This Gilmore Girl, She Is Intrigued By Us

COMING UP IN TOMORROW'S "favorite weekend" column in the LA Times, Lauren Graham kicks it eastside: "I tend to stay on the east side of town - I get nervous if I get west of La Cienega... "I haven't been to Griffith Park since the fire, but it's been scary around here since then. The coyotes are getting really bold... "One of the best places in town for Sunday brunch is here at Alcove Cafe & Bakery. Their eggs are delicious, and so is the bacon... "Although I don't spend my weekends doing spas and beautification - I don't like to waste my time doing personal maintenance - I really have been wanting to go to a new spa called dtox in Atwater Village. That's where the Eastside people are going these days... "Sunday night my sister and I hit Mexico City in Los Feliz for some fantastic Mexican food... "We'll occasionally go for Mexican at Malo if we're with my friends who live even farther east. They're Silver Lake people, and you have to compromise with the Silver Lake people." Darn right you do. Thus completes my circle of fascination with All Things Gilmore, started here 13 months ago with the greatest Newbie celebrity sighting to date.

Not a Hand Fruit

FROM THE LA TIMES countdown to tomato time: "'When will tomatoes come so we can have that luscious, olivey tomato background?' moans Corina Weibel of Canele in Atwater Village. She's dying to pair wedges of assorted heirloom tomatoes, seasoned simply with herbs and shallots and tossed with torn croutons, with crispy-skinned seared snapper, drizzled with a little olive oil and lemon juice."

What/Where Are the 'Five Borroughs' of LA?

THE BLOG OVER AT Silver Lake Gallery Alliance keeps using this phrase, the Five Borroughs. Never mind that "Borroughs" is usually spelled "Boroughs." And never mind that New York City established its own Five Boroughs in 1898. I'm just trying to figure out what/where in the world are the Five Borroughs/Boroughs of Los Angeles? For the first four - based on how artsy Silver Lakers tend to see the world - I guessed Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo Park and Atwater Village. The fifth slot goes, according to SLGA's MySpace page, to the "Upper North East." What the hell is that, Glendale? Montrose? San Fernando? Sylmar? I'm all about coming up with new ways to divide the city, but why exclude the rest of LA's art scene? And why the consistent misspelling? Ugh. SLGA's blog is good for sporadic event postings. Might not be the place for neighborhood taxonomy.

A Ten-Mile Drive to the Recent Past

REMEMBER WHEN SUSHI and wine bars first became popular? When shops like Merle Norman Cosmetics and Faye's Intimate Apparel populated our small-town centers? It's not too late to return to those days. All you need to do is drive 10 miles northeast of Los Angeles. And never mind the De Lorean. Montrose claims to be an unincorporated area in of Los Angeles County, between Glendale and La Canada Flintridge. But really Montrose is somewhere between Bush 41 and Bush 43. Between Spaghetti Factory and Cheesecake Factory. For the most peaceful transition from 2007 California to 1995 Colorado, take Chevy Chase Drive north through the winding hills of Glendale. Turn left at Descanso Drive, passing Descanso Gardens. Take a moment. Ask yourself, what the hell is this Descanso Gardens place? Why haven't I heard of this? Then continue, left on Verdugo Blvd., under the 2, and a few more blocks into a recent past only imagined by "Old School" and "CHiPs" location scouts. Breathe deep. Try the sushi place. This could catch on! Or just play it safe at Rocky Cola Cafe. Ah, just like that blue-highway vacation in junior high. Only not as bad as you remember.

Woof, There It Is

DURING THE ATWATER VILLAGE street festival a few weeks back, the neighborhood got a chance to sniff out a new boutique. Now Miles reports: "There's a new doggie boutique and it's on Glendale Blvd. in Atwater Village, which leads me to believe that, at last, gentrification is on the move. The little store sells organic doggie treats, doggie clothes, leashes and such, is decorated with portraits of dogs in clothes and is really just the darn cutest little store ever seen." This might be the same store that once did tricks in Burbank. The shop's Web site says, "reopened in Atwater Village." Woof Dog Boutique

Shameless Google Bait

I MADE UP THIS WORD. But you can use it. Feel free. With any luck, all future Google searches will point back here anyway. dictatutorial, noun: 1. Guidebook for tyrants. "My evil boss must go home every night and study his dictatutorial." UPDATE: It worked!

Benefit of Bilingual Dentistry

WHEN THEY SPEAK SPANISH, I'm pretty sure it's not for me. But when I hear English, I pause the CD player they provide and listen. I listen good. Unfortunately I'll never be able to hear Nick Drake the same again.

'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.