'Full of All Kinds of Goodness'

Kaldi, originally uploaded by seanbonner.

METROBLOGGING'S SEAN BONNER gives Atwater Village caffeine-dealer Kaldi Coffee (3147 Glendale Blvd.) the once over: "There's free wifi, comfy seating, and the staff gets the top rating so far in my book. I've been here off and on for months, but only regularly the past week, and they already know my order before I get to the counter - and actually care about making a good cup of coffee. "Think Kings Road vs Starbucks. Which is amusing because there's a brand new Starbucks that just opened up a block or so away and when I passed it this morning it was empty." The rest of the Village seems to agree with Sean. For the most part. Starbucks still has a few slight competitive advantages: 1) Their patio is elevated 2) They open when they say they open 3) They take plastic If Kaldi evolves to include #2 and #3, the block is theirs for the keeping.

One Down, 98 To Go

EVEN BEFORE THE FIRST anniversary of its opening, neighborhood bistro Canele (3219 Glendale Blvd.) has earned a spot on Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential Restaurants for LA. Sayeth LA Weekly's Pulitzer Prize winner: "In Atwater Village, Canele can feel a lot like an ongoing dinner party that just happens to tolerate strangers at its tables.... The chef/owner is Corina Weibel, a Nancy Silverton protegee who also cooked for a while at Lucques, and she works the farmers-market-driven urban rustic side of new Los Angeles cooking... This is cooking worthy of the good china." The recognition comes on the heels of Sunday's Los Angeles Times love letter: "The most coveted seats at Canele in Atwater Village are at the large communal table in the front window. New parents are showing off their baby to an aunt or two at one end of the table, while a couple on a date is seated at the other end. The food comes - shrimp and avocado salad sparked with lime, cilantro and chile, dandelion salad in a piquant vinaigrette, herb-roasted rack of lamb, a simple omelet - any one of which may inspire someone at the table to order more of the same." Mrs. Newbie and I finally tried Canele last weekend - just drinks and dessert - and we must disagree with one point. The best table is the really bar, overlooking Canele's petite open kitchen. Ask for it. Watch how Corina and staff whisper their way through a plating emergency. Or an undercooked lamb. Or customers who irrationally refuse the restaurant's namesake, a two-bite caramelized confection, on their way out the door. For a drama-infused reality-show city like LA, that's essential. 99 Essential Restaurants: The Metropolitan Palate [LA Weekly] Map of the LA 99 [LA Weekly] Fresh [LA Times]

Atwater Chatter: First Day of Summer Edition

Comments, opinions and questions from in, around and adjacent to our funny little flat neighborhood of Atwater Village: Should Silver Lake Worry About These Freaky Statuettes? "Here's what I am concerned about: Theres a gun with 'bang' written as the blast. An explosion with the word 'toast.' Blood on the knife. Menacing faces." [jeeto.com] 'Not Only Did We Get a Starbucks, But We Got One That Sucks' - "I went in there and the place was a mess. No one seems to clean up the inside or out. The staff was lame, there was a line almost to the door and it was a Sunday at like 2. Also its like a mini version of a Starbucks or something. Its all dark and cramped." [atwatervillage.org] Carb on Carb Action - "Tacos Villa Corona serve up Potato Tacos which is pretty rare in this taco town." [goodgoings.com] Mourning Medication - Kevin Paine, artist opening and reception, Saturday June 23, 7:00pm, LittleBird Gallery, 3195 Glendale Blvd. [littlebirdgallery.com] Any, Um, Second Opinions on Coral Reef? - "Just awful - truly out of yesterday in the worst kind of way! Oily/greasy shine to much of the food." [chowhound.com]

More Expensive Than Malibu

DRIVING HOME FROM THE BEACH this weekend I was mildly relieved to notice what seemed to be a price drop - or at least a price plateau - at gas stations around Southern California. I filled up at $3.26 in Orange County, and I saw $3.19 and $3.09 along I-5 in east LA. Then I got home to Atwater Village. The petrol purveyor at the bottom of Hyperion Bridge posted a preposterous $3.59. This morning LosAngelesGasPrices confirms this 76 station (pictured above, in the under-$3 salad days) has the second highest prices in LA. In fact, both stations at Glendale and Glenfeliz are 40 cents pricier than their neighborhood cousins a mile away on Los Feliz Blvd. What gives? Is delivering gas to the 76 in Atwater Village suddenly as costly as delivering special sauce to McDonald's in Times Square? By the way, the Shell on the PCH in Malibu: $3.45.

