The Pie Hole LA Arriving Soon!

News of "The Pie Hole" taking over the former Ay Carumba! restaurant location at 714 Traction has circulated as early as June or July, (maybe earlier?) So the fact they are working on their build-out isn't news, nor that they'll be opening by the end of September.

The fact they have a facebook and twitter account (where you can read in 140 characters or less about the Strawberry or the Chocolate Silk Pie).. or perhaps the fact they are working with GroundWork Coffee to provide some excellent roasts to accompany their sweet and savory pies might be news...

With only a handful of weeks before the planned opening, visible change is evident including a cutout of what is rumored to be a service window:

It's yet to be seen if this is the case or if it's another store window to bring more light into what was previously a dark kitchen and self-serve cooler area.

Word on the street is that the mural that was painted for Ay Carumba! will be painted over with new art.

The Pie Hole LA
714 Traction Ave
Facebook and twitter: @ThePieHoleLA

LA Reflection Plans to Open Next Week

Located at the breezeway of the LAPD Headquarters courtyard, LA Reflection has been poised to make its debut for weeks (if not months). Pending a Health Department visit ("within the next day or two") the upscale restaurant will be given the OK to open..


Speaking with an unnamed source at the restaurant, they might have sneak preview tastings on Thursday or Friday around lunch,(no specific time was given). Monday the 19th is a private dinner. They'll be soft-opening to the public for lunch Tuesday the 20th,(breakfast and dinner service will be added in approximate two week, staggered increments).

According to their website, the menu will offer a mix of International flavors: American or Mediterranean meals, specialty pizzas (including a "build your own" pizza) sushi, soups, salads, and desserts. The menu may firm up some based on feedback from patrons.

LA Reflection
155 S. Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213)625-5011

"The Archway Theatre" Coming to Al's Bar..

The sun had already set in the Arts District near Traction and Hewitt as our small group, [Scot Ezzell (Joel Bloom weekly walk torch-bearer), myself and the 2 Arts District BID officers] returned from our travels around the Arts District.

The American Hotel was bathed in semi-darkness, but you could still see there have been some recent changes. Most of the paste-up art and graphics were peeled off the back half of the building's wall and a door to the left of the hotel's entrance was thrown open.

As the light spilled out the door of the former Al's Bar, movement and voices were perceived. Work was well underway as we spot two gentleman renovating the interior.

"Is it a new Bar?"

"Is it a restaurant?"



Steven Sabel,(Managing Artistic Director of the new theatre on Hewitt) replied that no, not a restaurant or bar, but a Studio/Theatre.
The Archway Studio/Theatre.


The Archway will be the scene of various plays,musical performances, comedy shows and special events, among other activities.. They aspire to a grand opening on the 15th of October with their first production to occur on the 27th.

That first production will be a variation on MacBeth.. "Macbeth: Shakespeare's Natural Born Killers" Sounds like fun, doesn't it? A call for auditions has already gone out in several theatre/ trade magazines and will be held this weekend, September 11th and 12th.

You can view the casting notice HERE

As for us who are either too shy and don't have that acting resume, we have well over another month before we see the finishing touches on the theater. Word on the street is that the pastings have been peeled off so a mural can be installed on the wall outside The Archway.

Once open, (according to their website) the studio will offer "..a full complement of available classes in a variety of yoga practices and styles, theatrical skills and techniques, and stage performance."



The Archway Theatre
305 South Hewitt St.,
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Revisiting the Past at Metropolis Books

Noted local author, proprietor of Libros Schmibros (a lending library in Boyle Heights), "bookstore activist" and former NEA staff member David Kipen revisited Metropolis Books on the 230th anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles. He appeared in support of Los Angeles in the 1930s a WPA guide to the city, now re-issued and includes an introduction by Kipen.

Kipen's appearance brings a closure on the bookstore's five year run supporting local talent and books. It was noted by proprietors Julie Swayze and Steve Bowie that Kipen was the first local author to appear at Metropolis when they originally opened, and as they are nearing their last month in business, he's closing out as their last book signing.



Kipen read an excerpt from the book,(a description of the former Stock Exchange on Spring).. The Federal Writers Project authors' use of word was something that was a joy to read and poetry on the ear. Kipen took questions about the book itself or just about anything on LA... One person inquiring about the social community of artists and writers of the WPA.



The event finished with a request by Kipen to sing "Happy Birthday" to the City of LA before he met with attendees and signed copies of his books.

