LA Re-Cap -- Best of Los Feliz / Silver Lake Bars and Restaurants

I've just returned from a little over a week in the Los Feliz / Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.  Two distinct neighborhoods within walking distance of each other, Los Feliz and Silver Lake are both happening, bohemian enclaves that still feel isolated from the glitz and gaudiness of stereotypical LA.  To the West is Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills.  To the East is Echo Park and Atwater Village.  Along the North is the awesome Griffith Park and to the South is Downtown LA.  Although I had rented a car, I did most of my exploring on foot as this part of the city is very walkable and our cottage was equidistant to both Los Feliz and Silver Lake.

Los Feliz is an affluent, neat, tidy and safe feeling cross-section of hilly streets with a bustling little village area along Hillhurst and Vermont Avenues and some very nice homes as you start to climb up the stairways of the adjacent Franklin Hills.  Silver Lake is a bit crunchier and gentrified, but was recently named "America's Hippest Hipster Neighborhood" by Forbes Magazine.  The majority of Silver Lake's shops and dining options are clustered around the part known as Sunset Junction.

There are tons of restaurants, bars and coffee shops in these two neighborhoods and things are changing all the time.  This is only a small sample of the offerings from my experiences over a week spent there in late August 2014.

Breakfast
First things first.  You can't go wrong with Fred 62 (1850 N Vermont Ave), offering an extensive menu of breakfast staples - some with eclectic twists.  Open 24 hours.  Over in Silver Lake, the young and hip flock to Millie's Cafe (3524 Sunset Blvd) where you can sit outside on the sidewalk to see and be seen.  Much more than a diner, Millie's offers some killer huevos-centered specialties like the Machaca that'll keep you full for the better part of an afternoon.

Happy Hour
We wandered into the non-descript El Chavo (4441 Sunset Blvd) late one afternoon and were directed to the no nonsense back bar where drinks are cheap(er), the jukebox is free, and a Charles Bukowski vibe is in full effect.  Definitely not your prototypical LA...or is it?  El Chavo's El Tres Inn (located above the restaurant) seems like it might be a place worth staying on a future visit.

Dive Bar
The Drawing Room (1800 Hillhurst Ave) hands down.  This is the place to go if a Red Stripe or highball at 8am is your kind of thing.  Or at 8pm.  What's the difference?  Perhaps you'll see a celeb in there for the same ironic reasons as you.  The complete lack of windows only adds to its character.  Killer old school jukebox (5 plays for a dollar) where I programmed some Linda Rondstadt and Tom Petty.  (Note: I did not make it into Ye Rustic Inn across the street, but I heard good things about that dive as well.  Take your pick).

The Drawing Room - cocktail lounge open at 6AM

Cheap Eats
Tacos.  Tacos.  Tacos.  Whether you get them from Machos Tacos (1670 N Vermont Ave) at the corner of Vermont and Prospect, or at "Best Fish Taco in Ensenada" (1650 Hillhurst Ave), you can get a pretty tasty, filling meal and still have plenty of change back from your tenner.

Draft Beer
While I didn't stumble upon any nearby breweries, I did find a few places with some good craft beer selections, including:  Jay's Bar (4321 Sunset Blvd).  Jay's is too hip to be a dive bar, but it looks like it could be one from the outside.  Once you venture in you might be tempted to stay for hours sampling the local craft brews on draft. Spitz (1725 Hillhurst Ave) also has a well chosen selection of draft microbrews in a nice open air setting.  Good food too!  The German themed Red Lion Tavern (2366 Glendale Blvd) is sort of off the beaten track in Silver Lake, but well worth the visit if Black Lagers and Malty Ales are your thing.  Public House (1739 Vermont Ave) probably has the largest beer menu of any place I found, but it also has an over abundance of TVs and bad top 40 music playing, both negatives IMO.  To make those apsects more tolerable, we grabbed an upstairs table overlooking Vermont Ave and commandeered their internet jukebox to play some Ween, Dawes, Dr. Dog, and lots of Phish for a good 2+ hours.

