disappointment. I see her point of view. I understand the frustration she must have been feeling. I wanted to be as helpful as I could.”

A DA M S L E F T N E W YO R K C I T Y and relocated to Los An-

geles around the time he and Moore married in 2009 and soon found the beginnings of his own creative circle of musicians and artists. He established a studio he called Pax-Am in an unused living room-sized space at the famed Sunset Sound, where decades of his musical heroes from Prince to the Stones recorded. A large American flag covered one wall of the space, and the checkerboard floor was crowded with instruments, cables, and vintage recording gear. In the adjacent room, he kept a manual typewriter for writing lyrics. Passing through Pax-Am’s doors was a long line of established artists (Bob Mould, Haim, Jenny Lewis) and newer voices. Among those was Phoebe Bridgers, who was just 20 when she first arrived at Pax-Am. She started hanging out there, and Adams recorded some of her songs as she played his treasured L A M AG . C O M 69

red, white, and blue Buck Owens acoustic guitar. A brief sexual fling began on his 40th birthday. “She was a friend and an inspiring, great musician, and she has a really funny and unhinged sense of humor,” Adams recalls. “Pretty much everybody that was rolling down to PaxAm was a cutup and a clown. It really felt super cool to have people that were like-minded because L.A. could be a really serious place.” Bridgers described to the Times being disturbed by Adams’s demands for attention and impromptu phone sex, even telling her he might kill himself if she didn’t comply. The article accused Adams of threatening to not release Bridgers’s record after their breakup and of taking back an offer to open for him on tour. Adams says he recorded many unknowns, male and female, at Pax-Am that he never put out on vinyl. And, ultimately, in 2015, he did release her three-song EP, Killer, and had his publicist announce its arrival in a press release that quoted Adams calling Bridgers a “musical unicorn” who “could make a jar of sand sound like Blood on the Tracks.” Bridgers was invited to tour as his opening act for several dates in March 2017, just ahead of her debut album, Stranger in the Alps. Bridgers told the Times that on the first date of the tour, Adams asked her to bring something to his hotel room. “I came upstairs, and he was completely nude,” she said. Adams says he has no memory of this. He also notes that he rarely sleeps in hotel rooms unless he’s ill, which is confirmed by crew members; he sleeps on his bus almost every night on the road, usually parked at a hotel, generally going to his room only to shower. To one of his longtime female roadies, the idea of Adams standing in a hotel-room doorway naked is inexplicable behavior from someone she knows as very self-conscious about his body. “That’s weird to me, but I don’t know,” she says, then wonders if a disorienting flareup of his Meniere’s disease could have caused such a scene. “Sometimes he gets completely whacked out.” Two of Adams’s female roadies agreed to talk about their ex70 L A M AG . C O M

T H E M O S T DA M AG I N G accusation in the Times article was

that Adams knowingly traded sexually explicit messages online via texts and Skype with an underage girl, identified in the article only as Ava (her middle name). Adams doesn’t deny the exchanges but says he didn’t know her age, and that pictures she posted on Facebook and Instagram showing her performing in New York nightclubs suggested she was older. They never met in person. The newspaper examined thousands of texts between them and acknowledged that Adams asked her to “convince me” that she was over 18. She sometimes said she was older than she was and never revealed her true age. After the story was published, the Times provided the FBI with copies of the text messages, which launched an investigation from its field office in the Southern District of New York. Adams’s lawyer, Andrew B. Brettler, confirms that the FBI

TIM MOSENFELDER/GETTY IMAGES

SHE SAID, HE SAID

After her brief affair with Adams ended, Bridgers said he called her to his hotel room while they were on tour and answered the door nude. Adams says he has no recollection of this.

periences with him but asked to remain anonymous for fear of damaging their own careers. Adams was atypical, they said, as a major artist having a crew with so many women (about half the 12-person crew). Other tours could be “horrible experiences” of misogyny and disrespect, but Adams provided a safe and welcoming workspace, they said. “It’s hard enough for women in the industry,” one says, noting the poor treatment she endured or witnessed while working for much bigger names. “And the gig that I felt the safest as a woman was the one that gets taken down by this article.” After the Times allegations hit, Adams’s female crew made attempts to reach Bridgers through social media and the cell number they still had for her from the tour. “I feel like we created the space for her to be 100 percent comfortable to tell us anything,” one of them says. “I fully apologize to her if she didn’t feel comfortable. The most irritating thing for me is that Phoebe has publicly called everybody around Ryan enablers, and we’re not. I love these women. I would have stuck up for them so hard . . . He does not intimidate me. This could have been solved before all this crap came out.” Bridgers joined Adams’s 2017 tour with no entourage at all: no band, sound engineer, tour manager—just her and her acoustic guitar. Adams told his crew to “take really good care of her,” one female roadie recalls, so they handled her sound and lighting, sold her merch, and generally looked after her needs. She also traveled on the crew bus. Bridgers’s last night on the tour was at the Orpheum in New Orleans. Dressed in black, she smiled and told the crowd, “I’m especially bummed tonight,” suggesting she was sorry to leave the tour. She then sang an Adams song from 2014, “My Wrecking Ball,” including the lyric: “And all the walls we built, they rise and they fall . . . Won’t you come and maybe knock me down?” Her career caught ﬁre from there, as critics and audiences embraced her vivid, conversational songs that could be sweet or jarring, emotionally delicate or intense. Among the most popular was “Motion Sickness,” which recounted a disorienting romance and was later revealed as an unﬂattering tune about Adams. By 2021, Bridgers was booked to headline some of the same big rooms once frequented by Adams.

searched the singer’s iCloud account and, he believes, the musician’s email and Facebook accounts. Adams was never interviewed by the FBI. In the end, nothing was found to prove a pattern of illegal behavior with underage girls, and the investigation was dropped in the fall of 2019. Adams’s lawyer was informed by the FBI in a phone call soon after. This information wasn’t publicly released at the time, just months after the original article, when it might have had the most impact. It wasn’t reported until January 2021 by the New York Post’s Page Six, quoting an unidentiﬁed source. One reason is that the support Adams once had from a team that handled his publicity, management, and promotion no longer existed for him. And there was little or no follow-up in the news media about the accusations against him. “I had been thoroughly canceled at that point, so what was it going to matter?” Adams says. Afterward, Adams and his lawyer communicated with Ava, now in her early 20s, and they came to an understanding about their earlier exchanges and the damage done. Even now, in his isolation, Adams won’t criticize her. “I cannot blame her,” he says. “I left home when I was 15, and I get it.” Ava also provided a written statement to Brettler that read, “I was not truthful about my age in my texts and communications with Ryan and I repeatedly told him I was 18. Contrary to the New York Times article, Ryan and I both freely participated equally in texts of a sexual nature with one another . . . Ryan is a good human being and my sole wish is that both of us have learned from this experience.” Adams understands he still faces lingering suspicion that he prowls for underage girls. “I have no history of this kind of bullshit. I love women who are tall and mean to me and smarter than me by half. This is not my pattern,” he says later, exasperated, between smokes on his back patio. “This part of it is insane.”

DISHARMONY Moore accused Adams of discouraging her musical career before their divorce in 2016. Adams cowrote songs with her and introduced her to industry heavyweights like famed producer Glyn Johns.

He hopes to perform a few West Coast theater dates solo later this year, with a more substantial tour in 2022. He’s uncertain what the reception will be, but his many Instagram performances have essentially been public rehearsals, Adams says. He’s also publicly pleaded there for labels to give him another chance despite having been strongly advised not to vent online. The same day Variety published a story about the posts, his crisis publicist quit. Adams recently performed a song as part of an online concert event to benefit roadies and support staff sidelined by the coronavirus called the FiLo Festival. Others who performed included Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and David Crosby. Adams was invited to the festival by ﬁlmmaker Justin Kreutzmann. “I’m somebody who has been in recovery now for many, many years. So I’m a big believer in second chances. I’m a big believer in not just writing people off,” Kreutzmann says. “Everybody needs friends.” Back in his living room, Adams is at the computer, playing snippets of songs, some new, some old and unreleased, all of them with an undercurrent of longing. “It took me a long time to not be afraid of the guitar again,” he confesses, describing his songwriting as a means to “crack some kind of code in myself.” Adams wants redemption through his music and says he’s working hard at it. “One day I was like, ‘Why are you still doing this?’” he says, then pauses. “That is probably a really good song title. That actually might be the best one I’ve ever had.” He reopens a notebook and begins writing down the words, saying them out loud again and again: “Why are you still doing this?”

“I had been thoroughly canceled at that point, so what was it going to matter?”

ERIC CHARBONNEAU/SHUTTERSTOCK

N E A R T H E E N D O F 1 9 6 9 , a drunk but inspired Jim Morri-

son recorded “Roadhouse Blues” with the Doors and growled the lyric: “The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near.” Among the many lessons that Adams learned from the Classic Rock generation, it’s a line well-suited to his current state of mind. His moments of musical euphoria are often interrupted by ﬂashes of despair. He still has no label deal, and few companies will even discuss working with him. He was in serious talks with a highly respected indie label for several weeks, which recently ended without an agreement. In the meantime, Adams is fully back to work, deep in writing mode. The new songs are “perfectly raw and really pretty,” he offers. His experiences these last two years will inevitably play a part. “I use what I’ve got and I work with it and I try to make something beautiful out of it. And then it changes me.”

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BY BOB SIPCHEN

AS SIX OF THE SEVEN WORST FIRES IN ITS HISTORY RAVAGED CALIFORNIA, GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM UNVEILED A $2.6 BILLION PLAN TO TAME THEM. BUT SOME EXPERTS BELIEVE THE STATE’S BURGEONING ANTI-WILDFIRE CAMPAIGN IS JUST A RECIPE FOR MORE DISASTER

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THE BATTLE JOINED A firefighter monitors the Dixie fire nearJanesville, California, which has burned more than 800,000 acres and destroyed over 1,000 structures. Along with the giant Caldor fire near Lake Tahoe, these hyper-intense wildfires fueled by climate change are testing traditional firefighting policy and encouraging new thinking. (Photo by Justin Sullivan)

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FEELING THE HEAT Right: Fighting the Caldor fire near Lake Tahoe. Opposite: Governor Newsom announcing his $2.6 billion firefighting initiative in May. The plan was criticized by some experts who said it relied on outdated and discredited strategies. 74 L A M AG . C O M

PREVIOUS PAGE: ZUMA PRESS; THIS PAGE: ALLISON DINNER/GETTY IMAGES

S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA continues to burn and Southern California’s traditional peak wildfire season prepares to blow in on the Santa Ana winds, the state’s taxpayers face a climate-changedriven reckoning. Local, state, and federal agencies nationwide are sinking massive amounts of money into wildfire prevention and suppression. In May, Governor Gavin Newsom stood in an air-tanker hangar and trumpeted a record $2.6 billion state-funded program to fight and prevent wildfires. Long before he announced it, a coalition of conservation and business interests as disparate as the California Cattlemen’s Association and the Wine Institute, as well as government agencies, research centers, citizens groups, urban planners, public utilities, architects, developers, corporations, inventors, and nonprofits, were already clamoring for Newsom to vastly increase wildfire funding in order to join the fight—or at least snatch up a bit of the cash soon to be flying around like wind-blown embers. But even as California’s wildfire industrial complex blossoms, philosophical antagonisms are flaring over virtually every aspect of what to do about this force of nature, including which fires should be fought, when and where fire can be prevented, and the most effective ways to protect people and property when flames are headed their way. The one thing everyone agrees on is the urgent need to keep people safe and their homes from burning. When a fire-breathing monster like Caldor menaces villages near Lake Tahoe, the understandably panicky townsfolk are willing to equalize the fight by paying fire crews whatever it takes. Glimpse lightning bolts splintering through 40,000-foot pyro-cumulonimbus clouds spawned by this summer’s Dixie fire, and just about any spend-

ing on prevention seems fiscally sound. But as soon as the immediate threats fade, the battles of how to manage wildfires in an environment under unprecedented pressure from climate change resumes. In June, Newsom was roundly criticized after California public radio reported that he had exaggerated his claims about the progress of the state’s prevention efforts. In underscoring the complexity of this escalating policy fight, it’s important to note that a credible faction of wildfire experts was actually relieved to learn that the governor’s promise to “treat” vast swaths of fire-prone wildlands by chainsawing, weed-whacking, poisoning, and chewing them up with huge masticators had stalled. “We all know that we’re faced with the hard reality of climate change,” the governor said in a statement to Los Angeles. “The hots are getting hotter. The drys are getting drier, and with that we’ve seen some of the largest wildfires in California history. That’s why I’ve taken an all-of-the-above approach and invested historic amounts in a short time on all fronts, including more firefighters, more aircraft, more engines, more technology, and more forest management, while expediting critical projects as necessary to meet the urgency of this moment.” In the meantime, as acres continue to burn, many of Newsom’s wildfire strategies remain under scrutiny, if not outright attack, as discredited policies of a pre-climate-change world. Cal Fire, the agency that leads the state’s war on wildfires, is also facing increased criticism for policies that some experts dismiss as regressive and damaging. The United States has wrestled with what to do about wildfire at least since the Peshtigo fire roared through Wisconsin in 1871, killing more than 1,500 people. It was the U.S. Army that in 1886 began making decisions about how to contend with fire in the newly created Yellowstone National Park. The U.S. Forest Service (“Only YOU can prevent forest fi res”) was founded in 1905 not only to fi ght fires but also to make sure America had plenty of timber. It moved to a policy of extreme suppression after the so-

identity now,” he says. Having worked for a decade with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, including a season as a helitak commando, Ingalsbee began to wonder why he and his crews risked being barbecued by remote fires that did not threaten homes or lives, fires that were arguably performing the ecological role nature had assigned. Soon, he thought, wildfire would change “from being seen as an adversary to an ally,” with those who battle wildfire “more focused on ecosystem restoration than wildfire suppression, serving more as stewards than soldiers.” But that didn’t happen. Ingalsbee hit his tipping point of frustration at a federal fire conference in 2005. He and others, he says, felt officials were ignoring established best practices, giving preferential treatment to logging interests called Big Burn—a 1910 wildfire that scorched three-million to clear lands that may not need clearing, fighting small lightacres across Idaho and Montana, killing 86—and later instining fires that may not need fighting, and acting as if the tuted a standing directive that all humanpublic had no business contemplating the caused wildfires had to be contained by 10 arcane mysteries of fire science. He pulled a.m. the day after they started. several colleagues aside for a beer, and toFounded the same year as the Forest gether they cooked up his organization. Service, Cal Fire built its first fire lookout Years later, and decades after Smoky tower in 1922 in the Santa Cruz MounBear first appeared in advertisements tains, bought its first fire engines in 1929, extolling the Forest Service’s zero tolerand hired its first seasonal firefighters ance policy on firefighting, Ingalsbee’s in 1931. Today, Cal Fire, having absorbed group still decries the “pyroganda” it says other agencies and under the authority the fire establishment exploits to get its of the State Forester, is responsible for 31 way. Part of his mission, Ingalsbee says, million acres of private land and contracts is to encourage those who share his orwith the majority of the state’s counties for ganization’s less militaristic approach to GO V. G AVI N NEWS O M emergency services. It runs fire academies, “change hearts and minds” with more oversees demonstration forests, and has a “pro-fire” messaging: Let more fires burn hand in everything from archaeological renaturally when it’s safe and ecologically search to urban forestry programs. Some sound to do so; keep a tighter rein on how critics trace what they see as Cal Fire’s overly aggressive public agencies and corporations spend tax money. The suppression strategies—and inherent conflicts of interest in image of the firefighter—how many “Thank you, heroes” wildfire mitigation—back to those beginnings. signs have you seen on TV this week?—has helped promulgate a media mindset about fire that often snubs scientists and tree huggers. “We have a credible message coming >>> from credible messengers,” he says. Ingalsbee blanches at the implications of strategies that ONDER THE TITLE “fire rangers.” That’s what have become the norm in the fire establishment, as reflected Timothy Ingalsbee, the executive director of in Newsom’s sprawling program and mottoes such as “All Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecollands, all hands, all options.” He points to the 2018 Camp fire ogy, wants to substitute, universally, for the that devastated the Northern California town of Paradise, word that happens to be the first one in his orkilling 85 people, as an example of what misguided practices ganization’s name—a title he now considers can do. The area, logged over decades, had burned about ten overly militaristic. “It’s a very different mission, different years earlier. Logging companies went in to do salvage work

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NEWSOM: CALFIRE OFFICIAL

WE’RE FACED WITH THE REALITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE: HOTS ARE GETTING HOTTER, DRYS ARE GETTING DRIER.

