Los Angeles Magazine - November 2022

PERK UP! A SEMI-SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF THE CITY’S BEST COFFEE DRINKS

EXCLUSIVE

THE MAYOR’S

LAST LAUGH

He’s survived the pandemic, racial unrest, and a series of bruising scandals. In his last major interview before leaving office, ERIC GARCETTI candidly discusses the highs and lows of his tumultuous career and prepares for his passage to India

BY MAER ROSHAN

HOW L.A.’S

ARMENIAN MOB BOSS WAS BROUGHT DOWN BY A CRAZY CREW OF MORMONS

BY MICHELE McPHEE

THE (MOSTLY) TRUE CONFESSIONS OF

QUENTIN TARANTINO

BY SAM WASSON

WELCOME TO PARK MGM LAS VEGAS

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N O V E M B E R 202 2

THE FOOT OF T H E TA B L E

A wood sculpture by artist Vincent Pocsik, meant to be used as a table.

Features 54

Notes on Cool On the eve of Quentin Tarantino’s memoir about the movies that most influenced him, a Hollywood historian takes stock of the filmmaker’s canon—and finds fodder for greatness.

BY SA M WA S S O N

72

80

He’s survived the pandemic, racial unrest, and a series of bruising sex scandals. Now, in his last major interview before he leaves office, Mayor Eric Garcetti candidly discusses his tumultuous tenure and prepares for his passage to India.

Eight Los Angeles artist-furniture makers are blurring the lines between art and design and garnering highprofile fans along the way.

The Mayor’s Last Laugh

BY M A E R R O S H A N 6 L A M AG.C OM

Design Within Reach

BY M I C H A E L S L E N S K E

88

The Mobster and the Mormon How an Armenian mob boss in L.A. and a polygamous Mormon in Salt Lake City joined forces with a bent lawyer and crooked cops to bilk taxpayers—and almost got away with it.

BY M I C H E L E M C P H E E

PHO T O GR A PH E D BY I RV I N R I V E R A

N O V E M B E R 202 2

Buzz Home for the Holidays

› Mercifully—or, depend-

ing on whom you ask, mercilessly—Aunt Becky’s coming home this year to make Christmas great again.

BY C. BRIAN SMITH PAGE 17

The Brief

S I LV E R SIZE ME

Jimmy Choo’s Gaia 140 platforms carry silver to new heights. P. 46

› Anne Heche’s family feud;

at Tyra Banks’s ModelLand, anyone can be fabulous; KTLA’s Mark Mester pulls a Ted Baxter; sex-andvomiting sounds make an L.A. actor a Twitter star.

PAGE 20

Rock This Town

› How COVID-19 and hardcore listeners (including

Joe Walsh) rescued L.A.’s

best alt rock radio station from oblivion.

BY GREG GILMAN PAGE 22

Ask Chris › Is it true that cottages on

Griffith Park Boulevard were built by Walt Disney?

Do we really import sand for our beaches? How can I bum a ride on the Goodyear blimp? Our resident historian answers all your burning questions.

Incoming!

› Angel Blue, our very own activist diva, comes home to the L.A. Opera; how Chadwick Boseman’s presence is felt in Wakanda Forever; a Thanksgiving playlist that won’t annoy your family (too much); and how all that glitters might just be silver.

PAG E 27 8 L A M AG.C OM

ON THE COVER Photographed by Shayan Asgharnia

G A RC E T TI : P RO D U C ED BY G R EG G A R RY; CO U RT E S Y J I M M Y C H O O

BY CHRIS NICHOLS PAGE 112

Lamag.com

THE INTERNET

CULTURE DILBERT STRIPPED! THE CUBICLE COMIC’S BEEN NIXED FROM 77 NEWSPAPERS » Author Scott Adams wonders if the comic’s cut was a reaction to his mocking of “wokeness” that’s been pervading office life.

BY SHEILA MCCLEAR I SPY

SPORTS HOMETOWN HERO CHRISTEN PRESS REGAINS CONTROL

Trump advisor Tom Barrack arriving at court.

» After a year away from soccer, the L.A. native came back, only to suffer an ACL injury. Now, she’s locked in on recovery and her athleisure brand.

BY TANI LEVITT

OUT & ABOUT THREE DAYS AT THE D23 EXPO WITH DISNEY FANATICS » Three years between Expos is a long time for Disney fans, so after a pandemic delay, the air in Anaheim shimmered with giddy excitement.

› From breaking news to celebrity buzz to the best places to eat around town, our daily website features exclusive, up-to-the-minute coverage of the things that Angelenos care about. Here’s a sampling of the most popular stories from LAMAG.COM E XC LU S I V E

POLITICS THE TAKEDOWN OF TOM BARRACK » With Barrack facing charges of acting as an agent for a foreign government, the future of Trump’s inaugural chairman is now in the hands of 12 jurors.

BY JOHANNA BERKMAN

CRIME KILLING BETTY WILLIS: WHEN WILL HER MURDERER BE PROSECUTED? » Nearly five years after soul singer Betty Willis’s murder, the suspect in custody has not faced trial.

BY JOSEPH FENITY

COMING & GOING NIKA SOON-SHIONG IS HOPPING THE POND » The activist daughter of billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is leaving town to pursue a doctorate at Oxford.

Not everyone will be sad to see her go.

BY JASON MCGAHAN

10 L A M A G . C O M

FOOD & DRINK L.A.’S BEST VIETNAMESE SANDWICH IS SERVED IN A STRIP MALL » A James Beard Award-nominated chef serves a VietnameseFrench sandwich in a Hollywood strip mall.

BY MAUREEN HARRINGTON

MUSIC HOW DURAN DURAN PLAYED THE LONG GAME AND WON » Bassist John Taylor on 44 years of Duran Duran, his new artwork, and his pals Meghan and Harry.

BY ANDREW GOLDMAN

DINING MR. T BRINGS GLOBAL CUISINE TO HOLLYWOOD » Parisian restauranteur Guillaume Guedj and chef Tsuyoshi Miyazaki’s Marais favorite is now in L.A.

BY MAUREEN HARRINGTON

B A R R A C K : M I C H A E L M . S A N T I A G O / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; M R T: I N N I S C A S E Y

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Editor’s Note

BY MAER ROSHAN B E F O R E T H E FA L L

Clockwise from left: Aliza, Rabi, Maer, and Andre Roshan in Tehran, 1973. Inset: A hair flag—symbol of the new revolution.

14 L A M A G.C O M

The spark that set off the blaze was the murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who showed too much of her hair.

Maer Roshan, Editor-in-Chief

FL AG: G E T T Y IMAG E S

I ’ M P ROU D T O be an American. I’m proud to be an Angeleno. But these days, I’m especially proud to be Iranian.

As this issue goes to press in late September, I’ve been transfi xed by news reports and videos from across Iran, documenting a revolution that has spread throughout the country.

For weeks, hundreds of thousands of citizens, led by women, have been pouring into the streets, risking their lives to protest the theocratic regime that’s had a stranglehold on the country for the past five decades.

The spark that set off this blaze was the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the state’s so-called morality police—the roaming Iranian gestapo who harass women who fail to wear their hijabs in strict accordance with Islamic law, which strictly forbids women and girls from showing their bare heads. Amini died in custody after apparently being brutally beaten by her captors. Iranian officials claim, unconvincingly, that she died of a heart attack.

I spent the first decade of my life in Tehran.

The firstborn son of an Iranian dad and a Long Island mother, I came of age during Iran’s Islamic revolution. But I knew nothing

of the shah’s brutality, his CIA connections, or the religious intolerance that the ayatollah would soon bring to Iran after the shah’s downfall. Iran seemed idyllic when I was a child—a weird combination of Persian culture and sophistication and scrappy Western ingenuity. Every fall, my brothers and I would jump over bonfires in accordance with a longtime Persian tradition. On July Fourth, we’d party at an American school where helicopters would rain Big Macs on the crowds below.

But sometime in the 1970s, things began to change. Violent clashes between the shah’s forces and the chanting dissidents erupted outside of my school. Suddenly, my mother’s Time magazines began arriving with pages ripped out by state censors. As the protests intensified, the shah’s government declared martial law, requiring everyone to be off the streets by 7 p.m.

One evening, I accompanied my dad to a boozy business dinner at the Sheraton. By the time we headed home at 6:45, there wasn’t another car on the road. Five minutes from our house, a half dozen machine-gun-toting soldiers screamed at us to stop, shooting their weapons in the air. As punishment for violating the curfew, my dad and I spent the rest of the night at a police station. He was locked in a cell. I slept on a cot nearby.

Soon after, my dad was speeding us to the airport, bound for my mother’s parents’ house in New York. Dad stayed behind in Tehran to wrap up the family’s affairs and promised he’d join us in a few months.

It was ten years later that my dad made it here. A year after his arrival, he died of cancer at an L.A. hospice at the age of 45. Over time, my mother, brothers, and I moved to L.A., which has become home to the largest concentration of Iranians outside of Iran.

Today, watching protesters in Tehran burn their hijabs in bonfires and bravely confront riot police, I am hopeful that after decades of oppression, Iran can finally be set free. It’s inspiring to see young women and men stand up against violence. One day soon, I hope to visit an Iran where kids can freely listen to rap music, women can show off their hair without harassment, and burgers can rain down from the sky.

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AG UAC A L I E N T E C A S I N O S .CO M

11.22

To Forgive is Divine . . . . . . OR SO LORI LOUGHLIN HOPES. THE DISGRACED ACTRESS ATTEMPTS A COMBACK ON A NEW CHRISTIAN CABLE CHANNEL

BY C. BRIAN SMITH

I L LU S T R AT E D BY C H R I S M O R R I S

L A M AG . C O M 1 7

BUZZ

|

REDEMPTION

I

1 8 L A M AG . C O M

1 2

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with bad acting and production, says CMDB founder Marty Jean-Louis, but The Passion of the Christ changed everything. “Suddenly people saw that Christian films could generate revenue and have excellent production value, and perception started to change, thanks to Mel Gibson,” Jean-Louis says.

“It also doesn’t hurt when you start having Hollywood actors in Christian films.”

Kirk Cameron, for example, the former Growing Pains star, has produced eight titles under his faith-based production company, CAMFAM Studios, most recently Lifemark, detailing the last-minute decision of an 18-year-old girl to choose adoption over abortion; and The Homeschool Awakening, exploring “honest answers to homeschooling’s most frequently asked questions.” (Cameron famously became an evangelical Christian at the age of 17 while playing Mike Seaver, asking for dialogue that wasn’t in line with his faith to be cut from his script.)

So despite being bloodier than a Jean-Claude Van Damme fl ick, The Passion of the Christ birthed a cottage industry that went on to produce eight of the ten highestgrossing Christian movies of all time, including Fireproof (2008; $33.5 million), Courageous (2011; $35.7 million), Soul Surfer (2011; $47.1 million), God’s Not Dead (2014: $64.7 million), Heaven Is for Real (2014; $102 million), War Room (2015; $67.8 million), and Miracles from Heaven (2016; $62 million). Suddenly, people at Sherwood Baptist Church realized that the problem wasn’t Hollywood coming

1 . : W I N M C N A M E E /G E T T Y I M AG E S ; 2 . : J O H N T LU M AC K I / T H E B O STO N G LO B E V I A G E T T Y I M AG E S ; 3 . : CO U R T E SY E V E R E T T CO L L E C T I O N

N FA L L I N T O W I N T E R , Lori Loughlin’s first movie since the 2019 college admissions scandal, the actress will take on the role of a woman whose brother secretly sells the family candy shop to her nemesis. Surprisingly, though, Fall Into Winter will not appear on Loughlin’s longtime home, the Hallmark Channel, the television extension of the Christian film movement, which out-woked its audience in 2020 by running an ad featuring two women briefly kissing.

At the time, Bill Abbott, the then-CEO of Hallmark’s parent company, promptly stepped down to launch rival GAC Media and its Great American Family channel, pledging to outflank Hallmark with family-friendlier programming that “celebrates American culture, heritage, and lifestyle.” Some fans balked, likening Abbott’s language to a holly-scented dog whistle. “GAC has become a sanctuary for bigots,” a blogger from Colorado posted, calling the network “a carbon copy of the Hallmark Channel, minus the diversity initiatives.”

Hollywood PR crisis experts, on the other hand, call it the ideal reentry point for Loughlin, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, admitting to paying $500,000 to have her daughters enrolled at the University of Southern California as crew recruits despite never playing the sport. She served two months in prison in late 2020.

“I think it’s a good move,” says Evan Nierman, CEO of global PR firm Red Banyan, noting that celebrities looking to redeem themselves have more options than ever. The channel, now known as GAC Family, is both gentle and noncontroversial—buzzwords for convicted felons aspiring for an act two— with a Christian audience that’s more forgiving than a typical fan. (The Lord’s Prayer instructs anyone hoping to be forgiven to extend the same courtesy to others.) Regardless, Nierman contends that a court sentence shouldn’t equal a career death sentence. He predicts once-canceled celebs may soon follow a similar career path. “If Lori does this successfully, it will become a template moving forward. Others may do the same, provided it works out for her.” (Loughlin couldn’t be reached for comment.)

Fortunately, a growing convoy of squeaky-clean creative vehicles are queuing up, should the need arise. The Christian Movie Database (CMDB), an online database founded in 2015 to chronicle the growth of the Christian film industry, currently lists 3,090 movies—more than 80 percent of which were released in the past 15 years. That industry, which operates independently from mainstream Hollywood, began in earnest in 2004 with Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (the most successful independently financed film of all time, grossing $622 million worldwide after costing a mere $30 million to make). Christian content was once synonymous

L OV E T H Y N E I G H B O R O N T V

1. Kirk Cameron speaks at CPAC, 2012. 2. Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli (behind her, left), leave a Boston courthouse where they were settling a dispute about their choice of lawyers. 3. Cameron in The Homeschool Awakening. 4. Director Mel Gibson and actor Jim Caviezel in The Passion of the Christ. 5. Loughlin (far right) in Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart in 2017.

4 . : N E W M A R K E T F I L M S / P H OTO F E ST; 5 . : T H E H A L L M A R K C H A N N E L / P H OTO F E ST

4

5

mining town—was a series “stalwart,” the wise friend whom to Georgia, but that movies weren’t coming out of Georgia. everyone in town relied on for advice. She even became the They resolved to grow a culture other than agriculture. mayor. Carrington’s voice grows soft with emotion at the Perhaps Loughlin is following the pious playbook of mention of Loughlin’s abrupt departure. “A light went out perennial bad boy (and now twice saved by Christ) Shia when Lori left,” she says. “I don’t know about the whole colLaBeouf. On the heels of gnarly allegations in 2020 ranging lege admission scandal—and who am I to judge anyway? She from strangulation to shooting stray dogs for sport, LeBeouf was sentenced to prison, did her time, and is being forgiven converted to Catholicism earlier this year after a “miraculous by fans and offered a chance at redemption.” change in perspective” while researching Even the Hallmark Channel, which once the life of Italian saint Padre Pio for an assured Entertainment Tonight that it “did upcoming biopic. A YouTube interview with “Who am I to not have any plans to cast [Loughlin] in Bishop Robert Barron and LaBeouf was the future,” recently announced that her viewed more than a million times in one judge? She was popular Garage Sale Mysteries series would week, eliciting near-unanimous praise in sentenced to be returning. thousands of comments along the lines of prison, did her Abbott, meanwhile, is doubling down on “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a time, and is his salvific star, whom he now refers to as future” and “#pray4shia.”

“America’s sweetheart.”

Some may never forgive Loughlin for being forgiven “We talk three times a week,” he recently bribing her kids’ way into an elite college. by fans.” told Variety, referencing multiple upcomHer most faithful fans, though, almost cering projects Loughlin is set to lead on the tainly will be more inclined to celebrate the network. “At the end of the day, [Loughlin] long-awaited reunion of former Full House represents all that is positive about entertainment, and she costars Candace Cameron Bure and Andrea Barber, both of has had a stellar career—not only on screen, but also the way whom also have films on GAC’s 2022 holiday slate. (The netshe’s conducted herself personally, in terms of being someone work is already the home of Full House and Fuller House.) who has a track record of doing the right thing in the world “This is a big deal,” says Rachel Carrington, a freelance at large, aside from whatever happened. I don’t know the writer and Hallmark superfan in South Carolina who details. She’s beloved and for good reason. We’re very proud covers Loughlin for Culturess. She explains that Abigail of our association with her, and we want to make her part of Stanton—Loughlin’s character on When Calls the Heart, the the fabric.” long-running Hallmark Channel series about life in a small L A M AG . C O M 1 9

The Brief N E W S & N O T E S F R O M A L L OV E R

ANNE HECHE’S FAMILY FEUD IT’S BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER (AND EX-BOYFRIEND) IN THE BATTLE OVER THE LATE ANNE HECHE’S ESTATE

BY SHEILA MCCLEAR

N O B O DY

knows exactly how much Anne Heche left behind after she died, at 53, in that fiery car crash in Mar Vista in August—but family members are fighting over it anyway. In one corner, there’s Heche’s expartner, Canadian actor James Tupper, with whom Heche had one child, 13-year-old Atlas Tupper.

In the other, there’s Homer Laffoon, Heche’s 20-yearold son with Coleman Laffoon, the cameraman Heche dumped Ellen DeGeneres for in 2001, after meeting that year on DeGeneres’s stand-up comedy tour. Heche and Coleman Laffoon were 2 0 L A M AG . C O M

married in 2001 and divorced in 2009.

Judging from an email that Heche sent to the elder Tupper in 2011, it seems pretty clear what the troubled actress’s last wishes were. “FYI In case I die tomorrow and anyone asks,” she wrote, “my wishes are that all of my assets go to the control of Mr. James Tupper to be used to raise my children and then given to the children. They will be divided equally among our children, currently Homer Heche Leffoon and Atlas Heche Tupper, and their portion given to each when they are the age of 25.”

But shortly after his mom’s death, Homer

Laffoon filed a request to be put in charge of Heche’s estate—and given guardianship of his half brother. In response, Atlas and his dad filed paperwork challenging Laffoon’s request, arguing that he was not “suitable” to look after the estate, let alone the interests of his brother, given that Laffoon is 20, unemployed, and was estranged from his mother when she died. The Tuppers also claim that the day after Heche’s death, Laffoon changed the locks on Heche’s home and has not allowed Atlas inside.

Laffoon’s lawyers have so far remained mum. “We prefer to see the estate administration play out in court and not in the media,” they announced in a statement. A hearing was slated for mid-October, so by the time you read this, the mess may be sorted out.

But probably not.

MOVE OVER, WALT—TYRA BANKS OPENS A “THEME PARK” SUPER M O D E L S H AV E

a tough gig. Not only do they have to pose for magazine covers, but they have to fight crime as well!

Now, you too can experience the thrill of sashaying down a catwalk with an attitudinal frown on your face, thanks to Tyra Banks’s ModelLand, which finally flung open its doors at the Santa Monica Pier in September.

The 10,000-square-foot indoor “theme park”— originally slated to debut in the spring of 2020 (you know, shortly after the pandemic hit)—allows participants to strike a pose in various fabulous settings, attend modeling school, visit a wig room, and get modeling tips from professionals, all while enjoying one of Banks’s trademarked Smize ice cream treats (because, of course, models eat tons of ice cream).

STRIKE A POSE

Supermodel Tyra Banks opens ModelLand in Santa Monica, where, for $35, anybody can be fabulous.

H E C H E : R AC H E L M U R R AY/G E T T Y I M AG E S FO R C H R I ST I A N S I R I A N O ; T U P P E R : J C O L I V E R A /G E T T Y I M AG E S ; B A N K S : T R I STA R M E D I A /G E T T Y I M AG E S ; M O D E L L A N D : FAC E B O O K .CO M / M O D E L L A N D

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL

Anne Heche and Homer Laffoon.