The bar inside Red Lion Tavern

View from 2nd floor of Public House 1739

Pizza
The only pizza I had in LA was at Garage Pizza (4339 1/2 Sunset Blvd), but it was perfecto!  Thin crust, New York style.  They are open late.

Coffee
H Coffee (1750 Hillhurst Ave) was my favorite place to get coffee and hang out.  Friendly staff.  Sprawling coffee house where you could sit for hours and read a book.  Another good coffee find was Casbah Cafe (3900 Sunset Blvd) in Silver Lake.  Relaxed atmosphere.  New agey, hippieish decor with hassocks and mismatched furniture.  Leafy, hidden alcoves for sitting outdoors.

Tropical Cocktails
The one and only place for tropical cocktails is The Good Luck Bar (1514 Hillhurst Ave), a local institution.  We went on a Monday night when the place was less crowded, which made it easier to take in the ambiance (and also went back on Wednesday!).  This place has it going on and the drinks are strong.  My advice is to savor one, or at most two, of their tropical cocktails and then head out because if you have any more you're gonna be feeling it the next day!

Good Luck Bar drinks menu - side 1

Good Luck Bar drinks menu - side 2

Outdoor Atmosphere
The charming restaurant Home (1760 Hillhurst) truly does have a homey, welcoming feel to it.  The outdoor seating area has an agreeable layout and you can kind of see the Grittith Observatory from there.  I got lunch at Home by myself one day and felt pretty comfortable doing so.  The young waitress even referred to me as "honey" and "sweetie" which is a plus.  Right next door to Home, the aforementioned H Coffee also has a hospitable outdoor atmosphere.

Juice Bar/Shakes/Smoothies
The hipster-friendly Punchbowl (4645 Melbourne Ave) takes the cake on this one.  Overly priced juice bars might seem like an LA cliche, but once you've forked over ten bucks for a Greena Colada at Punchbowl, you'll know why this place is for real.

Best Overall Food
The two best meals I had in LA were at the Red Lion Tavern (see draft beer above) and at Sidewalk Grill Mediterranean Kitchen (1727 N Vermont Ave). At Red Lion Tavern I had mouth watering Hungarian sausage, with delicious sauerkraut on the side, served with a pasta/cheese dish called spaetzle that might have been the best thing I've ever eaten!  I washed it all down with a Kostrizer Schwarzbier. At the Sidewalk Grill I had a chicken kebab cooked to perfection, with hummus, dolma (grape leaves stuffed with rice and seasoning) and Greek salad.  Yum!

Noticeably absent from my list
I never made it to Little Dom's, one of the most well regarded restaurants in Los Feliz.  I also missed out on Blossom in Silver Lake and Alcove a little ways up Hillhurst, two other highly recommended restaurants.  Oh yeah.... and both times I tried to go to the famous Tiki Ti cocktail lounge they were closed.  Maybe next time!

Atlantic City for the Non-Gambling Beer Snob in Search of Culture

My wife had the opportunity to attend a conference in Atlantic City this month, and I tagged along with her.  We drove there via Norfolk, Virginia, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel, up 13N through the Eastern Shore into Maryland and Delaware, caught the Cape May-Lewes Ferry in Lewes and took it across the Delaware Bay to Cape May.  From there we took the Garden State Parkway to the Atlantic City Expressway.  This route didn't save any time and it cost more in tolls and ferry fares, but it was definitely more pleasant than taking crowded interstates all the way there.  From Norfolk all the way to Atlantic City is pretty easy going driving on rural old highways.

Cape May-Lewes Ferry

We stayed at Caesar's in Atlantic City, which is right on the famous boardwalk.  As far as hotel rooms go, it was very good - nice and clean with expansive views for not too much money.  Caesar's of course has a huge casino.  Thankfully, you can bypass the casino and slots altogether when exiting the building by taking the elevator to the 1st floor street level, which puts you out near the boardwalk.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to re-enter the building that didn't require you to walk by the casino, where smoking is still allowed.