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>>>

C SANTA BARBARA researcher Christina Naomi Tague is among the growing number of scientists worldwide scrutinizing wildfire’s stunningly complex interactions with landscapes in the age of climate change. She began her career with a fascination for water. The field of ecohydrology drew her into studying how water affects landscapes. Not as counterintuitive as it may seem, she eventually became fascinated with H2O’s elemental opposite and how these two hydrogen-based parts of nature’s puzzle interact. Tague’s recent work is helping fire scientists understand (and maybe someday solve the puzzle) of how water, climate, and forest growth are intertwined, and how that connection affects ecosystems as droughts become more common and the parched air that accompanies them hotter. Along with UCSB colleagues and scientists from four other western universities, she used computer modeling to predict how

» ALTERNATIVE VIEWS Right: Richard Halsey, founder of the California Chapparal Institute, says some brush needn’t be cleared. “People say, ‘Wow, that hasn’t burned in 60 years!’ But that means it’s in good shape.” Below: Historian Stephen Pyne says, “There must be 30 disciplines” devoted to wildﬁre study today.

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climate change and a history of fighting wildfires may shape the way wildfires burn in the future. The study focused on forests but also offers clues, she says, about how tomorrow’s fire may behave in any landscape and what fire managers might do to limit risk. Her work is ongoing, but the thrust of her team’s recommendation points to letting fires burn when the situation is right and using controlled burning and other types of fuel reduction when it’s not. She warns, though, that our understanding of which situations are “right” still exceeds our scientific grasp. “California is going to spend millions and millions on fuel treatments,” she says. “And it’s still not clear how different fuel-treatment strategies work across the widely varying landscape of California.” The research so far suggests that some places—high elevation stands of trees in the Sierra, perhaps—could actually get healthier as the climate warms. But only to a point. Then “water availability becomes a greater issue. We don’t know when such a threshold might be reached. I don’t know the redwoods well enough to know whether or not we’ll lose them in 20 or 50 years,” she says. “But if it gets hot enough, we’ll lose them. Will people care? Probably.”

>>>

T’S NOT JUST majestic redwood groves that Richard W. Halsey, founder and executive director of the California Chapparal Institute, wants people to care about. He has upbraided journalists often over the past 20 years for failing to challenge the fire establishment’s eagerness to put what he sees as far too much tax-funded suppression and prevention in the wrong places. To grasp his perspective, consider this news story posted on the institute’s website: “During the past three or four days, destructive fires have been raging in San Bernardino, Orange, and San Diego . . . It is a year of disaster, widespread destruction of life and property—and well, a year of horrors.” The San Bernardino Daily Courier published that in 1889. “We’ve demonized the natural world to the point that people are terrified about it,” Halsey says. “They talk about ‘fuel’ as a sort of Orwellian term.” One nickname for California’s chaparral, which dominates much of Southern California, is “the elfin forest” because you must plop down upon a rock and make yourself small to appreciate its intricacies. Seen from this perspective, a mature manzanita, with its sculptural branches of peeling red bark, is as glorious as a giant sequoia. Chaparral, Halsey preaches, has always burned and will always burn and is unfortunately doing so with increasing frequency as the planet warms, often in recently burned areas where highly flammable grass replaces mature brush, but also in healthy stands of old-growth chaparral. This only compounds the crisis as the latter is good at capturing the carbon

TED TALK “FIRE: A BIOGRAPHY”COURTESY STEPHEN PYNE; HALSEY: COURTESY RICHARD HALSEY

that is often promoted as fire prevention. But the “flashier” grass, brush, and small trees that grew back in were perfect tinder. The blaze ripped through it faster than it would have through a more natural landscape, depriving people of valuable time to evacuate, he contends. But the less aggressive alternatives Ingalsbee advocates are those that few politicians or ranking bureaucrats are willing to risk. In some states, including Oregon, where Ingalsbee lives, legislatures are starting to push for laws to allow private interests to sue agencies if a fire escapes public lands. So even though most agencies have adopted the ethos of letting some fires burn, this “super reactionary moment,” Ingalsbee says, is causing them to throw long-term costbenefit analysis out the window.

DIXIE FIRES: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; NEAL WATERS/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

» BEHIND THE LINES A house is consumed by flames in the Dixie fire. Inset: With the state embroiled in an ongoing war with wildfire year-round, the demand for reinforcements is now so acute that private contractors are routinely called in to provide supplemental personnel, such as this firefighter in Greenville, California, during the Dixie blaze.

that’s cooking our planet. He bridles at the push for wholesale “treatment” of these landscapes that are integral to Newsom’s plans. “People will say, ‘Wow, that vegetation hasn’t burned in 60 years!’ But that’s actually a positive. It means it’s still in good shape,” he says. Halsey’s plea, too, is that we make sure we’re not destroying the very landscapes that draw us to the “urban-wildland interface” we fight harder each year to defend. The web of public and private collaboGiven the money involved, there’s no ration coalescing around fire invariably shortage of public and private helpers stepcomes undone in places. As an example ping in to advance that defense with bigof just how crazy things can get, Halsey ger air tankers and hose-humping robots. points to a case in which a San Diego rural Remote-controlled helicopters and biotelfire-protection district gave police power to emetric devices to measure firefighters’ via private contractor “to search for propertals are in the works. Forbes reported that ties to clear vegetation, do the inspections, Sierra Pacific Industries was earning $375 issue the violations, and do the work.” The million annually by “salvaging” usable contractor cleared about a half-acre on wood after fires tore through Northern — R I CH A R D H A L S EY one property and sent the owner, an artCalifornia forests. Last year, for the first CAL I F O R NI A CH APPA R A L I NS TI TU TE ist who’d designed the home and other time, instead of wading into the breach structures himself, a bill for $26,000. With themselves, California fire crews filled penalties, the bill grew to $65,000. Finally, foosball-sized globes with purplish potasauthorities auctioned off the house. sium permanganate and loaded 400 or so of these “dragon Halsey doesn’t downplay the need for precautions against eggs” into a box hanging from a drone. At the right moment, wildfire and protections of existing neighborhoods along the drone injected each egg with antifreeze and bombarded the wildland-urban interface. But he suggests that the wisthe drop zone. Chemicals reacted. Vegetation targeted for a est strategy, ultimately, would be to stop building in places back burn burst into flames.

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WE’VE DEMONIZED THE NATURAL WORLD TO THE POINT THAT PEOPLE ARE TERRIFIED OF IT.

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where it’s not safe. The problem with that approach, he says, is “there’s no money there.” Some lobbyists and PR consultants eager to pitch in to help craft local, state, and federal firefighting budgets are paid by developers and logging interests looking to diversify into thinning forests to create firebreaks or to tap the budding biomass business that burns forest debris to produce energy, he says. As the contracting boom grows, Halsey says, so does Cal Fire’s influence. “They’re salivating,” he says. What started at the turn of the twentieth century as the California Department of Forestry is quickly becoming “the most powerful agency in the state,” he contends. “Every single bill that we’ve tried to influence or change language in, Cal Fire is there the next day and they say yes or no. I don’t know why they have so much power and authority over the legislature .”

>>>

IXTY-FIVE HUNDRED firefighters are battling the Dixie fire when I reach Cal Fire’s chief and director, Thom Porter, to discuss Newsom’s budget and his critics’ challenges. “Six of the seven largest fires in the state’s history have burned in the last eleven months alone,” Porter says. “It’s absolutely incredible. Climate change has really given us a kick in the butt.” 78 L A M AG . C O M

Porter is impatient with those who think his agency is growing too quickly and with those who think it’s moving too slowly with its prevention efforts. The latter view, he says, fails to grasp the complexity of the “holistic . . . allof-the-above” approach Cal Fire has adopted or the web of obstacles that virtually any effort to treat a fire-prone area confronts. Criticism of the governor’s chest-thumping about how much controlled burning would actually get done, for example, overlooks environmental impact reports, air quality regulations, and new efforts to ensure that poor folks living in a mobile home on a dirt road near Victorville get as much protection as rock stars living in Malibu. Porter’s interest in the natural world was spurred by growing up in the charming and highly flammable San Diego County town of Julien. He went on to study forestry at Berkeley and worked his way up through the state fire agency. He brushes off suggestions that Cal Fire coddles elected leaders’ corporate cronies, including biomass companies and logging firms, in exchange for more and more power. “Mother Nature and climate change are the ultimate lobby-

SANTA CLARITA: HANS GUTKNECHT/LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS/GETTY IMAGES; PARADISE: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

» HOT SPOTS A Firehawk helicopter makes a water drop in Santa Clarita. Below: The Camp ﬁre’s devastation of Paradise stunned some experts, who theorize that thinning nearby forests to deplete fuel allowed the ﬁre to advance on the town much faster, shortening the window to evacuate safely.

ists,” he says. “All we’re doing is analyzing our deﬁciencies.” And the state’s needs aren’t limited to how it deals with threats to lives and homes, he adds. These notorious “last eleven months” have caused more destruction of federal and private timberlands in the state than the previous 100 years, incinerating hundreds of timber-related jobs. With the disclaimer that he is also California’s State Forester, a position that requires him to consider business as well as environmentalist interests, Porter says that seeking money for thinning undergrowth and cleaning up beetle-killed trees and replanting new ones—all pieces of Cal Fire’s “resiliency” strategy—is not “lining or fattening the pockets of an industry. It’s holding back from near-extinction one that needed to be here all along.”

>>>

began radically changing the natural world itself, most recently by burning coal, oil, and other hydrocarbons. As Pyne wrote: “The new combustion was no longer subject to the old ecological checks and balances. It could burn day and night, winter and summer, through drought and deluge. Its guiding rhythms were no longer wind, sun, and the seasons of growth and dormancy, but the cycles of human economies.” Pyne’s take on fire is refreshing for its willingness to ponder the web of myth, history, and science. It’s imperative to understand, he writes, that “fire is a reaction. It synthesizes its surroundings, takes its character from its context. It burns one way in peat, another in tallgrass prairie . . .” He calls fire “a shape-shifter.” What shape are we encouraging fire to take in California? On our planet? What are we willing to sacrifice for the right to keep using this force, and how apocalyptic must the bargain be?

TEPHEN PYNE’S sweeping view of fire’s role in the shaping of civilization and the natural >>> world began a few days after he graduated from EITH GILLESS, A PROFESSOR emeritus of high school in Phoenix, Arizona, in the ’60s. Forest Economics at UC Berkeley, says CaliforHe’d shown up at a National Park Service office nians need to weigh competing interests for on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to sign their money against the costly mayhem that clipapers for a summer job as a seasonal laborer and was mate disruption is only going to make worse. dragooned into a Hot Shot crew when a member didn’t He’s chair of the State Board of Forestry and report for duty. Fire Protection, so it’s probably a given that he sees value Pyne spent 15 seasons on the crew while earning a bachin more techno-wizardry and boots on the burning ground, elor’s degree in history at Stanford and masters and Ph.D. in more suppression and prevention. His wife is a retired at the University of Texas, Austin. Few academics were pediatrician, immersed in questions of prevention and studying fire then—a college fire department, he deadpans, cure. “I would argue that we’ve underinvested in public was the one with trucks carrying ladders and hoses. In health in the same way we’ve underinvested in wildfire, 1982, Pyne published Fire in America: A Cultural History particularly prevention,” he says as he describes the tangle of Wildland and Rural Fire. His supervisor warned that of sometimes competing challenges. “There’s no quick the topic was a career killer, of little interest to readers in turnaround to global warming and weather volatility,” he or out of academia. Almost 40 years later, the semiretired says. “Extreme events of all types are goArizona State University professor has ing to go up under any credible scenarpublished some three dozen books, won io. We’ve got to deal with it. We have to a MacArthur “genius” award, and given work on the acute and the chronic probthe obligatory TED Talk. lems.” “The world has changed around Gilles figures it’s unrealistic to think me,” Pyne says. “It was once possible that anyone can or necessarily should to read everything there was on the put an end to development along the subject. That would be difficult now. wildland-urban interface. While “there There must be 30 disciplines piling are situations where we should say into wildfire.” there’s too much risk, I don’t think we As a historian, Pyne takes a view of need to abandon vast swatches of Caliwildfire’s future that is intricately tied fornia,” he says. But Californians do to the past. It can be summed up in a need to fi nd ways to ensure that new word he coined for the title of his next developments are as safe as possible— book, about where we’ve been and — K EI TH G I L L ES S , U C B ER K EL EY by surrounding them with green belts, where we will remain, perhaps for milfor example. lennia: the Pyrocene. For existing neighborhoods, he sugFire, +Pyne says, began its symbiotic gests we use the marketplace and regulation to improve relationship with life on earth when plants first appeared escape routes and advance-warning technologies and enon land. Four hundred and twenty million years later, courage people to “harden” their homes with fire-resistant humanity’s enthusiasm for combustion has triggered roofs, updated sprinkler systems, and other strategies. the fiery equivalent of a new ice age that’s beginning to “How aggressive do you want to be?” he asks. “It’s always radically alter landscapes, bloat ocean levels, drive mass an issue of balance. . . The gold standard in the forestry extinctions, and contort the way humans live. This age, world is adaptive management. All actions are seen as Pyne says, was presaged by the first time Homo erectus experiments, and you adapt as you go.” used fire. As humans found ingenious new uses for it, we

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THERE ARE SITUATIONS WHERE THERE’S TOO MUCH RISK. BUT WE DON’T NEED TO ABANDON VAST SWATCHES OF CALIFORNIA.

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RAG by

SUSAN CAMPOS and MERLE GINSBERG photographed by

JUSTIN BETTMAN Styled by ALISON BROOKS

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW From left: Malcolm Starr dress, $850, from Decades. Suit from Some Like It Hot, $375; halter top, $75; shoes, $70; earrings, $28; and rings, $21 each, from Paper Moon. 1960s Eero Aarnio Tomato chair, Finland; 1960s Arne Jacobsen Egg chair, Denmark; and George Nelson Ball clock from Digsmodern. Suitcase from Paper Moon.