Inset: James Tupper.

THE PRICE PAID FOR THE LATE BETTY WHITE’S GOLDEN GIRLS DIRECTOR’S CHAIR—ONE OF 1,600 ITEMS THAT RECENTLY WENT UP FOR AUCTION IN BEVERLY HILLS, FETCHING A TOTAL OF $4 MILLION, WHICH IS TEN TIMES WHAT THE AUCTION WAS ORIGINALLY ESTIMATED TO BRING IN.

“For so long, I’ve been describing ModelLand as an immersive experience,” the former Sports Illustrated cover girl and America’s Got Talent judge recently told WWD of her latest venture.

tirade lambasting his own station for being “rude” and “cruel” to his colleague—and “best friend”—Lynette Romero, a longtime anchor who had resigned the week before, reportedly

MAD AS HELL

KTLA’s Mark Mester (right) blew an on-air fuse over the departure of his “best friend” Lynette Romero.

A N C H O R S : KT L A ; CO L L I N S : T W I T T E R .CO M /AC T UA L LY E M E R S O N

“[But] in our final night of rehearsals, someone told me they felt it was beyond an immersive experience; that it was interactive and that they had no idea how much the show is truly about the guests.”

Tickets start at $35, but for the full A-list treatment, you’ll need to splurge for VIP access at $225.

ANCHORS AWAY! KTLA’S MARK MESTER PULLS A TED BAXTER THE BREAKING NEWS

at KTLA right now is that there’s hardly anybody left to break any news.

On September 18, anchor Mark Mester was booted off the outlet after going rogue on the air with a four-minute, off-book

because she no longer wanted to work weekends.

“You did not deserve this,” Mester fumed into the camera, apparently addressing Romero directly. “It was a mistake, and we hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us.” Mester also reportedly hired a plane to fly over the studio with a banner reading “We love you Lynette.”

Exactly why Mester was so upset is a little unclear since Romero’s exit wasn’t exactly ignored by the station.

“After nearly 24 years, Lynette Romero, our friend Lynette, has decided to move on from anchoring our weekend morning news,” entertainment reporter Sam Rubin announced on the

air, reading a statement drafted by news director Peter Saiers. “KTLA management had hoped she would stay here her entire career, and KTLA worked hard to make that happen. But Lynette has decided to move to another opportunity elsewhere. Lynette, we wish you luck, we miss you, and we thank you for everything you’ve done for KTLA . . . On behalf of everyone here, we wish you and your family nothing but the best.”

September has been a rough month for L.A. newscasters. A few days after Mester was fired from KTLA, there was a departure over at ABC7, where weekend anchor Veronica Miracle made her own abrupt exit. No reason for that resignation has been revealed.

—SA R A ST E WA R T

$76K system and continues to make a sound that is somewhere between an orgasm and vomiting,” Collins says on the tape, struggling to keep a straight face as flight attendants scramble to find the culprit.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we realize there is an extremely irritating sound coming over the public announcements,” one of the exasperated flight crew can be heard saying on the tape. “The flight deck is trying to troubleshoot, trying to turn it off, so please be patient with us.

We know it’s a very odd anomaly, and none of us are enjoying it.”

The noises—which American later tried to

AIR POLLUTION MAKES L.A. ACTOR A TWITTER STAR A S I F F LY I N G T H E S E

days isn’t annoying enough, a recent American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Dallas was interrupted by some extremely obnoxious—and yet, oddly amusing—noises coming out of the onboard loudspeakers. One passenger, actor Emerson Collins, had the presence of mind to record the turbulence on his phone, posting the video on Twitter after landing. “Someone on this flight seems to have broken into the intercom

FA S T E N YO U R S E AT B E LT S

Emerson Collins scores 1.2 million new fans by posting orgasm and vomiting sounds heard aboard his flight.

attribute to “mechanical issues”—continued for the entire three-hour flight.

The good news, though, is that the incident has made Collins a star; his Twitter video has so far been viewed 1.2 million times.

L A M AG . C O M 2 1

BUZZ

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LOCAL HEROES

largely listener-supported and had to secure donations at a time when the radio industry was in disarray.

“L.A. is a car town,” says Brian Corona, head of national radio promotion for Atlantic Records.

“There’s something about radio in the car. When the pandemic hit, all those people were staying home, and that changed listening patterns tremendously.”

While commercial radio scrambled to regroup as ad sales cratered, 88.5 FM actually thrived. “People dug deep and kept us on the air,” says Andy Chanley, the station’s music director and afternoon host. Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, forced off the road by pandemic restrictions, hosted a Saturday program in a show of support.

“This radio station serves the community I live in and is funded by From left: 88.5 FM’s Jet Raskin, Nic Harcourt, listeners,” Walsh said. “I like that men and Marc Kaczor. with ties don’t decide what music I listen to.”

Corona is encouraged to see the station rebound because it represents “a huge part” of his label’s artist development and promotion.

HOW COVID-19 AND HARD-CORE LISTENERS (INCLUDING JOE WALSH) “They play a lot of the artists that we RESCUED L.A.’S BEST ALT-ROCK RADIO STATION FROM OBLIVION represent that nobody else plays,”

BY GREG GILMAN he says. Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith credits the station for growing his band’s L.A. fan base O R T H E last decade, for other jobs,” says Nic Harcourt, and acknowledges its “beautiful job 88.5 FM has been the the former music director of KCRW’s of representing and supporting the best stop on the radio “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” who community of L.A. musicians.” dial for listeners in Los co-hosts 88.5 FM’s flagship morning Last year, afternoon host Chanley Angeles and beyond to show. “It seemed like the station was quietly battled lymphoma through discover new alternative rock withjust sort of treading water for so long” six rounds of successful out commercial interruption. In a during a decade when chemotherapy but didn’t medium increasingly dominated by it was overseen by three miss a single show. “I satellite networks and subscription different CSUN adminBeloved was pretty scared,” streaming services like SiriusXM and istrations and program 88.5 FM Chanley says. “But one Spotify, the existence, let alone popudirectors. “University went from thing throughout that larity, of a freeform, ’70s-style FM handlers didn’t think it kept me motivated was radio station seems miraculous. was economically feasible near-death a sense of accomplishBut KCSN, now cringingly to continue,” says Kaczor. to record ment and pride for not rebranded “the SoCal Sound 88.5,” “We needed to turn the ratings. letting people down.” is riding a wave of record-high ratship around quickly.”

As 88.5 FM continings and revenue. “If you said three Then came COVID-19. ues to turn heads in years ago we’d be in the position we’re No one was in the market the country’s second-largest radio in now, I would tell you you were to buy a marginal radio station amid market, the coming years may be its crazy,” says program director Marc the pandemic’s economic uncergreatest voyage yet. Says Jet Raskin, “Mookie” Kaczor. tainty. “COVID saved the station,” marketing director and Harcourt’s In 2019, the station, owned by Harcourt says. cohost, “Every single person that California State University, The crisis forced the DJs to form works at the station is passionate Northridge, was on the brink of stronger bonds with their audience— about what they do.” being sold. “We were all told to look a crucial connection, as the station is

Rock This Town

F

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P H O T O G R A P H E D BY I A N S PA N I E R

Giannis Antetokounmpo

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BUZZ

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S U R R E A L E S TAT E

VALLEY, YO

WHAT A COOL $2 MILLION (OR SO) SNAGS YOU OVER THE HILL

$

1.6M

S O FA , SO G OOD

Koralturk brings his digital used-furniture marketplace to Los Angeles.

Tinder for Tables THIS DIGITAL BROKER HOOKS UP BUYERS AND SELLERS OF USED FURNITURE WITH A CLICK. IT’S A MATCH! B Y J E S S I C A R I T Z “ F U R N I T U R E I S , by far,

the biggest waste category in Western countries,” says Kaiyo founder Alpay Koralturk, who recently expanded operations of his New York City-based, digital furniture-resale platform to the West Coast. “There’s virtually no recycling in this industry.

The recovery rates are worse than plastic.”

To help curb the waste and lure bargain hunters—prices can be as much as 90 percent off original retail—Kaiyo embraces the circular economy with a design-centric ethos: offer buyers quality castoff items from familiar brands,

including West Elm, Restoration Hardware, and Design Within Reach, that stay in use and out of landfills, with full-service pickup and delivery that “makes it stupidly easy,” Koralturk avows. The arrangement allows sellers to part with a surplus sofa without parking it on the sidewalk and hoping for the best. (Bonus: zero interaction with sketchy Craigslist buyers.)

Koralturk has faith that Southern California will be receptive. “What better place than L.A.,” he says, “where you can find people who care as much about design, about style, and as much about our environment and the climate crisis?”

NORT H HOL LY WOOD HIGHLIGHTS Four bedrooms, cathedral

ceilings, and an airy feng shui maximize and modernize the 2,100 square feet of living space in this top-to-bottom, fully remodeled classic Valley ranch. Kitchen and baths are all new; the amoeba-shaped pool lends the perfect pinch of retro.

PRICE $1,649,000 CONTACT Dennis Chernov, The Agency, 818-355-2461

$

2M

SH E R M A N OA K S HIGHLIGHTS Initially designed by Richard

Neutra in 1962 and finished by architect William S. Beckett in 1965 along with a recent update, this 1,800-square-foot platform house cantilevered over a Beverly Glen hillside is a chance to own a house by a midcentury modernist master minus the landmark hassles.

PRICE $2,050,000 CONTACT Michelle Schwartz, The Agency, 424-230-3716

$

1.8M > A report by environmental attorney Jennifer Hernandez for the Center for Jobs & the Economy charges that CEQA—the landmark 1970 state

2 4 L A M AG . C O M

environmental statute—is being misused by NIMBYs to block new housing construction. California added 110,784 units over the past six years, well

below the rate needed to meet the state mandate of 2.5 million new homes by 2030. CEQA lawsuits filed in 2020 alone challenged development of more than 50,000 new units. “CEQA has become important for arm wrestling over non-environmental issues that has huge costs to the people of California,” says L.A. developer Mott Smith.

ST U DIO C I T Y HIGHLIGHTS This secluded hillside

compound off Laurel Canyon Boulevard and within walking distance of Carpenter Community Charter School boasts a nearly 6,000-square-foot lot and four-bedroom, 2,013-square-foot main house—plus a guest house with an outdoor fire pit and deck.

PRICE $1,845,000 CONTACT Thomas Atamian, Compass, 818-235-6325

KO R A LT U R K : B U C K E N N I S /C N Y B ; M A R K E T: F R O M R E A LTO R S ’ W E B S I T E S ; C E Q A : S H U T T E R STO C K

C E Q A : N E W W E A P O N O F N I M BYS ?

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Celebrate the art of performance at UCLA’s Royce Hall with new work by some of the most dynamic artists of our time.

2022-23 Fall/Winter Programs Grab a seat

cap.ucla.edu THU, NOV 3 AT 8PM

SHIFT Antonio Sánchez & Bad Hombre Thana Alexa, BIGYUKI & Lex Sadler Royce Hall

Grammy-winning “drummer’s drummer” Antonio Sánchez is internationally celebrated for his score to the Oscar-winning film Birdman.

He returns to Royce Hall with songs from his new album SHIFT (Bad Hombre Vol. 2).

SAT, NOV 12 AT 8PM

Tigran Hamasyan Royce Hall Tigran Hamasyan became one of the most distinctive pianists of his generation by fusing jazz improvisation with the rich music of his native Armenia. On his latest album, StandArt, he brings his chops to deconstructed takes on standards, participating in American musical traditions while at the same time challenging familiar categories.

SAT, NOV 19 AT 8PM

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company

What Problem?

Royce Hall

The acclaimed Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s latest work pursues the elusive “we,” exploring the tension between community and isolation in divisive times. Jones develops the content with community members in each location, making each performance specific to its host city.

11.22

TO-DO LIST

The Wet Set! ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE FLOCKING TO HOLLYWOOD FOR DESERT 5 SPOT’S WILD WEST-THEMED POOL PARTY

Plus

› L.A.’s activist diva is

so happy to be home

PA G E 3 0

› The best coffee drinks in town

PA G E 4 2

› Silver is the new black PA G E 4 6

P H O T O G R A P H BY JA I M E GA R C I A

L A M AG . C O M 2 7

Incoming

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HAPPENINGS

THE TO-DO LIST

YOUR NOVEMBER CULTURAL AGENDA

BY JOR DA N R I E F E

SHAKE IT UP

› With sonically capacious singles like “The

Lightning” and the anthemic “Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole),” Arcade Fire’s latest album, WE, debuted at No. 6 on the charts upon its release last spring. But if you’ve been a fan of the band since its 2005 hit “Rebellion (Lies),” then you know that Arcade Fire’s WE Tour will be different: Since the release of WE, frontman Win Butler and his brother, Will, have left the band, and Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner is now filling in. The two bands have often toured together, with Wolf Parade drummer Arlen Thompson playing on Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up,” and synth player Hadji Bakara sitting in on Neon Bible. This time Wolf Parade won’t be there. Instead, the opening act is one of our hometown favorites, Beck.

D O U B L E YO U R TROUBLE

› He’s calling them a

duet. Sixteen years after winning the Pulitzer Prize for The Road, Cormac McCarthy has two books coming out this fall. The first, The Passenger, features Bobby, a diver investigating a downed jet. All onboard the plane have perished, with the

2 8 L A M AG . C O M

possible exception of one.

Bobby is the older brother of Alicia, the protagonist of Stella Maris, a schizophrenic doctoral candidate. Through transcripts, readers learn of Alice’s thoughts on the purpose of life while she avoids the topic of her brother. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, the 89-year-old author is considered one of the best living American novelists. October 25 and December 6.

GET SPOOKED

› Jenny and Sam live in

a new home that she says is haunted and he says is not. While hashing it out over dinner, an ethereal presence enters the scene with a revelation pegged to 2:22 a.m.

Nominated for three

E A R LY A R C A D E F I R E

Olivier Awards including Best New Play, Danny Robins’s 2:22—A Ghost Story is a hit in London.

Ahmanson Theatre, centertheatregroup.org, October 29 through December 4.

B E S M A RT

› Reza Aslan is practically

a god among religion scholars. Recipient of the prestigious James Joyce Award, he authored several books including the No. 1 New York Times best-seller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. He also bears the distinction of getting fired from CNN for calling Donald Trump a POS, so An Evening With Reza Aslan promises to be fun and edifying.

The Wallis, thewallis.org, November 1.

GO! GO!

› She was the lead singer

of the Go-Go’s. And if you never heard of them, ask your mom.

With a career spanning four decades, Belinda Carlisle opens a songbook from

B E L I N DA CARLISLE

her solo years in the ’80s and ’90s and throws in a few Go-Go’s classics. Segerstrom Center, scfta.org, November 2.

LAUGH A LITTLE

› A family classic, Snow White gets a sideways

telling when two actors take on 14 roles in this hilarious staging. Our favorite princess and one dwarf (the other six have split) recall what really happened after her new mother became queen.

South Coast Rep, scr.org, November 4 through 20.

S E E T H E K I NG

› If they can do it with

Van Gogh and Kahlo, why not King Tut? On the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the pharaoh’s tomb, Nat Geo

ST E L L A M A R I S : CO U R T E SY P E N G U I N R A N D O M H O U S E ; C A R L I S L E : ST E V E J E N N I N G S / W I R E I M AG E ; H O U S E B OY : Z I VA N A I M ATA N G I /CO U R T E SY T H E C E N T R E FO R T H E L E S S G O O D I D E A A N D W I L L I A M K E N T R I D G E ST U D I O ; D E S E R T 5 S P OT: R I C H A R D STOW

The Forum, thekiaforum.com, November 16 and 17.

GUO PEI: A RT O F CO U T U R E

balance in her new book, The Light We Carry, by posing practical solutions to tempestuous times.

She’s aiming to repeat the success of Becoming, her 2018 New York Times best-selling autobiography, which remained in the top ten for over a year. November 15.

T RU C K P L AY

› Clyde’s matters because

a family event.) While you’re sampling Spaten, Paperback, and Elysian, they can scarf down pretzels and bratwurst. Rose Bowl, rosebowlstadium.com, November 5.

G E T G OW N

G U O P E I : A R T O F CO U T U R E I S O R G A N I Z E D BY T H E B OW E R S M U S E U M W I T H S I G N I F I C A N T S U P P O R T F R O M D R . F R A N K C I N TA M A N I O N B E H A L F O F G U O P E I A N D T H E A S I A N CO U T U R E F E D E R AT I O N A N D C U R AT E D

BY S C A D FA S H M U S E U M O F FA S H I O N + F I L M A N D S C A D : T H E U N I V E R S I T Y FO R C R E AT I V E C A R E E R S .

› More than 40 works

celebrates with this journey through the ancient Egyptian underworld using large-scale digital projections in Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience. The Reef,

the-reef.com, November 4 through January 2.

DAY D R I N K

› Come sober with

room to spare because CraftoberFest isn’t messing around. With over 20 SoCal craft breweries, there’s something for everyone, so bring the kids! (No, really—it’s WILLIAM KENTRIDGE’S H O U S E B OY

of haute couture were curated by the worldrenowned Chinese fashion designer herself for Guo Pei: Art of Couture. Making its North American debut, Pei’s Chinese Bride collection features gowns that draw not only from the designer’s rich cultural heritage but also from art, architecture, and mythology. Bowers Museum, bowers.org, November 12.

P H O T O G R A P H BY M I C H A E L M A R C E L L E

M AK E NOISE

› Filmmaker Noah

Baumbach is a thing.

He wrote and directed

TA K E A H I K E

› Sure, you can roam

Mt. Hollywood for its postcard views of downtown, but that trail’s for tourists. Brentwood’s Mandeville Canyon is a full eight-mile hike from its beginning at Mandeville Canyon Park to the abandoned Nike radar station, a relic from the Cold War. A four-mile hike in the Santa Monica Mountains leads to the Murphy Ranch, a Nazi compound built by American fascists during World War II.

PA I N T I T B L AC K

› It’s Kentridge season in L.A. with William

Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows, the first major

exhibition by the South African multimedia artist in two decades. The show includes more than 130 drawings, prints, sculptures, and animated films complementing the world premiere of Houseboy, a performance exploring postcolonial identity in Africa. The Broad, thebroad.org, November 12 through April 9.

LIGHTEN UP

F I R ST T K L A ST N A M E

two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage wrote it. Nominated for a Best New Play Tony Award, this West Coast premiere focuses on the formerly incarcerated staff of Clyde’s truck stop diner who yearn to break free of their oppressive boss and the pursuit of the perfect sandwich.

Mark Taper Forum, centertheatregroup.org, November 15 through December 18.

2019’s Oscar-nominated Marriage Story. The star of that film, Adam Driver, is also a thing. He stars in White Noise, Baumbach’s new film based on the classic novel by Don DeLillo, which is another thing. With so many things, the new movie is bound to be a thing, even if it’s only about the mundanity of everyday existence in the face of life’s biggest questions.

In theaters November 25.

› Former First Lady

Michelle Obama is preaching hope and

BE COOL

› The dress code is swimsuits and cowboy

boots at Desert 5 Spot’s weekly Sunday shindig atop Hollywood’s Tommie hotel. Go before it gets too cold for a dip, but rain or shine, the tequila will continue to flow— along with cowboy karaoke, live country music, and a playfully curated trading post in the open-air Pioneertown-inspired space.

