LA Story

In 1991, Steve Martin was cast in a brilliant film about life in LA.  Memorable scenes included ‘open season’ on the 405, a large group of diners ordering half-caff coffees, the difficulty of getting a dinner reservation (“with a financial statement like that you cannot have the duck”) and a brilliant scene involving hidden roller skates and an art museum. 

At 17 years old, it formed my first real impression of the city – vacuous people who drive everywhere and only care about themselves and their celebrity ambitions.  Business trips taken decades later didn’t add much to that impression – pretty beaches, but long straight boring roads lined with strip malls.  Uggh.

So you might ask why we bothered to include it on our discovering America tour.  Well, the answer is simple – LA probably has some of the best job prospects for us, and we wanted to know what it was like to stay in a real house, in a real community, rather than as complete tourists.  We’re glad we did.

We stayed in Venice Beach – which has easy access to the freeways, and ridiculous access to miles and miles of beach, including the 20ish mile bike trail that spans the coast.  The neighborhood itself is very funky – with Abbot Kinney street being heralded as the coolest street in America, or so Esquire magazine says.  The streets are lined with trees and houses have both front and back gardens, producing a very suburban neighborhoody feel within an urban center.

Cycling in santa monica - just a few miles down the beach from venice beach

perfect sunset over venice beach

As luck would have it, we timed our stay with the neighborhoods annual Venice Home & Garden show – where local residents, mostly artists and architects, open their homes to the community as a big fundraiser for a neighborhood school.  So we got to go inside the walls and see how people are living.  Wow.  There is some good living here – lush gardens, brilliant pools and an architectural aesthetic which has taken the mid century bungalows and transformed them into open comfortable living bar none.

 

LA isn’t as bad as its reputation would suggest.  There are some plastic, vacuous people, but that cannot be more than 2% of the population.  There are celebrities, but the 3 times we saw celebs (Rob Riggle, Marcia Cross, Helen Hunt) they were acting like normal people too.  We weren’t stuck in traffic that often.  We were easily able to get dinner reservations at some of the world’s top 100 restaurants – and when we showed up and were not celebrities, we were still treated spectacularly well. There are some streets lined with strip malls, but actually it is surprisingly green – and even wild – just minutes away in the santa monica mountains.

Just miles away from downtown LA to the Santa Monica mountains 

The only really negative thing we had to say about the place (beyond the usual cost of buying a house, crime, etc) was that the supermarkets and produce stores were horrible.  We couldn’t even find a decent blueberry at a Whole Foods.  Thank goodness for the farmers markets – you would have to do your stocking up there for sure. 

And be careful where you park – they hover over your meter and write out the tickets before it clicks expired.  Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

In the end I had to remember that Steve Martin ultimately finds love and happiness in LA.  Maybe we can too.

LA against our criteria:

1) Is it a college town?          Not really

2) Does it have liberal politics?      You know, I don’t know.

3) Is it sunny?           Yes

4) Is it sporty?           Mostly

5) Career prospects?       Strong

6) Airport access?     Good

7) Foodie?      Ok.  Good ethnic eats, bad shopping

8) Aesthetics?     Better than expected

9) Easy to make friends?  Probably, plus we know people already

Some tips for dining:

1.) Spago is a real institution. The service is good, the food is good.  The scene is a bit 80s.

2) Saam at the Bazaar is an experience – but the vibe outside the special tasting room actually looked a little more fun.  Whatever you do, order the cotton candy foie gras…oh wait, that wont be legal after July 2012.  Sad.

3) Umami burger is amazing.  The truffle burger…oh…my…god.