womantraveler

LA Dining -- Recession Proof?

What economic turndown? Los Angeles restaurants were jammed last weekend when Womantraveler cavorted for food and wine experiences. Despite recession fears, it took three weeks to get a late (for LA) reservation for three at Fraiche in Culver City, which was full when we arrived for the 8:45 pm call and hopping until we left at 11-ish. We were delighted with our appetizers and main courses, including baby beets salad, monkfish "francaise," steak frites and papparadelle (and, naturellement, to add to the luster, a real French server).

Earlier in the day for brunch at The Rose Cafe in Venice (on the Santa Monica border), there was also a short wait for the popular neighborhood haunt (and where egg-white omelets compete with any I've had ever).  An impromptu call to Campanile for Sunday brunch worked but tables stayed filled with comers and goers of all ages, including families with young children. Campanile (meaning "clock tower") and its next-door partner La Brea Bakery have been stylish stalwarts since 1989, occupying a onetime Charlie Chaplin space that suggests LA fantasies with cool, comfort, creative menus and attentive service.

We are not naive. We know that people are spending their money on essentials, not optionals, but among those accustomed to eating out, dining in great restos is an essential. Let's hope it continues.

Other recommended upscale casual West Side LA dining tips -- and definitely call ahead for reservations:

• Bottle Rock wine bar in Culver City 

• Upstairs 2 (with wine-compatible dinners Wed-Sat only), an addition to The Wine House, LA's largest wine store, on Cotner Ave. just off the 101 Freeway 

• JiRaffe Restaurant in Santa Monica, a terrific venue for prix fixe dinners at the Monday Night Bistro ($38 a person and reduced quality wines) -- and always popular for business dinners 

Dark History, Bright Future in Little Tokyo

Witnessing the dark history of the US incarceration of its own citizens during World War II is a sobering experience at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Not only are we taken into the concentration camps in the US West -- where 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned for more than three years from 1942 to 1945 -- but we are provoked anew regarding the fragility of democracy and our responsibility for preserving it. The museum excels at storytelling -- videos, pictures and written messages by first-generation immigrants and their second-generation children who were born citizens before World War II, considered themselves loyal Americans and then were segregated simply because of their appearance in a time of war. They lost everything and had to rebuild their American dreams -- with a spirit of silent acceptance and courageous resilience.

Many of us were never taught this history growing up in the US -- and fortunately we can now learn it through such exhibits as Ansel Adams at Manzanar (which closes Feb. 18, 2007). His poignant photos of the concentration camp in the eastern desert of California illustrated his view that "America has not assimilated all who have assimilated America." Whether Japanese American or not, we will all find reflections of our experiences as Americans in this museum, especially as World War II veterans or as sons, daughters and grandchildren of that "Greatest Generation." If any city can teach us about the bounty and challenges of diversity in the US, then it is LA -- and this museum is a leader in showcasing how the story of one ethnic group in the US is the story of us all.

Little Tokyo is only a few-block area, just east of the downtown center, close to the Latino Olvera Street market and preserved by Japanese American businessmen in the 1980s before the re-development bulldozers could level it. One of the buildings on the Japanese American Museum's campus is the first Buddhist temple built in LA in 1925 and now a National Historic landmark. The Geffen "wing" of LA's Museum of Contemporary Art is on the same block.

Be sure to take advantage of the Japanese cuisine along East First St. -- sushi and beyond to ramen (noodle) dishes, fish plates (mackerel, black cod and salmon) and light curries. Recommended are the Suehiro Cafe, 337 E. First St. (wide range of items), Daiko Kuya Original Noodle and Rice Bowl a few doors away (it's tiny so be prepared to stand in line outside up to 30 minutes) and the Miyako Hotel's own restaurant across the street. Downstairs, its Cafe Take 5 coffee shop even serves green tea latte. The museum's Chef Akira's Garden Cafe also offers salads, sandwiches and hot plates built around Japanese ingredients in the range of $5 to $7.50 each.

The Miyako Hotel is an inexpensive but well-run and comfortable focal point. Its spa, open 3 pm to midnight M-F and 12 noon to midnight (Sat-Sun), offers shiatsu massages starting at $60 for 45 minutes, and less for members or hotel guests.

Shop Til You Drop in LA

You may have missed the annual end-of-summer Barneys New York Warehouse Sale in Santa Monica, but you don't have to next year with LA's Shopper Shuttle. This service is a dream come true for fashionistas and wannabes seeking to fulfill spending fantasies in a city offering blinding choices and variety. Organized by zones -- a la Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, etc. -- the service will plan a personal shopping itinerary and take you from store to store. Since Los Angeles is so spread out with many distinctive shopping neighborhoods, this is a great way to get started -- or re-indulge once you become familiar with the place. Be sure to check out downtown's Fashion District (the Mulberry Street of the West Coast), Melrose (from Boho to the hippest chic) and Abbott Kinney (contemporary LA Style).