6516 Selma Ave., Hollywood, desertfivespotla.com.

L A M AG . C O M 2 9

Incoming

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O P E RA

Tosca, about an opera singer in love with a persecuted artist, presents its own set of problems for a soprano, even one of her caliber. Her aria, “Vissi d’arte,” follows an altercation with the evil Baron Scarpia that leaves the singer breathless. It comes in the second act, which includes a rousing six high Cs, a note that is kryptonite for many.

“A high C is always daunting to see on the page because it’s going into the stratosphere of our range,” Blue says.

“But it’s the only way to express how

DIVINE

Blue will be the lead in L.A. Opera’s Tosca this month.

Homecoming Queen ANGEL BLUE TURNED DOWN ONE OF OPERA’S MOST COVETED ROLES IN PROTEST OVER BLACK FACE. NOW THE COMPTON-BORN DIVA IS BACK IN TOWN IN L.A. OPERA’S PRODUCTION OF TOSCA

BY JOR DA N R I E F E

T

H E D I VA comes home.

SoCal’s own Angel Blue takes center stage in L.A. Opera’s production of Tosca on November 19, her first time singing lead in the house that made her.

“I am so, so, so excited to sing in Los Angeles. When I say ‘home,’ it’s like H-O-M-E!” says the former model and beauty queen.

3 0 L A M AG . C O M

A graduate of UCLA, Blue was in the inaugural class of L.A. Opera’s Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program. She has since gone on to a prominent career, making her Met debut in 2017, singing Mimì in La Bohème, and returning there in 2019 to sing Bess in Porgy and Bess, the role that won her a Grammy for Best Opera Recording.

she’s feeling.” She sang the role once before in a full production and finds character motivation key to meeting its technical challenges. “When I see a high C, I know there’s something behind it—there’s a reason for it.

And when we know those reasons, it makes it easier to sing.”

Family legend has it that when Blue was born, her father, a musician and pastor, took one look and said, “She’s going to be the next Leontyne Price!” At her first concert, an oratorio production of Turandot when she was four, Blue told her dad she wanted to sing opera. “I wanted to be like the lady in the light. And my dad said, ‘You can absolutely be like the lady in the light.’”

So when she became a teenager, she commuted from her home in Apple Valley to Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where she studied piano and voice. The year before she received her master’s from UCLA, L.A. Opera initiated the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program, Blue’s next stop on her way to stardom.

“I’ll be forever indebted to Maestro Domingo for the simple fact that he believed in me and believed in my talent and then helped to get me out there into the industry,” she says of

CO U T R T E SY L . A . O P E R A

“I am so, so excited to sing in L.A. When I say ‘home,’ it’s like H-O-M-E!”

THE SORAYA IS

Alton Brown Live!

Watkins Family Hour Christmas

TRADITIONS FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY Sat Dec 3 | 8pm All Is Calm

Watkins Family Hour Christmas Wed Dec 7 | 8pm All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 Sat Dec 10 | 8pm & Sun Dec 11 | 3pm Nochebuena Sat Dec 17 | 7pm Alton Brown Live!

Beyond The Eats: The Holiday Variant

London Handel Players

Sun Dec 18 | 7pm London Handel Players: A Baroque Christmas

Nochebuena

SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE NOW! TheSoraya.org

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O P E RA

time she requested a photo with an Plácido Domingo, one of history’s unidentified singer. “She looked leading tenors and the former genat me, looked at the camera, looked eral director of L.A. Opera. “I met back at me, laughed, and then him two months exactly to the walked away,” Blue says. “The opera date after my father passed away. diva is the one to look out for.”

And the night before my dad died, Blue made headlines last July he was saying things to me like, when she dropped ‘Angel, when you out of Arena di meet Plácido Verona’s production Domingo, he’s going of La Traviata to love your voice, “I grew up in after learning that a he’s going to help Southern prior production of you.’ He said, ‘Make California, Aida starred soprano sure you listen to so I never Anna Netrebko him. Make sure you in blackface. learn from him.’” understood that “I grew up in A life under the there was such Southern California, proscenium has so a thing as so I grew up with far taught her two everybody. I went things. First, nothing not growing up to school with unites people like in diversity.”

Armenian kids, and music. And second, all the kids in my the divas she met piano class were on her way to winAsian. So I never understood that ning Miss Apple Valley and Miss there was such a thing as not growHollywood beauty contests are ing up in diversity. But because of sweethearts compared to opera that, I do recognize that it’s increddivas. The least offensive memory ibly important to see representation; she could muster was about the

my stepson, he’s a little blond kid with blue eyes, and it’s great for him to turn on the TV and see someone who looks like him. I think all people need to be represented. It’s a positive thing to see yourself, but also to see yourself in someone who doesn’t look like you. It’s not just a person-ofcolor thing—it’s a people thing.”

PLENTY OF SOMETHIN’

Above: A dress rehearsal for Porgy and Bess at the Met in 2019. Below: Blue in a production of La Bohème at the London Coliseum.

3 2 L A M AG . C O M

P O R GY A N D B E SS : JAC K VA R TO O G I A N /G E T T Y I M AG E S ; L A B O H E M E : R O B B I E JAC K /CO R B I S V I A G E T T Y I M AG E S

Incoming

Festival Dates

Oct 30 –Nov 22

Celebrating Black Women Artists in Collaboration and Community

JULIA BULLOCK

SAT NOV 5 8PM SUN NOV 6 2PM

A MUSICAL PORTRAIT: P RI C E A N D B O N DS

Curated by Julia Bullock and Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY

Los Angeles Philharmonic Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor Michelle Bradley, soprano Jasmin White, mezzo-soprano Michelle Cann, piano Nathaniel Gumbs, organ

SAT NOV 12 8PM

RH I A N N O N G I D D E NS Los Angeles Philharmonic Jeri Lynne Johnson, conductor Resistance Revival Chorus Both with The Carolina Chocolate Drops and in her own solo work, Rhiannon Giddens has used her art to excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present.

From art songs to solo showpieces and symphonic excerpts, Julia Bullock curates an evening showcasing the enduring musical voices of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.

SAT NOV 5 11AM SAT NOV 19 11AM

SYMPHON I ES FO R YOU T H: R OC K MY S O UL Los Angeles Philharmonic Linhan Cui, conductor JERI LYNNE JOHNSON

SUN OCT 30 7:30PM

CHAKA KHA N

Chaka Khan is a force of nature as a live performer, and an exceptional songwriter and collaborator. The voice of hits “Sweet Thing,” “You Got the Love,” “I Feel For You,” and the triumphant “I’m Every Woman” leads off the Rock My Soul festival.

FRI NOV 11 8PM

BRYAN, BONDS & PRICE Los Angeles Philharmonic Jeri Lynne Johnson, conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson leads a program that brings the historic fi ght for acceptance and dignity by Bonds and Price into conversation with the modern day.

Our Symphonies for Youth concerts offer family-friendly art activities and invite children ages 5 to 11 to take in the sounds of a world-class orchestra.

See more concert details and learn about our festival Humanities events at laphil.com/rockmysoul.

Tickets On Sale Now!

laphil.com/rockmysoul | 323 850 2000

Groups (10+) 323 850 2050 Programs, artists, prices, and dates subject to change.

LAP_2223_LAMAG_NOV_ROCKMYSOUL_FINALPRINT.indd 1

9/23/22 4:08 PM

Incoming

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MIXED MEDIA

Long Live the King

C

CHADWICK BOSEMAN’S PERFORMANCE IN BLACK PANTHER HOVERS OVER THE FRANCHISE’S SEQUEL, WAKANDA FOREVER—BUT IN A GOOD WAY B Y S T E V E E R I C K S O N

H A DW IC K B O S E M A N was bound to haunt

and BAFTA’s Rising Star Award, along with an Emmy nomiWakanda Forever, the sequel to 2018’s Black nation for Black Mirror. Now, as in the case of Boseman, Panther. The most important American film of she’s on the cusp of stardom. its decade (although I acknowledge this must Even more crucial to the franchise is the return of Oscarsound like a startling claim for a comic book winning production-design genius Hannah Beachler. movie) and one of the ten biggest box-office blockbusters of Coming off a series of smaller pictures such as Miles Ahead, all time, Black Panther was more than a hit; it was a phenomCreed, and Fruitvale Station, Beachler didn’t merely up enon. Boseman, who already had blown away anyone lucky her game with Black Panther, she launched it into space. enough to see his Oscar-worthy if unnominated portrait of Wakanda Forever is a further exponential leap. Building on James Brown in 2014’s Get On Up, was arguably the bigthe first film, which displayed the most enthralling and indisgest Black star since the emergence of Denzel Washington pensable world-building since Lord of the Rings, Beachler has in the late 1980s. Boseman’s woven into the new film’s tapesdeath from colon cancer in 2020 try Mayan and Aztec influences, touched a nerve in the public that creating something not third might have surprised even him. world or fourth world but fifth With the poise of a Wakandan world—multidimensional, multiking, the actor did his dying priuniversa l, multi-wond rous, vately in plain sight. something we’ve never quite Chosen over two dozen conseen before, which is the most tenders for the Black Panther you can ask from movies. role, Boseman became the face of Boseman’s death occasioned more than just a social moment a spirited public conversation in the second year of a presidency about whether Ryan Coogler, that routinely stoked and weapthe director of both the original onized racial division. He was the movie and the new one, should face of the most American movie recast Boseman’s role of King of any America worth believT’Challa or even try to digitally ing in. After kicking around for re-create the departed actor, ages—at one point, attached to a truly awful prospect. Wisely, Boyz n the Hood director John Coogler rejected both options.

Singleton and, at another, to Even considering the second Selma’s Ava DuVernay—Black movie’s more pronounced assoPanther’s story of a lost African ciation with the dim and dreaded The new Black Panther in civilization hidden from the eyes “Mar vel Universe”—labyrinWakanda Forever of the world represented both thine in its horde of superheroes, a consolidation of and a quansuperpowers, and super-conis arguably Letitia Wright, tum leap for African-American f licts that are grasped only by Boseman’s screen sister. filmmaking. overgrown fanboys—the Black Released only months after Panther films remain singular wh it e suprema c i st t orch l it in a way other comic book movparades in Charlottesville and with hate crimes on the rise, ies do not: they’re pop art as sociological events, creative Black Panther was a double-barrel revelation of Afrofuturism milestones, and the stuff that cultural history is made of. and female-futurism, and in Wakanda Forever, the women Boseman’s presence in the new movie may be more felt in his are back in a big way, with added gravitas from Angela absence than if he were actually in the film, and the enterBassett as the Wakandan queen and Boseman’s mother prise was always bigger than he was anyway, something (grieving for both the character and he might have been the first to suggest. Coogler, Wright, A S TA R the actor).

If anyone can be called the Beachler, Bassett, and everyone else in Wakanda Forever WA S B O R N new Black Panther, it’s Letitia Wright, do Boseman the honor of understanding that although he Boseman was the face of the most Boseman’s screen sister and nerdy sidewasn’t replaceable as an actor, what he represented was, to American movie of kick.

At 28, the Guyanese Wright already the extent it needed replacing at all, since it hardly vanished any America worth believing in. has won a SAG award for Black Panther with him.

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I L LU S T R AT E D BY C H R I S T O P H E R H U G H E S

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POP MUSIC

N OW P L AY I N G

TA L L G L A S S O F WA T E R

Betty Who has a BIG! new album.

MUSIC

Holiday, Celebrate Here’s our playlist of songs designed to help you navigate Turkey Day without annoying the family (too much). No “Alice’s Restaurant” here.

Harry Styles, “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” It was a cultural faux pas not to have some kind of opinion on Harry Styles in 2022. So let this Harry’s House highlight rock, take a generous swig of your pumpkin spice martini, and watch the hot takes roll in.

Maren Morris, “Humble Quest” Gassed from another tumultuous year? Some words of motivation from the big-hearted Texas country queen might help replenish the soul.

THE TOWERING POP STAR IS BELOVED

BY L.A.’S MUSICAL ELITE. WILL HER FOURTH ALBUM BREAK HER INTO THE BIG TIME?

BY SEAN FITZ-GERALD

B

E T T Y W H O is done hiding. With her fourth pop album, BIG!, the Aussie entertainer flaunts self-acceptance and depth.

“BIG! is a metaphor for the kind of person you want to be,” she says.

The title refers to the struggles Who, 31, has endured in an industry that worships pint-size, female bodies. At six-foot-two, she says she’s long tried to shrink to win gigs and plaudits. But now, as she sings on her anthemic opener, “You can’t make me smaller, you’ll never make me fit. I was born to be big.”

If chasing industry approval leads to art that risks sounding generic or derivative, BIG! opts for hyperspecificity. Almost every track plays like a diary entry bearing a Who secret—from the catchy mover “She Can Dance” to the hushed confessional “Someone Else” to the bittersweet closer “Grown Ups Grow Apart.” “Betty’s inherently a storyteller,” says producer Elan Gale, who worked with Who when she hosted Amazon’s The One That Got Away. Whether Who is acting or hosting or writing or performing, “there’s always a path that she’s going to walk down with you.”

On BIG!, Who asks you to turn the object of your self-consciousness into a superpower. That’s what the album has done for her. When she sings—as you’ll see on tour in L.A. in April—she stands taller, her voice deepens, her shoulders relax. It’s “a different version of me,” she says.

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Elton John, “I’m Still Standing” Elton’s final show will stream live from Dodger Stadium on Disney+ on November 20, so the holidays will be filled with debates on his life, legacy, and best song. We vote for this one.

Big Thief, “Simulation Swarm” Should anyone ask what the best album of 2022 is, the indie-rock group’s sprawling Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is a solid and credible response. And this track is proof.

Leon Bridges, “Coming Home” Sometimes you just need a warm hug to greet you at Thanksgiving. This Leon Bridges classic never fails at that.

Steve Lacy, “Sunshine,” featuring Fousheé Lacy is enjoying a bona fide pop hit with “Bad Habit” right now, but his superb second album, Gemini Rights, is filled with brilliance, including this soulful gem.

Soccer Mommy, “Shotgun” Dreamy melodies and a beautiful dream-pop haze come courtesy of Nashville’s eminently gifted singer-songwriter Sophie Allison.

Foo Fighters, “Times Like These” We miss you, Taylor Hawkins. Thanks for everything.

Vince Guaraldi Trio, “Thanksgiving Theme” It’s the bare minimum of holiday tradition.

And a damn sight shorter than Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.”

P H O T O G R A P H BY K AT E B I E L

P L AY L I ST: G E T T Y I M AG E S

Betty Who?

Elvis Presley, “Suspicious Minds” Baz Luhrmann’s thoroughly enjoyable biopic has set yet another Elvis revival in motion, so what better excuse to dive back into his greatness?

PROMOTION

Five Acres, founded in 1888, is one of the oldest child mental health organizations that started as an orphanage. The L.A.based Five Acres is a great example of the importance of a safe and loving family for our diverse children to thrive. Five Acres’ historical headquarters is located in Altadena, California, on a beautiful 5-acre property designed by Myron Hunt.

When Chanel Boutakidis began treating preadolescent girls as a therapist for Five Acres in 1999, the mother of two wasn’t just saddened by what she saw and heard—she was discouraged.

“Many children had been in the system from age three, some even younger than that, and they go from placement to placement,” she says. “So many children growing up without a family.”

To get to the root of the problem, Boutakidis transitioned from therapist to advocate; she became CEO of Five Acres in 2011 and now focuses on a better solution for foster kids.

That means pushing for protective legislation and a focus on permanency, a step that increases their odds of adoption but one that the government doesn’t well fund.

Today, there are about 20,000 children in L.A. County foster care, with 58% under the age of 10, including many infants. Boutakidis admits that working with foster youth is essential but not the most effective solution.

She shifted her focus toward prevention by reducing the number of families split up in the first place, a feat that’s going to require the county to invest in access to resources— such as community-based mental health and linkage services to affordable childcare, transportation, and fresh food—to keep that family safe, healthy, and intact.

“The majority of children enter the system due to neglect,” she says. “Maybe they look underfed, aren’t properly supervised, or have many school absences. But that looks no different from a child growing up in poverty with a family who lacks the resources to stay safe and healthy.”

Today, Five Acres serves over 7,000 clients annually and has expanded across five counties as leaders in high-quality outcomeinformed care. They have been nationally accredited by Council on Accreditation since 1957. They are an outcomes-driven,

Meet

Chanel Boutakidis

mission-focused organization with support departments that include a research and training department, IT and network support, and quality assurance department. Through the growth of prevention services, Five Acres achieves an 81% permanency success rate across their programs.

“In the past few years, we have developed collaborative partnerships with certain health-care companies offering our prevention services to their high-risk members. The results are even better, with a 91% permanency success rate. Early access to community-based mental health and linkage services is a better solution to keep families together and reduce the likelihood of children entering the foster care system.”

“We have more children than we can serve,” she says of the 20,000 kids currently enrolled in L.A. County’s foster care system; the entire state of New York has about the same number. “Investing in preventative mental health and access to resources is one way to help. Another way we can help is to consider adopting locally.” Foster homes are often temporary, so encouraging people to adopt locally ranks high on her priority list.

“Many people do international adoptions. But there’s such a great need with many beautiful children waiting for their forever family in our community.”

5acres.org

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W H E R E TO E AT N OW

New & Notable Encanto LOS FELIZ

● With its dark and

moody interior, Encanto is a welcome addition to the neighborhood, with California-Mexican dishes like dry-aged whole branzino with mole verde and thyme as well as a steady flow of mezcal margaritas.

2121 Hillhurst Ave., encanto.la.

METEORA IS AS MUCH ABOUT STIMULATING THE SENSES AS IT IS ABOUT FOOD B Y H E AT H E R P L AT T

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P O N E N T E R I N G Meteora,

chef Jordan Kahn’s new restaurant on Melrose, guests encounter a strong gust of incense. The sensory experience has begun.

Meteora inhabits a storied restaurant space that previously housed Auburn, Hatfield’s, and, before that, the legendary Citrus, which reigned as a popular L.A. hot spot from 1987 to 2001. There’s irony in the new life that Kahn is breathing into the famous address. Because as much as Meteora is something entirely new, at its core it’s pulling from a time long before any of these restaurants existed.

The service is otherworldly. The staff, dressed in white or light earth tones, are clearly trained with precision in mind.

They glide through the dining room carrying trays with both hands, as if you’re at a spa. Occasionally, someone walks around in a circle burning copal, which sends a substantial amount of smoke up through a giant hole in the ceiling. “It reminds us of our cosmic connecCOOKOUT tion,” says Kahn of the Above: Meteora’s avocado pie is made window to the sky. Are with biodynamic they ridding the place of avocados cooked in restaurants past? hot ashes.

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“Utilizing primordial cooking methods, we seek to generate new flavors of past experience” is an excerpt from the menu. One option includes varieties of fire-cooked stone fruit served with crispy brassica leaves, grilled roses, quark, cured duck breast, and lettuce leaves for wrapping. Nothing makes sense until you take a bite of all of it together. It’s revelatory. There’s the most perfectly grilled sea bream wrapped in banana leaf and served with a combination of smoked chiles, hazelnuts, brown butter, and clove.

No refined sugar enters this space, and yet each dessert is an absolute masterpiece. When the server places figs on the table, he explains that the accompanying almond cake is an ancient recipe from “before they had leavening agents.”

Kahn, who received two Michelin stars for his Culver City tasting menu at Vespertine, said the initial idea for Meteora was “Vespertine, but 1,000 years ago.” He adds, “Vespertine is about discovery. This restaurant is about rediscovery.”

6703 Melrose Ave., Hancock Park, meteora.la.

P H O T O G R A P H BY I R I NA L O G R A

H O L LY WO O D

● This Hollywood spinoff

of the popular Parisian restaurant is already buzzing. The global menu gets California flair from bright dishes like the Chip N Dip, a pretty bowl of crème fraîche, herbs, pickled daikon, and trout roe.