Julie videotaped this event as she has done for events many times in the past and I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes part of the documentary she's working on.. The working title is "The Last 30 Days: the Closing of Metropolis Books" If you go to the Metropolis website, you'll see Julie's getting coverage by local news along with some of the press she's received in the last couple months.

The store's last day of business will be the 29th of September.. so a few more weeks to visit our neighborhood store and pick up some books (at the moment most of the books are going for 30% off).

As an aside, I consider Julie and Steve downtown neighbors and friends. Despite knowing it's because of family and their need to start a new path that doesn't include the bookstore, they and the bookstore will be missed. It was indeed part of the community and a quality place to find some very good reads.

METROPOLIS BOOKS
440 S. Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
@metropolisbooks

Lunch at Cole's

If you want to 'getaway' without leaving the neighborhood there's not a better place to go on a mini vacation than Cole's.

Cole's was the place I went back in June 2006 for "Brother Mike" Schneider's 100th Rate a Restaurant meetup.. I can't say I could feel anymore like a tourist than I did that day.

It was talk of downtown that fateful day with Eric Richardson of Blogdowntown and Celia and Jim (Winstead) that put to mind the things we were lacking out in the burbs.. that put our wheels spinning to eventually move downtown.

We did move downtown October 2006, and we're pretty happy. DTLA lacks many of the conveniences we were used to living in the Bay Area (where Sean is originally from) but it's a city in transition. It feels like it's kicking the training wheels off after having not been up to speed in a while. Lots of bumps along the way.. It's not the city our friends think it is.. not the booming glamorous metropolis our out-of-state friends imagine; nor is it the grimy, crime-ridden death trap that some not so local think it might be.

I like my neighborhood, I like downtown. If I'm going to live in SoCal this is where I'm glad to be.. Just enough community spirit and activism and just small-town enough to make it cozy.

I'm going off the track for a reason I guess because having lunch at Cole's made me ruminate on that. The years that people have tried to make it here, find their own local spot and their own niche.. I don't hang out at Cole's. Since it's transition from hole-in-the-wall hangout to clean, retro chic. It's a hangout of another kind. Still worthwhile, still historic.. and they do make those dip sandwiches.



I'm not going to go on about whose is better.. I will say I am a big fan of the bacon potato salad. It's always a treat.. and for another time, the once New Orleans resident in me noted the Zapp's chips in the host station at the entrance (on our way out of course). Assuming there's a next time.. I might have to go with that just so they keep them in stock.

The thing is, we don't go to Cole's too often.. maybe one or two times a year for all the years we've lived here. Few enough times I always feel like a tourist when I eat here and can enjoy the cushy booths and the quiet solitude of not running into anyone in particular. At night it's a totally different story, with plenty of locals and Westsiders and business folks fresh off work hitting up the Association or trying to squeeze into Varnish, the little "speakeasy" in the back.

I'm not a bar scene kind of person.. I think those days are long gone for me. I do like the neighborhood scene though, and that's enough.

Art Walk Patrol

Along with LAPD bicycle patrols, LAPD was seen walking their horses up Main Street.

After Last month's tragic accident involving a car parallel parking on Spring, banning the food trucks, art parks and stepped up police patrols seems to be the immediate response.

While picking up dinner and a movie, the sidewalks still seemed a bit busy at 4th and Main.

It's yet to be seen how the changes will affect tonight's Art Walk.

Awning is off Banquette

Awning is off Banquette
Originally uploaded by meekorouse

While the sounds of construction for new tenant Baco goes on behind the scenes, the awning of OBD favorite "Banquette Cafe & Wine Bar" has been dismantled from the facade of the San Fernando Building.

Lunch at The Spice Table

The Spice Table opened earlier this year (in the space of the former Cuba Central) specializing in Singaporean/Vietnamese style food. We've yet to try dinner there and only got around to having lunch today; it's important to note that as the lunch is a simple menu of sandwich and side offerings. There's about five different Banh Mi style sandwiches to choose from and range in price from $7 (for the chicken) up to $9 (for the fried catfish). Sides like the spicy sweet potato chips or the Napa cabbage slaw are available separately.

Lunch is ordered at the counter and the food is brought out to your table. Drink (coke products, juice, coffee and tea) are available.. The cold drinks are self-serve from a couple big buckets of ice at the end of the counter as you're headed to a table in the dining area. Sean and I both ordered the cold cut sandwich:


coldcut: Vietnamese ham, paté, headcheese, garlic mayo, pickled carrots, pickled daikon, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeños)

Sean ordered the spicy sweet potato chips as his side and I ordered the slaw.. We split them so we could try both..