Tun Tavern beer taps

The first place on my list to see was Tun Tavern, Atlantic City's only brewery, located near the Sheraton/Convention Center.  We went there twice and sat at the bar each time.  The service was always very prompt and attentive.  The Tun beers were really good, for the most part.  My favorite was the Irish Red, followed by the Munich Dunkel, then the Oktoberfest, the Oatmeal Stout and finally the Maibock.  I didn't care for the Pumpkin Ale, although some might.  They had other beers which I didn't try, including an American IPA, a Pale Ale and the Tun Light beer.  I ate one meal at Tun Tavern as well - a fresh fruit and chicken salad (healthy!) - and it was good too.  Definitely check out Tun Tavern if you are looking for a cool place to hang out that's away from the casinos and is not a dive bar.

Um, dive bars.  I had also heard about The Irish Pub - an old "authentic" Irish pub located a short ways off the boardwalk not too far from the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.  I made a point of going to this place too.  It was just OK.  I'm sure they see a lot of tourists in here but it was still kinda grungy.  The people working there are rather gruff and after one pint of Guinness it wasn't somewhere I felt compelled to linger.  It was kinda moldy and smelly in there too.  Check it out for yourself if you want though.

Speaking of the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, I was looking for something to do one afternoon so I decided to go in here.  I really liked it; more so than a lot of more serious or conventional museums.  The Ripley's museum had some freaky stuff, like German Wolpertingers - curious flying creatures that live in the woods, and a reproduction of a New Jersey Devil skeleton, based on eyewitness accounts!  I also saw a rooster that smoked cigarettes, a mermaid that was half monkey/half fish, a one-eyed seeing eye dog, a shrunken head, a life-size replica of the world's tallest man, a genuine Iron Maiden, a vampire killing kit, and much, much more.  Believe it, or not!

Ripley's Believe It or Not! - Atlantic City

One evening we were in search of a more "locals" type of place to eat off the boardwalk, and I had read about a tacqueria on Arctic Avenue, a few blocks away from our hotel.  So we walked in that direction but accidentally found our way into another place called La Finca.  This was a wonderful mistake to make, because La Finca turned out to be an awesome Dominican style restaurant.  Not what I was expecting, but even better!  We each got stewed or grilled chicken with rice, beans, salad and fried yucca.  Washed down with fresh pineapple juice.  Huge portions.  One of the best meals I've had in a long time!  When we were walking out I saw the tacqueria we had intended to go to, but now I'm glad we missed it in favor of La Finca.

I later learned that La Finca is located in Ducktown, a small section of Atlantic City that was traditionally Italian-American.  Nowadays it  is probably more Hispanic.  Culture is definitely lacking in AC, but if you want to experience a little bit of it stroll around Ducktown.  Despite its semi-rundown appearance, Ducktown seems to be a fairly safe, family-oriented neighborhood with many off-the-tourist-path ethnic restaurants, bakeries, pizzerias and groceries.

Atlantic City's well known White House Sub Shop is also located in Ducktown on Arctic Avenue, a few doors down from La Finca.  I had intentions of eating at White House for lunch one day, but when I went in there the place was packed and the subs looked like stomach aches waiting to happen.  So, I left and walked around the corner to Atlantic Avenue, where I found Jonuzi's Pizza.  Jonuzi's was pretty empty on this day, which I found appealing.  The pizza was awesome though: authentic New York style.  A massive slice!

Enormous pizza slice from Jonuzi's

Oh yeah, for cheap draft beers and a quirky, people watching atmosphere, check out the Bally's Wild West Bar.  They had Dos Equis on draft for $2 a cup as part of a 24/7 happy hour.  I wasn't really in the mood for pounding back beers when I went there, but at this cost it was hard to pass up having at least a couple of these while watching the baseball playoffs on TV.  Bally's is connected to Ceasar's so it's easy to get from one to the other without going outside.

Lastly, I suppose I should mention the Atlantic City Boardwalk.  You can walk for miles in either direction from the Ceasar's/Bally's/Trump Plaza midtown area.  There's tacky shops, questionable restaurants and, curiously, lots and lots of places to get a body massage.  I didn't get a body massage, but I did get an Atlantic City baseball cap for .99 cents!  The perfect hat for the world's playground!