953 N. Sycamore Ave., mrtrestaurants.com.

Trophies Burger Club FA I R FA X

● Everything on

the menu is under $10 at this retro burger joint. Chef Geo Delgado (Everson Royce Bar, Burgers 99) is a burger expert and will offer a few variations on the classic ketchup, mustard, diced onions, and pickles.

519 N. Fairfax Ave., trophiesburgerclub.com.

CHIP N DIP: INNIS CASEY

The Pleasure Dome

Mr. T Los Angeles

ROASTED IN

Los Angeles

FAMILY CRAFTED COFFEE®. SINCE 1870.

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F I V E TO T RY

L.A. Raw

A QUINTET OF WILDLY INVENTIVE VARIATIONS ON TARTARE B Y J O S H UA L U R I E

C R E AT I V E C H E F S are devising new, artistic takes on tartare, a

raw meat or fish preparation that spans cultures and instills bold flavors into prized trimmings. In the mid-’80s, Shigefumi Tachibe created tuna tartare in L.A. (RIP, Chaya Brasserie). Over the years, top tartares have evolved beyond protein and now bring electricity to vegetables in this timeless but still trendy starter.

DICED BEEF TA R TA R E

LAMB LO I N TA R TA R E

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> Chef Josiah Citrin devotes an entire menu section to tartare at his Venice outpost. Distinct preparations include the delicate diced beef with punchy pickled Fresno chiles, porcini aioli, salsa seca, and smoked egg emulsion, and the vegetarian smoked mushroom and beet with crème fraîche and currants. Seasonal proteins like duck, venison, and lamb are also in rotation. “My approach is coming from a place of simplicity, but adding something that makes it unique or different,” Citrin says. He strives for “different flavors and textures” and incorporates “creamy and salty with something to cut through the fattiness of the protein, like mustard or shallots.”

425 Washington Blvd., Venice, 310-751-6794, charcoalvenice.com.

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> For summer, Brian Dunsmoor riffed on vitello tonnato at his market-driven Glassell Park restaurant, plating rosy lambloin tartare with crunchy fried-artichoke chips, mint, smoked yellowtail sauce, and bottarga (mullet roe). “Texture and umami are the two most important factors in creating a great tartare,” says Dunsmoor, who prefers hand-chopping with a heavy knife.

“It takes a lot more work but creates a very nice, yet imperfect texture,” he says. “I don’t want to drink my tartare, I want to chew it a little bit.” Fall brings beef tartare with smoked oyster mayo and crispy potatoes, and bison tartare with fried sunchokes and smoked trout mayo.

3501 Eagle Rock Blvd., Glassell Park, dunsmoor.la.

C H A R COA L : B E X B A R O N E ; D U N S M O O R : B R I G I T T E N E M A N

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> Globe-trotting Korean chef Akira Back’s sleek Beverly Center restaurant showcases dry-aged meats on tabletop grills. His tartare, called yukkhea, is similarly theatrical: a server tosses lean, tender, chopped Australian Wagyu eye round tableside with minced garlic, pine nuts, onions, bell peppers, sesame oil, cucumber, jalapeño, wasabi, and quail egg, achieving beautiful balance. “It takes a lot of respect, knowledge, and skill to deliver the dish properly,” Back says. “Furthermore, it takes a skilled chef to cut the meat properly so that it melts in the mouth.”

YUKKHEA

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8500 Beverly Blvd., Suite 111, Beverly Grove, 424-286-9900, absteakla.com.

N/ S O T O

A B ST E A K : CO U R T E SY A B ST E A K ; N /S OTO : WO N H O F R A N K L E E ; O L I V E T TA : M O S E S T R U Z M A N

> This dynamic Mid City izakaya is Niki Nakayama and Carole IidaNakayama’s casual n/naka spinoff.

Their vivid carrot-and-fennel tartare costars with pickled and fresh fennel and comes plated with chickpea miso and root-vegetable chips.

The couple features carrots five ways on one plate: roasted and chopped, creamed (made from residual roasted parts), powdered, pickled, and sliced. “We wanted to create something different and highlight how delicious vegetables can be,” Iida-Nakayama says. “Many vegetarians don’t get a tartare option, so it was nice to be able to offer that.”

4566 W. Washington Blvd., Mid City, 323-879-9455, n-soto.com.

C A R R OT-A N D - F E N N E L TA R TA R E

BIGEYE TUNA TA R TA R E

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O L I V E T TA

> Chef Michael Fiorelli folds bigeye tuna tartare with jalapeño, serving it atop whipped avocado with root-vegetable chips at Boujis Group’s fashionable WeHo restaurant. He also makes finely diced Wagyu-beef tartare with cornichon, Dijon mustard, shallots, egg yolks, and brioche. “Both of these dishes are a celebration of age-old preparations,” Fiorelli says. “The key is to honor the classics with the best ingredients available.” Butchering proteins inhouse encourages Fiorelli and other chefs to get creative with byproducts while limiting food waste. “With the pieces of beef that don’t make the cut for tartare, we’ll usually find a cooked preparation,” Fiorelli notes. “Sometimes it’s a burger, and sometimes it may wind up on top of a pizza.”

9010 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, 310-307-3932, olivetta.la.

L A M AG . C O M 4 1

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WA K E - U P C A L L

health and turn you into a loyal customer. 871 N. Garfield Ave., Montebello, groundupcoffeela.com.

—SEAN FITZ-GERALD

MASCARPONE LO Q UAT

Morning, Joe

OUT OF BEANS? HEAD TO ONE OF THE FIVE BEST COFFEE JOINTS IN TOWN

I NJ E O L M I S N OW B R E W CAFE MOOI

Inspired by a new style of creamy coffee drinks she was seeing in Korea and Japan, Devin Yoo started selling “snow brew” in 2017 at Cafe Mooi.

Snow brew features locally roasted Tectonic Coffee in cold brew that Yoo tops with lush sweet cream. Add injeolmi, a fluffy toasted-soybean powder, and stir to integrate the nutty flavor.

Cafe Mooi also serves a black sesame latte, featuring another taste that’s widely used in traditional Korean sweets and rice cakes. 3500 W. 6th St., Koreatown, cafemooi.blogspot.com. ●

—J O S H UA LU R I E

ICED ALMOND M AC A DA M I A L AT T E GO GET EM TIGER

Coffee is what they do at Go Get Em Tiger’s ten locations, but

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Starbucks it ain’t. The drink that launched it all is the Iced Almond Macadamia Latte. Back in 2013, when Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski first started GGET in downtown’s Grand Central Market, that was the drink, made with a double shot of Minor Monuments espresso and the sweetest, creamiest, housemade almond macadamia milk, that kept coffee lovers coming back. “People still ask for it from word of mouth,” says a loyal barista. Multiple locations, gget.com. — J O R D A N R I E F E

L E ’ L E M ÓN U N I N CO R P O R AT E D CO F F E E R OA ST E R S ● At their Altadena-based roaster, Alan Janoyan and Arthur Sohrabian promote a communal state of flow they call “sexy fresh.” Sohrabian initially developed Le’ Lemón for the LE’ LEMÓN

WELLNESS TEA G R O U N D U P CO F F E E

When best friends Daniel Dupuy and Ryan Moya opened this Montebello joint in 2017, they sought to bring artisanal brews to an area that, when they were growing up, was a café desert.

Today, their shop offers three to five farm-direct coffees at a time.

Their MO is homemade finesse, an approach that extends to their “wellness tea.” Dupuy perfected the tea’s recipe—cinnamon sticks, raw ginger, turmeric, cayenne, lemon juice, and honey—with his wife after a year of trial and error.

The result is a can’t-miss spicysweet-tangy elixir that’ll boost your

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shop’s farmers’ market appearances, and it stuck. This coffee-lemonade mash-up features house brew and simple syrup at the base, house lemonade with basil leaves in the middle, and a double shot of espresso on top.

“The touch of basil became essential to tie the flavors of sharp sweetness and strong espresso together,” Janoyan says. “It’s the weird you come back for.” 3021 Lincoln Ave., Altadena, unincorporated.coffee. —J. L .

M A S C A R P O N E : I N STAG R A M .CO M /A L I S S O N ; S N OW B R E W: CO U R T E SY C A F E M O O I ; L E ’ L E M O N : DAV I D LO P E Z

MASCARPONE

● AJ Kim and Scott Sohn built on the success of Kumquat, their popular Highland Park café, by honoring another citrus fruit in Cypress Park.

In Mascarpone, their sumptuous specialty drink that tastes like liquid tiramisu, Loquat layers espresso, mascarpone foam, and cold milk with muscovado syrup over ice, garnishing it with cocoa powder and bittersweet cacao nibs. Give it a good stir before you sip this drink, which could double as dessert. 1201 Cypress Ave., Cypress Park, loquatcoffee.com. —J. L .

PROMOTION

Join us for our premiere whiskey tasting event in the iconic Chandelier Room at Santa Anita Park EMERGE into a world of fine spirits and crafted cocktails paired with savory bites MEET distillers and brand ambassadors

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18 7–9 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now at

lamag.com/whiskeyfestival

CALI Distillery

Event is 21 & o ver. A l w a y s w e a r y our s e a t b e l t . P l e a s e d on’t d r i nk a nd d r i v e .

PROMOTION

On August 19, Los Angeles magazine hosted the 7th annual Whiskey Festival at The Bloc in Downtown Los Angeles. Guests sipped on 20 premium whiskies while enjoying experiences that complemented the bespoke environment including craft cocktails from Maker’s Mark and Basil Hayden, refreshing Mountain Valley Spring Water, complimentary tote bags provided by Downtown Center BID, and hand-rolled cigars provided by Guess and their new men’s fragrance UOMO. Other entertainment included live DJ, a photo booth experience, and great bites from Little Llama Peruvian Tacos located in Downtown Los Angeles. This year’s charity partner was Rosie’s Foundation, an organization that creates opportunities to engage and work with people with diverse abilities.

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PARTICIPATING WHISKEYS

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Aberfeldy & Craigellachie Bardstown Bourbon Basil Hayden Broken Barrel Whiskey Co. CALI Whiskey Corbin Cash Four Roses Bourbon Kujira Whisky Maker’s Mark No. 46 Masahiro Okinawa Gin Noble Oak Off Hours Old Hillside Bourbon Company Sagamore Spirit Shinobu Whisky Teeling Whiskey Uncle Nearest Virginia Distillery Westward Whiskey Wyoming Whiskey

PROMOTION

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1. Maker’s Mark setting the stage for a great night with their Maker’s No. 46 cocktails 2. Shauna Der of Barkeeper teaching the art of making a great whiskey cocktail 3. UOMO, the new fragrance by Guess set the tone for a great evening 4. Old Hillside Kentucky Bourbon showing off their selection of fine whiskeys 5. Guests enjoying unlimited pours and having a great night 6. Sipping on Basil Hayden cocktails in the lounge area 7. Hand Rolled cigars courtesy of UOMO by Guess 8. The Basil Hayden Lounge was the best seat in the house 9. Carnitas tacos from Little Llama Peruvian Tacos 10. Uncle Nearest with a fine selection of fine whiskey 11. Good times at the whiskey festival This page 12. UOMO the new fragrance from Guess 13. Cheers to a good time with fine spirits and great company 14. Maker’s No. 46 turns a good night into a great night 15. Kujira brins their A game with a fine selection of whiskey 16. Mixologist creatin some great Maker’s No. 46 cocktails 17. Hand rolled cigars courtesy of UOMO, by Guess 18. A great nigh of whiskey in DTLA 19. Old Hillside, a family tradition in whiskey 20. Enjoyign a great night with friends, whiskey and Los Angeles magazine 21. A beautiful night at The Bloc in DTLA for the Whiskey Festival 22. The DCBID representng Downtown Los Angeles with branded glasses and totes 23. A beautiful night at The Block in Downtown Los Angeles 24. Mountain Valley Spring Water is the perfect premium to keep you hydrated, only the best for you and your whiskey

PHOTO CREDIT: RUSH VARELA AND DEVIN BERKO

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TRENDS

Silver is the New Black

SOME STERLING STYLES FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

BY MERLE GINSBERG

S

I LV E R H A S A LWAY S been been a

bit tarnished by its richer cousin, gold: less shine, less weight, less worth, less flattering—even less class. But this season, silver’s the bride, no longer the bridesmaid. The icy hue has been alchemized into this holiday’s “It” color. Mixed metallics have always played well on the red carpet, but now stark, striking silver is suddenly everywhere: hoodies, puffer jackets, leather pants, sequined suits—and, of course, all manner of home items to illuminate a winter table.

Silver is flattering in a different light. It’s got tougher associations: motorcycle culture, industrial shine.

Another example of the fickle fashion biz? Sure. But it sure is polished.

ICY-HOT PANTS » You won’t be left in the dark in these leather

SHINE ON

KICK SILVER

» Celine Homme’s megawatt, sequin-embellished

» Pair the Golden Goose Super-Star LTD

cotton bomber jacket was designed for gents who aren’t afraid to sport some glitz. $3,700, mrporter.com.

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sneaker’s silver spray and tone-on-tone signature star with jeans or a suit—or a gown. $545, goldengoose.com.

CO U R T E SY O F T H E B R A N D S

pants by Zadig & Voltaire, the French brand that adores this season’s color trends. $730, selfridges.com.

SILVER BACK » How day-into-evening

is this? The Naples Convertible Backpack from Baggallini has phone pockets and converts to a sling for dressy nights. $115, baggallini.com.

HEAVY METAL » How cool is a tough, lace-up combat

boot in killer metallic? The Bottines Joe Vintage Metal is 100 percent calfskin. $498, us.zadig-et-voltaire.com.

LIGHTHEARTED » The sterling Heart Tag Toggle

necklace is based on a classic Tiffany & Co. key ring first introduced in 1969. $800, tiffany.com.

HI-HO, SILVER » If you want to draw attention to your legs, Franco Sarto’s form-fitting, high-shine boot—with kitten heel—will kick it into high gear.

Price on request, francosarto.com.

MOON SHINE » Sequins, midi length, logo,

shiny lace, sheer—five trends at once.

Jackpot from Zadig & Voltaire! $598, farfetch.com.

L A M AG . C O M 4 7

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FA S H I O N

Beautiful Bloomers

TWO DECADES AFTER JOHNSON HARTIG LAUNCHED LIBERTINE, HIS MADCAP CLOTHING LINE IS THE TOAST OF L.A.’S A-LIST B Y TA R A S O L O M O N

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T C O M E S A S no surprise that Johnson Hartig, the eccentric visionary behind the very extra L.A.-bred fashion line Libertine, made scrapbooks of socialite Pat Buckley as a child in the 1980s. “I was always attracted to people who were really committed,” says Hartig, himself born and bred in Whittier. Between the socials and the swans, the punks and the royals, the icons of the ’80s provided ample inspiration for Hartig, whose cult of extroverted couture is celebrating its 21st birthday this year.

The brand began in the early aughts when Hartig, a model, upcycled his thriftshop finds by silk-screening them with quirky art and historical motifs like a surrealist eye or a portrait of Queen Victoria.

After a buyer from Maxfield spotted Hartig wearing one of his designs and placed an order, retailer Ron Herman followed, as did Colette in Paris. The rest is history.

The label’s appealing mixed-bouquet aesthetic—subversive in theme yet classically derived in application—has made Libertine the fashion darling of the eternally cool: Mick Jagger, Cher, Catherine Deneuve, Beyoncé, Brad Pitt, Jane Fonda.

Hartig’s love of nature, art, and history, as well as pop culture dichotomies like punk versus Upper Eastside, is evident throughout Libertine’s signature looks. For Libertine’s spring/summer 2022 collection, Hartig unleashes giant roses printed on coats, slim pants, and chinos, styled with leopard-print bucket hats. Was the rose symbolic of the world blossoming again?

“I was looking at my roses in my garden,” Hartig says, “and to think that these tiny leaf buds I pruned six weeks ago will become the most magnificent thing you’ve ever seen . . . .” He ponders the question.

“There is a glimmer of hope, the light is coming through the darkness, and the good is prevailing.”

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WILD THING

Hartig in his studio in Hollywood.

P H O T O G R A P H E D BY M AG N U S U N NA R

Between the punks and the royals, the icons of the ’80s provided ample inspiration for Hartig.

L A M AG . C O M 4 9

Incoming

|

EXPERT TESTIMONY

My Favorite Things PAULETTA WASHINGTON STANDS OUT AS THE MATRIARCH IN THE NEW HULU SERIES REASONABLE DOUBT AND AT HOME WITH HUSBAND DENZEL

F I R S T L A DY OF L.A.

Apart from being married to a very famous man, Washington, has had leading roles in three TV series.

Best margarita place? > Jean-Georges.

It’s about the ginger margarita—the best.

What’s your favorite neighborhood? > West Hollywood. So many wonderful places to eat, to shop, to hang out. And nice people.

Favorite music store? > My favorite music spot ever was Tower Records. This was when I could go there and put on those headphones and they didn’t bother you. It was beautiful to go

through a musical journey there.

Then I went to Amoeba and the Record Collector across the street from Fairfax High School.

Favorite independent movie theater? > The New Beverly Cinema.

They show amazing films over there—and it’s right over by my children.

And the history adds to the name even more.

Best cheap meal? > CW & Chris Fish and Chicken.

Steve Harvey hosted these so-called “Hoodie Awards” years ago, and it was all the best of the Black businesses in the country.

I was presenting the Best Fried Chicken award one year, and CW & Chris won. I didn’t know him, and I said “Oh,

I’m gonna have to come and check you out,” and he goes, “Yeah, you gotta come check me out!” I went the next day, and I have been going there now for at least 25 years.

That’s my little quick stop for fish and chicken.

Frozen yogurt or ice cream? > CoffeeWalk YogurtTalk. Good product, and I enjoy talking to the people.

The best Chinese food? > Yang Chow.

They have a slippery shrimp dish that I could have every day.

Hair colorist in town? > Sotah Hair Care. Janet

5 0 L A M AG . C O M

Zeitoun’s been doing my hair for over 25 years.

An expert!

Favorite museum? > I like LACMA and the Museum of African American Art, off of Crenshaw.

I love the African American artists. At LACMA, before COVID, they had Charles White, who was one of the artists that my husband and I love.

What’s your favorite hike? > I get a nice view at Fryman Canyon, and it’s also kind of a tradition; I started doing it close to 40 years ago with some friends of mine—we did it to get out of the gym situation and get the fresh air. There’s a car graveyard there.

Getting there is kind of creepy, but you get there and see billions of cars from all over the years.

—J U L I U S M I L L E R

P H O T O G R A P H BY J O H N K E O N

WA S H I N GTO N S : N O E L VA S Q U E Z /G C I M AG E S ; M A R G A R I TA : I N STAG R A M .CO M / WA L D O R F B E V H I L L S ; F R OYO : T H E B LO C L A .CO M / R E TA I L E R S /CO F F E E WA L K-YO G U R T TA L K ; R E ASO N A B L E D O U BT : S E R B A F FO/ H U LU

Do you have a favorite sports team? > The Lakers are my favorite team, especially since moving to California. And my husband is just a sports fanatic—when I need to talk to him, I have to watch! And we were fortunate enough to be able to get season tickets to the Lakers.

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L A M AG . C O M 53

Culture Club

B Y S A M WA S S O N

Notes on Cool ON THE EVE OF QUENTIN TARANTINO’S MEMOIR ABOUT THE MOVIES THAT MOST INFLUENCED HIM, A HOLLYWOOD HISTORIAN TAKES STOCK OF THE FILMMAKER’S CANON— AND FINDS FODDER FOR GREATNESS

5 4 L A M AG . C O M

IN THE LAST DECADE OF

his life, Peter Bogdanovich lived, like his friend and mentor Orson Welles before him, low on money, from guest house to guest house.

