A Weekend in LA

Ah. City of Angels. No need for all the overused taglines, let’s get into it!

So we Airbnbed in Silver Lake, which was just the right amount of craftsman home + taco stands + vintage garb finds + hills with killer views.

Start your weekend off right by having some good grub.

MIXTO                                                  LA Grand Central Market

Alfred’s Tea Room                                                  Milk

CHAPTER AT ACE HOTEL: Fluffiest pancakes ever. Pretty sure #brunch started here.

Los Angeles is the king pin of coffee shops, so if you’re itching for a caffeine fix, be sure to check out Alfred Coffee + Kitchen, Blue Bottle Coffee, Dinosaur Coffee, Go Get Em Tiger and Intelligentsia Coffee.Alfred Tea Room (switch it up and get the iced rose tea with almond milk & tapioca, I’m crying just reminiscing about this)

If it’s a Sunday, you’re in luck. Hit up Smorgasburg LA. It’s in the distribution district where American Apparel used to be (RIP).
The vendors there are unique, kitschy and so talkative! Also the food there is one of a kind. Make sure to check out Amazebowls when you’re there!
Runyon Canyon can be pretty mindblowing. It offers an endless amount of hiking and breathtaking views of the
whole city. Please note that I was not hiking in a dress. I was lazy and drove to a vista point for the Hollywood sign. 😉

If you need a break from the all fast lane luxuries around you, stop by The Now. It’s a spa that specializes in affordable
deep massages. Like starting at $35 affordable. It doesn’t hurt that the set-up of the actual spa is so lax and perfect, too.

Get your butt to The Broad. Get some modern interpretive contemporary culture in your system! Make sure that you get there half an hour to an hour prior to opening. Admission is techincally free to The Broad, so there is always a line. And if you’re smart, make a beeline to the reservation clerk with an ipad to reserve a time slot to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room.

Spend some time walking down Melrose Avenue. Window shop, people watch, drain your bank account, etc. My favorite stores to check out on this street are Nasty Gal, Reformation, Supreme, just to name a few. Another thing to note, if you’re really big on vintage, all the vintage stores on Melrose Ave. are gold mines.

Griffith Observatory is is mind-blowing. I suggest going right before sunrise. Be advised that Friday – Sunday is super crowded, so you’ll most likely have to park on the road up the observatory and hike the remainder of the way. It’s really not as bad as I’m making it seem. Bring a jacket! It gets windy up there.

Go out. Have a ball. Breakroom ’86 was the perfect bar to let loose and just have fun. Leave all the pretentiousness behind! But I will add, that I felt pretty fucking exclusive. STORY TIME: we walked around a street corner towards a back alley with a dumpster. A DUMPSTER. Where there was a big door guy in a suit. He asked if we were on the list (at this point, I’m mentally panning out which extravagant foreign accent and ego I can fool this guy with because wth, what list?!) Reece says something inaudible and the door guy calls for a hostess. Amber Rose’s more graceful, tinier lookalike fetches us in her bodycon American Apparel dress, grey faux fur coat and classic Doc Martins. She takes us inside the building, THROUGH THE KITCHEN and then through a hallway where she politely asks us to put away our phones. The FOMO crusader in me dies and I close SnapChat before I could even find a fucking geotag. She then spins around to face us and ask us if we’re hungry. She pivots to reveal a vending machine behind her. I was about to scream ‘HONEYBUN’ until she opened the fucking vending machine to reveal a laser lit hallway. I almost fainted. Did we walk into a music video? Do people even make music videos w/o green screens anymore? WHAT’S HAPPENING. We walked into the vending machine and the rest of the night was history. Or a Rick Rolled-blackout. I won’t spoil the rest for you. Go see for yourself.

Finally, end one of your nights at Night + Market Song. Because honestly, there’s nothing like drunk Thai and this place always hits the spot.