samsonite,

Edendale DID suck, for quite awhile. Then, suddenly, it got better. Maybe they changed managers or something. Blair's is very good, my wife and I went through a period where we went there every other weekend. A nice restaurant with an excellent beer list is a restaurant I like.

Red Lion is great, had my 30th birthday party there.

I heard Zankou Chicken change from the fresh minced garlic sauce to some prepackaged creamy [censored] like everyone else has. Say it aint so!

i recently moved to LA and i love bill maher. can you tell me the best way to go about getting tickets? thanks.

call 323-575-4321 (or toll free at 888-515-4321 for callers outside the Los Angeles area)

Chimp, re: LA vs SF food. I don't grocery shop much. I just know what tastes good. And I think I'd make a pretty good talent scout when it comes to food. Overall I've been more impressed by LA food than SF's. Or at least it's very close, which is counter to what you're trained to believe living in SF.

My roommate in SF moved out from Kansas City, and all he could talk about was how much better the food was in KC. I don't know if I'd go that far, but he had a point a lot of the time. I told him he should write a column in SF Weekly and call it The Bitchy Gourmet. Food could range from horrible to edible, the highest rating possible being "Good enough for KC". Would have been pretty funny anyway.

Also it's kind of funny you mention dinner parties. I'm 38, and I really thought by this point my weekends would just be dinner party after dinner party after dinner party. But I guess I'm just not dinner party material, because I never get invited to any. And none of my friends ever have them, at least that they tell me about. So you might be right about LA not being a dinner party town.

I have no idea about edendale other than I went there for drinks on a Thursday night 6 months ago and it was pretty fun. I can't really compare it to many other places in the area though as I haven't lived in LA, just visited periodically, since I turned 21.

Heh, I've spent very little time in LA, and tons of time in LAX. All I know from my experience is that its way too big, way too loud, way too heavily trafficked, way too dirty, and so on. You know, typical complaints. It really probably boils down to me not being a big city type of person, but if I were to choose between SF and LA, it'd be SF in a heartbeat and I can't imagine otherwise. LA does have tons and tons of hot chicks though .

I don't know what you're talking about. LAX is beautiful this time of year. If you can't love spending lots of time in and around LAX, then yeah LA definitely isn't for you.

yeah if youve spent very little time in la, seems like your opinion isnt very valuable.

Ja is a total idiot, dont take his word for [censored]

LA is a great place if you have some street sense and like culture. let that hippy stay in san diego. we don't want your hemp neckalces here anywaytz

There is a Dali exhibit opening at LACMA in a few days.

My 24th bday is comin up. My twin brother too, of course. I wanna go somewhere different and fun that serves drinks, but also allows 18yos in because I want my little cousins to come. Any suggestions? We have about a month.

any ideas for what to do if you just want to get out of LA for a couple of days? i moved here a couple of months ago, went tijuana (MISTAKE!), san diego, and drove up the coast to wine country, dont want to go to vegas. any other ideas?

Take the ferry to Catalina, stay at in Big Bear, camp in Joshua Tree, stay in Mammoth, Yosemite, Sequioa, Palm Springs (nice this time of year), Death Valley, Santa Barbara, Anza-Borrego, stay at the Mission Inn in Riverside, take the train to San Juan Capistrano.

ThaHero,

If you like big, bombastic, wacked out dance clubs, go to The Ruby in Hollywood (on Hollywood Blvd., between La Brea and Sycamore -- 7070 is the address). On Friday nights, they have Clockwork Orange, which is like a new wave and dance pop night. On Saturday nights it's Bang!, which is indie rock and alternative and Britpop, and on Sunday nights it's Beat It! which is '80s.

All three nights are 18 and over, and 21+ gets a wristband to buy drinks at the bar. There are 3 rooms in the club, so if you don't like one song there are 2 more to choose from. It's packed with girls, too, so for kids between like 18-24, it's pretty fun and everyone hooks up.