Just Think How Popular The Grove Station Will Be

REQUIREMENTS FOR BUILDING a better Los Angeles rail system: 1. A map. 2. A set of markers. A nice set, of course. Maybe Crayolas. 3. $38 billion. Continuing to cure LA's 20th-century transportation hangover with the most robust 19th-century treatments, The Transit Coalition offers this fancy hand drawing of 11 possible train lines. These new or improved lines, given an ideal political climate obtainable only through a Stargate, would be complete by 2026. Sure, the map has been posted more than a year. But I still admire its judicious use of graph paper, its willingness to ignore the pillars still marking the Red Car right-of-way across the LA River, and its ability to get me from Atwater Village to Glendale Galleria in only two stops. Long live the imaginary LA grid.

Infiltrators! Outsiders! Interlopers!

WE ATTRACT ALL KINDS: A Day on the River: The LA River - "I left the river and walked back through the neighborhood to get a sense of the community. The area felt old school, it had a La Bamba sort of vibe: heavy industry, a bunch of dried lawns, an arid hillside, slanting sun, an ice cream truck that played Yankee Doodle Dandy with a Salsa beat, sharp-angled shadows, electric lines cluttering an otherwise blue sky." [dailykos.com] Los Feliz to Atwater to Echo Park roundtrip Photo Essay - "Last weekend we got a phone call to spend the afternoon with a young lady who is considering coming to LA for 'university,' but her parents thought that our fair city would teach her to be a gas guzzling ugly American. So we took her on a busride from Los Feliz to the Atwater Village Street Fair, and then a busride to Echo Park, and then over to Little Armenia." [LAist] We Won't Even Give You Eight Bucks: Ferrari Daytona? - "We spotted this bad boy behind a storage facility in Atwater Village (near the Beastie Boys' studio)." [Jalopnik]

Who Has Gas in the Neighborhood?

AND HOW MUCH IS IT? Three good ways to know: Local Gas Prices iGoogle gadget [lifehacker.com] Gas Prices by ZIP Code [autos.msn.com] Los Angeles Gas Prices [losangelesgasprices.com]

San Fernando Road: As Seen on TV

LAST SEPTEMBER, EAGLE-EYED blog Citizenrobot noted a new billboard along San Fernando Road in northeast Los Angeles.

The billboard: real. Home Plus family superstore: HBO. This is the Utah mega-mart run by Bill Paxton's character on Big Love. But this scene, supposedly taking place in Utah, was shot here in Glassell Park. (Try finding Patra's Burgers in Utah. Google can't.)

The scenes shot last fall appeared in previews for next week's episode of Big Love: "Home Plus billboards have been defaced, leading Bill and Don to scramble for repairs and a rethinking of Bill's public face on Home Plus." That's right. It's not TV. It's LA.

The Pink Lady Speaks

MRS. NEWBIE HERE: Thanks so much for the positive feedback. I'm still feeling the glow from my award. And after spending a day in the sun at the street festival I can tell you the glow might be coming from my very pink skin. How appropriate that the name of cookie is the Pink Lady? For those of you curious about the taste of the cookie it looks like Luis could tell you how yummy it is. But for further detail I'll tell you about my recipe. The cookie is a Ruby Red grapefruit cookie sandwich with Ruby Red grapefruit cream filling. The juice is freshly squeezed and I let the dough marinate in the juices for a few days so that its saturated with grapefruit goodness. It's very sweet and not too tart. It's my own adapted recipe that I've been working on for a while. Now if I could just convince Mr. Newbie to buy me a Pro-Line KitchenAid I could make batches for everyone in Atwater. [Editor's Note: But look how happy everyone was with results from our borrowed run-of-the-mill KitchenAid!] [Editor's Note #2: But you're right, it is yummy, sweet and not too tart!]

http://www.stoppopandroll.com/rss/ http://www.stoppopandroll.com/index.php Episode 2: "Sounds of Atwater Village." Aaron & Paula give listeners a taste of what goes on outside their windows on a daily basis and, folks, it ain't always pretty. Featured music: Rooftop Suicide Club, Timothy Monger, Paula Kelley. Background Music: "The Drunken Organ-Grinder" by Paula Kelley. http://media.stoppopandroll.com/podcasts/Podcast_05-02-05.mp3 [MP3 audio file]

Hot & Local: More News from Street Fest

STARBUCKS AIN'T THE NEW KID on the block any more. Two new Glendale Boulevard retailers sampled their wares yesterday at the Atwater Village Street Festival. Woof, a dog clothing and food boutique, opened its new storefront and staffed a tent outside. Is this a new location for the Woof in beautiful downtown Burbank? Crispy Crust, an offshoot of the Hollywood pizza joint, is still a week from opening but handed out free slices, hot from the oven, all day long. And dance/fitness studio Heartbeat House provided its own hotness, pictured above, with a performance that threatened to upstage nearly everything but the cookie contest. 83 Photos from Luis Lopez [Flickr] 20 Photos from Me [Flickr] Puppies & Cookies from BrainyLAGirl [Flickr] Also ran: Italian Orange-Chocolate Sandwich Cookies [exeunt omnes] And the Farmer's Market, Too [Atwater Village is for Lovers]