Staying at Quentin Tarantino’s around the time Tarantino was writing Inglourious Basterds, Bogdanovich would be made to watch, he said, “the shit Quentin loves”—and, smiling, added that he did mean “shit” in two senses. He shrugged, chuckling wearily, like an old man out of Renoir. “Ah, Quentin . . .”

If we were in a musical—and Peter, a little bit, always was—he would have looked to the sunset over the valley side of Mulholland and sung a sweet, sad song about watching the world change and letting go.

I L LU S T R AT E D BY N E I L JA M I E S O N

FOLLOW US ANYWHERE

@LosAngelesmag @lamag @LAmag

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a new book coming this month, Cinema Speculation, a nonfiction work about the movies of the ’70s. I haven’t read it. (As I write this, it is still under embargo.) But I have to read it—we all do. Whether you like his work or not, or, frankly, whether you like film or not, Tarantino’s taste and sensibility—more than any filmmaker or even critic of his generation—has urged the ear, eye, and mind of the American moviegoer.

Since Pulp Fiction introduced VHS cinema into the popular canon almost 20 years ago—refashioning “low” schlock-film conventions into high-production tropes—“the shit Quentin loves,” his supersounds of the ’70s, his kung fu and exploitation movies, those black suits with the 1 black skinny ties, his badass motherfuckers, have informed our idea of adolescent idea of valuing taste above cool to such a degree that, I think, it’s character. “I bet you’re a big Lee safe to say, if we don’t understand it, Marvin fan,” Mr. Blonde speculates we can’t claim to understand a part in Reservoir Dogs, the first movie of ourselves that, given Tarantino’s Tarantino wrote and directed (undertwo decades of sustained coolness, written in part by the sale to Warner obviously still matters to us.

Bros. of his screenplay for True The trouble is, I can’t, for the life Romance, a movie he wrote but was of me, tell you what Pulp Fiction is directed by Tony Scott). Reservoir about. I’m sure some graduate stuDogs is a movie built very much to dent has a theory about God or fate elide story and character. For the or miracles or (per Zed’s chopper) movie to work, we can’t know the grace, but I don’t see the Tarantino truth. We are meant to ask throughdie-hards lining up in their Rayout: What happened during the Bans for a midnight screening of botched heist? And who among these Winter Light (unless, of course, it’s pseudonymous at the New Beverly). characters can we I do see them, howtrust? The rest is ever, ransacking the film-made tension, basement bins, tradBy gentrifying the shit Quentin loves ing vinyl and movie “schlock” genres, (I hear he spent an tie-in paperbacks; I Tarantino took egregious portion see them as I imagine the guilt out of of his low budget on Tarantino, who, as the rights to “Stuck we know, worked in a guilty pleasure. in the Middle with video store, lingering You”) and language— outside the theater, language deluxe, rehearsing his punk language that rides the ear like a musitheories on arcane subtexts, gleecal score, far exceeding its expositional fully contrarian in their taste. function, but flinches from showing Psycho? Ha! Psycho II!, their adolesus who these people are. For that, cent middle fingers flicked in their we have flashbacks. Tarantino loves parents’ faces. flashbacks; they so often do what his About that taste. What we see in characters, so busy being cool, can’t: these early movies of Tarantino’s, reveal themselves. beyond the taste itself, is the equally 5 6 L A M AG . C O M

In Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s coolest movie, everything they do is cool, and everything they say, every highminded speculation spiked with a choice motherfucker or beatnik hipsterism, sounds cool. Rarely flustered, the cool guys—the good guys—look and move with the mannered selfpossession of James Bond, while the uncool—who demonstrate no taste, no style, and no clever independence of thought—flail around the screen in ugly clothes before they lavishly die. (There’s a telling joke: when John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, kings of cool, are made to change out of their suits and skinny ties into banal shorts and T-shirts.) When Travolta’s Vincent Vega is shot and killed, he’s coming from the toilet, where everyone everywhere is at their uncoolest. And so it seems, insofar as the movie consists of cool people killing uncool people, Pulp Fiction, in its heart, is foremost about attitude and taste. The metaphysical talk is just that—talk.

But coolest of all was a filmmaker delivering on the promise of independent film, studding his movies with episodes we would be hard-pressed to find in neighboring Hollywood: sudden and spectacular acts of strange and even tortuously attenuated violence, preceded or followed

1 . : © M I R A M A X /CO U R T E SY E V E R E T T CO L L E C T I O N ; 2 . : M I R A M A X

Q U E N T I N TA R A N T I N O H A S

A N D . . . AC T I O N !

1. From left: Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel in Reservoir Dogs (1992), the first movie Tarantino wrote and directed.

2. John Travolta prepares to revive Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction (1994)—the precarious balance of comedy and violence became Tarantino’s signature.

3. Tarantino in a scene from Death Proof, one of the director’s B-movie homages.

4. Sam Peckinpah directing Steve McQueen in The Getaway (1972) graces the cover of Tarantino’s new memoir. Both men and the film were huge influences.

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3 . : © W E I N ST E I N CO M PA N Y/CO U R T E SY E V E R E T T CO L L E C T I O N ; 4 . : CO U R T E SY H A R P E R CO L L I N S

by masterfully attenuated laughs, the whiplash à la Q.T. It’s the cinematic analog of dying and coming back to life, no easy feat. Note the face of Rosanna Arquette after the torturously tense and funny hypodermic sequence in Pulp Fiction, in which Travolta stabs Uma Thurman’s heart with a dripping syringe, reviving her. “That was fuckin’ trippy.” She isn’t scared; she is impressed. To which I’d add, “That’s a pretty fucking good milkshake. I don’t know if it’s worth five dollars, but it’s pretty fucking good.” ● ● ● ●

I WAS THERE—YOU PROBABLY

were too—reading about Pulp Fiction, somewhere in 1994, getting the sense, even before the movie came out, that something was coming, something new and good. Those were the days, before the internet gave us the entire world right away, when the early news about a movie would trickle in piecemeal, from film festivals, a critic or two, and people who heard from people who’d actually seen it.

Those were also the days when movie journalism, pulling itself up from the yuppie swamp of dealobsessed reporting—back when it really seemed to matter how much

everyone got paid on Ishtar, when even people who weren’t in the movie business followed the weekend grosses— when the hot story changed from the Sherman McCoys of Hollywood to the discovery and promise of the festival kids, the vision and hustle of Miramax, and, for those of us in high school looking to be told who we were, the organizing comforts of fresh and popular art. A new world: for us.

But who were we?

Our parents and their filmmakers, as we all know, grew up watching TV. But how many channels did they have? Six? Four? My friends and I had VCRs. We could watch the movies we wanted when we wanted and—here’s the best part—we could watch them again. In their day, Lucas and Spielberg and Scorsese had to thread up a projector with actual film—when they were lucky enough to get their hands on a projector and film. We had pause and rewind; we could watch scenes, just scenes, and, with scholarly delight, regard them shot by shot. And for the first time in history, we had the full film library at our disposal, not just the Oscar winners or the canonical titles saluted in textbooks. The only thing

3

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we didn’t watch—because we didn’t have YouTube or iPhones—was amateurs. We watched filmmakers. And because we, unlike our forefathers, had choice, we defined ourselves as much as filmgoers as by the filmmakers we loved. Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese: They all loved Ford, they all loved Kurosawa. They saw the same movies. We broke into tribes.

Technology had given us the means to fetishize “our” filmmakers’ conscious and unconscious cinematic minutia— that music cue, that reaction shot again, that tendency we kept noting in a character actor no one noticed before. We were the video kids. ● ● ● ●

A N D T H E N T H E R E WA S T H E

person, Quentin Tarantino. He didn’t act or look cool, but in interviews, he spoke cool, as fast and freewheeling as the internet, if the internet could speak, racing happily, guilelessly, from one shamelessly provocative, heartfelt critical observation to the next, celebrating, with loving insight, the kinds of movies a) we, the general public, hadn’t seen (CO N T I N U E D O N PAG E 1 0 9 )

L A M AG . C O M 5 7

LIST

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Nirvana by Way of Mexico:

CONRAD PUNTA DE MITA

by Bekah Wright

Seeking respite can be difficult in everyday life. Perhaps that’s why vacations were created…

A getaway that promises peace, rejuvenation and bliss – Conrad Punta de Mita in Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit. What this haven holds in store: a two-mile stretch of secluded beach, three dreamy swimming pools, luxuriant spa treatments, and enticing flavors.

A Suite of One’s Own With its the oceanfront setting, Conrad Punta de Mita makes the most of sea views. A reflection of the tropical surrounds can be found through the resort’s modern design and coastal décor.

Sheer luxury can be had in accommodations like the Grand Oceanfront Suite for relaxing.

The suite’s main space comes replete with a butler’s kitchen, dining and living areas, plus adjoining bathroom. A king-size bed awaits for sweet slumbering in the bedroom. The en suite bathroom calls for soaking in the bathtub, or showering on the outside patio under the sun. The best spot to grab some Vitamin D—in the private patio’s plunge pool.

A Sensory Feast Transporting taste buds to the Riviera Nayarit are Conrad Punta de Mita’s seven dining venues, lounges and bars. Set amongst mangroves by the beach is the resort’s signature venue, Codex. A menu item that speaks to its setting: Jaiba de Concha Suave, soft-shell crab with flavors of ancho chili, black garlic, citrus jocoque.

In the mood for something straight from the grill? Mezquite serves Rib Eye, Half Rock Cornish Game Hen and local shrimp fresh from the fire.

Luscious libations go hand-in-hand with tropical destinations and Tuki, a “modern-day temple for inventive cocktails,” delivers just that. As imbibing in Mezcal is a must while in Mexico, order up the Huichol with Holbosh Espadin Mezcal.

Achieving Zen Ziplining, horseback riding, fishing and jungle trekking may equal Zen to some Conrad Punta de Mita visitors. Others seek serenity at the Conrad Spa, where treatments like the 90-minute Hïtïarica Awakening Massage draw upon ancient techniques from the Huichol culture. The idea follow-up: walking along the beach to feel the salt-tinged breeze and be serenaded by the ocean waves. As for the promise of peace, rejuvenation and bliss? It’s a promise well-kept by Conrad Punta de Mita.

Carretera Punta de Mita Sayulita Km 2, Litibu, Nayarit, 63734, Mexico (844) 298-4300 conradhotels.com/puntademita 6 0 L A M AG . C O M

R O O M

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Momofuku is a place to celebrate with friends. Chef and founder David Chang took inspiration from locations around the world and created an experience where crafted cocktails and dishes go hand-in-hand with the open kitchen. Here, there’s always something to see.

Scarpetta creates bold flavors by amplifying the essence of seasonal ingredients, making simple dishes simply unforgettable. Like their signature spaghetti with tomato and basil, or their veal chop Parmigiano.

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FLAGSTAFF

TO THE STARS, SLOPES, SUDS, AND BEYOND

by Bekah Wright

Ascend Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona, to observe Flagstaff unfolding below and it’s apparent: there’s a lot to discover. Only have two days? Here’s how to make the most of a 48-hour winter visit.

Day 2: Walk on the Moon

In-town Digs, Sustainable Dining, and Flagstaff Brewery Trail First, settling into accommodations from which to embark on adventures. One to consider is the High Country Motor Lodge.

Newly opened this summer, this retro-chic 123-room boutique hotel is located on Route 66 near downtown Flagstaff. Chock-full of style, amenities include fire pits, outdoor decks, and a General store. Ultra-plush beds and warm wooden furniture create a relaxed - yet luxurious - experience. Another option is the Little America Hotel. Flagstaff's only AAA approved four diamond hotel sits on 500 scenic pine-covered acres and features spacious recently renovated rooms with unique live edge maple headboards and desks, floor to ceiling windows and granite vanities. Little America offers hiking trails, heated pool, outdoor patio, retail shop and the Silver Pine Restaurant and Bar. Nearby are Flagstaff’s dining venues, many drawing on sustainability by serving locally farmed fare. Among them, Brix and Atria. The recently expanded Brix restaurant and wine bar offers unique dishes like Elk Tartare and Ridgeview Farm Chicken. At Atria, a journey unto itself is Chef Rochelle Daniel’s seasonal eight-course Tasting Menu with items including Roasted Bone Marrow, Fish Tiradito, and Smoked Short Rib. 64 L A M AG . C O M

Flagstaff's backyard Grand Canyon National Park

While downtown, check out Flagstaff’s quaint shops, galleries, and boutiques. A worthy pursuit: partaking in craft beers at the eight breweries along Flagstaff’s Brewery Trail. Ready for taste tests are flavors such as Wanderlust Brewing Company’s Sky Island Ginger Juniper Berry Hard Kombucha and Dark Sky Brewing Company’s Biggie S’mores stout.

Day 1: Take to the Snow in Arizona's Official Winter Wonderland Three destinations just right for snowplay: Arizona Snowbowl Resort, Arizona Nordic Village, and Flagstaff Snow Park. Skiing and snowboarding are enjoyed at Arizona Snowbowl Resort. Whisking visitors to Arizona's highest point on Mt. Humphreys is the resort’s new Arizona Gondola. Arizona Nordic Village welcomes cross-country skiing and snowshoeing on its 16-feet wide, classic track set and corduroy trails. Flagstaff Snow Park is all about snowtubing and kicking back around the outdoor fireplaces. Call the Flagstaff Winter Snowplay Hotline for up-to-date snowplay information at 1-888-256-SNOW and check out the SNOW-ometer at discoverflagstaff.com.

With its myriad lunar landmarks, Flagstaff is ideal for immersing in astrotourism. Every Apollo astronaut that walked on the moon trained in Flagstaff. Start at the Flagstaff Visitor Center for a free Lunar Landmarks Trail Map and Passport to guide the way.

Follow up with a visit to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument - an astronaut training ground in 1967 that is still preparing astronauts for the next moon mission in 2024! A veritable education in moon research awaits at Lowell Observatory with its campus tours and exhibitions. Perhaps best of all—using the observatory’s telescopes for stargazing. Calling for a return visit to Flagstaff—nearby Meteor Crater is the world's best preserved meteorite impact site on earth and the Grand Canyon National Park is only a one-cup coffee drive.

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HERMANN HOTELS

Renowned designer and hotelier Steve Hermann recently opened his latest modern luxury hotel in Palm Springs, the Hermann Bungalows.

Upon entering the Hermann Bungalows, guests are welcomed by the 85-foot-long zero-edge pool as the foreground to stunning unobstructed views of the desert mountains.

Escaping to Palm Springs is a true retreat for the senses, and the latest hotel to open in the desert offers a luxury experience to reset among the serene desert landscape.

The design of the property takes inspiration from the earth tones and the landscape surrounding it. “I wanted it to be a natural extension of the beautiful desert we are a part of here, with an organic flow, clean lines, and minimalist aesthetic,” Hermann comments. The Hermann Bungalows are destined to be Palm Springs’ most luxurious property for even the most discerning world traveler.

Other Hermann luxury resorts in Palm Springs include L’Horizon Resort and Spa, and The Colony Palms Hotel.

L’Horizon is home to Sopa, a restaurant with a beautiful outdoor patio offering food of progressive Southern European and California creations, as well as a predominantly West Coast wine list. Whenever possible, the team is committed to using organic, bio-dynamic and farmer’s produce while sourcing all within a 150 mile radius.

The Colony Palms is a vibrant desert oasis where guests can enjoy craft cocktails overlooking the pool, relax in an outdoor tub under the stars, and savor fresh gelato from the poolside cart. The restaurant’s signature dishes include Parisian gnocchi with burgundy truffle and season corn, and Osetra caviar and onion dip with hand cut Kennebec potato chips, and hard cooked egg minuet.

Visit hermannbungalows.com for more information and to book rooms.

1050 East Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92264 (760) 323-1858 hermannbungalows.com 6 6 L A M AG . C O M

P A L M

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MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN FUN LIVES HERE Mammoth Mountain has been Southern California's winter destination of choice for decades and for good reason. This mountain is big and their reputation for fun is even bigger.

At 11,053 feet, Mammoth boasts the highest lift-served summit of any California resort and is known for some of the best skiing and snowboarding in the country. Mammoth is typically the first resort in the state to open and the last to close. Another long, legendary season is set to kick off on November 11 with opening day festivities that include music, giveaways, contests, and an inaugural first-chair banner breakthrough. While early season terrain can be limited, the excitement is always evident, and riders are known to camp out to secure their spot at the front of the line.

Mammoth's 3,500 skiable acres and an average snowfall of 400 inches combined with plenty of California sunshine and beautiful vistas deliver big smiles on the slopes all season long. Find some of the biggest names in skiing and snowboarding shredding the top-rated Unbound Terrain Parks and enjoy tons of off-hill activities like tubing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling.

From pop-up lounges to Canyon Lodge's famous après parties, and signature events like Night of Lights and Mammoth Yacht Club, there truly is no end to the fun you can find this winter at Mammoth Mountain.

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OMNI LA COSTA RESORT & SPA For travelers seeking an autumn getaway that’s more sun-kissed and less foliage-focused, look no further than the coastal gem that is Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. Touched by fresh ocean breezes and set within a captivating 400-acre Spanish Mission-style village, the iconic resort, located in the charming surf town of Carlsbad, is the perfect retreat to enjoy all that Southern California has to offer. And insiders know that fall is the perfect time to visit. With November being the sunniest month of the season with just a hint of crisp autumn air, travelers can truly have the best of both worlds.

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GARCETTI’S LAST

7 2 L A M AG . C O M

EXIT

L A M AG . C O M 7 3

Peel back the veils of time

and return with us to that giddy, carefree era known as 2013.

Barack Obama was in the White House. Geraldo Rivera was posting topless selfies. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were getting engaged (while Bruce and Kris Jenner were getting divorced).

Everybody else was playing Candy Crush.

And in front of City Hall, 42-year-old Eric Garcetti was being sworn in as Los Angeles’s new mayor, the youngest in 100 years.

“These times demand a back-to-basics mayor focused, above all else, on our economy and jobs,” he told the crowd, which included supporters like Jimmy Kimmel and Moby (who anointed Garcetti the “coolest mayor” in the city’s history). “You’ll have a local government that’s off your back and on your side,” he promised.

Flash forward nearly a decade, and Garcetti, now 51, is installed in a chair in his City Hall office, ready to discuss the ups and downs of his political career. He shows off a clock, gifted to him by a friend, that counts the hours and minutes and seconds before his final term as mayor comes to an end. Garcetti has been through a lot over the last nine years. He’s scored a lot of victories while weathering an endless stream of crises—racial unrest, scandals among his top aides, brawls with both the police union and Black Lives Matter activists, with the cherry on top being a once-in-acentury pandemic that shut down the city for the better part of two years. So it’s understandable that Garcetti might be a tad eager to move on to the next chapter of his life, which, if all goes to plan, will involve a trip to New Delhi, where Garcetti hopes to serve as President Biden’s ambassador to India—if the U.S. Senate finally approves his longstalled nomination. (Garcetti says he has the full support of the president and is brushing up on his Hindi, a language he learned in college.)

On the eve of his farewell—well, 70 days, 14 hours, and 17 minutes before it, according to his clock—Los Angeles sat down with him for a freewheeling chat about the high points and low points of his time in office, what he might have done differently, what he’s most proud of, and what he’d just as soon forget.

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So how does it feel, knowing that you have 70 days left in office? Do you find yourself looking back, or are you just anxious to move on?

Neither. My father always said, “You know who you are going in, because it’s who you’re gonna be going out.” So I’m neither clinging to power till the last moment nor checked out. I’m kind of in a really nice place.