Spicy Sweet Potato Chips


Slaw: napa cabbage, carrots, crushed peanuts, scallions, mint, fried shallots, pepper-lime dressing

The sweet potato chips wavered between crispy and bendy but were very good and were dusted with (I'm guessing) sea salt.. The slaw was creamy and the cabbage firm and crunchy. The crushed peanuts were a nice enhancement. I'm assuming those with a nut allergy will want to stay away from the slaw though.

One thing that surprised me was that despite our ordering in, our lunch arrived in "to go" style:

paper-wrapped banh mi and slaw.

No matter as we were able to eat in leisure, savoring our lunch and enjoying the rustic ambiance of the cafe. I was actually looking forward to checking out the interior after having talked with Matt Stroud of Timeline last year. It was Matt and his company Timeline that created that prefinished wood look on the front counter, tables and chairs at Spice Table. Seeing his hard work put into practical application was neat. Along with the metal and brick, the whole place seems very cozy and comfortable at lunch.

The food was really good and despite the higher than expected price point (husband Sean reminded me that for the price of just the sandwich we could have had a Banh Mi with sides for about the same at Starry Kitchen. Starry Kitchen doesn't do sweet potato chips or a cold cut sandwich..) I get his point, though. Lunch for two was about $30... ouch.

I think Spice Table has its own merit though and worth another visit. I hear they do a pork belly sandwich that has a two week process in its preparation. I'd be back to try that if I could, and maybe the curried fried chicken wings, oh, and the chips. I really liked those. =)

Now Dinner.. that's a whole different adventure.. and hopefully we'll get around to that sooner than it took us to get there for lunch. Was it worth it? Yes. I'm just not sure I can make it a weekly thing.


The Spice Table
114 S Central Ave
Los Angeles, CA. 90012
213.620.1840

If you want to view my set on Flickr: HERE

Our Trip to the Doctor

Those that follow me on Facebook know that Sean has been under the weather. The short story is "he is feeling better" the long story..

Sean had a chipped wisdom tooth extracted a couple Fridays ago.. but then as it healed he had a sore throat.. I don't recall having a sore throat after my wisdom teeth (3) were extracted, but I had a different procedure I think.. Sean got his at the dental office, and I went elsewhere & was knocked out as they had to do minor surgery on my mouth to remove the impacted molars.

To be clear we don't think the extraction was the ultimate cause of his sore throat.. this was just something considered at first when this started happening "oh maybe it's your mouth healing from the extraction?"

Sean was gargling regular with warm salt water but that wasn't helping. His throat/roof of his mouth continued to swell and he was unable to talk. He was running a fever from at least Wednesday of last week.

Friday after my contact lens follow up.. we walked down to 7th Street to catch the "E Dash" bus and headed to City West area of Downtown. We got off at the stop by the Mayfair Hotel and walked the 2 or 3 blocks to an Urgent Care place, (which was only a couple blocks from Good Samaritan itself). Sean doesn't have a doctor still (but one of our DTLA neighbor friends gave us a referral so maybe we'll go with that one?!)

The urgent care place, ("US Healthworks") on a Friday mid-morning was not a bad situation.. Unlike the Walk-In ER at Good Samaritan there were no drunk, unbathed patients throwing up on themselves. There were no mentally ill people bothering the nurses station for a bed, (maybe that happens at night?)

At the US urgent care place we had a place to sit while we waited, there was no line of people in the hallway having to stand because there was no place for them. The room was actually clean and pretty quiet given how many people were in there. There was a TV in one corner mounted to the ceiling, and a couple vending machines (one a big coffee vending thing I didn't get near.. the candy machine I just glanced at, but it didn't have anything healthy in it at all). The whole process was a LOT shorter too.

**EDIT:

We were there a total of maybe two hours. When at the walk-in ER it can take anywhere from 5 to 8 hours just to be seen. While the urgent care place isn't ideal (it's best to have your own doctor and make appointments but sometimes you just can't, either because you don't have a doctor or you don't have insurance.

That's often the situation in many US cities.. Downtown LA isn't much different.

****END EDIT***

Part of what sped the process was that Sean had printed and filled out the paperwork at home and brought it in with him. He signed in and got called up twice: once for his paperwork and a second time to pay his co-pay. Sean has insurance through work. I know many people don't and have to go to the walk-in ER or hopefully to places like this which are a cleaner and more pleasant experience.