Souvenir baseball cap - bought for .99 cents on the Atlantic City Boardwalk

On the drive back from Atlantic City we returned the way we came and this time had a couple hours to spend in the quaint, seaside town of Cape May, which I liked a whole lot better than Atlantic City!  We stopped in a little restaurant/bar by the water for soup and a beer.  I could have stayed there all afternoon and into the evening, but we had a ferry to catch.  I would like to go back to Cape May for sure!

Would I want to go back to Atlantic City?  Don't bet on it.  But I was able to enjoy a good brewery, a great restaurant and a fun museum in the midst of all that scuzzy tourism.  Plus, I got in some valuable banjo practice in the hotel room and I'm happy to report that I did not spend the first dime on gambling.  Right better.

Hardywood Gingerbread Stout and The Magpie

Hardywood's Tasting Room

Yesterday I finally stopped by for a tasting at the new Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond, VA.  I’ve been enjoying the Singel, their flagship blonde Abbey-Style Belgian ale, for a couple months now but I was really excited to try Hardywood’s new reserve series Gingerbread Stout - an imperial milk stout brewed with fresh local ginger and honey.  The Gingerbread did not disappoint.  It’s like a meal in a bottle that can quickly put a Scrooge or Grinch in the holiday spirit.  So good, in fact, that we left with a 64 oz Hyrdo Flask growler of it to be enjoyed over the weekend!  At 9.2% ABV, this post-dinner stout is definitely not a beer you want to mess around with and is perhaps best quaffed in small doses either with dessert or as dessert !

Gingerbread Stout

The ultimate growler

The Hardywood folks really seem to know what they are doing and have made quite an impact since opening in October.  The tasting room and brewhouse at 2408 Ownby Lane is currently open to the public 4-7pm Thursdays, 4-7pm Fridays and 2-5pm Saturdays.  In addition, you can now find Hardywood beers in many fine local watering holes and specialty beer stores.  In my opinion the restaurant that pulls the best pints of Hardywood is The Magpie, a gastropub near VCU in Richmond’s historic Carver neighborhood less than one mile from Hardywood's brewhouse.  In addition to Hardywood varieties, The Magpie offers a modest but well-chosen selection of rotating draft beers from other leading breweries to go with their mouthwatering entrees and small plates.  

 Check ‘em out!

Ajuba Indian Restaurant in Ashland, VA

Ashland now has an Indian restaurant!  It is called Ajuba Indian Cuisine, 141 Junction Drive, Ashland, VA, 23005, 804-752-7552, near the Food Lion.  We've eaten there three or four times and recently had our best meal yet.  I got the Dal Maharani (black lentils with red kidney beans in a rich creamy sauce) while Laura got the Badami Chicken (boneless chicken cooked with onion gravy and almond paste).  With a side of Aloo Parantha (whole wheat flour naan bread stuffed with spicy potatoes). We shared.  It was awesome.

Spiciness doesn't have to mean "spicy hot" in Indian food - it can just mean flavorful.  Although when you order off the menu at Ajuba they allow you to select the spiciness of your meal on a scale of one to ten.  I chose a six for my dish (I used to go even spicier but I'm scaling back) and Laura chose a four.  I did level seven here once before and that was a little too hot for my taste.  Five is probably a good number if you're OK with some spiciness but don't want to be overwhelmed.

Ajuba is open seven days a week. There's a lunch buffet every day from 11:30am to 2:30pm and dinner is served from 5 to 9pm.  Effective October 5th they will also be doing a dinner buffet on Wednesday nights.  Buffet style is a great introduction and way to sample Indian food due to the variety of things you get to try for a set price.  When doing the buffet I try and make mental notes of things I enjoyed (one of my favorites is Chana Masala) to help me decide when I have to order off the menu.

