See you in September, Fine Diners

EVERYONE'S FAVORITE reservationless restaurant, Canele in Atwater Village, is on vacation for 2 weeks. P.S. - To the know-it-all at the next table at brunch at Canele yesterday, maybe it's OK to generalize based on anecdotal observations. In a big, diverse place like Los Angeles (without the benefit of actual census data) maybe there's no other way.

Atwater Village is Decidedly 'Out of the Way'

AND IF YOU believe that, you might also believe Silver Lake is an "artistic enclave." From a Wisebread article on strategic thriftstore shopping: "My best friend Lysa is coocoo for expensive art books and cookbooks. Her number one thriftstore? A branch of Out of the Closet in out of the way Atwater village in Los Angeles. Because it's out of the way and because the people donating are largely from nearby Silverlake (an artistic enclave). Books that would cost up to $100 she winds up getting for $1. Her best find? A $7 cursive typewriter."

Atwater Village's Farmers Market 'Less Sceney' Than Silver Lake's

FROM A BLOGGER who gets her veggies on both sides of the river: i've been addicted to farmers market's lately. we go to the silverlake market saturday mornings and the atwater village market on sundays. i like picking flowers for the house and vegetables for cooking dinner. i prefer the atwater village market to the silverlake market because the people are less sceney at the atwater village market.

The Newbie Endorsement: 55 Degrees Wine

IF YOU FIND WITHIN Los Angeles city limits a better Italian varietal and French bubbly wine shop and basement tasting room (with a wine locker kept at, you guessed it, 55 degrees) - co-founded by an Iranian expatriate who currently lives in Hawaii - buy it! Unless you just bought it. In which case, welcome to the neighborhood. 55 Degrees [Thrillist] "You can pop into for nightly-changing, sommelier's choice wine flights" 55 Degrees [Iron City Ex-Pat] "Go down a flight of steps and you'll find this gorgeous, exposed brick and wrought-iron tasting area. It's kind of like learning about wine, whilst on break from a 19th century British factory." The Dish: 55 Degrees [Eater LA] "Expect lots of color coding, take-away info cards and other 'idiot proofing' measures for wine shopping." 55 Degrees in Atwater Village [Miles Think] "The staff is incredibly nice, the owners outgoing and the look and feel of the place is quite inviting." Wine Store and Tastings in Atwater [Eater LA] "In addition to what owner Ali Biglar says will be a rotating selection of some 2000 Italians, he's planning a nice selection of Spanish bottles, 500 rotating small-production sparkling wines and eventually beer, cheese and condiments." On opening day this weekend, the staff urged Mrs. Newbie and I to stop by at least 4 nights a week to take advantage of the changing wine flights. (Wouldn't want to miss one!) And when they sold us $85 worth of Italian reds, they also sold us a story that one of them has been bottled for 1,000 years and was once reviewed by Leonardo da Vinci. By the last drop, we didn't really care if it was true. (55 Degrees Wine, 3111 Glendale Blvd., next to one of the Starbucks stores in Atwater Village; store 11:00am to 10:00pm, tasting room 6:00-10:00pm)

Drive Over to the Casitas Avenue Drive-In

casitas_ave096, originally uploaded by Luis Lopez.

Things are looking up for Casitas Avenue. Though the south Atwater Village street may not be getting any Star Trek lofts, it is getting in on another trend: cinematic alternative realty games. "This fall the HEAD TRAUMA cinematic gaming continues. Players will interact with the film's characters; offline, online, and via mobile devices in what is a cross between flash mobs, urban gaming, and ARGs. The game starts in late September ... Then on Oct. 20th, live cinema games will play out in 10 cities across the country. Within the series are clues aka rabbit holes that lead to hidden sites, blogs, social networking pages and media." Sounds like it might be worth surrendering to the confusion. The "live cinema game" is Saturday, Oct. 20, 11:00pm, in the parking lot of 3191 Casitas Ave. Admission is free. FREE Drive-In Screening of HEAD TRAUMA [Hollywood MobMov] Coming To An Alley Wall Near You [Franklin Ave] MobMov [Thrillist LA]

This Weekend: Art Crawl? More Like Art Sprawl

View Larger Map

COVERING THIRTY-TWO LOCATIONS in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park and Atwater Village, the tenth annual Art Crawl is this weekend on LA's east side. (Northeast side? North of downtown-ish side? East of Hollywood side?) I'm glad to see the quadfecta of Atwater galleries - Black Maria, LittleBird, J. Ferrari, Pounder Kone - all involved. Hopefully other Glendale Blvd. moms-and-pops will stay open late to distract the wandering hipsters. It's Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 12-14, starting 12:00noon each day. More at Art Crawl X. UPDATE: Nearby Eagle Rock's got its own art thang going on, 13 galleries on Oct. 13.

