Appreciating Fig and 7th

The Summer concert series at Fig and 7th is a fun line up.  We only got a chance to check out one evening, but it was a nice evening that started at the gourmet food court in downtown and ended with really cool live music.  We had an exceptional view on the grassy knoll until the water sprinklers went off.

Figging out

New-ish City Center

Artistic building photo

Great turn out

This hole will soon be the tallest building on the west coast

Freeway 110

DTLA - Walking Around

 On a random weeknight, the boys took me out in DTLA.  I was able to knock out of a couple of to-dos which always makes me happy.

We started the night at Honeycut which is this small lounge / dance venue down an alley near LA Live.  There's always a line, but we were early enough.  I was actually surprised at how small the venue was, but we had a good time dancing away to random music and drinking artist-anal drinks.

This is the type of place that I would love to gay guerrilla bar.  Lots of straight energy that needs some jolting.

What I love about J.lo is that he loves to dance to any beat.  Latin beats are his favorite and I dance along while our bae sit and watch us awkwardly.  The light up dance floor at Honeycut makes for fun pictures.  Shake shake shake those hips.

Ghostly Andrew

 The night was a bit of a mixed bag.  There was an impossible line at the Standard hotel rooftop bar so we took a rest stop at Library bar.  We stopped by The Falls which spelled like BO.  We quickly left and discovered Peking Tavern hidden away on Spring Street.  You wouldn't know to go downstairs unless you saw their sandwich sign.  And bam... a glorious light night bar and restaurant.

Why Yes McKenzie, they have authentic Chinese food in DTLA at 1AM in the morning for a few bucks more than it should be, but that's okay considering the location!  A gastropub nonetheless.  You can read about it all here.

J.lo was a little buzzed and went up to flirt with the bartender to guess his age and ethnicity.  Chuckle chuckle.

Oh and next door to Peking Tavern is Crane's bar which is a dive bar except it has this crazy bank front entrance.  #hiddenLA I love it.

Arts District and Little Tokyo

Every Umami burger location has their specialty.  The "Arts District" burger has a slab of pork belly with their manly burger which I found difficult to eat and not worth the price.  But I managed to get something unique by getting order the Hatch Burger - Poutine style.

This was perfect since I was watching my weight and didn't want to eat the empty calories that came with the bun.  Poutine style: cheese gravy and bed of thin fries.  It was pretty perfect and not regrettable at all!  The Umami Burger in the Arts District has little to no wait and a hidden backyard.

We stayed inside.  Andrew was caught enjoying his fry here.
The restaurant gave us chips at the end of the night to place into jars based on how much we enjoyed our meal.  We could be as honest as we wanted however... they were watching us place the chips into the jars.  How awkward.  Thankfully we had a great time so we didn't have to lie when we all placed the chip into the positive jar.  We noticed that the staff was really bro-y.  But that's cute.

The Arts District section next to Little Tokyo has a ... meat packing feel.  If you must compare it to New York.. there is grit, art, factories and tons of development.

Lots of "boutiques" popping up everywhere.

The Santa Fe One project is massive.  It's going to bring in a new population to this area which can either destroy or patronize it's charm.  It's an interesting view from 1st street.  You can see the roof of this giant building that looks to extend for miles.

While the class arcade closes down in the Little Tokyo mall.  82 barcade is the new hotspot featuring mixology drinks for $14 and arcade games.  I thought it was cool how they projected Street fighter on the walls above the bar.  Other people can see how much you suck if you're able to sneak a game in.

Jimmy was doing well at this pinball machine until i distracted him with my camera.  Sorry babe.

Back in Little Tokyo Plaza I noticed how late this gift store stayed open and how much work it was to bring in and out all of the merchandise every day.  I hope this place stays around for a while.

Happy Birthday Martin.  We were able to gather at Wolf and Crane which I love.  The energy is young and Asian American.  Drinks are good.  People are hip.

I had this venue as a possible spot for my birthday, but ruled it out when I started planning with James.  But I'm glad that I was able to celebrate something here and checked it off my list.

Twas a nice warm evening.

Looking Forward to a Normal New Year

There's something satisfying about planning an efficient night.  During New Years Eve, Ern jokingly called me Mom because of all the logistical work that I handled for the evening.

12 people to manage. I ordered enough pizza that everyone enjoyed.  Tried out a new drinking game to agitate our livers, got a taxi to downtown, snuck in flasks (but double checked if security was going to pat us down by asking people on instagram who were already there #nyeLA), found the free bus to take us home safely.

