Weekend in L.A.: Best airline food in the country and emerging downtown food scene
January 21, 2014 | 08:46 PM Filed in: The Getaway
EDITOR’S NOTE: Each winter, Jerry Hagstrom travels the country to the annual ag group conferences that provide a look at what will be making news in the year ahead. Today the founder and executive editor of The Hagstrom Report thought readers — especially those in Washington enduring another winter storm — might enjoy hearing about his weekend discovering what’s new in food and trends in downtown Los Angeles.
By JERRY HAGSTROM
Heading for the National Biodiesel Board Convention in San Diego and shocked by the astronomical fares from Washington to that city, I decided to fly first to Los Angeles and explore the rebirth of downtown L.A. and its “foodie” scene.
In the process, I discovered the most comfortable domestic airline flight and the best food I have had on a domestic airline in years, as well as how much Los Angeles has changed in recent years.
United Airlines had an unusual routing available, from Dulles through New York’s JFK to LAX, for only $268 plus 20,000 points for an upgrade to business first class. I later learned that this flight — UA841 — is the flight that United markets to the entertainment industry as the best service between New York and Los Angeles. United says it offers the same service from LAX to JFK and similar service between JFK and San Francisco.
As far as I can tell, United does not list these New York connections from Washington unless there are a lot of seats available on a particular day. Delta apparently offers a competitive service on the same routes.
This flight was at least as good as flying business class to Europe or Asia. The seats folded down and included individual monitors with a variety of movies and television shows, and the flight attendant — a woman with farm roots who goes deep-sea fishing in her spare time — began the service by offering a mimosa.
There were menus describing the lunch, which started with prosciutto and melon and a salad, with a choice of entrees including the excellent beef I had as well as chicken and a vegetarian choice of pasta. For dessert, the flight attendant rolled out a cart of ice cream with caramel, chocolate, nuts, berries and whipped cream to complete the sundaes.
Amy Rutberg
After lunch I watched the movie “The Butler,” and my seat mate actress Amy Rutberg and I commiserated that Oprah Winfrey and others associated with the film did not get deserved Oscar nominations.
I still had some champagne in my glass as we prepared to land, and the flight attendant took it and returned what was left in a plastic cup so I could finish it.
The words say: “Always see where the line wavers.
That’s where the beauty is.”(Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
A new look at L.A.
In downtown Los Angeles, I was amazed to see conversions of old office buildings to loft condos and rental apartments and new restaurants opening and preparing to open. The intensity of activity is not quite up to the level of New York’s Williamsburg Brooklyn or Washington’s Fourteenth and U, but there is the thrill of seeing a neighborhood being reborn.The heart of the action is between Flower and Main streets and between Second and Ninth streets. Accompanied by a downtown resident, I had Sunday breakfast at an old establishment known as the Nickel Diner and stopped at the farmers’ market at Fifth and Spring.
My friend described Bottega Louie as “the hottest restaurant in L.A.,” but another California resident and I found it too noisy and instead had dinner at the Water Mill, an excellent seafood restaurant.
Ambition to Create Novel Expression, has located near the Ace Hotel. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
We also walked past the Ace Hotel in the old United Artists building, an upscale Swedish clothing store called Acne Studios, and The Standard, a hip British boutique hotel featuring a second-floor bar where people play pingpong and drink and a rooftop bar that looks over all of downtown Los Angeles.
Along Main Street, I found Woody Guthrie Square, named after the Oklahoma folk singer remembered for his songs of the Dust Bowl. Along Main there was also Baco Mercat, which competes with Bottega Louie for hottest restaurant. And on the first floor of the Higgins Building, a loft conversion where Clarence Darrow and the Standard and Union oil companies once had offices, was Badmaash, an Indian gastropub.
I also walked past Pete’s Café, Pit Fire Pizza, the Edison Bar, Kitchen Table, Bar Ama and Orsa & Winston, but did not have time to try them. There are still some old establishments such as Paraiso, established in 1942, as well as homeless people, some begging for money.
Right: In the hip Ace Hotel, a bellhop greets a potential guest. Which is which? Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
of the old Vibiana church on Main Street. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
Walking up Main Street on Monday morning, I encountered two guys selling coffee in the garden of the Vibiana Performing Arts Center, located in a former Catholic cathedral built in the 19th century.
The coffee vendors explained that they were from Verve, a Santa Cruz-based roasting company, that their cart was a pop-up coffee shop, and that they would soon be opening up a retail shop in the area. They were making coffee for artists who were hanging their work for a shop in the Vibiana and for workers constructing Red Bird, a new restaurant project of Neal Fraser, a prominent chef.
Right: The checkout counter of The Last Bookstore is made of books. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
Perhaps it’s a sign of success, but it’s also necessary to point out that visitors need to be worried about getting expensive jaywalking tickets. There are now many more pedestrians in downtown L.A.’s “Historic Core” — four people were killed and there were 129 vehicle-pedestrian accidents in 2013.
The police now hand out tickets of up to $250 to jaywalkers who move into the street when the green light has gone off and the amber light ticking off the seconds left to cross has gone on. Local residents, particularly the low-income people who have lived there a long time, are outraged and are pressuring the police to make crossing-times longer, but convincing the L.A. authorities to put pedestrians ahead of cars is tough.
of President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron playing. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