I'm just a bit too old for places like that now, but back in the day man...

Actually, your post reminded me of a place some coworkers took me. We made a right off La Brea going North I think but I'm not sure if it was Hollywood Blvd. It was a Friday I think and the main room played 80's and another room did mostly hip-hop and pop, billboard type radio music, and I think there was one more room. It could be the same place but it was a pretty cool spot. I'll have to ask them. There will be a few people in their 30s there so I wanna make sure they enjoy themselves too. Thanks for jogging my memory!

Yeah that sounds like the spot. The back room at Clockwork on Fridays does play hip-hop and top 40 stuff.

It's not that if you're 30 you won't have a good time; it just caters a bit more to the younger crowd because it's 18+. I've seen dudes there that look 40 and are still dancing like nutjobs.

The Top 40 and hip-hop is mainly for my younger cousins. I don't know how open-minded they would be dancing to some other types of music. I dance to everything so I don't care. I was also thinking about Level 3 at Hollywood and Highlands but it gets so crowded there and plus I've been there plenty and wanna do something different.

I have been wanting to bowl lately and thought about Lucky Strike, but I'm pretty sure it's 21+ after a certain time and I don't want them to get kicked out or whatever. I definately don't wanna end up at some generic place like the Grand Lux or Cheesecake Factory or something like that though. Miyagi's might be doable but it's a little too trendy for my tastes I think.

Coolish thing to do that you might want to check out if you're into it. Every Sunday night on the sand in Venice beach a bunch of people meet up for a bonfire and drum circle. You could find better things to do but this was interesting.

Also:

Go see a dodger game

Go see an angels game

Go to disneyland / magic mountain / knotts berry farm

Go to Catalina Island

Go golfing

Go to the beach

Take the 405 down to the home depot center and watch David Beckham play and lose for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Go to Fleming's steakhouse.

Go to Manhattan Beach in general, they have everything thats good. (I'm from the southbay ldo)

Go to the observatory

STRIP CLUBS!!!

Any suggestions?

I'll start. I like Starz, it's down the street from Normandie Casino and close to Hustler. Big booties everywhere, black and latinos. Some of the girls have been in music videos too. It's in a rough neighborhood but I still like it. I think it's on Rosecrans off of Western, but you may wanna check.

I also like this spot downtown, can't remember the name. I take the 10 east and exit Sante Fe and make a left at the first bright yellow sign(taco stand I think) and it's on the right. The girls don't get nude but you can order drinks and table dances. The private dances are out in the public so that's very very bad, but they're only $10 I think.

I wish I knew other strip clubs because these are just the ones my friends told me about or took me to and I need some better ones. I would like to go so some with a little more variety as well(read: whites, asians), so any suggestions are welcome. Enough food/sushi and hiking, let's talk about the best L.A. has to offer, hot chicks!

Amoeba Records in Hollywood.

A little blurb my friend wrote up in an email about La Estrella's al pastor. Thought it would be fitting for this thread.

"La Estrella
For those of you new to the taco scene, Highland Park is THE taco capitol of Los Angeles, and out of all the taco shacks in Highland Park the one that is recomended to me most often would have to be La Estrella. The al pastor is talked about in glowing, almost reverential terms and La Estrella's legend reaches farther than the boundaries of this east side community.

The al pastor was shredded with soft carmalized onions. The sauteed pork was soft and tender with a rustic salsa roja with some spice. The roja had a little kick to it but i'm so used to the hot stuff that I don't even reach for my lime jarritos anymore.

So the verdict is that La Estrella makes a fantastic al pastor, and does well to live up to its sterling reputation.




"

While there isn't really a reason to travel too far for good mexican in LA, if you're in or around the Pasadena area there are about 4 various La Estrella stands/restaurants and well worth the stop.

For the a room for rent in a 3bedroom/3bath apartment right below Santa Monica in between Fairfax and Gardner

1. Is that a good area?
2. Is a $1000 the norm or is that expensive?