I hear that you loathe questions about your legacy, but is there something during your tenure that you’re particularly proud of?

Well, I want people to know I love the city and I worked really, really hard for the city. Not just as mayor but for 20 years. It’s a really tough place to work, City Hall. My main themes were, first, getting back to the basics—that just meant making our city services better. So I’ve been really proud that the basic city services—from our pipes to our potholes to our streets—are on a really good track. Second theme was to try to get the economy going. And even in our toughest moments, we led the recovery out of 2008, raising the minimum wage and reducing our taxes. But the third area, the one that I’m probably happiest about, we have movement on what I call “building the city of the future.” What’s screwed up about L.A. is usually that we ignore the decades-long support for things that we need: housing, transportation, airports, our power system.

To borrow the old Reagan question, do you think the city is safer and more habitable than it was when you got here?

In some ways, no; and in some ways, absolutely.

But I think the honest answer for all of us is this: It’s tougher to buy a home. We have a lower home ownership rate than New York City does now.

Unless you’re lucky enough to inherit or are quite wealthy, you’re not gonna buy into this market.

I just read a poll that people are feeling not very happy about the city and where it’s going. What do you think that arises from? Could you have done something that would have changed that?

We’re coming out of a lot of trauma. So that’s part of this moment. The state didn’t touch a lot of stuff during the pandemic. So the city got very dirty. The homelessness crisis continued, although I think that curve is finally flattened and now needs to be bent. My diagnosis is housing, housing, housing.

Almost everything comes from that. If we can’t stick to the momentum that we’ve built up now, and even double down on it, it’s gonna be a town of haves and have-nots. It’s gonna be a very difficult place for businesses to stay, let alone grow. It’s gonna be a difficult place for young people to find their new opportunities. We’ve got to continue the momentum on that.

THE EXIT INTE RVIEW

No, but I could hear the protests outside your home. It seemed interesting to me that you managed to antagonize both BLM and the cops at the same time. That’s quite an accomplishment.

Look, you have to be willing to tell people who are yelling at you, “I’m still gonna do the work that we both agree on.” To me, it’s about not letting noise stop you from where you agree.

CA L L OF DU T Y

S K I D R OW: T E D S O Q U I /S I PA U SA V I A A P ; B L M : R I C H A R D VO G E L /A P

From top: Garcetti meets with BLM protesters in downtown L.A. in the wake of the George Floyd murder in 2020, which sparked unrest across the city; the homelessness crisis has haunted Garcetti through both of his mayoral terms. His policy of creating “housing, housing, housing” has had limited impact on a problem that may, in fact, be rooted in drug abuse and untreated mental illness.

We just published a story contending that homelessness is not really primarily a housing problem but a drug problem. And that just simply giving housing to people without taking care of the larger issue is doomed . . .

So I’ve had this conversation a thousand times. Is it drugs and mental health or is it the housing?

It’s both. So when I look historically, places that have homelessness or do a very good job of not having the unhoused, they have the same challenges. Finland has a lot of people who do drugs, but their policy is to put them indoors first. You can’t put them indoors and never deal with the drug and mental health issue. But if you’re saying it’s only that, I think it has been well researched that, in terms of what percentage of the

unhoused have mental health and/or drug abuse problems, it’s as high as 40 percent. So you still have half the problem left.

So what do you consider your signature accomplishment?

I would say to my successor: I tripled the rate of housing construction and affordable housing sixfold.

Materially, I think we affected people’s lives here: We reduced poverty by 27 percent and increased Black and brown income by 44 and 43 percent, respectively, when it was a little over half of that nationally.

Let’s talk about the George Floyd protests. I live just a few streets away from you . . .

You came to visit the house too?

[Laughs]

So why do you think activists on the left are so mad at you?

I think there’s a change, tactically, on both extremes right now, where there’s more nihilism and a kind of narcissism: “I wanna confront power; I don’t wanna ever cross the street and negotiate.” My experience is that folks may like you personally, but the media pays a lot of attention to people who are loudest. It doesn’t take a high percentage of people to cause a lot of disruption. But instead of withdrawing, I just continued.

So why are the cops so upset with you?

Oh, there was one complaint about a comment I never made. Period.

Set that straight.

I was in the First AME Church to give a powerful speech about whether we as a country were going to value Black lives, whether we were going to save Black lives or be murderers, collectively. I never mentioned cops, let alone LAPD cops, which would make no sense in the midst of a killing in Minneapolis. And [then there was a story] on the KTLA crawl that said, “[Garcetti] calls all LAPD cops murders.” And so it’s an echo chamber of that. I never said that. I never would.

What was it like to have those people at your doorstep every single night for weeks?

I think we have to address the trauma that every elected official I know has faced in the way people now invade the familial and the personal space of electives. We’re not things; we’re people. I talked to the mayor of a big city who had 5,000 people in front of her house and had classmates of her L A M AG . C O M 7 5

teenage son saying, “How can you live with [her]?” The mayor of San Jose had his house tagged in the middle of the night. But then his neighbors painted it out at two in the morning. It’s very easy to terrorize people, right? People knew that I wouldn’t be there, and they’d still go to the house just knowing it was only my wife and daughter. Any human being would be traumatized by the sorts of things we let go on in the name of no-limits activism.

Are you happy with your leadership during COVID-19? Do you consider that a high point of your tenure?

I don’t spend a lot of time reflecting on what I’ve been happy with or unhappy with. I am really, really, proud of the team that was here.

That must have been a difficult time.

It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever lived through or probably will live through again. We were doing things that the city had never done before. We were taking risks few other cities were taking. And I know that there’s thousands of people alive today [because of that], and that makes me very proud.

I mean we had people reading every medical journal. We had the largest testing sites in the world. We were the first city to close down, to put masks on, to test people without symptoms, and mandate testing to knock down the racial death gap.

So that was a high point. I would imagine a low point was the Rick Jacobs sexual harassment controversy. You said that you had no idea that anything was going on.

Should you have been more attuned? He was, after all, one of your top lieutenants.

Well, there’s an assumption in that question that all these things that have been said [actually] happened. I only knew what I knew, period. And I did not witness that behavior. And if I had, I would’ve done something to address it. I won’t stand for that even from the closest of friends. I was a survivor of sexual harassment in high school myself.

Were you scared in the middle of that?

I was traumatized like everybody else.

But it wasn’t my place to indulge my trauma. My place was to communicate relentlessly to accelerate our work. I thought that it was really important to make people feel less alone.

You are a survivor of sexual harassment?

Yes. I testified in Congress in my position as president of the National Student Coalition Against Harassment for the first Violence Against Women Act. That was my first time ever in Congress.

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Who harassed you?

I’d rather not talk about that. But it led me into the work that I did.

So why do you think so many people who worked in your administration have come after you? What is that about? Why are they so angry and upset?

Conflicts happen between people.

But when it comes to specific accusations of sexual harassment, which I take incredibly seriously, all I can say is, that’s not something that I witnessed.

P R O ST E STO R S : T E D S O Q U I /S I PA U SA V I A A P ; DAU G H T E R : T I F FA N Y R O S E /G E T T Y I M AG E S ; A L L B L AC K L I V E S M AT T E R : R E U T E R S / R I N G O C H I U

So another thing that came out of that time is the rise in crime, which is a big motivating factor in the new election and with the police unions.

I would always advise, don’t just talk to a union. I’m not saying they don’t represent something about what some officers say, but I’ve always had very close and very strong relationships with my rank and file.

THE EXIT INTE RVIEW

HIZZONER ROLE

Clockwise from left: Protesters head for the mayor’s residence, 2020; Garcetti pitches in at a COVID vaccination site; his support for Joe Biden’s candidacy earned him an ambassadorship nomination; BLM protesters march in Hollywood; with daughter Maya.

You were an early Biden supporter, and then he offered you the ambassadorship to India, which this controversy seemed to threaten. Were you upset?

I was honest with the city when I said I couldn’t leave in the midst of a pandemic, when people were dying in December. And that’s when the appointment would’ve happened, if it moved forward. I didn’t work for Joe Biden to get a new job. I have a great job here that I’m going to love and value until the last day. And I’ve never called him asking for a job. Not once.

COV I D -1 9 : RYA N YO U N G / R E D UX ; B I D E N : R E U T E R S / E L I Z A B E T H F R A N TZ

But you don’t talk to Jacobs anymore.

We have not talked since November [of 2020].

Why is that, if he didn’t do anything?

Because we’re going to be in a court case, and everybody’s legal advice to everybody is all those conversations then become something that’s part of a court record.

There’s this whole thing about how Kamala Harris led the campaign to deny you that post. Do you get along with her?

She privately calls me and texts me. I see her when she’s out here.

So you didn’t counsel against having her as Biden’s running mate?

I will absolutely keep completely private about that counsel, but I will deny that I counseled against that, for sure. I think [Biden picking Harris] was the absolute correct decision.

Got it. I heard the two of you ran into each other on a plane.

We did, yeah.

Should she run for president? If Biden doesn’t, would she be the strongest?

I’m convinced that we’ll all learn in a year or two if he changes his mind.

But today, he’s running.

How was that? Awkward?

I wouldn’t say it was awkward, but it wasn’t very long.

Tell me about the India ambassadorship. First of all, have you been there?

Many times.

Do you like Indian food?

I love Indian food. I went there first as a teenager. My college roommate was the son of the Indian ambassador under George H. W. Bush. But the president didn’t know any of this when he asked me.

But how did they settle on you?

It seems like an odd choice.

Well, the president’s been clear: he wants people with political experience to go into these major relationships.

It must have been really annoying that it was held up.

At this point, it’s been a gift. Things that I never would’ve been here for: the openings of the Sixth Street Bridge and the Crenshaw line. A friend of mine was like, “God wanted you to stay here for an extra year so you could actually finish out your term.” And now I have zero guilt, which I would’ve always carried. But it’s frustrating watching Washington move very slowly and the untruths that bounced back and forth. That’s been less than pleasant. Joe Biden’s loyalty to me and vice versa speaks for itself.

Do you regret running for president in 2020?

Regret running for president? I don’t remember running for president.

[Laughs] I never ran for president.

The L.A. Times certainly seems to think that you did.

I’ll have to ask them. I did not run for president. I mean, look, everybody, from the moment you get elected dog catcher and certainly to city council, you get, “Aren’t you gonna run for president?” I didn’t ever close a door to it. And by doing that, people are like, “Oh, you’re just being really cute.

You’re actually gonna run.”

Do you think you were hurt by the perception that you were running for president?

No. Because I didn’t run. I’ve been very proud that when the Senate opened up, I didn’t jump in and run for Senate when I could have. If it was just about what’s next, I could L A M AG . C O M 7 7

THE EXIT INTE RVIEW

have jumped into running for governor right after I was elected. To me, I wanted people to know I wanted this job for every single day. The only exception was when the president came forward when I was already at my eighth year. I felt like I had fulfilled the contract. But I’m really glad I get to go to the last day.

So knowing what you do about the challenges of running Los Angeles— and the temperament required for the job—which of the current candidates for mayor do you think would be better?

Well, it’s not just temperament. I think a lot of people go to a mechanic or a doctor, and they want people with a lot of experience in that specific area. Rick has been a commissioner a couple times, and Karen’s been an elected official. So those are important parts of the job. But it’s such a huge city to consume and to understand. I think both of them will need to have really good people who are very experienced at City Hall. That is about making sure the calls are answered, the potholes are fixed, the permits are going out, the port is working, the airport functions.

So the person who has executive experience may be better in that role?

I think that they both have strengths that they bring to this.

And, remember, [Bass] has been an executive at a community coalition, which is executive leadership in some ways. That’s the kind of leadership style you need. City Hall is about coalitions. The region is about coalitions.

So you’re not endorsing Bass or Caruso?

I’ve said that I want to be there to help whoever wins.

But you must have an idea of who you think would be better.

I do, but I think that the voters don’t need the current mayor telling them who the next mayor should be. I think, if anything, there’s usually a pushback on that. I’ll say this, I think that Karen Bass is an extraordinary 7 8 L A M AG . C O M

person and a dear friend. We’ve been friends from before I was an elected official and before she was an elected official.

Is she tough enough for the job?

Tough? Oh, absolutely. They’re both tough enough. They’re both skilled enough. They need to surround themselves with the right people. I think this is a question of values.

During the pandemic, was it a mistake closing the schools and closing them for so long?

I don’t believe so, but there is real damage that happened that we have to work just as hard to heal. Kids weren’t threatened, by and large, but some kids would be dead today without that. That would’ve happened early on, before we had a vaccine.

Do you think the school unions have too much power in this city?

Well, I was happy to settle their strike in this office. I think that, no, they don’t have too much power. I think we have a still-somewhat-broken education system that is in bad need of repair and investment. But I’m very optimistic. I think the pandemic was actually a moment when the school district was at its best and came together really well. And it did much more than just schooling and helped people who were food insecure and had health care needs.

I hope that spirit continues forward.

I will say that we showed we could educate our kids even in the midst of the pandemic at city facilities.

You came into office with all these big plans. Was there a reality check?

Some of the smallest things can be the most difficult to do. But the bigger things—going after the Olympics, finally getting a people mover to the airport, recycling 100 percent of our water, tripling the amount of housing—are immensely labor-intensive.

It surprises you what you can and can’t do.

In New York, the mayor occupies a tremendous amount of public bandwidth. The mayors there

usually have a certain swagger— maybe not Bloomberg. He wasn’t swaggery, but . . .

He was just a billionaire. [Laughs] His money spoke for his swagger. But I think people here want things to actually work. I remember when we had 120 ships out in the harbor last year. How many ships are out there right now? Five. Newark still has 80, 90 ships out there. They haven’t solved it; we figured it out. Zero headlines. So I get that, when the city works, it shouldn’t be a headline because that’s what people expect city government should do. Everybody prepared me for, “Look, by the end of the time you’re mayor, you’re not gonna be as popular as where you were when you started”—because, at a certain point, you become the face of the intractable problems. And that’s fine. I’d rather be blamed for something and have the chance to make a difference. Like this morning, we opened up a permanent housing thing in South L.A. And I met a guy there, Mr. Wang, who had been homeless for 20 years and is in his seventies. Imagine being homeless in your seventies. He’s a photographer.

He showed me his Instagram account, and I’m following him. And his homelessness is over. That’s kind of how I look at my city, as 4 million stories at a time. That story was resolved in a good way.

When things get hard or you need a break, is there a place you go that’s not here in City Hall?

I can’t go to the places that I used to go, where there’s other people in a public setting. I mean, I still go, but that’s not where I’m gonna relax.

Do you wear disguises?

Yeah, exactly. I put on my beard and my red hair and [become] Justin Turner. Like most people in Los Angeles, I find great comfort and refuge in the homes of friends. It’s such a beautiful city. I was walking with friends in the neighborhood park in the Valley where I grew up, and I fell in love with L.A. all over again.

(CO N T I N U E D O N PAG E 1 0 9 )

I THINK L.A. IS PROBABLYAMONG THE BEST CITIES IN THE WORLD, IN TERMS OF RACE RELATIONS.”

L A M AG . C O M 7 9

THESE L.A. ARTISTS AND FURNITURE MAKERS ARE BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN ART AND DESIGN AND GARNERING HIGH-PROFILE FANS ALONG THE WAY

Design T E X T BY

M IC H A E L S L E N SK E

P H OTO G RA P H E D BY

I RV I N RIVERA

VINCENT POCSIK

Within Reach » Having grown up in blue-collar Cleveland, Pocsik remembers his father crafting a canoe that he never actually put in the water.

So when a creative consultant approached Pocsik a few years ago about making some furniture for his downtown office, the artist accepted the challenge on one condition: “I do it my way.” Since then, his hand-tooled lamps and totems sprouting ears, legs, and arms have been exhibited all around L.A. Now, an 8-by-8-foot cabinet for curiosities in the shape of his head is the star of a New York show at the Objective Gallery. “I think of it as a sculpture,” says Pocsik, “where the function is part of the art.” vincentpocsik.com L A M AG . C O M 8 1

ANALUISA CORRIGAN » Corrigan comes from a long line of stagehands—her father was the technical director for Alvin Ailey—so it was no surprise when the Parsons alum kick-started a ceramics career during the pandemic by selling ashtrays painted with images of insects and coffee mugs with huge handles. This past spring, the Stroll Garden gallery invited her to make a ceramic living room featuring whimsical domestic objects as an homage to the TV room in her great aunt’s Tijuana home. Though Corrigan almost canceled the show after the first version of her 60-pound ceramic chair broke, she pushed through and a top collector acquired the replacement piece, giving her the confidence to go deeper down the Duchampian rabbit hole. “I really want to make a urinal and a toilet,” she says. analuisacorrigan.com 8 2 L A M AG . C O M

WAKA WAKA » In 2009, when his then-girlfriend Kristin Dickson-Okuda needed furniture for an event at her store, Iko Iko, Shin Okuda made a few seating elements and, next thing he knew, started getting commissions for desks and guitar stands. What began with a few orders for his cylinder-back birch chairs grew to a wide-ranging collection featuring stainless steel and laminates in a rainbow of colors. A hit among art-world machers, some of his designs can be found in the Burbank studio of ceramist Bari Ziperstein and the offices of the arts nonprofit Murmurs. With a new space in Glendale, Okuda, who once ran Jorge Pardo’s woodworking operation, is ready to design tomorrow’s classics. Says Okuda, “I still cut every piece.” wakawaka.world

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LAUREN ELDER » Elder was studying new media at the Art Institute of Chicago when she took a ceramics class during her last semester and got hooked. Massive sculptures evolved into more functional objects—vases, dishes, bowls—embellished with narrative sgraffito carvings depicting feminist tropes paired with icons from her Iraqi and Scottish ancestry. At her solo debut with Wilding Cran Gallery this past summer, it was two tear-shaped lamps that caught the design world’s attention. To bring these shapes to life, Elder collaged abstract paintings onto her pieces via small pieces of newsprint marked with underglaze. “I transfer them on like a temporary tattoo,” says Elder, who is already busy creating more narrative lamps, many depicting the days of her life. laurenelder.net

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HYUNUKO » During the pandemic, Henry Kim, who’d been working in the Haas Brothers’ design studio for eight years, went off on his own to develop his “Monggi” process—blending Korean onggi earthenware techniques with psychedelic marbled clays—behind his Toobiture collection of seating and tables. A lunch with clay master Hun Chung Lee—who told him, “Only fill your kiln halfway with stuff that makes money; the other half you fill with your dream”—got him thinking about larger projects, like a Toobiture house and a new line of unglazed planters that he plans to show at la BEAST gallery. “A lot of my work is about juxtaposition,” says Kim. “It’s about chaos and control; traditional techniques and modern applications; being Korean and American.” hyunuko.com L A M AG . C O M 8 5

PRISMA STUDIO » When VSF gallery director Sara Lee Hantman and her partner, photographer Coley Brown, bought a fixer-upper in Altadena during the pandemic, they weren’t interested in buying furniture that didn’t fit their tastes. What started with a few homemade chairs and benches for the living room that incorporated clean lines, zigzagging profiles, and storage has morphed into Prisma Studio, a go-to basics line for the art crowd. With a new Gardena studio, the duo is now working on a seating collaboration with textiles from Brain Dead Fabrications and a booth at Design Miami/, where they’ll debut a suite of knife-edge tables and lamps whose profiles are meant to mimic the Sierras. prisma.place 8 6 L A M AG . C O M

NIK GELORMINO » Nik Gelormino always liked working with sculpting tools, but after a 2016 class with the wood sage Yo Takimoto, he jumped back into woodworking full-time and started Another Good Job to handle commissions. His early pieces were “more straight, mainly because people are square and don’t want to take risks.” After a while, Gelormino began making his own pieces to show people what he was capable of. Now you might find him in his Alhambra studio acid-etching magic mushrooms into brass door hinges or carving away at a block of Himalayan deodar cedar salvaged for a sculpture of a car that might double as a side table.