Artistic Self-Promotion Passed Along

A KIND NOTE from an excited neighbor: Dear Newbie, I am excited to present a new show at LittleBird that I have curated. This is my curatorial debut and would love it if you included something about the show in your blog! The opening reception will be Sat. Sept 22, 7-10pm. Thanks! Alicia Cheatham, LittleBird Gallery LittleBird Gallery is at 3195 Glendale Blvd., in the hipsterist strip of Atwater Village. More at littlebirdgallery.com.

The 'Best Bars in America' in LA are in Downtown LA

GILLETTE, WYOMING, HAS ONE. Lawrence, Kansas, has another. Here in Los Angeles we score eight of the "Best Bars in America," according to the June Esquire, and all of them are downtown. Take that, west-siders. East-side-o-phobes. AFTRA-SAG Credit Union members. Whatever you're called. Here are The Eight, linked to Yelp reviews, with quotes from the printed Esquire, since Esquire.com doesn't have this article posted: J Lounge - "For a city with such predictably good weather, LA has surprisingly few patio bars..." Golden Gopher - "Stylishly dim..." The Edison - "Seventy-foot ceilings... old power plant..." Broadway Bar - "Liberace-esque..." La Cita - "Lifted from a Robert Rodriguez movie (or the other way around)..." Bordello - "Weekend burlesque shows..." Redwood - "Divey..." Bar 107 - "Postcollege crowd..."

A Little Bird Told Me

I FEEL LIKE I HAVE been in this very spot. Behind this very woman. Watching her take this very picture. "Monday Noticed" Solo exhibition by Maxwell Boas Opening reception May 19, 7pm LittleBird Gallery 3195 Glendale Blvd., Atwater Village

Making Up for Lost Weekends

Orange Drain Cover Cat, originally uploaded by theturningman.

I HAVE BEEN RIGHTLY tsk-tsked for my absence from a shining moment on our neighborhood's spring calendar. The Artwater Music & Art Festival (previewed here) swept the sidewalks and storefronts of Atwater Village two weekends ago. Thanks to these kind persons, this is my blog's only first-person account: It wasn't culturally groundbreaking and we didn't stay overly-long, but my kid got to get her face painted, I met the sweet li'l old lady whose portraits are hanging at the J. Ferrari gallery, and Kaldi was selling espresso jello parfaits on the sidewalk. Overheard dialogue between a father and tween-age son as they walked toward one of the performance stage areas (the guitar case-toting son, ostensibly about to perform): Son: [grumbling] Aww, man! This looks lame! Father: [pleasantly clueless] What's that? You say you think it's going to rain? No, I was not boycotting. I was in Fillmore, of all places, for the annual pilgrimage to ride this cartoon-faced locomotive. Nothing personal. Let's enjoy together: theturningman's Artwater photos [Flickr]

Causing a Row

CommunityWalk Map - Artwater Village

THE NEIGHBORHOOD MAY BE in serious danger of getting one of those Gallery Rows everyone talks about. Newbie friend Swirl Syndicate emailed me the scoop on the newest art scene in Atwater Village. Taking over the Heart To Heart Candies space at 3195 Glendale Blvd. is LittleBird Gallery. Artist opening and reception is planned for Saturday March 31, 7:00pm. So that's five galleries on that side of Glendale Blvd. If only they could schedule their openings on the same nights...

From the 'It's Got To Be An Act' Department

A budding Rolling Stone "journalist" whines: "Tony Toni Tone lied to me. They told a young girl that 'It Never Rains in Southern California.'" Tony Toni Tone? If Albert Hammond had a grave, he'd be the one rolling. RELATED: Hear new tracks from the next generation of Hammonds. Rock Insider and Cause=Time post new songs by Albert Hammond Jr., he of The Strokes fame. (Even more embarrassing for above journo.)

Super Bowl Sunday in a City That's OK Without It

Subtitled: Third Bar's a Charm We hail from Colorado, home of the two-time Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. In Colorado, even if you don't care about sports, you care about professional football. You especially care about championship games. (With or without John Elway.) And on game day, you care to park your car safely away from flammable material. But now we live in Los Angeles - a great city, to be sure, but not one that bothers much with the NFL. Oscar Night clears grocery shelves, but what would Super Bowl Sunday bring? We ventured downtown, on advice of Thrillist, to see what was what. The plan: park at Metro Rail, ride downtown, and gulp beer and fried food under giant screens at Trifecta. Not so fast, said the Avenue 26 park-n-ride. We don't take your fancy plastic. Cash only, bub. Back to your car. Forget saving the planet. Hope you saved enough for parking downtown. Oh no you don't, repeated Trifecta. Without reservations there's a 30-minute wait and a $50 minimum per person. Or you can stand behind the people standing at the bar. Quipped a clever hostess: "Way to plan ahead." Good luck here too, smirked Grand Avenue Sports Bar. "Maybe someone will share a table with you." Venturing on from these sellouts, we noticed an unusual attribute both joints had in common: quiet. No one was yelling at the TV. No one was color commentating from their beers. We heard the game and the occasional clinking glass. Not much else. (How... respectful?) One final attempt to salvage Super Bowl Sunday led us to Casey's Irish Pub & Grille. Table for two, facing the screen, no waiting, no minimum. Happy hour prices with $3 Guinness and decent pub food. Reminded us of My Brother's Bar, a favorite from Denver. Only quieter.