I called my trusty Korean gypsy cab that charged us $10 a car to drive our drunk asses 2 miles to Grand Park where they were having their first ever New Years Celebration. We were among 18,000 people - they had to shut the entrance at 11:00PM because we were at max capacity. It was a success because we properly prepared, otherwise there was just a lot of lines, awkward music and sober cold people.  What made it interesting were the hand full of art installations that made for fun pictures.

Though the count down was a little anti climatic for me since we were in the PG section of the park and I was hoping for fireworks.

The holidays - a lot of things and feels during this awkward time.  So much work to finish or people you're obligated to see... or no one to see and too much time allotted.  Sickness, sadness, connection, love, appreciation.  There's just a lot going on and for the most part people are just shivering from the cold.

The only thing missing was Jimmy, but I wore the shirt he bought me for Christmas  - and we celebrated the morning of over ramen and a new coffee shop.   Things were normalizing - Jimmy has been struggling with this lately since his father was admitted into the hospital... "he will never be the same"  - I could hear Jimmy saying sadly.  I could also hear Jimmy crying out his brother's name over the phone when he heard the news which really stabbed at my heart.  For about 2.5 weeks Jimmy has been by his dad's side in the hospital to support him.   10 hours a day at the hospital was draining him, but when I saw Jimmy - he was happy.  It was as if he was able to escape the stress and just have a normal day with his boyfriend.

What does it mean to normalize?

For us, it means sleeping together at night.  Eating together during the day.  And finding something new to brag about like a coffee shop.  And with his family needing him right now, it's been hard for him to normalize since he's worried about therapy and insurance.  Thankfully his dad on route to full recovery.

Jimmy told me that he can't wait for the holidays to be over and now I understand what he meant.  And I agree with him because I'm looking forward to spending every normal day of 2014 with him.

Happy New Years!  Time to catch up!

Pictures taken from Instagram - photographer credit in the file name


The countdown:

Exploring Spring Street in DTLA

I planned a lunch at Grand Central Market to try Sticky's Rice's Hainese Chicken Rice dish that LA Weekly said was one of the best.  It was wonderful!  And recently we discovered that the garage next door is one hour free with validation.  Score!

But too late for this day, we parked on the street which allowed us to do a little exploring specifically on Spring Street

Grand Central Market is evolving with newer trendier places to eat which includes Sticky Rice, Horse Theft BBQ and Egg Slut which is getting a lot of hype.  My coworker from London says that Egg Slut does their bacon like in the UK and she loves it.  It seems like the original food stands don't seem shaken by the new competition ... if anything it brings in more people into the market.  Hopefully this market keeps its charm and continues to grow humbly.

Spring Street Park is also a new addition to DTLA.  It's nestled between tall buildings and offers a nice walk way and play area for children.

 

As we kept walking we noticed a surprise farmers market that was about two blocks long.  How pleasant.  This guy's socks caught my eye.

I've walked through the Last Bookstore, but I never explored the upstairs which was an awesome adventure complete with art, vintage goods, mazes and secret reading rooms.

I don't know if sorting the book by color is helpful.

Exploring with Alysia

Alysia is my family away from San Jose.  We don't see each other as often now that her OkCupid boyfriend is becoming more serious, but during the occasions I do see her, it's wonderful.  April is her birthday month and even though she just came back from Thailand, she insisted on having Thai for her birthday dinner.  Alysia is a conundrum - she doesn't like peanuts, curry, beansprouts, coconut or seafood but she somehow manages to find Thai delicious sans those ingredients.

The next stop for her birthday was star gazing at Griffith Observatory.  But it was so cloudy that evening.  Luckily we all had the constellations app and just enjoyed the night sky electronically.

Later that week, I took a Friday off to venture into downtown to places no tourists have ever gone... during weekdays.  This included visiting DWP where we learned about how LA gets its water.  That crane in the background excites me because it's a sign of development.  Brigham Yen knows all about the happenings of DTLA.

Alysia discovered a DTLA Farmers market up the block.  So we enjoyed a great lunch there among the workers of the city around Bank of America Plaza.   The park in this area is so cute.

We ventured back to City Hall where we got our visitor's pass to see the glorious city view on the 27th floor.  Only open on weekdays!  This has been on my to-do list forever!  We can see most of downtown off the top ledge.

GRAND PARK

We saw some great architecture.  But I didn't think my shots were that great.