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EMEMBER THE SCENE

> Boys Lie shirt, $55; Dr. Martens shoes, $95; Dickies pants, $24; and vintage Alaska T-shirt, $28.

in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones uncovers the Well of Souls, home to the most valuable archeological relic of all time? Recall the awed expression on his face? The self-satisfied gleam in his eyes? You can find that exact same expression on faces of the customers digging for buried treasures at Wasteland, Buffalo Exchange, Crossroads, and scores of other L.A. vintage clothing stores. These sartorial tomb raiders—“thrifters,” they call themselves—may not be unearthing anything as biblically aweinspiring as an ancient Hebrew radio that talks to God, but, honestly, isn’t a gently worn Chanel skirt for under $200 almost as good? Of course, thrifting is hardly a new phenomenon—budgetconscious shoppers have been doing it for years. But today it’s a whole different scene. Devotees now include not just bargain hunters but well-heeled hipsters who’ve grown bored with the disposable “fast fashion” that’s been the backbone of the schmatte biz for decades, as well as earth huggers who like the sustainability of repurposing antique wardrobes. Even Hollywood stars (and especially their kids) are becoming addicted to the thrill of the hunt. “I like the uniqueness of the clothes,” says frequent thrifter Laura Lopez, 22-year-old daughter of actress Catherine Bach. “Plus, it’s cool to feel like you’re wearing something with a bit of history to it. Sometimes you shop all day and leave empty-handed; other days, it pays off when you find that gem.” Oh, it pays off, all right. Specific sales figures for Los Angeles aren’t available, but nationally, the resale business is beyond booming. Despite pandemic lockdowns keeping shoppers at home, the vintage market is currently valued at around $28 billion and projected to balloon to a whopping $77 billion over the next five years. “We’ve been in business 30 years, but shopping secondhand has become a huge trend in the past two years,” notes Crossroads’s Morgan Weinstein. “We’re seeing tons of styles come and go from our stores. It’s been as busy as ever.” Adds Jessica Pruitt of Buffalo Exchange, “Clothing is flying out of the store. We have more people wanting to buy clothes than clothes we have to sell.” But just as the secondhand market has grown and evolved in recent years, so too have the shops themselves. Today, they range from high-end emporiums filled with red carpet–worthy gowns, to denim-crazed boutiques where jeans junkies can slip into preowned pants that date back as far as the 1950s, to scruffy T-shirt resellers and warehouse-like outlets where clothing can literally be purchased by the pound. For newbies to the recycling lifestyle—and even for seasoned veterans—the choices in L.A. are dizzying, with shops scattered in every part of town. C ROSS ROA DS Which is why we are devoting this month’s issue of Los Angeles to the best places to scavenge not just for vintage clothing but also pre-owned furniture, books, vinyl records, and a host of other lost treasures. Read on and behold a world > Vivienne Westwood jacket, $120; of recycled riches you won’t have to travel to the ancient City Topshop turtleneck, $16.50; of Tanis to uncover. Just take an Uber to Melrose. Liz Claiborne skirt, $18.50; and

$179

Zara boots, $24. 82 L A M AG . C O M

PROP AND SET DESIGN BY CHLOE KIRK. HAIR AND MAKEUP BY LISA MARIE POWELL FOR ART DEPARTMENT. PREVIOUS SPREAD: MODELS HEIDI JANE, ANA BERGMAN/L.A. MODELS; THIS SPREAD: MODELS: RICKY ESTRELLA, REBKEY/L.A. MODELS. AMOEBA: GETTY IMAGES; CLOTHES HANGER: ENVATO ELEMENTS; WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND (COURTESY SUBJECT)

A M OE B A

BEVERLY HILLS LILY et Cie THE VIBE: Rita Watnick’s 5,000-square-foot emporium of vintage cocktail dresses, suits, and gowns has been around for 40 years. Many an Oscar and Globes dress has emerged from this store. Renée Zellweger, Penelope Cruz, Kate Moss, and Mary-Kate Olsen all shop here, as well as many major celebrity stylists. ON THE RACKS: Original garments by Edith Head, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Gucci, and Chanel, all in meticulous condition. THE MONEY: From mid-hundreds (for a dress with less provenance) to many thousands (for one that’s got couture history). 9044 Burton Way, 310-724-5757, facebook.com/lilyetcie.

What Goes Around Comes Around

RECORDS DS > NEED TO SCRATCH THAT ITCH FOR OLD-FASHIONED VINYL? HERE’S WHERE THE NEEDLE HITS THE GROOVE

Y THE VIBE: This luxe vintage store spent ﬁve years on La Brea and now ﬁve in Beverly Hills. It’s high-end and chic but also edgy and cool. ON THE RACKS: An enormous selection of Chanel, Hermès, Dior, and Louis Vuitton bags, Chanel jewelry, as well as a slew of designer pieces from the ‘90s and 2000s. We’re talking Tom Ford, Gucci, Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Roberto Cavalli, and Norma Kamali. But WGACA also has the largest selection of vintage Levi’s for men and women in the city, some dating back to the ‘50s. Brags founder Gerald Maione, “We are the gurus of denim.” THE MONEY: $150 to thousands. 950 Brighton Way, 310-858-0250, Whatgoesaroundnyc.com.

O U D O N ’ T H AV E to be a Nick Hornby-style audiophile to collect vinyl—these days a lot of folks are rediscovering the joys of record albums (mostly as wall decoration, but still). The Record Parlour (6408 Selma Ave.) looks a bit like the store in Hornby’s High Fidelity, complete with racks of old wood packing crates stuffed with albums (punk, jazz, and folk are big sellers) as well as historic concert posters lining the walls. All it’s missing is Jack Black crooning Marvin Gaye. Another store with classic record shop ambiance is Freakbeat in Sherman Oaks (13616 Ventura Blvd.), which prides itself on an “old-fashioned” approach to reselling albums, keeping the prices “fair and cheap,” according to owner Bob Say. (Translation: most are $15 or less, and there’s always a rack of 99cent specials.) But Freakbeat

also offers expensive rarities like the 1994 promo copy of Prince’s The Black Album that recently sold for a cool $499. Near Melrose and Heliotrope, there’s Going Underground Records (4355 Melrose Ave.), a Bakersﬁeld institution that opened an L.A. outpost in 2018. It’s not the biggest shop, but customers love its wellcurated selections, reasonable prices (most under $20, although a Tangerine Dream album recently fetched $120), and friendly vibe. Of course, the granddaddy of used music remains Amoeba Music (6200 Hollywood Blvd.), which recently relocated a few blocks away from its famed Sunset and Ivar location to the El Centro complex. The new digs lack the ramshackle charm of the old place, but Amoeba still boasts the largest selection of used albums in town. “Disneyland for music nerds,” is how one Yelp reviewer aptly described it. —A N DY L E W I S L A M AG . C O M 83

> EAT YOUR HEART OUT, TESLA. THE HOTTEST WHEELS ARE AT LEAST 40 YEARS OLD

1958 Chevrolet Corvette

N A T O W N where Lamborghinis are as common as lawn mowers , finding a ride that stands out from the teeming masses can be a challenge. Alex Manos’s Beverly Hills Car Club (4576 1/2 Worth St.), though, can up your game. Starting with a 1962 Lincoln Continental that Manos bought on a whim in the early aughts, the BHCC now offers for sale an inventory of 400 vintage cars, from a 1961 Mercedes 300 SL (at an asking price of $1.1 million) to lessexalted classic Porsches, BMWs, and Detroit iron (starting in the $6,000 to $9,000 range). “These antique cars just command attention,” Manos says. “If you’re in a classic car and someone pulls up next to you, they’ll honk the horn, cheer, give you a thumbs-up.” Manos says the most-sought-after classics in L.A.

1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Spider

84 L A M AG . C O M

Finders Keepers THE VIBE: A thrift shop where anything goes, and not just when it comes to clothing. Where else can you find a guitar signed by 31 porn stars (including genuinely vintage ones like Ron Jeremy). ON THE RACKS: Everything from Puma sneakers to Versace dresses to old Fila sweats and Gucci baseball caps. But they also recently sold a 1973 RollsRoyce. THE MONEY: From $1 to $10,000 for a carved bird that’s said to bring good luck. 7861 S. Western Ave., offerup.com/profile/finderskeepersla.

Tried and True Vintage

are models from Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes as well as Mustangs and Corvettes. Among the charms of vintage cars are their personalities—“My girlfriend always tells me that the faces of antique cars look like people, like characters that are going to come alive when you’re not looking,” Manos says— as well as their quirks. “A classic car is an experience. You have to embrace the whole experience, whether the convertible top needs to be put down manually or the AC’s not that great.” While Manos advises buying a classic car ﬁrst for love, “if that car happens to be a good investment, which many classic cars are, great,” he says. “A classic car is like a Rolex and generally holds its value. But the whole point of having a classic is to have fun with it. To me, they are like works of art that you can use.” — H A R RY WA L K E R

THE VIBE: Opened this summer at downtown’s Row DTLA, it’s aimed at a very speciﬁc clientele—men—and caters to the current fetish for everything ‘90s. ON THE RACKS: Specializes in ’90s vintage T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, and accessories, but also offers rare Nike Air and Air Jordan collectible sneakers that are almost impossible to ﬁnd elsewhere. THE MONEY: $45 to $200 (for authentic rock tour tees, like a 2004 Bette Midler “Kiss My Brass” artifact.) 660 Anderson St., 323-782-1336, triedandtrueco.com.

ECHO PARK, ATWATER VILLAGE, SILVER LAKE, HIGHLAND PARK Avalon Vintage THE VIBE: Owned by music veteran Rodney Klein and Car-

CARS COURTESY OF BEVERLY HILLS CAR CLUB

CARS

DOWNTOWN, SOUTH CENTRAL

men Hawk (Carmen created the clothing line Jovovich-Hawk with Milla Jovovich) so there are lots of rocker-chic items. They also sell old vinyl records and other hard-to-ﬁnd goods. ON THE RACKS: Tons of rock tees, cowboy boots, and 1940s-style polka-dot dresses as well as odd-shaped vintage bags you won’t see anywhere else. It’s a great place to hunt down a gown or long dress for an event, or grab a long, pink, old-school nightgown. Add a slip, et voilà. THE MONEY: Tshirts from $20 to $900; dresses from $40 to $4000. 106 N. Ave. 56, 323-309-7717, avalonvintage.business.site

WA ST E L A N D

$2,078

> Yves Saint Laurent jacket, $2,000, and Levi’s jeans, $78.

Bearded Beagle

AVALON VINTAGE (COURTESY SUBJECT)

THE VIBE: It’s where streetwear meets formal wear for both women and men. They have two stores—one in Highland Park and the other in Silver Lake. ON THE RACKS: From Moschino blazers to Levi’s from the ’70s, plus camo-print jeans, ’70s two-tone patchwork boots, and maybe even a colorful crochetknit jacket. THE MONEY: $24 to $150. 5926 North Figueroa St., 323-258-5898, thebearded beagle.com.

1960s Wendell Castle Molar chair from Digsmodern.

Lemon Frog Shop THE VIBE: The mood here is hippie-chic and so are the clothes: mostly ’60s and ’70s dresses and accessories. Lemon Frog Shop is a certiﬁed green business by the city of L.A. ON THE RACKS: Lots of clogs, boots, pumps, as well as never-worn costume jewelry and an occasional Gucci handbag at the AVALON VINTAGE

WA ST E L A N D

best prices in town. Plus, a very few things for men, like ﬂannel shirts. “You gotta have something for the boyfriends,” says owner Micki Curtis. THE MONEY: Tons of items in the $10 range, going up to several hundred. 1202 N. Alvarado St., 213-4132143, lemonfrogshop.com.

Goodwill THE VIBE: Goodwill has over 80 stores sprinkled throughout Southern California. But the shop with all the buzz is located in Atwater Village. It’s over 20,000 square feet and comes complete with an additional 27,000-square-foot outlet. But the outlet isn’t for the faint of heart: clothing and home goods there are sold by the pound. ON THE RACKS: It’s bin after bin of tees and jeans (regulars wear gloves as they’re picking through the garments). One customer recently bragged about ﬁnding a mint-

condition 1950s mahjongg set. THE MONEY: $1 and up. 3150 N. San Fernando Rd., goodwill socal.org.

$878

> Dsquared2 feathered jacket, $550; Cinq à Sept dress, $128; and Zarqua boots, $200.

Golden Age Hollywood THE VIBE: Golden Age now has two shops—one on La Brea and this one in Silver Lake (which co-owner Ludvic Orlando deems the best). Designer pieces are available at all levels. “We marry brands with vintage,” says Orlando. He and co-owner Jesse Bardy are movie nerds, with fashion tastes inspired by Hollywood. ON THE RACKS: Dresses, jackets, some purses by the likes of Chanel, Gucci, Bill Blass, Versace, and Zara. There are also Levi’s and Wrangler jeans as well as the specialty the shop is known for: French workwear uniforms dating from the ’20s to the ’50s. Check out their Old Hollywood photo-print T-shirts and hoodies. THE MONEY: Dresses

will run you $80 to $150 and jeans from $80 to $200. 3511 Sunset Blvd., 213-298-7115, goldenagevintagela.com.

Luxe de Ville THE VIBE: It’s only a dainty 800 square feet, but every inch is curated with cool stuff for both women and men. Artwork from a number of local artists— including the owner, Oskar De La Cruz—hangs on the walls. ON THE RACKS: You can ﬁnd both new and old items (or a mix, like a necklace made from an old Greek coin). The vintage is killer, at reasonable prices, with old Gucci luggage ($380), Pierre

LUXE DE VILLE, ECHO PARK

Cardin handbags ($40), and groovy sunglasses ($16 and up). THE MONEY: $15 to $600. 2157 Sunset Blvd., 213-300-2255.

THE VIBE: This staple of mens and womens vintage clothing when it was on Hollywood Boulevard is now by appointment only in Highland Park. Stock comes from the Victorian period through the 1960s. ON THE RACKS: Beaded ﬂapper dresses, plaid mens suits, hand-painted ties from the 1940s, cotton tea dresses, party dresses—and the kind of ’40s cocktail peplum number Scarlett Johansson bought on a recent trip. There’s also giant fringed piano shawls, Victorian lace-up granny boots, along with authentic pieces worn in movies by stars like Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Betty Grable, and James Cagney. THE MONEY: A mens summer suit might be $275 (unless Gable wore it, in which case expect to spend more), while a womens cocktail dress and accessories go for around $150. By appointment only, 818-515-2276.

Supergoodie THE VIBE: Owner Lynette Kirchner, a former fashion model, sifts through giant stock warehouses to ﬁnd gems from the 1950s all the way up to the ‘90s. “Thrifting takes time,” she says. “You’re after a needle in a haystack of garments. But ﬁnding gems is more exciting.” (Her Sunset Boulevard store debuted in 2018, and a smaller Silver Lake outpost just opened in June. ON THE RACKS: Holiday looks for ladies, with lots of gonzo ’80s pieces festooned with silk, sequins, and lace. But there’s a rack for the men, including European workwear, sweaters, and military styles. THE MONEY: Ninety-nine percent of the stock is under $100. 3734 86 L A M AG . C O M

BUFFALO EXCHANGE, MELROSE

Sunset Blvd., 323-486-7692, supergoodie.com.

