Occasionally I see freeway signs for California Historical Landmarks and think I should play tourist more often. So I visited Los Angeles. Here we have the Los Angeles Public Library (the short one in front), built in 1926 with an ancient Egyptian inspired-look. On the left is the Citigroup Center building (completed in 1981), one of my favorites because it plays the CatCo media building on Supergirl. And on the right, of course, the familiar U.S. Bank Tower which I’ll always remember exploding in Independence Day.
The weekend started at Beelman’s for vegan pub food. This is the “That’s A Tasty Burger!” with an Impossible burger, plantains, kale, pineapple, slaw, and savory-sweet brown sauce all served on a pretzel bun.
Travelzoo had a deal for The Standard, a hotel in what used to be the Superior Oil Company Building. The building, completed in 1955 and surfaced with white marble, is significant as an example of corporate postwar modern architecture. The hotel showcases its retro splendor with the original s-shaped door handles, a panel with number dials listing times around the world, and vignettes like this one next to the elevators.
The Standard takes its retro foundation and makes it young with helpful graphics and a minimalist aesthetic. (Except for the mini bar, which has everything from lavender lemonade to fava beans to incense, a travel adapter, or a CD.) The hotel is popular at the moment for their rooftop pool (which is where this post’s opening shot was taken and where you can hang out even if you aren’t staying at the hotel).
Friday night’s show was a sold-out Hannah Gadsby. If you haven’t seen her on Netflix, look up Nanette. Gadsby is furious, she’s hilarious, and her show is what stand-up comedy could be if it evolved to a higher form. I’ve yet to hear someone so articulately and accurately label the problem of a society that doesn’t see women (especially not gay autistic women) as people. “What I would have done to have heard a story like mine,” she says in the trailer.
The show started at 7:30 p.m., and most of Los Angeles showed up at 7:20 p.m. This is the line to get in. It does down this block to the green light in the background …
… and continues down this block. In the time it took me to take the photo of the marquee above, the line had doubled in length.
Fortunately, they waited until we were inside to get started. Gadsby’s show was at the Ace Theater in what was originally the United Artists Building. Construction on the Spanish Gothic structure was completed in 1927 and it was, at 13-stories, the tallest building in Los Angeles at the time. Anyway, Gadsby’s show is still touring so you haven’t missed your chance to catch Douglas (named for her dog).
Breakfast was at the non-vegan 24/7 Restaurant back at The Standard, but the waiter was able to scrounge up oatmeal with almond milk and berries and a side of crispy fried potatoes.
And lunch was the Veggie Grill. They had just debuted the second part of their summer menu, so I had to try the new things. This is the “King Oyster ‘Scallop’ Plate” (the scallops are mushrooms with cilantro pesto sauce and the potatoes are covered with lemon dill sauce). It was delicious, but not a lot of food, which left room for …
… the “Choco-Churro Sundae,” which will change your life. The ice cream is good, it’s a solid entry in the vegan ice cream world, but the churros, my goodness. They are soft, flavorful, perfectly cinnamon-sugar balanced; they are better than Disneyland churros, which is basically a miracle.
The weekend’s second show was The Book of Mormon, which I love, have memorized, and could not wait to see for the second time. Fortunately the tour came through Thousand Oaks, so I caught the red line to the orange line to a bus to the Fred Kavli Theater at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.
Ticketmaster said, “Get our app, it’ll be great!” and of course the app kept loading a blank screen instead of the bar code. So while I was waiting at the box office to see if they could print my ticket, a group gave me their fourth orchestra seat ticket. “Welcome to the family,” they said. So I got to see the magic from a much better seat that I’d booked! Tomorrow is a latter-day indeed.
And finally, on my way home, I grabbed a double (Impossible patties, no onions) and a cookie (the Sonoran Cowboy) at Monty’s Good Burger. I’d tried their burger before, and it is one of the best I’ve had so I took a purple line detour to Koreatown. (Apparently there’s a Monty’s in Riverside, too.) I meant to enjoy dinner in Long Beach, but when the train dropped me off at work, I thought, “Work has a kitchen.” And a view of DTLA, which was a great end to my weekend as a tourist in my favorite city.