One of the reasons I love going to Indian restaurants is because besides maybe a table or two of actual Indian people there's hardly ever anyone else there.  ("stuff white people like").  That's actually a shame because Indian food is soooooo good!  It's also a Catch-22.  I want Ajuba to succeed and stay in business so I hope more folks will check it out. It's definitely one of the top dining options we have in Ashland.  Much, much better than the chain restaurants right off the I-95 exit.  Oh yeah....they also have beer!  Domestic bottles for the non-adventurous plus some tasty Indian varieties like Kingfisher and Taj Mahal that pair well with the food.

Besides Ajuba, the nearest Southern Asian cuisine to Ashland is several miles away in either downtown Richmond or the West End (unless you count Thai Gourmet near King's Charter), so Ajuba is a welcome addition.  If you love this type of food then it's also another reason to make the trek to our cool little town in the Center of the Universe.

See below for the Ajuba menu.

 

Branch out!

St. John's, NL - Restaurants

My wife Laura and I fell in love with St. John's, Newfoundland after spending 8 days and nights there in late summer 2011.  It's North America's oldest and most Eastern city. In the first of an ongoing series of articles I intend to write about this paradise, here's a fond look back at the restaurants we tried.

Thai One On - Pad Thai from The Sprout

The Sprout - 364 Duckworth Street, 709-579-5485
The Sprout is St. John's only 100% vegetarian restaurant; each dish has a vegan option. The food is delicious and very reasonably priced. If there was a place like this in Ashland I would eat there all the time! The menu is extensive and offers some unique twists on favorites like poutine. We ate there twice and I'm still thinking about the incredible pad thai. I also tried the chili and the Bravocado (avocado and cheese) sandwich, which was also great. Not only is the food good, but this is also the place to meet a beautiful vegan girl*! (*Neil Conway reference for those in the know!).

The Ship Pub - 265 Duckworth Street at Solomon's Lane, 709-753-3870
For bar food/pub grub I can't imagine a better place than The Ship.  The food is tastier and made with more care than it needs to be for a place like this.  Try the breakfast burrito, the fish and chips, the fish cakes, or the poutine - possibly the best poutine in the city.  They stop serving food at 8pm though, as most pubs here do, so get there early if you want to eat.  After eating it would be perfectly fine and normal to stay the rest of the evening drinking at the bar, chatting with the regulars and tourists alike, enjoying the great local Quidi Vidi and Storm beers on tap, and taking in the world-class music they have there almost nightly. And then come back and do it again the next day!  Here's a great article about The Ship written by Candice Walsh for West Jet up! 

Afgan  Restaurant - 375 Duckworth Street, 709-754-2230
Across the street and a little over from The Sprout is the aptly named Afgan Restaurant.  A lot of folks may miss or overlook this little place, but if you like simple chicken, kabab and naan bread meals then this is definitely worth trying. If I remember correctly, the menu only had a few options but you really can't go wrong here.  The pricing is good too.  I would eat here fairly often if I lived in St. John's.

International Flavors - 4 Quidi Vidi Road,709-738-4636
If you're visiting St. John's for any length of time you have to try this place!  It's Pakistani food at its best!  It is all the way at the other end of Duckworth towards Signal Hill and The Battery, but not too hard to find.  They are open noon to 7pm most days (closed on Sundays I think).  The coolest thing about this place is there really is no menu.  There is one dish being cooked and you can get it with or without meat (chicken or pork) in a size small, medium or large. I love that concept!  I ordered the medium plate and it was a lot of food; all I could do to finish it.  Also, it is very inexpensive for St. John's standards. If I lived here this is definitely one place I would take visitors.