HOLLYWOOD, WEST HOLLYWOOD American Rag Cie THE VIBE: Once upon a time in Hollywood—that’d be the 1980s— American Rag sold mostly inexpensive vintage staples for guys and gals before anyone else did. Now the store offers an impressive array of all manner of garments, along with a dazzlingly hip selection of more modern streetwear brands. ON THE RACKS: There’s a huge stash of vintage Levi’s jeans and jackets, tees, sweatshirts, parkas, and shorts for guys, including Levi’s specialty pieces like red sateen five-pocket pants and colorblock fleece cardigans. THE MONEY: You can find pieces for $50 but more likely $150 to $400. Men’s vintage Levi’s go from $200 to $300. 150 S. La Brea Ave.,, 323935-3154, Americanragcie.com.

Buffalo Exchange THE VIBE: With four stores in L.A., Buffalo Exchange is a hipster hub selling mostly lowpriced trendy wear for men and women. ON THE RACKS: There are some one-of-a-kind items and a few luxury pieces, but Buffalo Exchange is best for basics: tees, sweatshirts, jeans, and sweaters. The Melrose store has the trendiest stuff. Why buy $200 new jeans when you can get fab faded ones with real rips and pulls—not manufactured— for a measly $15? THE MONEY: Average price tag is in the $20 range. 7912 Melrose Ave., 323938-8604, buffaloexchange.com.

Catwalk THE VIBE: Catwalk is an L.A. institution (its name pays homage to the shop’s landlady, Julie Newmar, the original Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series). The pieces inside are purrr-fectly curated items from different designers and decades. ON THE RACKS: A fashionista fantasy with iconic styles from Rudi Gernreich, Courrèges, and Yves Saint Laurent. On a good day you may even ﬁnd the ever-elusive vintage jumpsuit. THE MONEY: $200 to $10,000. 459 N. Fairfax, 323-951-9255, catwalkdesignervintage.com.

Crossroads

AMERICAN RAG CIE

THE VIBE: The hum of hangers slapping as shoppers quickly ﬂip through racks never ceases at this popular resale chain. They have eight locations throughout the city, but

the Weho branch is known as the best of the bunch. ON THE RACKS: Gucci slides for men for $60, Theory T-shirts and Mr. Turk shorts for under $30. For women: Mother, Rag & Bone, and Isabel Marant jeans for under $40. The price goes up for designer goods from names like the Row, Saint Laurent, and Stella McCartney. THE MONEY: From $18 to $350. 8315 Santa Monica Blvd., 323-654-0505, crossroads trading.com.

Decades THE VIBE: One of L.A.’s OG vintage shops—it opened in 1997—it’s still a thriving thrifting palace ﬁlled with collectible “preloved” designer clothing. ON THE RACKS: Pieces from back collections of Dries, LaCroix, McQueen—even original Halstons.

Period Peace > “I have a lot of clients into timewarp dressing. They prefer wearing fantasy to reality. And can you blame them right now? It’s a great escape.” —DORIS RAYMOND, OWNER, THE WAY WE WORE

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF SUBJECT

Paper Moon

D I G S M OD E R N They’re best known for gowns and other high-end garments and jewelry purchased from the richest women in America. THE MONEY: From $175 up to $15,000 for the serious stuff upstairs. 8214 Melrose Ave., 323-655-1960, decadesinc.com.

Fred Segal THE VIBE: L.A’.s long-time fashion mecca teamed up with Max Feldman, the vintage pop-up entrepreneur, to begin offering high-end resale ware at their Sunset Boulevard location. ON THE RACKS: You can ﬁnd a pristine 2003 Dior jacket from the days when Jean-Paul Gaultier was at the helm (there are even photos of a model wearing it on the runway). Right next to it, a tweed Chanel jacket like the one Alicia Silverstone wore in Clueless. THE MONEY: $350 to over $10,000. 8500 Sunset Blvd., 310432-0560, fred segal.com.

Golyester THE VIBE: Owner Esther Ginsberg never met a sweet print dress or offbeat hat she didn’t like. She goes for novelty ﬁrst, color second, and then print. Her vintage pieces go back to the 1920s and all the way up to the 1990s. That’s why Hollywood costume designers— and British fashion star John Galliano—pay her frequent visits. ON THE RACKS: ‘50s poodle skirts, beaded paintings on clothes, sequin jackets, leopard prints—you might even ﬁnd a skirt with Josephine Baker’s face embroidered on it. THE MONEY: “I can sell one thing for $50 and another for thousands,” says Ginsberg. 450 S. La Brea, 323-932-1339 (best to make an appointment), Golyester.etsy.com.

Paper Bag Princess THE VIBE: Elizabeth Mason opened this boutique in 1995 in Weho. It has since moved to Melrose, where it’s become a favorite with both costume designers and stylists. ON THE RACKS: The boutique specializes in designer vintage evening and cocktail dresses from names like Bill Blass, Balmain, and Halston. But you can also ﬁnd over a thousand handbags on the ﬂoor, from Judith Leiber to Botega Venetta. THE MONEY: $200 to $10,000 (for couture Dior). 8050 Melrose Ave., shopthepaperbagprincess.com.

FURNITURE RE

RNITURE SHOPS > L.A.’S VAST ARRAY OF MIDCENTURY FURNITURE MAKE SITTING PRETTY AS EASY AS PEI

T T H E DAW N of the 1950s, there were 350 furniture factories in Los Angeles. It was a $200 million dollar industry churning out sofas, chairs, and tables for much of the country. Strange and unusual new materials were being fashioned into furniture by midcentury design titans like Richard Neutra, whose plywood Boomerang chair was included in each unit of low-income housing he designed in San Pedro. Charles and Ray Eames created the prototype for their ﬁberglass shell chair in their Westwood apartment, and Frank Gehry conjured an entire line of cardboard furnishings after a meeting with NASA. Many of these classics can still be found in L.A.’s plentiful midcentury furniture shops. Digsmodern (107 W. Foothill, Monrovia) has an encyclopedic collection of design classics in its showroom in downtown Monrovia, but

the real action is at its 12,000-squarefoot off-site warehouse. For the rarest of the rarest treasures in furniture design, you’ll have to wait for L.A. Modern Auctions (16145 Hart St.) to hold one of its thrice-yearly events at its Van Nuys warehouse. There’s also Urban Americana (1345 Coronado Ave.), just a few blocks from 4th Street Retro Row in Long Beach, where you might find a whole room filled with groovy ski lodge fireplaces. The indoor-outdoor space features almost 50 vendors, allowing you to time-travel through the entire twentieth century. Fat Chance (158 N. La Brea Ave.) was one of the first stores to sell furniture from the 1950s when it opened its original story on Melrose Avenue in the 1980s. Back in the New Wave days, a Harry Bertoia chair sold for a staggering $100. Today, a rare brutalist coffee table from the shop could set you back $10,000. — C H R I S N I C H O L S L A M AG . C O M 87

T H E L A ST B O OK ST OR E

The Real Real THE VIBE: You’ve heard of the website (maybe even shopped there), but be sure to check out the brick-and-mortar shop on Melrose, where designers such as Gucci, Hermès, and Chanel are prominently placed throughout. ON THE RACKS: You can ﬁnd killer designer-label clothing and accessories—like rare handbags from Hermès and Chanel in exotic skins and colors—in addition to a resale home section. THE MONEY: From $20 to $205,000 (for a crocodile Himalaya Birkin.) 8500 Melrose Ave., therealreal.com.

The Way We Wore

> SHOPS WHERE JOHN STEINBECK IS STILL A BEST-SELLER AND YOU MIGHT RUB ELBOWS WITH JAMES ELLROY? READ ON

N A R E C E N T Saturday morning, Harvey Jason was surprised to see a line

waiting for him when he arrived to open his used bookstore, Mystery Pier (8826 Sunset Blvd.), which specializes in ﬁrst editions and rare printings. Seems a TikTok video trumpeting the charms of his little shop, tucked between a hookah bar and Book Soup, had gone viral, attracting a swarm of eager young book buyers. “I’ve never even been on TikTok before,” says Jason, 81, a former actor-turned-bibliophile. Normally, his clientele skews a bit older and more famous—James Ellroy, Natalie Portman, Colin Farrell, Flea, and U2’s Adam Clayton have been known to browse his vast collection. But Mystery Pier isn’t the only used bookshop with social media chops: downtown’s The Last Bookstore (453 Spring St.) may be the world’s most Instagrammed used book shop, thanks to its labyrinthine shelves and bank-vault-turned-display-space, while equally picturesque Counterpoint (5911 Franklin Ave.) in Hollywood Dell has appeared in music videos. Other gems scattered around the city include Pico-Robertson’s SideShow (which provided hundreds of vintage paperbacks to decorate the sets of HBO’s ’70s-era The Deuce), Venice’s Angel City Books (where owner Rocco Ingala says John Steinbeck is the No. 1 selling author), and Santa Monica’s BookMonster (piled high with more than 200,000 books). —A . L . 88 L A M AG . C O M

BURBANK It’s a Wrap! THE VIBE: This shop isn’t selling gently used clothing but rather barely worn items— many of them imported straight from the studios’ discarded wardrobes. Wanna wear Tom Cruise’s shirt from Mission: Impossible? Or maybe Julianna Margulies’s blouse from The Good Wife? If you’re going to ﬁnd them—and a slew of other barely used items from ﬁlm and TV sets—anywhere, chances are it’ll be here. ON THE RACKS: Tons of sports coats and suits, garments from Banana Republic, Hugo Boss, and Armani. Most items are 75 percent off. A practically new jacket by the Row was recently discovered for around $100. THE MONEY: $20 to over $1000. 3315 W. Magnolia Blvd., 818-567-7366, Itsawrap.com.

THE LAST BOOKSTORE: LEX VOIGHT

BOOKS BO

THE VIBE: Since 2004, Doris Raymond has been curating one of a kind collectible gowns, dresses, hats, purses, and jewelry from each decade starting from the turn of the twentieth century. It’s two ﬂoors of fashion history. ON THE RACKS: Everything from a 1970s Jean Muir maxi dress to Chanel brooches and pearls, to Holly Harp’s ’70s dresses. But the real standouts are the gowns going back to the 1920s and the brightly colored earrings from the 1960s. THE MONEY: It might be $95 or more for a purse, $200 for a necklace, then $4,500 (on sale) for a midcentury fuschia Chanel haute couture ensemble of dress and evening coat. There is also a $99-and-under category. 334 S. La Brea, 323-937-0878, thewaywewore.com.

Pickwick Vintage Show THE VIBE: The Pickwick Vintage Show takes place every third Saturday of the month with around 65 vendors peddling secondhand jewelry, clothing, and accessories from just about every era. But don’t expect ﬂea-market prices. Here, it isn’t about the hunt but the highly curated edit. Entrance fees start at $5 and goes up to $20 for ﬁrst-look early access. ON THE RACKS: One woman recently bragged about snagging a vintage Gaultier net blouse from the ’90s. Another raved about a Chloe jacket she picked up. There’s also an awesome collection of vintage tees, but they can cost upwards of $200. THE MONEY: $25 and up. 1001 West Riverside Drive, Pickwickvintage.com.

THE REAL REAL

$25,290

> Chanel jacket, $4,500; Off-White crop top, $410; Loewe pants, $425; Hermès purse, $9,050; diamond necklace, $6,695; Cartier watch, $3,845; Celine sunglasses, $365; Gucci purse (on table), $1,925.

Playclothes THE VIBE: A 4500-square-foot retro fantasyland—stocked with vintage furniture, bric-a-brac, and clothes from the 1920s to the 1990s. Playclothes started at the Rose Bowl ﬂea market in the ’80s, then morphed into a major fashion destination. Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift, and George Clooney have all reportedly browsed there. ON THE RACKS: Hats, purses, and lingerie from various periods. Woven ﬂoral basket bags, Rudi Gernreich pantsuits, Miriam Haskell jewelry, Pucci dresses. Or how about a neon 1970s swimsuit? You can also rent your Halloween costume here, but call and reserve early. THE MONEY: You can pick up a dress here for a mere $50, while a 1940s pantsuit goes for $135. 3100 W. Magnolia Blvd., 818-557-8447, playclothes vintage.com.

WESTSIDE

MODEL: CHRISTINA ZAPOLSKI/L.A. MODELS

Timeless Treasures THE VIBE: A nonproﬁt run mainly by volunteers. The store has a smattering of everything, but people come mostly to browse through the Gold Room, where the designer goods are stashed. ON THE RACKS: The thrift shop is known for their $6 jeans and monthly sales, when prices drop as much as 50 percent. The Gold Room carries Fendi, Prada, Gucci, and many more designers. A pair of trendy $400 Moussy jeans recently sold for $20. THE MONEY: $4 to $200. 9441 Culver Blvd., 310-559-8338, nclla.org.

1960s Eero Saarinen side table, USA, from Digsmodern.

Hidden Treasures Vintage THE VIBE: Housed in a 1930s building on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, this magical shop is ﬁlled with movie props and caters to the neighborhood’s upscale boho-bourgeois types. ON THE RACKS: Mens, womens, and childrens clothing, shoes, and purses dating from Victorian times to the 1980s, along with festival wear and costumes. THE MONEY: There’s something for any budget. 154 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd., 310-455-2998, hidden treasures topanga.com.

National Council of Jewish Women THE VIBE: Granted, the name doesn’t sound all that trendy, but thrifters ﬂock to this chain’s Westwood branch (the others are in West L.A., Mar Vista, and Fairfax) for its massive inventory. Regulars know shopping here is all about timing, as people patiently wait for trucks to pull up with what insiders call the three mega-drops: divorce, death, or downsizing. ON THE RACKS: On the right day, you might ﬁnd a Bottega handbag for under

$100, beautiful glassware for $20, or a cool piece of art for $25. THE MONEY: Prices range from $2 to $250. 10960 Santa Monica Blvd., 323-852-8535, ncjwla.org.

Surﬁng Cowboys THE VIBE: Donna and Wayne Gunther were both fashion photographers before opening up Surﬁng Cowboys in 1995 on Abbot Kinney. They moved the store to Malibu two years ago but still carry highly curated vintage with

Cheap Thrills > “If it’s easy to ﬁnd, I don’t want it. I like the challenge. When I ﬁnally see ‘it,’ I get a real rush.” —ESTHER GINSBERG, OWNER, GOLYESTER

a nod to the California lifestyle. ON THE RACKS: Not surprisingly, they excel at surf culture: surfboards from the 1930s and up, tees, Western wear, sophisticated, long, beachy vintage dresses, and thick handknit sweaters. THE MONEY: $50 to $15,000. 3848 Cross Creek Rd., Malibu, 310-9156611, surﬁngcowboys.com.

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS! From left: Thea Porter dress, $1,995, from Decades; peplum dress, $100, from Paper Moon; vintage Alaska print T-shirt, $28; boys Lie shirt, $55; Dickies pants, $24; Dr. Martens shoes, $95; and sunglasses, $22.50, from Crossroads. Miscreants jacket, $350 for complete suit; For Love and Lemons top, $78; and mermaid pants, $98, from Wasteland. Yohji Yamamoto jacket, $645; Off-White crop top, $410; Loewe pants, $425; Hermès purse, $9,050; diamond necklace, $6,695; Cartier watch, $3,845, and Celine sunglasses, $365, from The Real Real. L A M AG . C O M 89

PROMOTION

UPCOMING EVENTS & PROMOTIONS SPONSORED BY LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE

OCT

Street Food Cinema Saturdays, October 2 – 30 Locations around Los Angeles

Bringing together the best in pop culture Ä STZ NV\YTL[ MVVK [Y\JRZ HUK WYVNYLZZP]L new music, Street Food Cinema reinvents the traditional movie going experience – al fresco style. Join them this October for a ZLYPLZ VM MYPNO[M\S Ä STZ SPRL /HSSV^LLU[V^U /VJ\Z 7VJ\Z HUK TVYL

OCT

For tickets and more information visit streetfoodcinema.com

15th Annual LAWineFest Saturday, October 2, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday, October 3, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Sip - Explore - Enjoy! The 15th annual LAWineFest returns to JLSLIYH[L PU 3VUN )LHJO )YPUN MYPLUKZ MVY H Z\U Ä SSLK KH` I` [OL LA Harbor. Sip hundreds of California and International wines plus craft brews and ciders; enjoy live music and games, shop lifestyle exhibitors and gourmet food vendors, and more.

