Part three of the ‘Readers Write-in Article Ideas Trilogy’ is thanks in part to Karen B. who tipped us off to a new cafe that had leased the space at 5000 York Blvd. back in May. While I don’t really have any information to give, the sign in the shop’s window promises a summer opening but based on the emptiness of the interior, and the fact that no one was working on it on a Tuesday morning, I’d be pleasantly surprised if this place opens in the next two months. Since I can’t give you anything firm, let’s play have fun making speculations based on a hip picture of a hummingbird. I’m hoping for something a little more exotic than just a straight coffee and pastry type of place. A small but good breakfast menu is a must with hopefully at least a few items for lunch. I’d hope for a few tables on the sidewalk, and wouldn’t roof access be cool? Think a quaint version of Buster’s or Heirloom Bakery in South Pasadena. Now if something other than Marty’s would just move in on the other side of York, we’d have a runaway renaissance on York.
Last night I made one of my rare pilgrimages west of the 405 for nightlife thanks to a friend’s birthday. I quickly remembered why I don’t go out in the beaches often. Sweet Child O’ Mine, Livin’ on a Prayer, and Don’t Stop Believingare all fine songs but listening to a bunch of drunks screaming the lyrics with their forefinger and pinky raised unironically in the “Rock On” salute makes me want to puke. Then, you’re crushed against a sea of guys with spiked hair, black collared shirts with the vertical stripes, and a lexicon that seems to be mostly “dude”, “dawg”, and “bro” who are all trying to prove they’re having the most fun by screaming the loudest, smiling as broadly as possible, and singing all the lyrics to California Lovin’. I suppose I could just be jaded, and these people arereally having a good time, but it reeks of performativity. Did I also mention that I payed a $5 cover for the opportunity to experience all this? I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: SIT ON IT WESTSIDE.
The point of this article though is the conflicting juxtaposition of Highland Park public relations lately. Friday and Saturday boasted page one, above the fold stories in the LA Times making Highland Park out to be a breeding ground for murderers. However, what I failed to mention in my previous post relating my experience with the LAPD was that while I was waiting for the officer to write my ticket, I leafed through the new issue of Los Angeles Magazine and found that their Street Smart section dedicated two pages to our neighborhood. There I was, a small fish caught in a police dragnet, reading how Highland Park is “officially on the up and up”. Unfortunately, when asked “you live where?” for the third time with It Aint No Fun blaring in my eardrums at the beach bar, no one had seen the LA Magazine piece. Everyone, knew where it was when I referenced the Times story though.
If you happen to read this site and are from out of the area. Treat yourself to the March issue of Los Angeles Magazine, and use it to schedule a day in Northeast. Here’s your itenerary: Grab coffee and a cachito at Antigua Bakery before taking in the views and natural beauty of Debs Park. For lunch, swing into El Huarache Azteca for the adobada and some of the aguas frescas. Spend the afternoon taking in some Los Angeles history at the Lummis House or see if there’s an art gallery exhibition that piques your interest at www.nelaart.com Have dinner at the York and enjoy their beer selection before tipping back a few more at the Verdugo (if you like anything, their license allows them to give it to you ‘to go’). Then, before letting your designated driver hit the road, sober up enjoying either Leo’s Taco Truck on Eagle Rock Blvd. or Tacos La Estrella (four spots in the area). All this and you’ll be out less than $50. Then, you can enjoy empty freeways back to the westside and tell all your friends over brunch the next day how you survived your night east of the 5. Enjoy!
NIMBYism is alive and well along Colorado Blvd. A few months after successfully preventing a framing store from being expanded into a restaurant/bar, residents and the Boulevard Sentinel are again gearing up the neighborhood war machine to prevent the Coffee Table from opening a bar adjacent to their current café at 1958 Colorado Blvd. While I understand the concerns of neighbors, I have problems with their two primary complaints:
1. Without building a parking lot, the adjacent surface streets would be flooded with a parking nightmare, making it impossible for residents to find a spot. Driveways would be blocked, and patron’s cars would be parked on manicured lawns.
2. Patrons would drive drunk in the neighborhood, fight, urinate, vomit, and copulate in the streets and alleys as a result of alcohol (finding used condoms was blamed on the Chalet during the Fat Dog Lounge debacle).
Again, these are issues that need to be addressed between neighbors and the business, but none of them should prevent The Coffee Table Lounge from opening. To the parking concerns, as much as residents might feel they have a right to those spots, I don’t believe they do. They don’t own the street or the curb and like it or not, I have just as much a right to park in front of their house as they do. Their driveways and garages are for storing their cars. The street is a public resource paid for by all and therfore available to all. The remainder of the parking concerns, while valid, can be solved with a simple call to a tow truck. The first time my car is towed from in front of a driveway is the last time I park it there. Plus, towing companies just love to come and nab illegally parked cars.
As for the behavior of drunken patrons, nobody wants to live on Bourbon Street, but I think the complaints about the Chalet have been overblown. Do we miss the days of underage drinking and hard-core alcoholism when it was Toppers? Was that clientele so much more sophisticated, or are we only okay with a bar so long as they have no customers? There are solutions to rowdy behavior: Call the police, complain to ownership, or set your sprinklers to go off at 2 AM. Some are so myopic that they complain about the impact Casa Bianca has on them. Is there one person in a hundred that thinks Casa Bianca isn’t a neighborhood treasure?
Hopefully, some dialogue and reason will prevail between neighbors and the Coffee Table’s owners so that the entire neighborhood can benefit. There is not a bottomless supply of businesses willing to move into the neighborhood and constant rejection and unreasonable Conditional Use Permits will dry that pool up quickly.
