Hidden Gems - LA's fun and funky neighborhoods

Abbot-Kinney, Ocean View, Dana Point, Manhattan Beach and Laguna

Los Angeles, unlike New York, keeps many of its charms hidden, particularly from those who would only drive. The strip of land between popular Marina Del Rey and Santa Monica contains several of these gems which, strung together, make a great walk with great people watching, eclectic stores and restaurants, and a few hours where cars, although present, do not assert their hegemony over the city.

LA’s gridiron layout, which has each trip interrupted by traffic lights, creates a maze of strip malls at every major intersection. The parking lots that embroider the strip malls do nothing but add to your feeling that pedestrians do not belong here. Traveling LA this way you can often find unheralded, unique eating establishments or stores. But most of the city gets hidden in neighborhoods cloistered away from the gridiron by geography, hidden underground, or the fact that they grew up before LA’s sprawl made the city inaccessible without a car.

Water and hills break up the landscape here, where a slow climb from the Marina to Santa Monica and the canals of Venice prevent the practicality of the gridiron. Here the streets go this way and that, often stopping confoundingly at a dead end with the next street visible on the other side of a divider. Maybe we need more of this hate your neighbor type of city planning.

Walking from the Marina, you navigate around one of these roadblocks and arrive at Abbot-Kinney.

You immediately pick up the sense of the village main street. A narrow sidewalk filled with people walking past small boutiques and restaurants - some gentrified, some bohemian and homespun. Clearly, I am late to this party as gentrification has already set in; several stores sport signs saying Goodbye as merchants move away looking for more affordable rent. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before there’s an Apple store - there goes the neighborhood.

Of course there are some franchise names here. We stopped at a pressed juice store that I didn’t know was a chain until I saw two others later. But you also get the open store front with knick-knacks, the glamping exposition, the Toms store, which doubles as a coffee shop, and other hangouts.

Abbott-Kinney’s heart runs about 10 blocks diagonally towards Venice Beach. But don’t go there yet.

Continue about 10 blocks further, into Oceanview, and you come into another village neighborhood. Here the street looks much wider, seemingly an invitation to more cars, but it remains quieter. More electric scooters than the occasional bus. If you follow our course, you might think you missed a turn, because you see some warehouses and industrial appearance buildings. Believe it our not, these belong to Google which has a small campus here. This explains the healthy and interesting dining options which located in either direction from here.

We went this way to eat at Manchego, but we got there and it appeared incredibly uninviting. Maybe we should have persevered a little more, but we left put off by the lack of anything happening, and continued on our way to seek the miracle dinner. But with this strategy you risk "hangry." Tonight wasn't going to be it.

We had found a few great spots around on our walks and there were some great choices, but I think we both had “new american” on our minds. We wanted something inventive. But, unfortunately, hunger makes some decisions for you; we ate at the Red O, which sounds a lot more exciting than it was. Think; a slightly upscale Rio Grande tex mex eatery.

I remember the scene from "La La Land", where Emma Stone gets her car towed, and has to walk home from a party, and she stumbles upon a jazz bar, and happens to hear a few notes of music. MAGIC. That's what we wanted and though we found some great spots on our wander, generally, tonight's fare was disappointment.