Real Best L.A.
West Hollywood
Mirabelle’s Extended Happy Hour
The summer has flown, and with it the $19.71 three-course special that Mirabelle offers every year to celebrate its anniversary. The restaurant is still the place to visit on the Sunset Strip for a reasonably priced but stylish meal, especially since they recently decided to extend the happy hour specials until 10 p.m. This means that the tasty slider trio is eight bucks all evening, the whole steamed artichoke or pizza Margherita just nine. Order any two, and you’ve fueled up for some clubbing. That is, unless you decide to just hang around their bar, which has a Swedish modern-meets Captain Nemo aesthetic that is cool enough to savor for a while. Oh, and the app special is served in both that bar (where you can smoke!) and the more elegant dining room, so the deal still holds in the high-style environment. Those who came here for the three-course special will have to wait another eleven months for them to do it again, but can console themselves with some enticing nibbles while they wait. 8768 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 659-6022. (RF)
Westlake
Catalina’s Tradicional Mercado Argentino Carniceria y Fiambreria
Possibly the city’s finest South American supermarket, Catalina’s is a dark, unprepossessing place in an iffy-looking neighborhood. But it’s packed with singular gastrotreasures you’ll have a hard time finding anywhere else. Along with the cheap, fresh produce, there’s superb, Argentine-cut local beef; yerba mate by the kilo; olive oil from the Mediterranean and Latin America; a terrific fiambreria, or delicatessen, with fresh-baked bread and empanadas; and antipodal cold cuts such as lengua and matambre casero, plus South American (try the Argentine Sardo) and a few European cheeses.
Best of all is Catalina’s unparalleled selection of South American (Argentine, Chilean and Peruvian) and Spanish wines. The store’s wine maven, Argentine-born Felipe Corrado, imports many of them himself and is available to give you fluent advice, whether you’re looking for some humble, gaucho-style Crotta red in five-liter plastic-wicker jugs or high-end Chilean and Argentinean cabs and malbecs in the dozens of dollars range (be cautious about the really old vintages, though). Nice Latin-American beer selection too. 1070 N. Western Ave., L.A., (323) 461-2535. (MH)
West Los Angeles
Record Surplus
Once upon a time, this vast warehouse-like space was actually a warehouse – the Rhino Records warehouse. But in the mid-’80s – when “record” still meant vinyl LP – it turned into Record Surplus, a used disc emporium. How good is Record Surplus? Here’s how good: I haven’t had the foggiest interest in purchasing vinyl for at least 20 years. I’m a very digital guy. Somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of the inventory here is vinyl ... and still I drop by Record Surplus more frequently than all its competitors put together. (And, no, it’s not the nearest record store to where I live.)
That is, the non-vinyl 20 or 30 percent of the stock – primarily CDs and DVDs with a smattering of books, Blu-ray discs, and other stuff – is still the best such selection this side (west) of Amoeba. And, as an added bonus, the store doesn’t overwhelm you like Amoeba; as warehouses go, it’s almost homey. There are five or six “blowout” sales a year, with everything 10 percent off the already priced-to-move tags. But the big action happens during the semiannual “15 percent off” supersales, which I really wish I hadn’t just told you about, because during those I already have to elbow and jostle to get half of what I want, so please stay away. 11609 W. Pico Blvd., West L.A., (310) 478-4217. (AK)
Westwood
Holmby Park
Here’s a sleepy idyll, just a few blocks north of Wilshire on Beverly Glen Boulevard, surrounded by a tree-shaded macadam walk, a bowling green for the not-so-frisky, along with a tiny putting green for the somewhat friskier, and a sandy play area for tots. Now, if you’re a tad forward, you could even picnic with the Persian families who hold court at the tables on Sundays. But best of all, a battalion of small white fluffy dogs convenes on weekend afternoons and it’s bliss to just sit and watch them at their favorite social games. 601 Club View Dr., L.A. (Donna Perlmutter)
Woodland Hills
Saban Center for Health and Wellness
Ah, to be part of the movie industry. When those in the biz enter the winter of their lives, they can look forward to the retirement home of the stars tucked away in Woodland Hills. The Motion Picture and & Television Fund has facilities all throughout Los Angeles, but the one to take the cake is the Saban Center for Health and Wellness on Mulholland Drive. (Please imagine the next sentence in your best Robin Leach.) The multimillion-dollar institute houses a pool named after everyone’s favorite teenage actor, Jodie Foster; a state-of-the-art gym for resilient septuagenarians and beyond; and housing for some 400 residents. The center boasts some of the best aquatic therapy in SoCal, not to mention seminars on what the MPTF calls its “Age Well Program,” meaning Joan Rivers look-alikes will be at odds. But this paradise is available only to those who have put in a minimum of 20 years in the industry of television or movies. Sorry, no radio, so don’t expect to see Rick Dees anytime soon. 23388 Mulholland Dr., Woodland Hills, (818) 876-1900. (NS)
Published: 09/24/2008
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