Areas I Love: Vermont Avenue

This is a new thing I want to start doing, in addition to my regular blogging/ramblings. Picking a place I like in LA and talking about it.

Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz (which I have been informed, I do not pronounce properly). I first stumbled upon Vermont while back at Chapman. I was thrifting for a movie and stumbled upon a little place called Squaresville in the uber hip neighborhood in Los Feliz.

After being introduced to Squaresville I vowed to make this little neighborhood, full of shops and big trees, book stores and bars my home. When I first started looking at apartments in LA, this is where I went. Ultimately, I didn't end up over here - but I've been visiting it more and fall in love with it every time.

It's everything you could one on one street. It's alive, but not over crowded, every night. The people that hang out on Vermont are the type of people that you look at and think "I could be friends with you."

There are so many restaurants on this street and I've only been to handful. It's a street that you walk down and want to try it all. One day, I might.

Here's a rundown of a few places on Vermont I enjoy:

Squaresville

Squareseville is a little vintage thrift store that is packed from wall to wall with some of the coolest clothes ever to grace the last decade. I would make it my closet if I could.

Los Feliz 3

A little movie theater that shows indie movies that don't usually make it to the big ones, as well as a studio movie or two. I saw Crazy Heart here, and it's charming. Charming, I think, is the word I'd use to describe the entire area.

The Dresden Room

I went to this bar with Nora and it's exactly the type of place you'd imagine your grandparents drinking in. It's classy and old fashioned with super nice elderly bar tenders who treat you right. Live music every night makes it a relaxing place to chill.

Fred 62's

A little diner with the coolest seats around. The booths are like seats out of 50's cars. It's menu is a little scatterbrained. For you Orange County kids, it's like Norm's but not a chain. The burger was amazing and huge (and that's that I ordered The Wimpy Burger [I kid you not, that's what its called!]).

Pattaya Bay Thai

I went here with Jeff and we keep going back. It's a hole in the wall Thai restaurant but it's SO good. The decor is kind of nautical, with fish tank portals on the walls. Reader Beware, if you walk into Pattaya Thai on a night they're doing karaoke TURN AROUND. It's terrible.

Rice A Roni

To truly appreciate Hollywood, sometimes you need to leave it. You need to see what other cities have to offer. As much as I love it here, it doesn't have everything you could want. Know what city comes close though? San Francisco.

Sure, part of that is because it houses the best friend (but not for long. [You hear that, Lauren? You're coming back down to LA. This trip has reminded me that life sans Lauren is NOT okay])

After bailing on work at lunch, Adam, Jeff and I drove up to the city on Friday. We were making great time until-

They decided to close down The 5. Excuse me? Closing The 5 Freeway on a Friday night? It took us an hour to go three miles to get to the detour. Then we got to drive through beautiful Coalinga*

After a plethora of tunes, some sub-par Baja Fresh and 7+ hours, we got into the city. San Francisco is amazing. They manage to fit so much in such a small amount of space. Everything "goes up to the sky and twists." Buildings, billboards and overpasses reach for the stars in a tall and wind-y city that's anything but sleepy.



Friday night:
We met up with Ryan and drank our driving frustrations away. There was drinking. There was dancing. There was Alan.

Whose Alan? In 7th grade I took tennis lessons. Go ahead and laugh. The classes were small and I had a friend Alan who I had lost contact with once I got older. Some 9 years later, in a city of over 700,000, I run into him. Crazy. Even crazier was that it was in a drunken stupor and he recognized me. Sad that I look the same as I did in 7th grade? This blog is getting depressing. Anyways- The night ended with us getting flashed by a woman, who it turns out, was a man.
That brings us to-

Saturday morning:
Brunch at Home. Jeff and I drank coffee, Adam and Ryan drank 2 Bloody Mary's each. I think you can tell who the smarter ones were (okay it was them, but shh!) After brunch we wandered around. Book stores, Art stores, Art supply stores, happiness.

Saturday Afternoon:
On our way to meet up with Lauren we stopped and checked out some performance art going on near the civic center. Interpretive dance, accompanied by music and plenty of chalk for sidewalk drawing. We were encouraged to draw and we did. For a while.

We found Lauren in the mess of the St. Patrick's Day Festival. She had successfully found herself a corned beef sandwich and was hell bent on finding green beer. We didn't.

We did find an Urban Outfitters and proceeded to play around in there. I got a sweet plaid shirt. Lauren got some boots. Jeff got a plaid shirt as well.



Saturday Night:
We rocked the plaid. We set out to eat a restaurant called Range that looked pretty good. We got there and decided we couldn't afford that menu, so we wandered the streets looking for something that looks good. This is how food eating decisions should always be made. We ended up in front of Cafe Ethiopia and, since none of us had eaten Ethiopian before, decided to try it.
We ordered a variety off the menu (none of which we could properly pronounce) as well as Ethiopian wine and beer. The Verdict? The food was spicy and good. The alcohol was sweet and bad. It was definitely an experience (we ate with our hands off of one giant plate) that I, not only would do again, but also recommend others to try (There are a handful of Ethiopian places in LA, lets go!).



We then ended up at an Irish pub (it being St. Patty's day weekend and all) and then to a house party with Ryan. Try to walk by houses in San Fran and not sing the Full House theme song. I dare you.

The party was a lot of fun, complete with new lesbian friends, dancing, mud, drinking, more dancing, and even more drinking. What a friendly bunch. We need to have more parties in houses and apartment in LA, guys.

Sunday Morning:
Well, more like-

Sunday Afternoon:
We got up and headed over to Pleasanton, CA a peaceful suburb of the bay and home to Lauren Emily Johnson. Downtown Pleasanton is exactly how you'd imagine it to be upon hearing the name. Diners, art shops, small town essentials and Thriving Ink.

Thriving Ink is an indie T-shirt company and the store in which most of my shirts are now from. It's Urban Outfitters, but indie. I know what you're thinking - Urban is as "indie" as they come. A chain of mainstream stores, while fashionable, is not indie. Kudos, Thriving Ink and may you be successful enough to no longer be indie.

A quick 5 hour jaunt down The 5 Freeway and we made it home. Simultaneously relaxed and exhausted from our trip to the foggy city.

It did something interesting, though. It makes me excited to explore LA more. I will love this city and everything it has to offer. I will find everything it has to offer and I will let it be offered to me. Los Angeles, it's just you and me (and nearly 4 million others).



*Coalinga is NOT a beautiful city.