OCT

co-hosted by Los Angeles magazine

Thursday, October 14, 7 p.m. Skirball Cultural, Los Angeles

For tickets and more information visit starsofwine.com

Nina Ansary presents Anonymous Is a Woman,

Nina Ansary will be in conversation with Maer Roshan, Editorin-Chief of Los Angeles magazine, about her book, Anonymous Is a Woman, which illuminates women’s hidden achievements from the past 4,000 years and exposes the repercussions of centuries of gender inequality and cultural bias to advance an unconventional argument for equality and inclusivity. For tickets and more information visit eventbrite.com

OCT

Wednesday, October 27, 7 p.m. Virtual tasting on Zoom with wine delivered STARS events are a celebration of high-level luxury wines from all over the world. No greater example than this “Merlot Month” gathering! Sullivan Estate, Rutherford Hill, Duckhorn, Arietta, Seavey Vineyards and Truchard Vineyards - with winemakers or proprietors tasting along with us! Order tickets [VKH` HUK YLJLP]L H [HZ[PUN Å PNO[ VY IV[[SL RP[ KLSP]LYLK VM H\J[PVU WYVJLLKZ ILULÄ [ Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

For tickets and more information visit lawinefest.com/squadup-tickets

STARS of Merlot

STARS of Chile vs. Argentina vs. California

NOV

Wednesday, October 20, 7 p.m. Virtual tasting on Zoom with wine delivered

STARS events celebrate fantastic wines from all over the world, featuring personal storytelling by the wineries and importers! We’re comparing and contrasting three wine origins; Valsecchi from Argentina, Silver Wines in Santa Barbara, Viña Laura Hartwig of Chile, and more TBA! 1VPU [OL ^PUL JVU]LYZH[PVU HUK [HZ[L HSVUN ^PUL KLSP]LYLK VM H\J[PVU WYVJLLKZ ILULÄ [ Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. For tickets and more information visit starsofwine.com

OCT

Los Angeles magazine’s The Food Event Sunday, October 24, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Saddlerock Ranch, Malibu

Celebrate L.A.’s foodie scene at Los Angeles magazine’s 15th annual epicurean extravaganza, The Food Event 2021. Soak in the beauty of Saddlerock Ranch in the Malibu Hills while indulging on tastings from L.A.’s iconic restaurants. The day will also include live cooking demonstrations presented by Mountain Valley Spring Water, sips of Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer, and craft cocktails from House VM :\U[VY` HUK /VYUP[VZ 7S\Z LUQV` L_WLYPLUJLZ MYVT *HKPSSHJ 7PZTV )LHJO +VU -YHUJPZJV»Z *Vќ LL @PZOP HUK :\QH 1\PJL Tickets on sale now at lamag.com/thefoodevent2021

Walk for Hope Sunday, November 7 City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment center near Los Angeles, will host the 25th Anniversary Walk for Hope Sunday, November 7, 2021. Join Walk for Hope Co-chairs Ryan 4HOVUL` HUK 9PJR 7V^LSS [V Ä UK H J\YL MVY breast and gynecological cancers. Register and fundraise today at walkforhope.org because cancer doesn’t stop and neither do we. #WalkforHope25

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• GOOD TIMES •

THE HOT LIST

Roasted beet from Girl & the Goat

L.A. MAGAZINE

PAGE 97

OUR MONTHLY LIST OF L.A.’S MOST ESSENTIAL RESTAURANTS E D I T E D

H A I L E Y

E B E R

WEST Birdie G’s

SANTA MONICA » American $$

James Beard Award–nominated chef Jeremy Fox gets personal with a sunny spot dedicated to comfort food and named after his young daughter. The high-low menu is full of playful riffs on comfort food, from a decadent stufffed latke called the Goldbar to a matzo ball soup with carrot miso to a next-level relish tray. Don’t miss the jiggly Rose Petal pie for dessert. 2421 Michigan Ave., 310-310-3616, or birdiegsla.com. Full bar.

Broad Street Oyster Co.

MALIBU » Seafood $$

If ever there was a car picnic scene, it’s at this openair spot overlooking Malibu Lagoon State Beach (and across from a SoulCycle, if we’re being honest). You can grab a great lobster roll (topped with uni or caviar if you’re feeling extra fancy), towers of raw seafood, great clam chowder, and a burger sprinkled with shio kombu (dried kelp) that shouldn’t be overlooked. 23359 Paciﬁc Coast Hwy., 424-644-0131, or broad streetoyster.com. Beer and wine.

Cassia

SANTA MONICA » Southeast Asian $$$

Bryant Ng mines his Chinese Singaporean heritage, honors wife Kim’s Vietnamese background, and works in the wood-grilling technique he honed at Mozza at this grand Southeast Asian brasserie. Hunker down at a table on the patio—or treat yourself to some great takeout—to devour turmeric-marinated ocean trout or chickpea curry with scallion clay-oven bread. Wherever and however you enjoy Ng’s cooking, you won’t be disappointed. 1314 7th St., 310-3936699, or cassiala.com. Full bar.

Colapasta

SANTA MONICA » Italian $

It’s equally pleasant to grab and go or eat at this quiet, affordable spot that features fresh pastas topped with farmers’ market fare. The colorful, poppy-seed-sprinkled beet ravioli is delicate and delicious, while the gramigna with pesto and ricotta is

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2021

hearty and satisfying. 1241 5th St., 310-310-8336, or colapasta.com. Beer and wine.

T H E B R E A K D OW N W EST

EAST

Includes Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Century City, Culver City, Malibu, Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, Palms, Santa Monica, Venice, West L.A., Westwood

Includes Atwater Village, Eagle Rock, East L.A., Echo Park, Glendale, Los Feliz, Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley, Silver Lake

T H E VALLEY DOWNTOWN Includes Arts District, Bunker Hill, Chinatown, Historic Core, Little Tokyo, South Park

Includes Agoura Hills, Burbank, Calabasas, Encino, North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Van Nuys

Crudo e Nudo

SANTA MONICA » Seafood $$

Brian Bornemann, the 31-year-old former executive chef at Michael’s Santa Monica, has gone his own way. He and his girlfriend, Leena Culhane, have launched a sustainable neighborhood joint that’s by turns a coffee shop, a seafood market, and a casual restaurant where you can nibble impeccably prepared crudo, tuna tartare toasts, and vegan Caesar salads on the patio while sipping a thoughtfully selected natural wine. Though the project began as a pandemic pop-up, it’s now an exciting brick-and-mortar spot from one of the city’s most promising young toques. 2724 Main St., crudo enudo.com, or @crudo_e_nudo. Beer and wine.

Dear John’s

CULVER CITY » Steak House $$$

CENT RAL CENTRAL

SOUT H

Includes Beverly Grove, East Hollywood, Fairfax District, Hancock Park, Hollywood, Koreatown, West Hollywood

Includes Bell, Compton, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Watts

Denotes restaurants with outdoor seating $ $$ $$$ $$$$

I N E X P E N S I V E (Meals under $10) M O D E R A T E (Mostly under $20) E X P E N S I V E (Mostly under $30) V E R Y E X P E N S I V E ($30 and above)

Price classifications are approximate and based on the cost of a typical main course that serves one. For restaurants primarily offering multicourse family meals, the cost per person of such a meal is used.

In the current climate, restaurant hours are changing frequently. Check websites or social media accounts for the most current information

There’s still good times and great food to be had at this former Sinatra hang stylishly revamped by Josiah Citrin and Hans Röckenwagner. Steak-house classics— crab Louie, oysters Rockefeller, thick prime steaks— pay homage to the lounge’s Rat Pack past and can be enjoyed on a sunny new patio or to go. 11208 Culver Blvd., 310-881-9288, or dearjohnsbar.com. Full bar.

Felix

VENICE » Italian $$$

At Evan Funke’s clubby, ﬂoral-patterned trattoria, the rigorous dedication to tradition makes for superb focaccia and pastas. The rigatoni cacio e pepe—tubes of pasta adorned only with Pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper—nods to Roman shepherds who used the spice to keep warm, while the rigatoni all’Amatriciana with cured pork cheek sings brilliantly alongside Italian country wines. 1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd., 424-387-8622, or felixla.com. Full bar.

Kato

SAWTELLE » Cal-Asian $$$

Jon Yao is now serving his acclaimed Taiwanese tasting menu outdoors. Dishes like 3 Cup Abalone and Dungeness crab soup are just as revelatory alfresco. At $118 for more than a dozen courses, Yao’s prix ﬁxe

HUGE GALDONES

OCT

menu is one of the best deals in town. 11925 Santa Monica Blvd., 424-535-3041, or katorestaurant.com.

Mírame BEVERLY HILLS » Mexican $$$

Joshua Gil is cooking exciting, contemporary Mexican fare with market-driven ingredients and serving them on a stunning patio. Dishes are imaginative but not overly contrived—salmon-skin chicharrón with fermented garlic aioli; a divine slow-cooked Heritage Farms pork shoulder served with a black-lime gastrique, celtuce, and hearty, richly ﬂavorful frijoles charros cooked with a pig’s head. The latter is available as part of Mírame’s to-go family meal, which includes house-made tortillas; a memorable riff on Caesar salad with pork chicharrón, roasted vegetables and goat cheese; chocolate ﬂan; and an adorable little bottle of margaritas. At just $105 for two people, it’s an amazingly affordable way to sample Gil’s cooking. 419 N. Canon Dr. , 310-230-5035, mirame.la, or @mirame.la. Full bar.

Ospi VENICE » Italian $$$

Jackson Kalb’s sprawling new Italian joint brings bustle and outdoor tables to a corner on an otherwise quiet stretch. Pastas, including a spicy rigatoni alla vodka and raschiatelli with a pork rib ragù, are sublime, and most travel remarkably well if you’re looking to takeout, which is the only option for lunch. Roman-style pizzas boast a uniquely crispy, cracker-thin crust; to get the full crunch, have a slice as you drive your takeout home. 2025 Paciﬁc Ave., 424-443-5007, ospivenice.com, or @ospiveni. Full bar.

Pasjoli SANTA MONICA » French $$$$

Dave Beran’s à la carte spot bucks the trends and eschews bistro clichés in favor of old-fashioned thrills— an elaborate pressed duck prepared just as Escoffier would have and served with potatoes au gratin dauphinois—and modern French fare. The showy duck must be reserved in advance as only a limited number of birds are available each night. But there are plenty of other exciting dishes on the menu, such as the chicken liver in brioche and a complex lobster, mussel, and clam bisque with shaved fennel and tarragon. 2732 Main St., 424-330-0020, or pasjoli.com. Full bar.

Pizzana BRENTWOOD » Italian $$

It’s not easy to make over the local pie joint, but 35-year-old chef Daniele Uditi has reimagined an urban standby with equal parts purism and playfulness that has become a neighborhood favorite in the process. Most impressive is the open-mindedness that has him deftly transforming the Roman pasta dish cacio e pepe into a pizza or putting a hearty short rib ragù on the Pignatiello pie. And in a real twist, appetizers and seasonal salads aren’t afterthoughts but highlights. Don’t miss specials, like an insane chicken parm sandwich. 11712 San Vicente Blvd., 310-481-7108, pizzana.com, or @pizzana. Also at 460 N. Robertson Blvd., 310-657-4662, West Hollywood.

Sant’olina BEVERLY HILLS » Mediterranean $$S

The buzzy h.wood Group has taken over the rooftop at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to launch this breezy pop-up that’s likely to become a permanent ﬁxture. Tables with views are topped with blue-and-white linens, and the menu is full of crowd-pleasing dishes: babka french toast for brunch, harissa-cured salmon, a lamb burger for dinner, or various Middle Eastern dips for any time of day. The culinary team includes h.wood’s Michael Teich and David Johns, along with Burt Bakman of the beloved barbecue joint Slab. 9876 Wilshire Blvd., 310285-1260, santolinabh.com, or@santolinabh. Full bar.

DOWNTOWN

Standouts include the Whittier Blvd: beef belly braised in star anise-laced lard for eight hours, then stuffed in a roll with horseradish cream, avocado, queso fresco, serrano chile, and red pepper escabeche. It’s hearty and decadent—especially if you opt to add a duck egg, which you should— but also wonderfully nuanced. There’s ample outdoor seating, but sandwiches with fried ingredients, like a veggie number, with squash blossom tempura, miraculously manage to remain crispy and travel well. 970 N. Broadway, Ste. 114, 213-278-0987, aedinette.com, or @angryegretdinette.

wizard, and his succulent Hainan chicken is a highly sought-after dish. Sadly, he’s serving it only as an occasional weekend special at his tiny Far East Plaza takeout spot. But don’t despair: the ever-changing menu is full of winners, from a pork chop sandwich on a pineapple bun to a beefy, memorable rendition of mapo tofu. Keep an eye on Instagram for information about Friday dinners and other specials. 727 N. Broadway, Ste. 130, 626-688-9507, pearlriverdeli.com, or @prd_la.

Badmaash

HISTORIC CORE

Redbird HISTORIC CORE » Indian $$

This Indian gastropub concept comes from the father-and-sons team of Pawan, Nakul, and Arjun Mahendro, who are all well versed in the culinary techniques of East and West. The menu features contemporary mash-ups, like a version of poutine smothered in chicken tikka, tandoori chicken wings, and a spicy lamb burger. If tradition’s your thing, you’ll be comforted by spice-stewed chickpeas, potato and pea samosas, and what they call Good Ol’ Saag Paneer. Wash it all down with carefully curated, reasonably priced natural wines. 108 W. 2nd St., 213-221-7466, badmaashla.com, or @badmaashla. Beer and wine to go. Also at 418 N. Fairfax Ave., 213-281-5185, Fairfax District.

Cha Cha Chá ARTS DISTRICT » Mexican $$ The huge, lively, plant-ﬁlled rooftop and some mezcal would be enough for a good night out at this Mexico City import, but chef Alejandro Guzmán, an alum of Le Comptoir, has packed his menu with quiet thrills. Carnitas get taken up a level by an orange reduction that comes at the end of the long cooking process. Beets make a surprise appearance in a shrimp ceviche. For dessert, the carrot ﬂan is a small revelation, a suprising, exciting riff on a carrot cake. 812 E. 3rd St., 213-548-8487, or chachacha.la. Full bar.

Gamboge LINCOLN HEIGHTS

» Cambodian $

The Cambodian sandwiches known as numpang, which are somewhat similar to Vietnamese banh mi, are the speciality at this charming new deli. Crusty bolillo bread is a vessel for proteins like lemongrassmarinated pork shoulder or grilled trumpet mushrooms, along with condiments like Maggi mayo, chili jam, and carrot-and-papaya slaw. The menu is full of delights beyond sandwiches, including rice bowls; a great shredded chicken salad with cabbage, peanuts, and a citrus-and-ﬁsh-sauce dressing; and a memorable braised-sardines-and-tomato dish. Order food to go, or enjoy it on the sunny, succulent-dotted back patio. 1822 N. Broadway, 323-576-2073, gambogela .com, or @gambogela. Beer and wine.