We waited again to be called to see a doctor. That part took about 30 or 40 minutes. The entire process took about two hours. The longest waiting was waiting to be called up to be processed. Somehow knowing you are going to be seen soon makes it a little easier. I checked my twitter and watched Dr Oz for some of the wait. (I'm still trying to figure out what Walnut Oil does for you... I couldn't hear that part of his program I just was advised it's good against "belly fat" (do you cook with it?? put it on salads? what?!) I may never know!)

Sean was diagnosed with advanced Strep throat.. So he's taking antibiotics twice a day with food.. He's still a bit run-down but he's doing much better and we were able to go see our 'double feature' yesterday.. "Sunset Blvd" at Last Remaining Seats in the morning and meeting up with friends from out of town in the afternoon for Cars 2 and dinner. We even had some ice cream at the Disney Ice Cream parlor before we headed home.

He's at home working today and hopefully will be taking it easy and not going out. He doesn't have much of an appetite and is leaning towards tea and hot soup and salads. I'm hoping by Wednesday he'll be 100%. Wednesday is "Safety Last" and the last our Last Remaining Seats tickets.

Demitasse 'Coming Soon'

I don't get around like I used to, so when we were out & about walking through Little Tokyo for "Tip a Cop" at Urth Caffe, Sean (the spouse) noticed a big "CAFE" sign being erected on the side of the Kajima Building at Weller Court.

Friday I took a couple pix of the actual Cafe front..


This is the corner where that gelato store used to be.. Honestly I only went there once as it seemed a little high end at the time to me.. I'm curious to see how the new cafe turns out.



Cafe Demitasse is on Facebook and twitter, its description on the former says: "Uncompromising in our approach to all things coffee, Demitasse pursues perfection in every cup." That honestly sounds like it wants to be another Lot 44 (the place that eventually closed on Spring Street). Hopefully this place will fare a bit better considering its main competitor in the area are the 2 Starbucks.

Personally while I like good coffee (hello? Can we get a Peet's downtown???) I don't like listening to pretentious coffee people... my husband is good for that, (and less obnoxious too) ;P

I walked by and they are still working on the build out.. I'm guessing the location will be open by the end of summer.. Maybe September if I had to pin it down. There wasn't anyone to ask (it was just construction folks there it looked like). There's little to no information on their site.. other than the social media links, (and oh they are hiring!)..

Maybe someone else has heard something?

Regardless, I think there's always room for one more coffee place (how about at 4th and Main?? Now that Banquette had to close.. we need a new sidewalk hangout!) so I wish them well of course.. Welcome to Downtown!

Cafe Demitasse
135 S. San Pedro (Weller Court near 2nd Street)
@CafeDemitasse on twitter and search for "Demitasse" on Facebook.

Lunch at Urth Caffe

Thursday was Tip a Cop at Urth Caffe, so we headed to the Arts District do our little bit. Tip a Cop is an event a public safety event involving LAPD and Special Olympics. Usually the police officers will be taking orders and serving up the food, with all tips going to Special Olympics.

We were wondering how this would work at Urth Caffe, which is a cafe that doesn't really involve table service so much as they bring the food out to the table after you order and pay at the counter. It turns out the cops weren't serving when we were there.. but we did get talk to the folks out front and ended up making our donation.

Lunch was really good.. For drinks Sean had the iced tea and I ordered a Spice Chai Boba.. We both ordered lunches that involved salad:


"Light Lunch Combo" which is a soup and salad combo..

Sean opted for the vegetarian chili... He said it was good but the consistency was more like 'soup' than traditional chili. He really enjoyed the fresh bread that accompanied his lunch.



My lunch was the Heirloom Tomatoes and Burrata Salad..

I had to leave 2/3 of the cheese behind so I didn't get in trouble on my diet, but I did sample the lower half of my bread accompaniment.. and I agree the bread is yummy! I wished I'd eaten the entire piece.

We got dessert and that's what really blew our lunch for us.. but can you blame us?

Urth Caffe Banana Cream Pie!


sliced.. with detail of the amazing graham cracker crust..

LOVED the banana cream pie! Definitely too much for one person.. and if you just want to try it, have 3 friends with you and you'll still get more than 2 bites worth.

We hadn't been to Urth Caffe in quite some time, so Tip a Cop gave us a good reason to trek out there (it's about a 20min walk from Main Street) and going off-peak lunch we were able to find a seat.

The only downside,(and this was the same problem the last time we came here together) is that we already had our food and were eating before my drink showed up. Our bill for lunch, dessert & the two drinks came to $45, another reason we don't go out of our way to eat here.. When you do, it's worth it. The food is excellent.. the service.. not consistent.


Urth Caffe
451 South Hewitt Street
(Hewitt and 5th)