Last Stop West: Playa del Rey

If Key West, Florida, is the southernmost point in the US, then surely its West Coast sibling, Playa del Rey, one of the beach villages of Los Angeles, has a legitimate claim as the last toehold on the Pacific side of the continent. This is, of course, a totally inaccurate statement geographically (as there are indeed land points west of Playa), but spiritually it is not. Playa del Rey in LA is an outpost with the ease and simplicity that Key West wished it still retained.

I write this post with fond memories of Key West in the '70s and good vibrations about Playa as a more recent adopted hometown. Located within 10 minutes of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the village of Playa is only a few blocks long and fronts on a vast and often nearly empty beach, known best locally for its bike path and volleyball. There's a startling lack of pretense here, given narcissistic Venice Beach and Santa Monica up the beach to the north and dripping-rich Manhattan Beach five miles to the south down the Vista del Mar. While living in the nearby condo community of Playa Vista across the marshlands to the east, I escaped to Playa by the sea for weekend coffee, weeknight dinners, early morning bike rides and late afternoon beach walks. This living/working,village with a neighborhood spirit is a carefree and unadorned home at the end of the world for some lucky (and smart) Angelenos.

Don't get me wrong -- hip LA exists here, too, but not in heavy in-your-face doses. The mega-rich perch their five-story homes on steep bluffs and oceanfront hillsides. Just to the north is the Marina del Rey channel where celeb yachts, university crew teams and sailing school students compete for watery turf, and beyond that, the carnival of Venice Beach. In Playa on a rare clear day you get the filtered postcard view of the LA basin from the ocean east to the San Gabriel Mountains and their snowy peaks in winter. On maps, Playa is a mere pass-through from the Marina south to Manhattan Beach, and the locals love it that way.

Palm Springs Update

I've been receiving requests for the latest on the hot new Palm Springs since womantraveler's visit to the area last summer. Happily, the New York Times has brought us thoroughly up to date. Don't forget the early evening drink on the deck of The Lodge at Rancho Mirage, a decadent perch affording a sweeping view of the valley lights.

Jiraffe Resto Stands Tall

When in LA, dining at JiRaffe Restaurant in Santa Monica is a dependable quality favorite. Why? Its Monday night three-course prix fixe bistro meal is a steal at $24 per person (plus wine), a special that starts the work week off just right. A steal not only because of the price, but we experience the same high-quality JiRaffe cooking that stands tall on weekends as well.

For a sample of Chef Raphael Lunetta's offerings, here's what our recent Saturday night menu afforded -- seasonal heirloom tomatoes everywhere (gazpacho and salad of green, yellow, and red heirlooms with grilled tiger shrimp and a grapefruit vinaigrette dressing), and a Peruvian gnocchi completed the appetizers for 3. Then came entrees of halibut "cassoulet," swordfish with a veggie salsa, and risotto extraordinarie, finished by a lemon souffle and 3 spoons for dessert. Our Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio, and Pinot Noir were crisp and fruity accompaniments for a hot summer night. You can also subscribe to the JiRaffe newsletter for the upcoming Monday night bistro menu.

LA: Where the Chefs Eat

Everyone wants to know where chefs eat when they're not cooking in their restaurants. Hint -- they usually go to friends' restaurants, occasionally scope out the competition, or frequently entertain other chefs and friends at home, where the experience is casual, effortless, yet inventive. Here are 15 LA restos frequented by chefs, according to a recent survey.

Sale of the Season: Barneys in LA

Barney's New York Warehouse Sale at Santa Monica Airport is a semi-annual free for all that starts today and trumps a regular dose of Loehmann's. Word is that it's the best upscale sale in town -- in a style-conscious city where insider shopping secrets are uncovered on a daily basis. The sale lasts until Aug. 21, offering progressively reduced prices. NB -- there are no dressing rooms!

Antique and Retro in Southern California

Themed -- not themepark -- shopping is the way to get the most out of Los Angeles and most places for that matter, and Surfing Cowboys of the antique retro variety in Venice, CA, is an excellent place to start. Donna Gunther, co-owner with her husband Wayne of the Abbot Kinney district storefront that offers furniture and accessories in "beach culture, midcentury modern, and California lifestyle" all in one (whew!), says that today's travelers like to visit places that "compliment their lifestyles." She's got a point. If you don't go to Disneyland while you live in the LA area, why would you go to theme parks when you're traveling elsewhere?

Surfing Cowboys is one of dozens of like-minded "antique and retro" shopping destinations in LA, Orange County, and Long Beach. Though up the street are some traditional "country cottage" vintage shops (of which there are also plenty in Southern California), shoppers like options when they're cruising. Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice is one of the LA neighborhoods that create a fun and artistically energizing afternoon for the hip and stylish. Stop by Surfing Cowboys (1624 Abbot Kinney Blvd., 310.450.4891) for maps of the other "antique & retro" shops -- with maps -- throughout Southern California.

Hip in LA? Hits and Misses

LA Style is whatever you make it. Anything goes,and, for some reason, people with really bad taste like to copy each other. That goes along with feeling (not necessarily being) young and free and experimental. This clothes horse has a clever beat on LA fashion for regular viewing.