“I want to make works that render the line between function and art irrelevant.” anothergoodjob.com

L A M AG . C O M 8 7

HOW AN ARMENIAN MOB BOSS IN L.A. AND A POLYGAMOUS MORMON ENGINEER IN SALT LAKE CITY JOINED FORCES WITH A BENT BEVERLY HILLS LAWYER AND CROOKED COPS TO BILK TAXPAYERS OUT OF HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN CLEAN-ENERGY SUBSIDIES… AND ALMOST GOT AWAY WITH IT

BY MICHELE MCPHEE ILLUSTRATED BY NEIL JAMIESON

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L A M AG . C O M 8 9

L THE MOBSTER...

L I K E M O S T H I G H -security deten-

tion facilities, the Salt Lake County Metropolitan Jail is packed with the usual mix of murderers, rapists, robbers, drug dealers, and other assorted outlaws and miscreants. But deep within its bowels, locked away in a chilly, tomb-like cell, there’s one particular inmate—federal detainee No. 417049—who is different from all the rest.

For one thing, he’s from Bel-Air. For another, he’s a billionaire.

His name is Levon Termendzhyan, or it was until he became an American citizen and changed it to Lev Aslan Dermen. But he’s best known, at least in the underworld, as “the Lion,” alleged leader of L.A.’s notorious Armenian mafia, a transnational criminal organization so infamously brutal that it makes the Cosa Nostra look like a book club.

Before the Lion was put in this cell nearly three years ago—where he now spends his days teaching himself to read English with paperbacks from the prison library—he lived a life of almost cartoonish excess, filled with private jets, luxurious yachts, and million-dollar supercars. His primary residence at one time was a $19 million gated estate on BelAir Court, not far from neighbors like Jennifer Aniston, Beyoncé, and Michael Bay, and he owned multiple other homes as well, including a waterfront mansion in Huntington Beach and a villa in Turkey. He was a regular at some of the poshest 9 0 L A M AG . C O M

restaurants and bars in Beverly Hills, where he was known to pay for $1,500-a-sip scotches with wads of cash stuffed in a Hermès wallet.

That bankroll, along with his other enormous assets, came, in part, from an incredibly lucrative scheme to bilk U.S. taxpayers out of half a billion dollars in clean-energy subsidies. Which is what the Lion was convicted of back in 2020—tax fraud and money laundering. But those pedestrian-sounding charges don’t do justice to the grand operaesque tale of how this 56-year-old crime boss, famous for his Tony Montana–like temper tantrums, Imelda Marcos–like shopping sprees, and Tiger King–like obsession with big cats, ultimately ended up serving time in Salt Lake City. The story’s cast of characters includes dirty cops, corrupt Department of Homeland Security officials, a mob lawyer who cheated his way into a California law license, the president of Turkey, an ex-CIA chief, assorted international mobsters, and—last but most certainly not least—a young engineering-school graduate who cooked up the clean-energy scheme in the first place and who happens to be a member of a sect of racist Mormon fanatics in Utah that’s frequently been accused of running its own deeply criminal operations.

It’s a complicated story, filled with greed and betrayal, spanning several years, and transpiring across many states and countries. And it continues to this day, with its many colorful players still grinding their way through the criminal justice system.

But let’s begin at the beginning, with Jacob.

T H E S E C T H A S M A N Y names. The Latter-Day Church of Christ. The Davis County Cooperative Society.

The Kingston clan. The Order.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, though, has its own name for it—blood cult. According to the nonprofit, which tracks white supremacist organizations, the Order is a still-polygamous, often incestuous offshoot of Mormonism

(which outlawed polygamy 120 years ago) that is so over-the-top racist, it could “teach the Ku Klux Klan a thing or two.”

It began 87 years ago, during the Great Depression, when founder Eldon Kingston settled in the suburbs around Salt Lake City. But in the decades since, it’s grown into as much a corporation as a cult, amassing hundreds of millions of dollars through a financial empire that includes grocery stores, meatpacking plants, pawn shops, a garbage removal service, a casino in California, an insurance company, and a high-end tactical-firearms manufacturer. And that’s just the legitimate side of the Order’s business dealings. According to prosecutors, the group is so prolific at ripping off government programs—through welfare fraud, tax evasion, and labor-law violations—that they coined a catchy phrase for it: “bleeding the beast.”

Jacob Kingston, 36, Eldon’s greatgreat-grandson, is not particularly high up in the Order’s hierarchy, but he is well-connected. His uncle is Paul Kingston, the 62-year-old “prophet” in charge of the cult. And his father, Paul’s brother Daniel, is the cult’s “enforcer”—the muscle who metes out justice to members when necessary, and often when not necessary. Daniel once served time for beating his 15-year-old daughter with a belt after she complained about being forced to marry her uncle.

Still, as just one of Daniel’s 128 children (with 14 wives, some of whom were Daniel’s half sisters), Jacob didn’t exactly stand out. Tall, gangly, and uncomfortably quiet, he lived in one of the family compound’s less luxurious domiciles—an old cabin with little running water and no heat—which he shared with one of his own three wives, Sally, and some of his 20 children.

But Jacob did have a few things going for him. For starters, a degree in engineering from the University of Utah, which he put to good use, right after graduating in 2007, by starting his own business at the compound—a biofuel production facility called Wakashie Renewable Energy,

...AND THE MORMON clean energy—as much as a dollar per gallon, with little or no oversight from the feds—was the true potential profit center.

Within a few years, Jacob realized he could make a fortune by shipping the same barrels of biodiesel around the country and back again, getting paid subsidies by the federal government on the same biofuel over and over again. Better still, he could simply pretend to make biofuel and file false claims about how much renewable

or WRE, which he financed with a loan from a bank controlled by the Order. At the heart of the business was a “transesterification system” that could clean dirty cooking grease and vegetable oil—a process known as “pulling”—and transform it into renewable energy in the form of biodiesel fuel.

Creating the biofuel and selling it, though, wasn’t where the real money was; collecting subsidies from government programs promoting

A WHO’S WHO OF SCAMSTERS 1. JACOB KINGSTON The young Mormon engineer who cooked up the biofuel scam.

3. ISAIAH KINGSTON One of Jacob’s 127 siblings, who kept the books for his brother.

2. LEV DERMEN (aka, the Lion) Alleged leader of the Armenian mafia in Los Angeles.

4. JOHN BALIAN Glendale police detective and one of the Lion’s “boys.”

energy he was creating—it was as easy as filling out an online form. He started small, collecting a few million in subsidies in 2011, which he didn’t even get to keep—it all went to the cult, which claimed any money earned by its members as its own, controlling the flock’s finances through its bank.

But eventually, Jacob, who was beginning to resent living in a cabin with no heat, started to think bigger. It dawned on him that if he scaled up his energy fraud—which he dubbed “the

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5. EDGAR SARGSYAN Crooked lawyer who ended up flipping on both Jacob and the Lion.

6. BABAK BROUMAND FBI agent who provided inside intel to the scamsters.

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M U G S H OTS : CO U R T E SY O F DAV I S CO U N T Y S H E R I F F ; A L L OT H E R P H OTO S : T H E D E PA R T M E N T O F J U ST I C E E X H I B I TS I N U S VS . D E R M E N

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THE WEDDING SCENE No great mob story can be complete without one. This ceremony, in Turkey, was for one of Jacob’s 20 children.

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CRAB MEET The Lion (left), Jacob Kingston, and Kingston’s wife Sally, after partying in Seattle.

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THE MOBSTER...

Plan”—he could potentially rake in much, much more, some of which he might even be able to keep for himself.

In order to expand, though, Jacob knew he needed help—somebody who was well-connected in the energy field, who was familiar with the ins and outs of moving fuel around the globe, who was as experienced as the Order was in circumventing the law, and who could keep not just the IRS and other government agencies off his back but also help him hide at least some of the profits from the Order’s vigilant accountants.

As it happened, Jacob had heard of just such a person. He called himself the Lion.

L E V O N T E R M E N D Z H YA N arrived in

America in 1980, at age 14. His family was part of a wave of immigrants from then-Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe who ended up settling in Burbank, Glendale, and certain Slavic pockets of East L.A. For a while, Termendzhyan was enrolled at Hollywood High School, but he dropped out at 17 to pump gas and begin building his empire—a string of petrol stations and truck stops called NOIL, a fuel-transport company called Lion Trucking, and a slew of other enterprises that the FBI, the EPA, the IRS, and the Los Angeles Police Department all suspected to be profoundly criminal in nature—that would ultimately make him a billionaire by the age of 30. All of which he accomplished without ever learning to read or write English.

The Armenian mafia that the Lion allegedly controlled is well-known by local and federal law enforcement.

Its members are said to be masters at identity theft, kidnappings, extortion, and murder for hire. And yet, like the Teflon Don in New York in the 1980s (John Gotti, by the way, also had a thing for lions), Termendzhyan had an uncanny knack for slipping through the government’s fingers, despite the small army of investigators constantly on his trail. He had a few close calls—like in 1993, when he’d been swept up in a gas tax fraud sting (he was ultimately acquitted), 9 2 L A M AG . C O M

or in 2003, when he pulled a gun on a cop and went to trial for assault with a firearm (acquitted again).

Otherwise, he lived what seemed to be a charmed life.

His longtime attorney, Mark Geragos, denies that the Lion is a mob boss. “Racist,” is how he characterized the accusations to Los Angeles. But his client certainly lived like a mafia kingpin. Neighbors around his Bel-Air mansion saw a revolving display of status vehicles behind his gated driveway, including two $2 million Bugatti supercars.

He employed his own personal pilot to ferry him around the world in a private jet, keeping the flights off the FAA’s radar and leaving as little

“I DID NOT WANT LEVON TO BE PART OF MY CASE. I WAS AFRAID OF WHAT HE MIGHT DO TO ME AND MY FAMILY.” of a paper trail as possible. For his 50th birthday party, which filled the Hilton Hotel at Universal Studios with scores of rap stars, politicians, lawyers, and other luminaries, live lions were imported as decorations.

The obsession with lions, incidentally, appears to run deep. When he became an American citizen in 2017 and changed his name, the moniker he chose was Lev, Russian for “lion.” His gas station and truck rental company, NOIL, is “lion” spelled backward. Even his facial hair was, for many years, precision cut to resemble a lion’s mane. It may have simply been a macho affectation or a branding tool designed to inspire fear and respect among his

friends and enemies. Or maybe he just really likes very large cats.

In any case, whether he was a mob boss or merely a lion-loving fuel industry entrepreneur, it’s fair to say that Lev Dermen has always been a businessman on the lookout for new opportunities. And in 2012, when he received word that a certain biodiesel company in Utah was interested in meeting with him, a doozy fell into his lap.

J A C O B A N D T H E L I O N met for the first time in Los Angeles, at NOIL’s headquarters in Commerce. Which turned out to be a double-wide trailer guarded by two lion statues and decorated inside with furniture by Lamborghini. Outside, bodyguards leaned against armored vehicles while the two men chatted.

It was the beginning of a not-sobeautiful friendship. A few weeks later, the Lion would fly to Salt Lake City to tour Jacob’s biofuel facility at the Order’s compound. Jacob and Sally greeted him with a new cowboy hat and a basket of Armenian fruit, which seemed to please the Lion.

After the tour, he invited Jacob and Sally to a dinner party that night—in Seattle. They boarded the Lion’s jet, climbed into a Mercedes-Maybach waiting for them on the tarmac in Washington State, and were whisked to a private estate where a huge crowd was being entertained by a Russian singer as waiters served mounds of sushi and bartenders kept the booze flowing. Jacob and Sally, being Mormon, didn’t drink. But they stayed till the wee hours, afraid to insult the Lion by leaving early.

“I didn’t know how to tell him we needed to go to sleep,” Jacob would later testify about the evening.

The next day, the Lion drove with the couple back to the private jet, stopping along the way at a seafood store so that the Lion could purchase lobsters and crabs for Jacob and Sally to bring back to the Kingston clan.

They ended up taking home 15 boxes.

With the Lion as his new business partner, Jacob suddenly had entrée to a coterie of crooked cops and bent

...AND THE MORMON

federal agents—“the boys,” as the Lion referred to them—to help keep the heat off him as he expanded his operations. The boys were wrangled by one of the Lion’s top lieutenants, mob “attorney” Edgar Sargsyan, who had offices on Rodeo Drive and plenty of tony connections (he was pals with Governor Gavin Newsom and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) but didn’t actually possess a valid law license. It was revealed in court that he had hired a ringer to take the bar exam for him.

Sargsyan’s team of deplorables included Glendale narcotics detective John “Saro” Balian, who’d been pulling jobs for the Armenians for years (he was behind a Fast & Furiousstyle car theft ring); DHS agent Felix Cisneros Jr., one of the Lion’s former bodyguards; and FBI special agent Babak Broumand, a counterterrorism expert with a penchant for Rolex watches and Gucci belts. According to prosecutors, Sargsyan paid Broumand $10,000 a month in cash for favors big and small (like getting Sargsyan an “FBI Official Business” placard so he could park his RollsRoyce wherever he wanted).

H I S T O U C H WA S G O L D

The Lion (left), with two unknown business men and Jacob (far right), posing in front of one his private jets.

Thanks to the Lion’s gas-industry know-how and his army of mobsters and dirty cops, before long, Jacob’s biofuel scam was succeeding beyond his wildest dreams. Within a few years, Jacob and the Lion were raking in so much money from fraudulent subsidies—hundreds of millions of dollars, according to prosecutors— they literally didn’t know what to do with it all. At one point, they started stashing cash in Istanbul, where they had vague plans to flee if things ever went south. “I have met the president of Turkey,” Jacob recounted in court, describing a trip to Turkey with the Lion during which he’d been introduced to Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Meanwhile, back in Utah, the Order was delighted by the windfall Jacob was bringing to its bank. But the cult’s elders were also growing increasingly suspicious that Jacob was skimming from the profits. It was, after all, impossible not to notice how the once-gawky engineer had acquired a new sense of goombah style.

“He just started doing things people in our family didn’t do,” one of Jacob’s 127 siblings, Isaiah, who sometimes cooked the WRE books for Jacob, later told prosecutors, describing how the Lion had changed his brother’s personality and spending habits. “He didn’t used to wear shoes that were several thousand dollars. He didn’t wear a $600 shirt. He didn’t wear a watch that was $40,000.”

Eyebrows were certainly raised at the Order when Jacob traded up from his old Toyota Tercel to a Lamborghini. And Jacob and Sally were no longer living in that heatless cabin on the compound; with the Lion as their real estate agent, they had purchased a 14,000-square-foot, $3.2 million mansion on Creek Road outside Salt Lake City. The manse was known as “the Castle” and had a parking garage for 14 cars. “This is the house you need to buy because this is our style,” the Lion told Jacob (CO N T I N U E D O N PAG E 1 1 0 )

L A M AG . C O M 9 3

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A HELPING HAND

L.A. WORKS In 1990, L.A. Works took shape from a hope that if individuals worked together on local needs through hands-on service, they would feel empowered to address the broader racial and economic divides of their community. This was hastened by the 1991 beating of Rodney King, which brought a combustive mix of racial tension and civil discord.

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570 West Avenue 26, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90065 (323) 224-6510 | laworks.com 9 6 L A M AG . C O M

UPCOMING EVENT Martin Luther King Day of Service Monday, January 16, 2023 “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

With his inspirational words ringing in our ears, L.A. Works honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King each year through acts of service and advocacy. On Monday, January 16, 2023, join L.A. Works for Los Angeles’ largest volunteer event celebrating the National Martin Luther King Day of Service.

Focusing on the fight for food and climate justice, L.A. Works’ MLK Day of Service will engage volunteers online and in person.

Recognizing that Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities have less access to healthy foods and are more vulnerable to the greatest impacts of climate change directly informs our MLK Day of Service activities, which will feature hands-on eco-action stations designed for urban greening and public health improvement.

Following MLK Day, community volunteers will be invited to participate in the Minecraft March on Washington, a virtual re-enactment of the 1963 March on Washington. Volunteers will interact with NPCs (non-player characters) representing past and current day activists and have a chance to “meet” and learn from climate and food justice advocates.

Join L.A. Works as we make the National Martin Luther King Day of Service a day on and not a day off.

NOTE: This in-person opportunity will be limited based on COVID case rates, and a reschedule date will be determined in advance if needed.

For more information, please visit laworks.com.

Looking to give back to the LA community but don’t know how or where to start? L.A. Works can help! Visit our website to learn about one-time and ongoing volunteer opportunities where you can share your time, experience, and skills to help build a more vibrant and equitable Los Angeles.

Volunteer today and spark the change of tomorrow.

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Visit bailproject.org/donate and become a Freedom Funder today!

THE BAIL PROJECT The Bail Project is a national nonprofit on a mission to combat mass incarceration by transforming the pretrial system across the U.S. Our community-based teams work with local partners to pay bail for thousands of low-wealth people each year, reducing the human suffering caused by cash bail, restoring the presumption of innocence, and building on the work of grassroots movements for decarceration.

In Los Angeles, we partner with the L.A. County Public Defender and UCLA Law’s

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Through these efforts, we seek to transform pretrial justice for generations of Americans to come, bringing us one step closer to ending mass incarceration and racial and economic disparities in the U.S. criminal legal system.

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WHY DONATE Every donation is used to bring people home, connect them with services based on their needs, and work toward a future where access to justice is not determined by the color of a person’s skin or how much money they have.

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Our mission is to provide unparalleled care to every patient by providing individualized treatment using the most recent and relevant proven advances in cancer care, curated with deliberation and compassion.

(323) 760-9757 | lacancer network.com L A M AG . C O M 9 9

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LA’s BEST Every school day after the bell rings till 6pm, LA’s BEST provides students from nearly 200 LAUSD elementary schools a nutritious meal, help with their homework and an array of enrichment activities - all at no cost to working families. LA’s BEST’s holistic approach ensures that children from under-resourced neighborhoods achieve on par with their more affluent peers. LA’s BEST is a unique afterschool program because they invest in staff development and professional training that benefits staff now and their future goals.

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At LA’s BEST events you can have fun and help students and staff achieve their goals.

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PARA LOS NIÑOS For over 42 years, Para Los Niños has provided a crucial safety net for the most vulnerable families in Los Angeles County. In 1980, the nonprofit organization came to life in a warehouse on Skid Row where at-risk children, eager for a chance to learn, were offered a safe and nurturing environment filled with exploration, hope, and opportunity.

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Coming up next in our January 2023 issue:

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Our Academic Excellence special section will highlight the best options for our readers educational needs in the Los Angeles area with a director of top colleges and universities; private schools, continuing education and children’s educational programs.

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THE HOT LIST

King Salmon Candy from Dunsmoor PAGE 105

A CO N S TA N T LY U P DAT ED R O U N D U P O F L . A .’ S M OS T E S S EN T I A L E AT ER I E S

WEST ❂ Birdie G’s SANTA MONICA

THE BREAKDOWN » American $$

James Beard Award–nominated chef Jeremy Fox gets personal with a sunny spot named after his young daughter. The high-low menu is full of playful riffs on comfort food, from mixed summer cucumbers to a matzo ball soup with carrot miso to a next-level relish tray. Don’t miss the jiggly Rose Petal pie for dessert. 2421 Michigan Ave., 310-310-3616, or birdiegsla.com. Full bar.