Delicious (But Oily) Review

Atwater Village's re-opened Canele (3219 Glendale Blvd.) gets slicked up by the Potatomato blog: "On a Friday night, it's completely full..." "Good hang out spot for the local hipsters..." "Light (but oily) pasta..." "I enjoyed the plate very much... "Though every bite is mouthful of oil... "Everything is soaked in oil..." "Amount of oil they use ... is a bit scary."

Artwater Village Weekend

This weekend, call us ARTwater Village...

Pounder Kone Art Space
3407 Glendale Blvd.
Four Points: African Contemporary
Opening Reception
Jan. 12, 6:00pm

Black Maria Gallery
3137 Glendale Blvd.
11th Commandment
Opening Reception
Jan. 13, 7:00pm

jFerrari Gallery
3015 Glendale Blvd.
Art Through Sports
Artist's Reception
Jan. 13, 6:00pm

Frogtown Update: They've Got Art

Missing from all this talk about whether or not Frogtown, a.k.a. Elysian Valley, just south of Atwater Village, might be the next up-and-coming hipster hood is mention of an apparently already-thriving art scene. As the Montecito Heights blog says covering last November's Frogtown Artwalk, it "felt like Downtown probably did several years ago."

MORE: FrogtownArts.com
MORE: Frogtown Artwalk Map
PHOTOS: Gallery 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Two More Views of Frogtown

Sorry. Two more views of Elysian Valley.

First, this house. The front yard is guarded by poles hoisting American and Israeli flags. The banner over the driveway has both flags tethered by a REPENT banner with warnings about the second coming of Jesus Christ. I grew up schooled by fundamentalist Christian churches and I make no sense of this.


Second, this garden gate. Locked, but not tagged. Pretty, yes? Something that might make the hipsters glad they got in early on some premium Frogtown property, yes?


Both photographs taken along Riverdale Avenue. (All two and a half blocks of it. This is one skinny riverside neighborhood).

PREVIOUSLY: Frogtown Hipsterfication
ELSEWHERE: Frogtown: Where the Hip Kids Go? [Curbed LA]

Frogtown Hipsterfication

Here in the Newbie household, we're beginning to think the next up-and-coming hipster hood is Elysian Valley. (Sorry, Curbed LA.) And by "up-and-coming" we mean "buy now and sit for five to 10 years."

Elysian Valley is a sliver south of here along I-5, down the hill from Dodger Stadium. It's a bit like Atwater Village, but closer to downtown LA. Should it attract a few more respectful residents and pedestrian-friendly retailers, poof! Hipsterfication.

Here's a recent listing from the Rental Girl:

1839 Blake / Rent $3,500.00 / Location: FrogTown / Loft Bedroom(s) / 1.5 Bathroom(s) / Warehouse Lofts / 2000+ Sq. Ft.

Located in the industrial Frogtown neighborhood of Atwater Village, this architectural 1950's warehouse has been brilliantly converted into 10 live/work loft spaces... The most desirable unit in the building, it is the south/east corner unit with 2 walls filled with glass windows, soaring ceilings, a roll up door, huge curved beams, polished cement floors, new sleek and modern kitchen and baths. A great feature of this unit is that it faces the Los Angeles River - it's in an industrial neighborhood, but the views are nature and trees! Perfect. And with secure access to the L.A. River Bike path, you can't ask for more.

Sure you can. You can ask for more than dubbing Elysian Valley the "industrial Frogtown neighborhood of Atwater Village."

• Map of 1839 Blake Avenue
• Posting on Craigslist
• Listing on therentalgirl.com

You Can Judge a Wine By Its Label

Number Two, So We Try Harder

It's awful sweet of Curbed LA to list Atwater Village among their year-end up-and-coming neighborhoods. But have they visited lately? Atwater Village pretty much up and came. The award:

Most Up and Coming Hipster Hood - WINNER: Long Beach. Another tough choice. There were only a couple of hoods/communities in the running for this category. Atwater Village and San Pedro being the other two. But we would actually leave LA city limits and go to Long Beach.

Commenters, though, kept it on the eastern tip. They added Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights, Garvanza, Glassell Park and Cypress Park as the next hipster hoods. "Basically any immediate area around I-5 or immediately east of it."

One problem, at least for hipsters who want to move that way: These neighborhoods are not included in Rentslicer's markets. Since Rentslicer aggregates Craigslist rental listings, these hoods are likely excluded because they have little presence on Craigslist.

What, no Internet on the east side? Or just nothing in English?