The Pepper Mill - 178 Water Street, 709-726-7585
Water Street is where a lot of the fine dining restaurants are located.  If you're planning to dine at any of them during peak dinner hours, I suggest you call ahead and make reservations. We didn't know this and happened in The Pepper Mill on a Monday night after the first place we tried was full up.  As walk-ins, we only got a table due to a cancellation. I'm not a real fancy eater, so there's a point where some of the things you're supposed to appreciate at a nice restaurant are lost on me.  Fortunately The Pepper Mill does their best to make your dining experience all that it can be, even for regular folks like me.  The Pepper Mill returns on your dining investment with perfectly cooked, well chosen entrees.  I had the halibut on special and the portion size was larger than I expected.  I finished it, but I was very full.  And actually their prices are pretty reasonable, I would find, for this type of place in St. John's.  Add in a good wine and beer menu and if you're looking for a nice, romantic dinner this is the place I would go.  Side note: I had packed lightly for this trip, mostly hiking clothes, not exactly stuff you'd wear to a nice restaurant. Fortunately St. John's is a relaxed, non-snooty city so although I was a little under-dressed in my opinion I was never made to feel uncomfortable in nice restaurants.

Aqua Kitchen and Bar - 310 Water Street, 709-576-2782
Aqua is the other fine dining place we tried.  The food was pretty good - more like comfort food and very rich.  It's a little more pricey than The Pepper Mill.  The $26 Southern Fried Chicken meal I got was nice but I felt like I payed a little bit too much, and the attempt to fancy up this down home dish was perhaps a little under-appreciated by me. I did try some wasabi mashed potatoes which were out of this world! Not too spicy with just a hint of wasabi. Wicked. The bread with olive oil and sundried tomato for dipping they brought out was an unexpected bonus.  This place has a good reputation, it's hip and is often packed, so again, it's best to call for a reservation if you want to get a table here.

Zachary's - 71 Duckworth Street, 709-579-8050
On our last night in St. John's we popped into this unpretentious, more Newfoundland like local restaurant for dinner.  It was a quiet night there, being far removed from the maddening crowd on George Street, but the food hit the spot!  Home-cooked chowder, grilled cheese, salad, fish and chips, fish cakes, local beer...they have it all here!  Zachary's is the kind of quaint place you'd expect to find in some tiny fishing village and not a booming, industrial habor town like St. John's.  The restaurant is more known for its breakfast and lunch...try it then!

Venice Pizzeria - 81 Military Road, 709-738-7373
We wanted pizza while in St. John's and saw several pizza places scattered about, but we were directed to Venice Pizzeria on Military Road near Bannerman Park. They stay open late and the pizza is great for beer munchies after a night of drinking.  Nothing fancy here - just great, traditional, crunchy pizza the way it's supposed to be.

Linda's Inn of Olde - 67 Quidi Vidi Village Road, 709-576-2223
The Inn of Olde in Quidi Vidi is more of a funky neighborhood watering hole and I will write more about it when I cover pubs, but after a long day hiking the Sugarloaf section of the East Coast Trail their seafood chowder with a side of bread and a Black Horse beer was just what I needed. The fresh cooked chowder was creamy with celery and carrots in it.  By the taste of the ingredients you could tell it wasn't out of a can.  They also offered chili but we didn't try that. This is a place you'll want to linger a while to take it all in.

Asian Taste - 250 Duckworth Street
The only other place we ate at was this Asian sushi place on Duckworth on a day we were undecided about what to get for lunch.  They had some good sushi box lunch combo options - slightly expensive - but a lot of food and very satisfying.  Nothing incredible, but just as good as similar sushi places we have back home.  They also have Chinese dishes. Oh, and pictures of everything are shown on the menu, which can help someone like me with ordering.

I was surprised by the number of ethnic restaurants within walking distance offering excellent quality food.  This is the type of stuff we like to eat, so we ate at these types of places more frequently than typical visitors might, and a little less at the traditional Newfoundland establishments.  I regret now not having the standard boiled dinner that a place like Velma's offers, but I think we got a good taste of the food being offered in St. John's and definitely lucked out into finding a few favorite places.  If we were there longer we probably would have tried the Basho Japanese restaurant (expensive!!!), or India Gate (for the lunch buffet), or Shalimar (another Southern Asian place), or Blue On Water (more fine dining), as all of these places were recommended to us by locals, but there was only so much we could sample in a week.  Until next time!

Click on the following links to read more about my St. John's trip and the pubs, live music and hiking I encountered.