Girl & the Goat ARTS DISTRICT » Eclectic $$$

At long last, Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard has brought her hit Chicago restaurant to a light, airy space and pretty patio in downtown L.A. with seating for 200. The lengthy menu is full of international intrigue and the unexpected ﬂavor combinations Izard is known for. Roasted beets mingle with blackberries and a yuzu-kosho vinaigrette. A salmon poke features chili crunch, avocado, and strawberry. Goat makes an appearance in both a liver mousse starter and a hearty curry main. 555-3 Mateo St., 213-799-4628, girl andthegoat.com, or @girlandthegoatla. Full bar.

Guerrilla Cafecito ARTS DISTRICT » Breakfast $-$$

This newish breakfast offshoot around the corner from Guerilla Tacos makes a perfectly balanced brekkie burrito that rivals the city’s long-established best. The doughnuts are wonderfully not-too-sweet: a doughnut even a non-doughnut lover can love. No wonder they often sell out. 704 Mateo St., 213-3753300, or guerrillacafecito.com.

Angry Egret Dinette CHINATOWN » Sandwiches $$

Wes Avila has left Guerrilla Tacos and is focusing on torta-esque sandwiches at this heartfelt new venture.

Pearl River Deli CHINATOWN » Chinese $

Chef Johnny Lee has gained a reputation as a poultry

» New American $$$$

Neal Fraser has deﬁned his own kind of L.A. elegance over the 20 years he’s been cooking in his native city. Setting up shop in the deconsecrated St. Vibiana Cathedral offered an opportunity to add theatrics to a space that’s contemporary and classically plush and now boasts three distinct outdoor dining areas. A delicate curried carrot broth and beluga lentils transform slices of smoked tofu from wholesome to haute, while lamb belly spins on a spit in the former rectory. 114 E. 2nd St., 213-788-1191, or redbird.la. Full bar.

Sonoratown FASHION DISTRICT » Mexican $

At this downtown spot known for its ﬂour tortillas, you can order à la carte or opt for affordable familystyle takeout options to make your own tacos, burritos, or chimichangas ﬁlled with chorizo, carne asada, or mesquite-grilled chicken. Wash it all down with a sixpack of Tecate or seasonal aguas frescas. Look our for a new location in Mid-City, on San Vincente Boulevard, opening this fall. 208 E. 8th St., 213-628-3710, sonora town.com, or @sonoratownla Beer.

Superfine Pizza FASHION DISTRICT » Pizza $

Get a quick taste of Rossoblu chef Steve Samson’s Italian-food mastery at his casual pizzeria, which serves both thin-crust slices and whole pies. The pepperoni always pleases, but the honey—with spicy salami, provolone, and Grana Padano—really thrills. 1101 S. San Pedro St., Ste. F, 323-698-5677, superﬁnepizza.com, or @superﬁnepizza.

CENTRAL Alta Adams WEST ADAMS » California Soul Food $$

Riffing on his grandmother’s recipes, Watts native Keith Corbin loads up his gumbo with market veggies and enlivens his collard greens with a smoked oil. Soul food in this city is too often associated with Styrofoam containers, but this verdant patio, is a lovely place to linger. Hot sauce splashed onto skillet-fried chicken is pure pleasure, enhanced by a bourbon drink the bar tints with roasted peanuts and huckleberries. Finish the night by taking on a heroic wedge of coconut cake. 5359 W. Adams Blvd., 323-571-4999, or altaadams.com. Full bar.

A.O.C. BEVERLY GROVE » California $$$

Unforced and driven by culinary excellence, A.O.C. is anchored by a courtyard with soft sunlight and laurel trees. Caroline Styne’s wine list doesn’t shy away from the ecology of vineyards, while Suzanne Goin’s cooking has become indispensable. Carefully constructed salads showcase vegetables at their best, and the roasted chicken with panzanella is both an homage to San Francisco’s Zuni Café and a classic in and of itself. 8700 W. 3rd St., 310-859-9859, or aocwine bar.com. Full bar. Also at 11648 San Vincente Blvd.,310806-6464, Brentwood.

Brandoni Pepperoni WEST HOLLYWOOD » Pizza $$ Six nights a week, Brandon Gray turns out some of L.A.’s most exciting pizzas. Gray, a veteran of Navy kitchens and top local restaurants like Providence, brings boundless imagination to his pies. They’re topped with premium ingredients—Jidori chicken, Sungold tomatoes, Spanish octopus—in exciting com-

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binations. A curry-Dijonnaise dressing renders a side salad surprisingly memorable. 5881 Saturn St., Faircrest Heights, 323-306-4968, or brandoni-pepperoni.com. Wine to go.

Gigi’s

HOLLYWOOD MEDIA DISTRICT » French $$$

With its sceney Sycamore Avenue location and gorgeous, illustration-lined interiors, Gigi’s could easily succeed with subpar fare. But chef Matt Bollinger’s bistro classics—like curry mussels, steak tartare, and roasted chicken—are done quite well, if priced rather high. The wine list from beverage director Kristin Olszewski, an Osteria Mozza alum, is surprisingly interesting, with various natural and biodynamic options on offer. 904. N. Sycamore Ave., gigis.la, or @gigis_la. Full bar.

Hanchic

KOREATOWN » Korean $$

This new K-town spot infuses Korean dishes with Italian elements to create uniquely craveable dishes. Tagliatelle is tossed with kimchi and pork. A decadent spin on mac ’n’ cheese features both Korean rice cakes and elbow pasta coated in tangy Mornay sauce that’s been infused with fermented soybean paste. 2500 W. 8th St., Ste. 103, hanchic.com, or @hanchic.la.

C H E F FAVO R I T E S SANDRA CORDERO GASOLINA CAFE

PROMOTION

CRISPY GNOCCHI MOODY ROOSTER It’s just amazing. Light, ﬂuffy gnocchi pillows with beautiful cherry tomatoes and the creamiest parmesan fondue—plus a touch of balsamic glaze—make this dish stand out $19, 2891 Agoura Rd., Westlake Village, moody roost erwlv.com. GOLDEN CHICKEN SANDWICH PIKUNICO Chef Kuniko knows how to fry up a chicken with just enough heat for my taste. This sandwich is colorful and full of ﬂavor, with crisp, perfectly fried chicken balanced with the bright-

OCT

ness of the daikon and watercress and then sweetened with a smear of miso jam. $13, 767 S. Alameda St., Ste. 122, Arts District. OLD PLACE CUT SIRLOIN THE OLD PLACE CORNELL This magical spot in the Santa Monica Mountains has been cooking steaks over ﬁre since the ’70s. The sirloin is my goto: it’s juicy with just the right amount of marbling, always grilled medium rare, and, of course, accompanied by a loaded baked potato. $34, 29983 Mulholland Hwy., Cornell, oldplace cornell.com.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Saturday, October 16: Grand Park, Downtown Los Angeles Registration opens at 7 a.m. Saturday, October 23: Santa Monica Pier Registration opens at 8 a.m.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is the American Cancer Society’s signature walking event and fundraiser throughout the nation during October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

For more information and to register visit makingstrideswalk.org/losangeles or makingstrideswalk.org/santamonica

9 8 L A M AG . C O M

K R I ST I N M A N S KY

1VPU \Z PU [OL ÄNO[ HNHPUZ[ IYLHZ[ JHUJLY [OPZ 6J[VILY I` ZPNUPUN \W [VKH` MVY 4HRPUN Strides of Los Angeles or Santa Monica!

Harold & Belle’s JEFFERSON PARK » Southern Creole $$ For Creole-style food—a mélange of French, African, and Native American ﬂavors—Harold & Belle’s is as close to the Dirty Coast as you’ll come on the West Coast. The crawﬁsh étouffée in spicy gravy will have you humming zydeco, while the bourbon bread pudding will leave you with a Sazerac-worthy buzz. 2920 W. Jefferson Blvd., 323-735-9023, or haroldand belles.com. Full bar.

Lalibela

FAIRFAX DISTRICT » Ethiopian $-$$

The strip of Fairfax known as Little Ethiopia has long been dominated by the same handful of restaurants. Chef-owner Tenagne Belachew worked in a few of them before opening her own sophisticated haven, which invites with the swirling aromas of berbere and burning sage. Stretchy disks of injera—the sour, teff-ﬂour pancake that doubles as a utensil for scooping up food by hand—arrive piled with uniquely pungent delights. There are wots, or stews, made with chicken or spiced legumes or lamb sautéed in a creamy sauce. 1025 S. Fairfax Ave., 323-965-1025, or lalibelala.com. Beer and wine.

Luv2Eat Thai Bistro HOLLYWOOD » Thai $$ Vibrant ﬂavors and spices abound at this strip-mall favorite from two Phuket natives. The crab curry, with a whole crustacean swimming in a creamy pool of deliciousness, is not to be missed (it travels surprisingly well), but the expansive menu is full of winners, from the massaman curry to the Thai fried chicken with sticky rice and sweet pepper sauce. 6660 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-498-5835, luv2eatthai .com, or @luv2eat.thaibistro.

n/soto

WEST ADAMS » Japanese $$$$

N/naka chefs Niki Nakayama and Carol IidaNakayama have expanded. To start, n/soto was focused on offering elaborate bento boxes from a to-go window, but the duo have plans to turn it into a bustling izakaya with indoor and outdoor seating as the city opens up. For now, the bento boxes make for takeout that is both delicious and high-minded. The ﬁrst box on offer was called A Taste of Home and told the story of Japanese immigrants coming to America via nearly two dozen dishes, from beef sukiyaki to pressed-mackerel sushi. It makes for a special evening in, if you’re lucky enough to score one. Preorders go live on Tock every Friday at noon and tend to sell out quickly. 4566 W. Washington Blvd., 323879-9455 , n-soto.com.

Osteria Mozza/Mozza2Go HANCOCK PARK » Italian $$$ Nancy Silverton aims for end-times elegance with a parking lot that’s been transformed into a piazza where you can spend an evening nibbling on pastas, pizzas, and thoughtful salads from Mozza, Chi Spacca, and Pizzeria Mozza. Mozza2Go’s expansive menu is heavy on the pizzas, with an $85 ﬁve-pizza package that’s a steal. Don’t miss the Spacca burgers, offered only on the weekends, for takeout and delivery only. Osteria: 6602 Melrose Ave., 323-297-0100, or osteria mozza.com. Full bar. Pizzeria: 641 N. Highland Ave., 323-297-0101, or pizzeriamozza.com. Beer and wine.

République

HANCOCK PARK » Cal-French $$$

République may be devoted to French food, but its soul is firmly rooted in Californian cuisine. Walter Manzke is as skilled at making potato and leek beignets as he is at roasting cauliflower and local dates. Meanwhile, Margarita Manzke’s breads and pastries are always spot-on. Like a fine wine, this classic L.A. restaurant just gets better and better. 624 S. La Brea Ave., 310-362-6115, or republiquela.com. Full bar.

Ronan

FAIRFAX DISTRICT » Cal-Italian $$

At Daniel and Caitlin Cutler’s chic pizzeria, the pies— especially the How ‘Nduja Like It? with spicy sausage, gorgonzola crema, green onion, and celery—are the

clear stars, but it’s a big mistake not to explore the entire menu. It’s ﬁlled with delicious delights, from cacio e pepe risotto to a sea bass served with an everchanging assortment of banchan. 7315 Melrose Ave., 323-917-5100, ronanla.com, or @ronan_la. Full bar.

Slab

BEVERLY GROVE » Barbecue $$

Hungry diners used to line up in the driveway of Burt Bakman’s home, desperate for a taste of his famous smoked barbecue meats. In 2018, Bakman came up from the underground, opening a sleek storefront that’s now ﬁlling to-go orders for hearty fare, from perfectly marbled brisket to pulled-pork sandwiches and collard greens. You can even get a six-pack of Bud Light. 8136 W. 3rd. St., 310-855-7184, slabbarbecue.com, or @slab. Beer and wine.

NATALE E T H A I

C U I S I N E

Son of a Gun

BEVERLY GROVE » Seafood $$

Florida-raised chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo deliver a certain brand of sun-drenched seashore nostalgia. Dropping into the nautically themed dining room for chilled peel-and-eat shrimp and a hurricane feels as effortless as dipping your toes in the sand. There are buttery lobster rolls and fried-chicken sandwiches alongside artfully plated crudos. 8370 W. 3rd St., 323782-9033, or sonofagunrestaurant.com. Full bar.

Soulmate

WEST HOLLYWOOD » Mediterranean $$$

It’s lovely outside, and there’s a stunning new WeHo spot with a patio that can hold 75 attractive people, plus hours that go to midnight on Friday and Saturdays. Starters include various jamones and spicy paella bites. Further down the menu, there’s lot of seafood options, from wood-ﬁred octopus with charred romesco to salmon crudo. 631 N. Robertson Blvd., soulmateweho.com.. 631 N. Robertson Blvd., 310-734-7764, soulmateweho.com.com, or @soulmateweho. Full bar.

“The Best of Culver City” 9 Years in a Row - Culver City News

“Readers Choice Award”

“Best of The West Side”

- LA Times

- The Argonaut

Venice: 10101 Venice Blvd. | (310) 202-7003 Full Bar | Sushi Bar Beverly Hills: 998 S. Robertson Blvd. | (310) 855-9380 Full Bar | Valet Parking

Dine In | Delivery | Take Out | Order Online

nataleethai.com

EAST All Day Baby » Eclectic $$

SILVER LAKE

Jonathan Whitener’s Here’s Looking At You is, sadly, closed, but his thrilling cooking continues on a bustling Eastside corner. Whether you opt for smoked spare ribs, a hot catﬁsh sandwich, or a breakfast sandwich on pastry chef Thessa Diadem’s sublime biscuits, it’s all great. 3200 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-741-0082, alldaybabyla.com, or @alldaybabyla.

H A L L O F FA M E 1 9 9 6 - 2 0 2 1

Bar Restaurant

SILVER LAKE » French $$$

Chef Douglas Rankin, who worked under Ludo Lefebvre for years, struck out on his own with this charming “neo bistro” in the old Malo space in Sunset Junction. The menu features playful Gallic-ish fare, like curly fries and plump mussels Dijon atop milk toast; classic cocktails; and plenty of funky wines available by the glass. A large parking-lot seating area has huge plants, twinkling lights, and good vibes. Somehow it manages to feel both festive and safe. 4326 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-347-5557. Full bar.

Daybird

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WESTLAKE » Fried Chicken $

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This long-anticipated casual chicken concept from Top Chef winner and Nightshade toque Mei Lin is ﬁnally open, and it was worth the wait. Lin separates her hot poultry sandwich from the ﬂock of others in the city, thanks to uniquely crispy fried chicken that’s dusted with a memorable, Sichuan-peppercornheavy spice blend. A spicy slaw and habanero ranch dipping sauce add to the fun. 240 N. Virgil Ave., Ste. 5, daybirdla.com, or @daybirdla.