❂ Broad Street Oyster Co. MALIBU » Seafood $$

If ever there was a car picnic scene, it’s at this open-air spot overlooking Malibu Lagoon State Beach. You can grab a great lobster roll (topped with uni or caviar if you’re feeling extra fancy), towers of raw seafood, great clam chowder, and a burger with Nueske’s bacon that shouldn’t be overlooked. 23359 Pacific Coast Hwy., 424-644-0131, or broadstreetoyster.com. Beer and wine.

❂ Cassia

SANTA MONICA » Southeast Asian $$$ Bryant Ng mines his Chinese Singaporean heritage, honors wife Kim’s Vietnamese background, and works in the wood-grilling technique he honed at Mozza at this grand Southeast Asian brasserie. Hunker down at a table on the patio—or treat yourself to some great takeout—to devour turmeric-marinated ocean trout or chickpea curry with scallion clay-oven bread. Wherever and however you enjoy Ng’s cooking, you won’t be disappointed. 1314 7th St., 310-393-6699, or cassiala.com.

Full bar.

✤❂ Cobi’s

SANTA MONICA » Southeast Asian $$$ Coming here is like visiting a perfectly artdirected beach house where everything—from the colors on the walls to the curries on the plate—just pops. Grab a date, grab your friends, 10 2 L A M A G . C O M

WEST

EAST

Includes Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Century City, Culver City, Malibu, Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, Palms, Santa Monica, Venice, West L.A., Westwood

Includes Atwater Village, Eagle Rock, East L.A., Echo Park, Glendale, Los Feliz, Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley, Silver Lake

DOWNTOWN Includes Arts District, Bunker Hill, Chinatown, Historic Core, Little Tokyo, South Park

T H E VA L L E Y Includes Agoura Hills, Burbank, Calabasas, Encino, North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Van Nuys

CENTRAL

SOUTH

Includes Beverly Grove, East Hollywood, Fairfax District, Hancock Park, Hollywood, Koreatown, West Hollywood

Includes Bell, Compton, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Watts

✤ 2022 Best New Restaurant Winner ❂ Has Outdoor Seating $ $$ $$$ $$$$

I N E X P E N S I V E (Meals under $10) M O D E R A T E (Mostly under $20) E X P E N S I V E (Mostly under $30) V E R Y E X P E N S I V E ($30 and above)

Price classifications are approximate and based on the cost of a typical main course that serves one.

For restaurants primarily offering multicourse family meals, the cost per person of such a meal is used.

Restaurant hours are changing frequently. Check websites or social media accounts for the most current information.

2022

and get to the party. Don’t miss the beautifully ferocious Devil Chicken curry, amped up by both fresh and dried bird’s eye chiles and accompanied by a saucer of habanero vinegar that magically cuts the heat and enhances it at the same time.

2104 Main St., 424-238-5195, cobis.la, or @cobis.la.

Beer and wine.

❂ Colapasta

» Italian $ It’s equally pleasant to grab and go or eat at this quiet, affordable spot that features fresh pastas topped with farmers’ market fare. The colorful, poppy-seed-sprinkled beet ravioli is delicate and delicious, while the gramigna with beef ragù is hearty and satisfying. 1241 5th St., 310-310-8336, or colapasta.com. Beer and wine.

SANTA MONICA

❂ Crudo e Nudo SANTA MONICA » Seafood $$

Brian Bornemann, the 31-year-old former executive chef at Michael’s Santa Monica, has gone his own way. He and his girlfriend, Leena Culhane, have launched a sustainable neighborhood joint that’s, by turns, a coffee shop, a seafood market, and a casual restaurant where you can nibble impeccably prepared crudo, tuna tartare toasts, and vegan Caesar salads on the patio while sipping a thoughtfully selected natural wine.

Though the project began as a pandemic pop-up, it’s now an exciting brick-and-mortar spot from one of the city’s most promising young toques.

2724 Main St., 310-310-2120, crudoenudo.com, or @crudo_e_nudo. Beer and wine.

❂ Dear John’s CULVER CITY » Steak House $$$

There are still good times and great food to be had at this former Sinatra hang stylishly revamped

by Josiah Citrin and Hans Röckenwagner. Steakhouse classics—crab Louie, oysters Rockefeller, thick prime steaks—pay homage to the lounge’s Rat Pack past and can be enjoyed on a sunny new patio or to go. 11208 Culver Blvd., 310-881-9288, or dearjohnsbar.com. Full bar.

BRIGITTE NEMAN

NOV

❂ Etta

CULVER CITY

» Italian $$$

With a sprawling patio, concise menu, and various party tricks (the restaurant calls them “moments”), Etta is primed for good times. You can go big and order a $120 short rib “picnic” with various accoutrements for the table or opt to have wine poured into your mouth from a large jug while a server snaps Polaroids. But you can also just pop in for a pizza or excellent pasta at the bar. For dessert, there are shots of tequila and coffee liquor topped with macaroon. 8801 Washington Blvd., 424-570-4444, ettarestaurant.com, or @ettarestaurant. Full bar.

❂ Felix VENICE » Italian $$$

At Evan Funke’s clubby, floral-patterned trattoria, the rigorous dedication to tradition makes for superb focaccia and pastas. The tonnarelli cacio e pepe—strands of pasta adorned only with pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper—nods to Roman shepherds who used the spice to keep warm, while the rigatoni all’Amatriciana with bacon, tomato, and pecorino Romano sings brilliantly alongside Italian country wines. 1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd., 424387-8622, or felixla.com. Full bar.

✤ Matū

» Steak $$$ Prolific restaurateur Jerry Greenberg (Sugarfish, Nozawa Bar, KazuNori, Uovo, HiHo Cheeseburger) and his partners are convinced that they serve the world’s best beef, prepared in the most optimal way. After trying their five-course, $85 Wagyu dinner featuring sustainably raised, 100 percent grass-fed beef from First Light Farms in New Zealand, you might see things their way.

Magnificently marbled steaks are cooked to “warm red,” which is the color of rare and the temperature of medium rare. The result is meat that’s tender, luscious, and strikingly beefy. 239 S. Beverly Dr., 424317-5031, or matusteak.com. Full Bar. BEVERLY HILLS

❂ Ospi VENICE » Italian $$$

Jackson Kalb’s sprawling new Italian joint brings bustle and outdoor tables to a corner on an otherwise quiet stretch. Pastas, including a spicy rigatoni alla vodka and raschiatelli with a pork rib ragù, are sublime, and most travel remarkably well if you’re looking to do takeout, which is the only option for lunch. Roman-style pizzas boast a uniquely crispy, cracker-thin crust; to get the full crunch, have a slice as you drive your takeout home. 2025 Pacific Ave., 424-443-5007, ospivenice.com, or @ospiveni.

Full bar.

❂ Pasjoli

» French $$$$ Dave Beran’s à la carte spot bucks the trends and eschews bistro clichés in favor of old-fashioned thrills—an elaborate pressed duck prepared just as Escoffier would have and served with potatoes au gratin dauphinois—and modern French fare.

The showy duck must be reserved in advance as only a limited number of birds are available each night. But there are plenty of other exciting dishes on the menu, such as the chicken liver in brioche and pan-roasted sea bass with lobster velouté.

2732 Main St., 424-330-0020, or pasjoli.com. Full bar.

SANTA MONICA

DOWNTOWN ❂ Angry Egret Dinette CHINATOWN » Sandwiches $$

Wes Avila has left Guerrilla Tacos and is focusing on torta-esque sandwiches at this heartfelt new venture. Standouts include the Saguaro with tempura-fried squash blossoms, heirloom tomato, market greens, ricotta cheese, and salsa China. It’s hearty and decadent but also wonderfully nuanced. There’s ample outdoor seating, but sandwiches with fried ingredients miraculously

manage to remain crispy and travel well. 970 N. Broadway, Ste. 114, 213-278-0987, aedinette.com, or @angryegretdinette.

Badmaash

HISTORIC CORE » Indian $$ This Indian gastropub concept comes from the father-and-sons team of Pawan, Nakul, and Arjun Mahendro, who are all well versed in the culinary techniques of East and West. The menu features contemporary mash-ups, like a version of poutine smothered in chicken tikka, charred tandoori chicken, and braised lamb. If tradition’s your thing, you’ll be comforted by what they call Good Ol’ Saag Paneer. 108 W. 2nd St., 213-2217466, or badmaashla.com. Beer and wine. Also at 418 N. Fairfax Ave., Fairfax District, 213-281-5185.

✤❂ Caboco

ARTS DISTRICT » Brazilian $$ Rodrigo Oliveira and fellow chef/partner Victor Vasconcellos are here to show Los Angeles that there’s a lot more to Brazilian food than churrascarias, so they’re serving habit-forming fried tapioca cubes and a vegan stew (moqueca de caju) headlined by cashew fruit that’s startlingly complex.

Wash it all down with refreshing caipirinhas— the bar makes no less than five different kinds.

1850 Industrial St., 213-405-1434, cabocola.com, or @caboco.la. Full bar.

✤❂ Caldo Verde ARTS DISTRICT » Portuguese $$$

Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne have opened a Portuguese cousin to their beloved Spanish-infused A.O.C. The restaurant loads up its namesake seafood stew with a generous amount of local rock crab, grilled linguica, mussels, kale, and potato.

It’s a tremendous example of the rough-andtumble food that Goin loves—dishes in which she deftly balances salt, fat, and bold flavors with California brightness. A starter of Ibérico ham, anchovies, and olives is called “small plate of salty favorites” because Goin understands that you visit restaurants to be jolted and enjoy food that’s a bit more intense than what you typically eat at home. 1100 S. Broadway, 213-806-1023, or properhotel.com/downtown-la. Full bar.

❂ Camphor ARTS DISTRICT

» French/Indian $$$$

“The main plan for this restaurant was to transport people,” says Max Boonthanakit of the new Arts District bistro he opened with Michelinstarred chef Lijo George. “Bistro” may be an understatement, given the restaurant’s stunning minimalist interior and exquisitely prepared dishes, but Camphor is, at its core, a French bistro where plump oysters are served in a bath of amaretto mignonette and the beef tartare comes with a side of tempura-fried herbs. Boonthanakit and George aim to bring something completely new to L.A.—that is, something distinctively not L.A. Camphor’s access to the spices from George’s southern Indian homeland makes it a standout.

923 E. 3rd St., Ste. 109, 213-626-8888, or camphor.la.

Full bar.

❂ Cha Cha Chá ARTS DISTRICT » Mexican $$

The huge, lively, plant-filled rooftop and some mezcal would be enough for a good night out at this Mexico City import, but chef Alejandro Guzmán, an alum of Le Comptoir, has packed his menu with quiet thrills. Carnitas get taken up a level by an orange reduction that comes at the end of the long cooking process. For dessert, the carrot flan is a small revelation, a surprising, exciting riff on carrot cake. The interior bar, La Barra, offers up unique mezcal cocktails. 812 E. 3rd St., 213-548-8487, or chachacha.la. Full bar.

❂ Girl & the Goat ARTS DISTRICT » Eclectic $$$

At long last, Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard has brought her hit Chicago restaurant to a light,

airy space and pretty patio in downtown L.A. with seating for 200. The lengthy menu is full of international intrigue and the unexpected flavor combinations for which Izard is known. Roasted beets mingle with a yuzu-kosho vinaigrette. A salmon poke features chili crunch, avocado, and strawberry. Goat makes an appearance in both a liver mousse starter and a hearty curry main.

555-3 Mateo St., 213-799-4628, girlandthegoat.com, or @girlandthegoatla. Full bar.

❂ Kodō

DOWNTOWN » Japanese $$$ Everything about the look of this new izakaya-style restaurant in the Kensho Rykn hotel is serene.

But don’t be fooled by the restaurant’s visual tranquility. The energy of Kodō, which translates to “heartbeat,” is intentionally boisterous because the chef, Yoya Takahashi, wanted to stay true to what a Kyoto-style izakaya would be—a fun place with an upbeat vibe and traditional Japanese bar fare.

So the food comes out fast and without pretense.

A Caesar salad of Little Gem lettuce is blanketed with bonito flakes. The off-menu toro, served with a tangy cilantro sauce, minced tomato, and cucumber, has the kind of fatty, melt-in-your-mouth quality you can’t forget (and don’t want to). 710 S. Santa Fe Ave., 213-302-8010, or kodo.la. Full bar.

CENTRAL ❂ Alta Adams WEST ADAMS » California Soul Food $$

Riffing on his grandmother’s recipes, Watts native Keith Corbin loads up his gumbo with market veggies and enlivens his collard greens with a smoked oil. Soul food in this city is too often associated with Styrofoam containers, but this verdant patio is a lovely place to linger. Hot sauce splashed onto skillet-fried chicken is pure pleasure, enhanced by a bourbon drink the bar tints with cacao-spiced bitters and Luxardo cherries. Finish the night by taking on a toasted angel food strawberry shortcake.

5359 W. Adams Blvd., 323-571-4999, or altaadams.com.

Full bar.

❂ A.O.C.

BEVERLY GROVE » California $$$ Driven by culinary excellence, A.O.C. is anchored by a courtyard with soft sunlight and laurel trees.

Caroline Styne’s wine list doesn’t shy away from the ecology of vineyards, while Suzanne Goin’s cooking has become indispensable. Carefully constructed salads showcase vegetables at their best, and the roasted chicken with panzanella is both an homage to San Francisco’s Zuni Café and a classic in and of itself. 8700 W. 3rd St., 310-859-9859, or aocwinebar.com. Full bar. Also at 11648 San Vicente Blvd., 310-806-6464, Brentwood.

✤ Bicyclette

» French $$$ Walter and Margarita Manzke’s delightful, delicious follow-up to République brings a bit of Paris to Pico. The menu is stocked with exactingly executed bistro standards: onion soup with oozy cheese, hearty short-rib bourguignon, and a luxurious bouillabaisse. Margarita’s baguettes and beautiful desserts are as great as ever. Resisting Bicyclette’s charms is futile. 9575 W. Pico Blvd., 424500-9575, or bicyclettela.com. Full bar.

PICO-ROBERTSON

Brandoni Pepperoni FAIRFAX DISTRICT » Pizza $$

Six nights a week, Brandon Gray turns out some of L.A.’s most exciting pizzas. Gray, a veteran of Navy kitchens and top local restaurants like Providence, brings boundless imagination to his pies. They’re topped with premium ingredients— Jidori chicken, Sungold tomatoes, smoked pork shoulder—in exciting combinations. A curry-Dijonnaise dressing renders a side salad surprisingly memorable. 7257 Beverly Blvd., 323-306-4968, or brandoni-pepperoni.com. Wine to go.

L A M A G . C O M 10 3

Chi Spacca

HANCOCK PARK » Italian $$$$ The best Northern Italian steak restaurant in the city, Chi Spacca serves a bistecca alla Fiorentina so tender that it would make a vegan blush. In this meat-eater’s paradise, the cuisine comes courtesy of 2014 James Beard Award-winning chef Nancy Silverton, owner of Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza, and Mozza2Go. And if red meat’s not your thing, try the chicken or octopus. But if it is, take some of the cured meats home—you’ll thank us. 6610 Melrose Ave., 323-297-1133, chispacca.com. Full bar.

PROMOTION

NOV

Now Through - January 15, 2023 Mon – Fri, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Sat – Sun, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.

JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles

Renowned Japanese bamboo artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV constructed a 70-foot long immersive installation using 15,000 bamboo strips – the longest work to date. Visitors can engage with the dramatic soaring bamboo art form, viewing it from multiple angles as it twists and winds across the gallery at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles. Free admission.

For more information visit JapanHouseLA.com

05

NOV

Wine+Art CASA of Los Angeles Saturday, November 5, 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.

The Revery LA, Los Angeles

Wine+Art is CASA of Los Angeles’s second largest annual fundraising event, bringing together the greatest assets of Los Angeles: diverse and inspiring works of art, elegant wines for almost any palate, and globally inspired food that makes this city so special!

Now in its 9th year, Wine+Art is a collaborative offering of wine tastings, libations, culinary delights and over 200 pieces of donated art from prolific, local and emerging artists.

The focus of this event is the art auction to benefit our vital mission of providing Court Appointed Special Advocates to show up for children in the child welfare system, so they get the support and services in the areas of education, healthcare, and safety.

For tickets and more information visit bit.ly/WineArtLAMag

16

NOV

STARS of Cabernet Wednesday, November 16 6 p.m. VIP 7 p.m. General Admission Culina Ristorante at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles, Beverly Hills

STARS of Cabernet - The 14th Annual Celebration - A luxury level tasting of the finest in Cabernet. 100% of auction proceeds benefit Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, through our 501(c)(3) charity partner.

For tickets and more information visit Learnaboutwine.com

17

NOV

Eat. Drink. Give.

Thursday, November 17 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.

SmogShoppe, Culver City

Join City Year Los Angeles for Eat. Drink. Give! Feed your desire to make educational opportunities a reality for all students. Enjoy delicious food and libations and bid on exciting auction items to raise money for City Year LA. Presented by the Associates Board.

For tickets and more information visit eatdrinkgive.org

10 4 L A M A G . C O M

Fanny’s

» French $$$ Even with a glass wall opening onto exhibits, architect Renzo Piano succeeded in creating an eatery at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures that feels quite cinematic. While by day, Fanny’s is a café that serves salads and sandwiches to museumgoers, by night, it’s a glam, modern vision of an old-school Hollywood hangout.

Captains in suits push carts of gooey, French, washed-rind cow’s milk cheeses and carve thick, bloody slices of côte de boeuf tableside. But there are also plenty of modern touches. Instead of a live band, Fanny’s has a different DJ spinning records every night. Chef Raphael Francois (Le Cirque, Tesse) sends out perfect twists on a Caesar salad and plays around with menu items like hamachi crudo on a bed of sweet pickled grapes and jicama with brown butter and cilantro. 6067 Wilshire Blvd., 323-930-3080, fannysla.com.

Full bar.

MID-WILSHIRE Photo by Tadayuki Minamoto

01

Exhibition “LIFE CYCLES: A Bamboo Exploration with Tanabe Chikuunsai IV”

❂ Gigi’s

HOLLYWOOD MEDIA DISTRICT » French $$$

With its sceney Sycamore Avenue location and gorgeous, illustration-lined interiors, Gigi’s could easily succeed with subpar fare. But chef Matt Bollinger’s bistro classics—like curry mussels, steak tartare, and roasted chicken—are done quite well, if priced rather high. The wine list from beverage director Kristin Olszewski, an Osteria Mozza alum, is surprisingly interesting, with various natural and biodynamic options on offer. 904 N. Sycamore Ave., 323-499-1138, gigis.la, or @gigis_la. Full bar.

Harold & Belle’s JEFFERSON PARK » Southern Creole $$

For Creole-style food—a mélange of French, African, and Native American flavors—Harold & Belle’s is as close to the Dirty Coast as you’ll come on the West Coast. The crawfish étouffée in spicy gravy will have you humming zydeco, while the bourbon bread pudding will leave you with a Sazerac-worthy buzz. 2920 W. Jefferson Blvd., 323-735-9023, or haroldandbelles.com. Full bar.

✤ Horses

HOLLYWOOD » Eclectic $$$ Versatile power-couple chefs Liz Johnson (who earned extensive national acclaim at Freedman’s) and Will Aghajanian (formerly the chef de cuisine at Vespertine) have created a lively California bistro that feels both old school and of the moment. Located in the red-boothed space that was home to Ye Coach & Horses, the mostly European-inspired menu is rooted in both classic technique and free-spirited cooking. A sobrassada panino with white American cheese and a drizzle of honey is thin, crispy, sweet, savory, creamy, and spicy: an extremely pleasing little bite. Lumache pasta with vodka sauce gets an unexpected and delightful kick from ’nduja. 7617 W. Sunset Blvd. or horsesla.com. