Atwater Village is No Place for Post-Opera Dinner

OF ALL THE dinner joints in all of Los Angeles, these are not the ones to try after a night at the opera, according to Los Angeles Magazine's The Digest Blog. "We mad dash it to the freeway and settle on Canele in Atwater Village. This is a Saturday night, after all, in a major American metropolis. The place looks bustling from the sidewalk. We walk in at 10:35 p.m. Sorry, the hostess tells us, the kitchen closed at 10:30. A cook looks over his shoulder from the frying pan at the sad little couple in the opera clothes. Have you no mercy? "Then it's back in the car and to Palate: sorry, closed ages ago. Next time, maybe? "Then it's back in the car to Carousel on Brand: sorry, we are told over the headache-inducing din of belly dancing music, the kitchen closed at 10:45. It’s 10:47. "OK, the Glendale Zankou, maybe? Back in the car, down Brand, quick left on Colorado. Closed at 11. The mops are out. It's 11:01." They end up at Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena. Sad.