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Eszett

SILVER LAKE » Eclectic $$

This stylish, cozy wine bar brings warm hospitality to the strip-mall space formerly occupied by Trois Familia. Chef Spencer Bezaire’s menu deftly brings in ﬂavors from around the globe without feeling overly

CasterEye.com 9100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 265E Beverly Hills (310) 274-1221 info@CasterVision.com

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contrived. Chicken wings are accompanied by salsa macha, grilled Broccolini is dusted with furikake. Don’t miss the big fries. 3510 W. Sunset Blvd., 323522-6323, or eszettla.com. Wine and beer.

Found Oyster EAST HOLLYWOOD » Seafood $$$

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This tiny oyster bar was a pre-pandemic favorite, and chef Ari Kolender’s seafood dishes still thrill when taken to go or enjoyed on the restaurant’s “boat deck.” The scallop tostada with yuzu kosho and basil is a must-order, and a bisque sauce takes the basic lobster roll to new heights. Interesting, affordable wines add to the fun. 4880 Fountain Ave., 323-486-7920, found oyster.com, or @foundoyster. Wine and beer.

Hippo HIGHLAND PARK » Cal-Italian $$

Hidden in a wood-trussed dining room behind Triple Beam Pizza, this Cal-Ital restaurant from Mozza vet Matt Molina balances casual and reﬁned. Snappy wax beans are sluiced with vinaigrette for a picnicworthy salad. Great pastas and juicy grilled chicken thighs deliver the unfussy pleasure found at the best neighborhood spots. Eclectic regular specials like haute corn dogs add to the fun. 5916 ½ N. Figueroa St., 323-545-3536, or hipporestaurant.com. Full bar.

Maury’s Bagels SILVER LAKE » Bagels $ East Coast transplant Jason Kaplan spent a decade in L.A. before deciding he had to take matters into his own hands if he wanted a great bagel in this town. He started out as a pop-up at farmers’ markets and coffee shops, but his appropriately modestly sized, delightfully chewy bagels and quality smoked ﬁsh now have a brick-and-mortar location. On a quiet Eastside corner next door to Psychic Wines, it’s quite charming. 2829 Bellevue Ave., 323-380-9380, maurysbagels.com, or @maurys_losangeles.

Northern Thai Food Club EAST HOLLYWOOD » Thai $ Offering specialty dishes unique to northern Thailand, this family-run favorite doesn’t skimp on ﬂavor, spice, or authenticity. Tasty takeout meals include the khao soi gai (curry egg noodle with chicken), laab moo kua (minced pork), tam kha noon (jackfruit salad), and pla salid tod (fried gourami ﬁsh). For those unfamiliar with the region’s distinct cuisine, the illustrious sticky rice is still a reliable bet. Need more incentive? Everything on the menu is less than $10. 5301 Sunset Blvd., 323-474-7212, or amphainorthernthaifood.com.

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10 0 L A M AG . C O M

PASADENA

» Spanish $$$

The arrival of this splashy new spot suggests that the good times might soon be here again. It shares a charming, sprawling courtyard with the Pasadena Playhouse, and the seafood-heavy menu from chef Dominique Crisp, who previously worked at L&E Oyster Bar, begs for reuniting with friends on nice summer nights. Orange zest enlivens jamon iberico crudite, while miso butter takes grilled oysters to new heights. 37 S. El Molino Ave., 626-808-4976, sasobistro.com, or @sasobistro. Full bar.

ness. Spoon & Pork puts an innovative spin on some Filipino favorites—just try its adobo pork belly, pork belly banh mi, or lechón kawali. The dishes, which can be ordered at the counter to enjoy on the patio or for takeout and delivery, elegantly mix decadence with some authentic soul. 3131 W. Sunset Blvd., 323922-6061, spoonandpork.com, or @spoonandporkla. Beer and wine.

Sunset Sushi SILVER LAKE » Japanese $$$ With omakase boxes priced from $30 to $85, this new sushi place in the old Ma’am Sir space strikes the sweet spot between affordable and indulgent and is another exciting addition to the Eastside’s growing number of quality sushi options. It’s a s ister spot to Highland Park’s Ichijiku, but with a more luxe vibe and a larger menu, tailor-made for takeout. 4330 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-741-8371, sunsetsushila.com, or @sunsetsushi. Beer and sake to go.

U Street Pizza » Pizza $$

PASADENA

There was a moment in the spring when U Street’s vodka pepperoni pie was a shining star of Instagram, and rightfully so. The why-haven’t-I-hadthis-before combination of pepperoni and creamy vodka sauce is an easy win. Vegetable dishes, notably a Japanese eggplant with Calabrian chili agrodolce, are more than afterthoughts. Note that while the vodka pepperoni pie travels well, the clam pie is best enjoyed in-house. 33 E. Union St., 626-6050430, ustreetpizza.com, or @ustreetpizza.

Union PASADENA

» Italian $$$

The food shines at this cozy trattoria just off Pasadena’s main drag. Chef Chris Keyser, an acolyte of Philadelphia pasta maestro Marc Vetri, joined in 2019, keeping classics, like a great cacio e pepe, on the menu while adding his own dishes, such as a thrilling crispy octopus appetizer. Most of the eatin menu is also available to go, and family-style meals for four are also available. The pastas all impress, but don’t miss the wild mushrooms and polenta with a sublimely delicious sherry vinegar and truffle butter sauce. 37 E. Union St., 626-795-5841, unionpasadena.com, or @unionpasadena. Wine.

THE VALLEY Black Market Liquor Bar » New American $$

STUDIO CITY

Some nights it seems as if half the Valley is here, enjoying the colorful patio. Top Chef graduate Antonia Lofaso’s Italian chops are visible in the buxom ricotta gnudi with brown butter and pistachios. The deep-fried ﬂuffernutter sandwich is a reminder that food, like life, should not be taken too seriously. 11915 Ventura Blvd., 818-446-2533, or blackmarket liquorbar.com. Full bar.

The Brothers Sushi » Sushi $$$

WOODLAND HILLS

Sōgo Roll Bar » Sushi $$

LOS FELIZ

So -go is hardly the only concept in town devoted to rolls, but it has mastered the form. Rice is cooked with the same careful consideration and seasoning that sushi master Kiminobu Saito uses at the highend Sushi Note, and it manages to maintain a great temperature and texture, even when being delivered. Fish is not just fresh but also ﬂavorful, each type thoughtfully paired with ideal accompaniments, from a tangy yuzu-pepper sauce that makes salmon sing to brandy-soaked albacore with garlic-ginger ponzu and crispy onions. 4634 Hollywood Blvd., 323-741-0088, sogorollbar.com, or @sogorollbar. Beer and sake.

Spoon & Pork SILVER LAKE » Filipino $$ The go-to for Filipino comfort food offers a variety of dishes, all featuring one shared ingredient: delicious-

This hidden gem, reinvigorated when chef Mark Okuda took the helm in 2018, is worth traveling for. Keep spirits up with the Hand-Roll Party home kits (there’s even one for kids), or splurge on an omakase that can be enjoyed on the patio or to go. You can also order à la carte or get non-sushi items like soyglazed grilled chicken. 21418 Ventura Blvd., 818-4564509, thebrotherssushi.com, or @thebrotherssushila. Beer, wine, and sake.

TUCCI TIME » If Stanley Tucci’s CNN show left you hungry for more, you’re in luck. His memoir, Taste: My Life Through Food (Gallery Books) is out October 5.

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Casa Vega SHERMAN OAKS

The Vega family’s 64-year-old institution has put up a massive tent in its parking lot to keep the margaritas ﬂowing amidst COVID-19 restrictions. And if you prefer takeout, there’s a drive-through setup that makes it easy to pick up a plate of enchiladas or a hulking “oven-style” burrito topped with enchilada sauce and melted cheese. The expansive menu has a great selection of hearty crowd-pleasers, cocktails, and tequilas. You might leave tipsy, but you’ll never go hungry. 13301 Ventura Blvd., 818-788-4868, or casavega.com. Full bar.

Hank’s BURBANK

Little Coyote LONG BEACH » Pizza $

SOUTH

» Mexican $

» Bagels $

The L.A. bagel revolution continues at this stylish spot in the Valley that serves up carefully constructed sandwiches. Tomato, aioli, and maple-glazed bacon elevate a simple bacon, egg, and cheese, while a classic salmon-and-lox construction has thoughtful touches like salted cucumbers and pickled onions. Sammies shine with plain cream cheese, but it’s worth grabbing a tub of Hank’s “angry” spread—a spicy, slightly sweet concoction—to have in your fridge. And no cream cheese is needed for Hank’s everything jalapeno-cheddar bagel, a stunning gut bomb. 4315 Riverside Dr., 818-588-3693, hanksbagels.com, or @hanksbagels. Also at 13545 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks.

FRIGHTFULLY DELICIOUS » Food experience platform Off the Menu is hosting a Halloween fest called the Beverly Boo on October 22-24 and 29-31. 9900 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, offthemenuco.com.

Ali’i Fish Company EL SEGUNDO » Seafood $$ This small, unassuming spot shames all of the glossy poke purveyors popping up around town to serve mediocre versions of the Hawaiian dish. Glistening cubes of tuna, ﬂown in fresh from the islands daily, remind you how great poke can be. The smoked-ahi dip with house-made potato chips is not to be missed. Perfect for picking up a beach picnic. 409 E. Grand Ave., 310-616-3484, or aliiﬁshco.com.

Fishing With Dynamite » Seafood $$$

A premium raw bar near the beach shouldn’t be unusual, but it is. The same goes for velvety clam chowder. Here, it achieves smoky richness—you can thank the Nueske’s bacon for that—without any of the ﬂoury glop. On the menu, you’ll ﬁnd several kinds of oysters from across the country, Peruvian scallops, and Alaskan king crab legs. 1148 Manhattan Ave., 310-893-6299, or eatfwd.com. Full bar.

Hotville » Fried chicken $

After three years of running a pop-up, Kim Prince has opened a brick-and-mortar that does her family’s legacy justice—she’s the niece of André Prince Jeffries, owner of Nashville legend Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, where hot fried chicken is said to have originated. Prince adds spice at every step in the cooking process to produce a complex, layered ﬂavor. The sides ($5 and up), like spicy mac and cheese and kale coleslaw, are also winners. 4070 Marlton Ave., 323-792-4835,or hotvillechicken.com. No alcohol.

PROMOTION

LIST

Little Sister REDONDO BEACH » Asian Fusion $$

MANHATTAN BEACH

BALDWIN HILLS CRENSHAW

That most amazing slice of pizza you had that one very drunken, late night in your early twenties in New York lives on . . . in Long Beach. The crust, made with dough cold-fermented for 48 to 72 hours, is carby perfection: tangy, crispy, thin but with a healthy puff. The concise menu doesn’t offer any revelations about what should be atop pizza, but instead perfects the usual suspects, from a generous pepperoni number to a veggie supreme that deﬁes the form’s usual mediocrity. 2118 E. 4th St., 562-434-2009, littlecoyotelbc.com, or @littlecoyotelbc.

Chef and co-owner Tin Vuong deftly translates the ﬂavors of Vietnam for a casual drinking scene. Nibble on fresh spring rolls with shrimp, pork, and a peanut dipping sauce, then wash it all down with a craft beer or three. 247 Avenida del Norte, 424-3980237, or dinelittlesister.com. Beer, wine, and sake.

Tamales Elena Y Antojitos BELL GARDENS

» Afro-Mexican $

This small spot, with counter service, a drive-through window, and a patio purports to be the only Afro-Mexican restaurant in the area. It focuses on a distinct cuisine from a part of Guerrero to which former slaves fled. Pozoles are rich and slightly thick, and the memorable pork tamales with red sauce are wrapped in firetinged banana leaves that impart a hint of smoke. 81801 Garfield Ave., 562-0674-3043, ordertamaleselenayan tojitos.com, or @tamaleselenayantojitos. » WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS. PLEASE EMAIL US AT LETTERS@LAMAG.COM

On it.

Ending racial injustice requires all of us to work together and take real action. What can you do to help?

Educate yourself about the history of American racism, privilege and what it means to be anti-racist. Educate yourself about the history of American racism, privilege and what it means to be anti-racist.

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102 L A M AG . C O M

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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2021 TOP ORTHOPEDISTS

Bal Raj, MD

Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute

As one of the best orthopedic surgeons in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, Dr. Raj provides the ultimate in state-of -the-art quality orthopedic care available and is always on the cutting edge of the latest surgical and nonsurgical technologies such as PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections, stem cell injections for tendonitis and arthritis, minimally invasive surgery, and more. As an orthopedic surgeon Beverly Hills trusts and respects, Dr. Raj believes that an important part of recovery starts before treatment, with educating the patient and their family members on all treatment options, both surgical and nonsurgical. +Y 9HQ PZ H KV\ISL IVHYK JLY[PÄLK ILZ[ VY[OVWLKPJ surgeon in Los Angeles, who has been in private practice for 10 years. In his short career and at a young age, he has been named as one of “America’s Top Orthopedists,” been featured on the “Best of LA,” and has received numerous other accolades and awards as one of the top and best orthopedic doctors in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. At our orthopedic clinic in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, Dr. Raj’s obsession for perfection and his outstanding team have led to unparalleled surgical results and an impeccable reputation that has garnered the attention of the media seeking his expert opinion, also resulting in numerous guest appearances on radio and television. As a top Los Angeles orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Raj uses the most advanced techniques and technologies available, to reduce hospitalization and speed recovery. This includes cuttingLKNL [LJOUPX\LZ MVY YV[H[VY J\ќ YLWHPY (*3 reconstruction, knee replacement, meniscal repair, fracture treatment, and much more. The goal of the top Los Angeles orthopedic surgeon is to return you to full activity in the least amount of time possible!

Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute 8501 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 316 Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (310) 247-0466 drhipandknee.com 10 6 L A M AG . C O M

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2021 TOP ORTHOPEDISTS

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Shaun E. Chandran, MD

Chandran Orthopaedics

Chandran Orthopaedics is a family-run orthopedic practice. Dr. Shaun E. Chandran is a boardJLY[PÄLK VY[OVWLKPJ Z\YNLVU ^P[O `LHYZ VM L_WLYPLUJL WYHJ[PJPUN PU [OL :V\[O )H` +Y Chandran is currently the Clinical Assistant 7YVMLZZVY VM 6Y[OVWLKPJ :\YNLY` H[ <*3( /L JVTWSL[LK OPZ VY[OVWLKPJ YLZPKLUJ` H[ :[HUMVYK <UP]LYZP[` HUK -LSSV^ZOPW PU 1VPU[ 9LWSHJLTLU[ H[ 4HZZHJO\ZL[[Z .LULYHS /VZWP[HS +Y *OHUKYHU»Z WYHJ[PJL PZ MVJ\ZLK VU [OL [YLH[TLU[ VM HY[OYP[PJ JVUKP[PVUZ (Y[OYP[PZ HќLJ[Z [V WLYJLU[ VM [OL WVW\SH[PVU V]LY `LHYZ VSK HUK PZ the most common reason for joint pain. Chandran 6Y[OVWHLKPJZ MVJ\ZLZ VU YLZ[VYPUN WH[PLU[ TV[PVU [OYV\NO OPW HUK RULL YLWSHJLTLU[ ;OLYL HYL ZL]LYHS JVTW\SZVY` JVTWVULU[Z MVY OH]PUN H WLYMLJ[ RULL VY OPW YLWSHJLTLU[! JVTWVULU[ WVZP[PVU WHPU THUHNLTLU[ HUK WO`ZPJHS [OLYHW` *VTWVULU[ WVZP[PVU PZ PU[LNYHS [V OH]PUN H UH[\YHS MLLSPUN RULL VY OPW QVPU[ >P[O [OL \ZL VM H YVIV[ +Y *OHUKYHU W\[Z [OL PTWSHU[Z PU WLYMLJ[ WVZP[PVU L]LY` ZPUNSL [PTL ZV [OH[ `V\Y QVPU[ replacement feels natural. +Y *OHUKYHU LTWSV`Z [OL SH[LZ[ [LJOUPX\LZ PU HULZ[OL[PaPUN [OL OPW HUK RULL QVPU[ HUK PU YLK\JPUN ISVVK SVZZ ^OPJO OLSW KLJYLHZL WVZ[ VWLYH[P]L Z^LSSPUN /L \ZLZ H T\S[PTVKHS [LJOUPX\L ^P[O KPќLYLU[ [`WLZ VM WHPU TLKPJH[PVUZ HUK YLNPVUHS ISVJRZ [OH[ RLLW `V\ HSLY[ HUK YLHK` [V TV]L YPNO[ HM[LY Z\YNLY` 6Y[OVWLKPJ Z\YNLY` Y\UZ PU [OL *OHUKYHU MHTPS` +Y *OHUKYHU WYHJ[PJLZ VY[OVWLKPJ Z\YNLY` ^P[O OPZ MH[OLY +Y 9HTH , *OHUKYHU /PZ ZPZ[LY +Y :OLLUH * 9HUHKL PZ HU (ZZPZ[HU[ 7YVMLZZVY VM 6Y[OVWLKPJ :\YNLY` H[ 4V\U[ :PUHP PU 5L^ @VYR /L PZ WPJ[\YLK OLYL ^P[O OPZ MH[OLY HUK OPZ JOPSKYLU ^OV OH]L H WV[LU[PHS M\[\YL PU VY[OVWLKPJ Z\YNLY` HZ ^LSS

Chandran Orthopaedics 4201 Torrance Boulevard, Suite 310 Torrance, CA, 90503 (310) 644-1151 chandranortho.com L A M AG . C O M 107

2021 TOP ORTHOPEDISTS

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Greg S. Khounganian, MD

minimally invasive spine surgery, board certified GSKspine

Orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Greg S. Khounganian believes every patient should be treated as an individual. He'll develop your treatment plan to address your \UPX\L WYVISLTZ ÔL[OLY [OL TVZ[ Lќ LJ[P]L JV\YZL PZ conservative methods or surgery. Because Dr. Khounganian can treat many spine problems ^P[O IHZPJ WO`ZPJHS [OLYHW` OL ^PSS Ä YZ[ L_OH\Z[ HSS [OL appropriate noninvasive measures for your condition. If [OVZL VW[PVUZ KVU [ Vќ LY [OL ILZ[ WVZZPISL YLZ\S[Z OL SS ^VYR JSVZLS` ^P[O `V\ [V L_WSVYL ÔH[ OL JHU HJOPL]L [OYV\NO Z\YNLY`·ÔPJO PZ ZPNUPÄ JHU[S` SLZZ PU]HZP]L ^P[O today's precision techniques. ¸6\Y NVHS PZ [V OLSW WH[PLU[Z NHPU HZ T\JO ILULÄ [ PU relieving pain and increasing activity levels without surgery.” *\Z[VTPaPUN OPZ HWWYVHJO [V TH[JO LHJO WH[PLU[ Z ZWLJPÄ J needs, Dr. Khounganian performs procedures involving [OL JLY]PJHS [OVYHJPJ HUK S\TIHY ZWPUL /PZ L_[LUZP]L SPZ[ of procedures includes cervical discectomy and fusion, cervical arthroplasty, lumbar microdiscectomy, lumbar decompression, and fusion procedures. Dr. Khounganian also welcomes patients for second opinions. He also evaluates patients who have already had spine surgery and may need a revision to address continued pain. Dr. Khounganian has been involved in his own personal Ä [ULZZ MVY THU` `LHYZ ;OPZ OHZ HSSV^LK OPT [V OH]L H closer understanding of the patient who is athletic or desires to become more active. “Often I see patients who ^LYL PUQ\YLK K\YPUN ZWVY[PUN HJ[P]P[PLZ 0 Ä UK P[ L_[YLTLS` gratifying to help a patient gradually return to those activities that are important to their physical and mental well-being.” Dr. Khounganian has participated in a number of orthopedic research projects and been published in a range of academic journals. His research has been accepted for presentation at both national and international spine surgery meetings. During his medical education, he was awarded recognition for his outstanding scholastic achievements.

GSKspine 5363 Balboa Boulevard, Suite 433 Encino, CA 91316 (818) 343-4430 gskspine.com 108 L A M AG . C O M

20212021 TOPTOP ORTHOPEDISTS CHIROPRACTORS

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Neal S. ElAttrache, MD Dr. Neal S. ElAttrache, is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles and is recognized for treatment and research of knee, shoulder, and elbow injuries. Dr. ElAttrache is head team physician for the LA Dodgers and the LA Rams. He is orthopedic consultant to the LA Clippers, the LA Lakers, the LA Angels of Anaheim. He is frequently recognized as a top sports medicine specialist, having been PKLU[PÄ LK HZ VUL VM [OL ¸;VW 4VZ[ 7V^LYM\S PU 3 ( :WVY[Z¹ I` [OL 3( +HPS` 5L^Z /L OHZ ILLU ZLSLJ[LK I` WLLY YL]PL^ WYVJLZZ [V ¸)LZ[ +VJ[VYZ PU (TLYPJH¹ MYVT [V [OL WYLZLU[ HUK SPZ[LK HZ VUL VM ¸(TLYPJH»Z ;VW +VJ[VYZ¹ by Castle Connolly. The Hollywood Reporter has recognized him as one of ¸/VSS`^VVK»Z ;VW +VJ[VYZ¹ HUK HZ VUL VM [OL ¸)LZ[ 6Y[OVWLKPJ :\YNLVUZ PU 3VZ (UNLSLZ ¹ 7HZ[ 7YLZPKLU[ VM (TLYPJHU 6Y[OVWHLKPJ :VJPL[` MVY :WVY[Z 4LKPJPUL +Y ,S([[YHJOL PZ H MV\UKPUN IVHYK TLTILY HUK JV KPYLJ[VY VM TLKPJHS Hќ HPYZ H[ [OL 2LYSHU 1VIL 0UZ[P[\[L KPYLJ[VY VM ZWVY[Z TLKPJPUL H[ *LKHYZ :PUHP 4LKPJHS Center, a member of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic board of directors, and chairman of the board of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Foundation. He has authored 36 textbook publications, over 103 research journal articles, and 10 orthopedic instructional videos.

Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedics 6801 Park Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90045 (310) 665-7200 | kerlanjobe.org/physicians/neal-s-elattrache-md

LA HEALTH

COMING IN NOVEMBER 2021

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Sep. 10 Nov. 21

For advertising inquiries, contact Carly Allen, Director of Sales at callen@lamag.com

L A M AG . C O M 10 9

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Jonathan Frank Beverly Hills 310-247-0466

Leonel Hunt Hunt Spine Beverly Grove 310-496-1790

Seth C. Gamradt Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE

Sonu Ahluwalia Century City 310-430-1310 Lindsay Andras Children’s Hospital L.A., East Hollywood 323-361-2142

Walter Burnham Huntington Orthopedic Institute Pasadena 626-795-0282

Raymond J. Hah Keck Medicine of USC, Glendale 800-USC-CARE

Sevag A. Bastian Orthopaedic Surgery Specialists Glendale 818-237-2248

NEAL S. ELATTRACHE, MD Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedics 6801 Park Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90045 (310) 665-7200 kerlanjobe.org/ physicians/neal-selattrache-md

SHAUN CHANDRAN, MD Chandran Orthopaedics 4201 Torrance Blvd., Suite 310 Torrance, CA, 90503 (310) 644-1151 chandranortho.com

Nicholas M. Bernthal UCLA Health Santa Monica 424-259-9860 Richard Bowen UCLA Health Santa Monica 424-259-6593 Keith R. Brookenthal Adolescent & Children’s Orthopedic Surgeon Encino 818-789-9449 1 10 L A M AG . C O M

George F. “Rick” Hatch III Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE Nathanael D. Heckmann Boyle Heights 323-442-8018

HUNTINGTON ORTHOPEDIC INSTITUTE

Ryan DellaMaggiora Cedars-Sinai Beverly Grove 310-423-5900

HUNTINGTON ORTHOPEDIC INSTITUTE (SOUTH)

Alexis E. Dixon Marina Del Rey 310-437-7922 J. Dominic Femino City of Hope, Duarte 800-826-4673

GREG S. KHOUNGANIAN, MD GSKspine 5363 Balboa Blvd., Suite 433 Encino, CA 91316 (818) 343-4430 gskspine.com

John M. Itamura Cedars-Sinai Boyle Heights 310-665-7200

Vahe Panossian Huntington Orthopedic Institute Pasadena 626-795-0282 Don Young Park UCLA Health Santa Monica 310-319-3475 Brad L. Penenberg Cedars-Sinai Beverly Hills 310-860-3470

Kristofer J. Jones Torrance 424-240-8961

39 Congress St., Second Floor Pasadena, CA 91105 (626)795-0282

837 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105 (626)795-0284 huntingtonorthopedics.com

Kevork N. Hindoyan Congress Orthopaedic Associates Pasadena 626-795-8051 Francis J. Hornicek UCLA Health Santa Monica 310-319-1234

Sang Do Kim SK Spine Beverly Grove 310-248-8511 Robert C. Klapper Cedars-Sinai Beverly Grove 310-659-6889 Jay R. Lieberman Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE David R. McAllister UCLA Health Westwood 310-319-1234 Rojeh Melikian Sawtelle 310-426-8206 Eric S. Millstein Millstein Orthopedics Century City 310-595-1030

David L. Skaggs Children’s Hospital L.A., East Hollywood 323-361-2142 Andrew I. Spitzer Cedars Sinai Beverly Grove 310-423-4566 Milan Stevanovic Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE George Tang Huntington Orthopedic Institute Pasadena 626 795-0282 James E. Tibone Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE Carlos A. Uquillas Shriners for Children Medical Center Pasadena 626-389-9300 Suketu B. Vaishnav Cedars-Sinai Beverly Hills 310-385-6026

Robert Kay Children’s Hospital L.A., East Hollywood 323-361-2142

Robert H. Cho Shriners for Children Medical Center Pasadena 626-389-9300

Todd B. Dietrick Congress Orthopaedic Associates Pasadena 626-795-8051

Daniel A. Oakes Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE

David B. Golden Cedars-Sinai Beverly Hills 310-385-3326 Rachel Goldstein Children’s Hospital L.A., East Hollywood 323-361-2142

Luke Thomas Nicholson Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE

BAL RAJ, MD Beverly Hills Orthopedic Institute 8501 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 316 Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (310) 247-0466 drhipandknee.com

Christos Photopoulos Cedars-Sinai Westchester 310-665-7200 Marc A. Samson Los Angeles Orthopaedic Center Westlake 213-482-2992 Arya N. Shamie UCLA Health Santa Monica 310-319-3475

Alexander E. Weber Keck Medicine of USC Boyle Heights 800-USC-CARE Andrew B. Weiss Beverly Hills 310-652-1800 Andrew Yun Center for Knee and Hip Replacement 2001 Santa Monica 310-582-7474 Erik N. Zeegen UCLA Health Santa Monica 310-319-1234

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L A M AG . C O M 1 1 1

E MAI L YOUR BURNI NG QUEST IONS ABOUT L.A. TO ASKCH RIS@LAMAG.COM

How did Pinkie and The Blue Boy at the Huntington end up on all kinds of weird merchandise?

HI-HO!

Kermit the Frog dressed as Blue Boy for 1984’s Miss Piggy’s Art Masterpiece Calendar

: Railroad tycoon Henry Huntington made headlines when he paid an art dealer the highest price ever at the time for what some have called the most famous painting in the world. Thomas Gainsborough’s 1770 masterpiece, The Blue Boy, was shipped to cowboy California, and the British lost their minds—90,000 came to say goodbye. Huntington placed the work near Pinkie, a portrait of a girl painted by Thomas Lawrence, and the world wanted a piece of the power couple. They were likely ﬁrst sold as postcards in the museum’s gift shop, then ornaments and playing cards. Disney dressed Mr. Toad as Blue Boy and as Pinkie: stars from abroad remade in Hollywood. The Blue Boy will be on loan to London’s National Gallery starting in January. Let’s hope the Brits give it back. help tie together unreinforced masonry buildings built before the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, which caused facades to peel off like the tops of sardine cans. Huge bolts attach the brick walls to wood ﬂoors

and roofs inside the buildings, and you see the bits that stick out. A 1984 law made the owners of 7,800 buildings retroﬁt them, and some owners “were not as concerned about aesthetics as much as

Q: How many folks are employed fulltime by the city? A: L.A.’s economy is larger than that of Switzerland. More than 113,000 Angelenos work for L.A. County, the biggest institution in the public sector. Another 40,000 are employed by Kaiser, our largest private employer, but just as many work for Target and Ralphs. The top ten include classics like aerospace and movie studios, but we also have an insanely large number of private security guards—if all the L.A. rent-a-cops got together, they would almost ﬁll the Hollywood Bowl. The municipal budget was almost halved for 2021, but in 2020, the City of Los Angeles was the ﬁfth-largest public employer locally, paying out $7.4 billion in salaries to 34,172 full-time employees. That’s about what George Lucas is worth, split among the population of Beverly Hills. Sounds like a party!

Mad magazine artist Don Martin spoofed The Blue Boy in a 1974 issue.

1 1 2 L A M AG . C O M

Smokin’ CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF MEALS AND DEALS

speed,” says architect Fran Offenhauser, who developed an invisible system for historic buildings to prevent the rods from piercing facades. Nobody wants to see an eye patch on a cherub.

W H AT, M OI WOR RY ?

Q: Do the metal squares on all the old brick Hollywood buildings have a purpose? A: Some architects call them smallpox or zits, but engineers call them exterior washer plates. They

CHRIS’S PICK

O Heavyweights from Warner Bros, Universal, and Disney have been cutting deals at Burbank’s Smoke House for 75 years. The menu and décor haven’t changed much, with waiters still serving up garlic toast and Steak Sinatra on white-linen-topped tables. The luxurious dark-woodand-red-leather interior looks much as it did when Bob Hope hung out there in the ’40s or when the cast of Laugh-In partied there in the ’60s and when George Clooney named his production company after the place. This month, stars will be among those celebrating the diamond anniversary at a bash on October 12. The party will be in the same lounge where Captain and Tennille were discovered singing “Love Will Keep Us Together.” So will our love for the Smoke House.

VOLUME 66, NUMBER 10. LOS ANGELES (ISSN 1522-9149) is published monthly by Los Angeles Magazine, LLC. Principal office: 10100 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA, and additional mailing offices. The one-year domestic subscription price is $14.95. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to LOS ANGELES, 1965 E. Avis Dr., Madison Heights, MI 48071. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or other materials, which must be accompanied by return postage. SUBSCRIBERS: If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. Copyright © 2021 Los Angeles Magazine, LLC. All rights reserved. Best of L.A.® is a registered trademark of Los Angeles Magazine, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part of any text, photograph, or illustration without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. SUBSCRIBER SERVICE 866-660-6247. GST #R133004424. PRINTED IN THE USA.

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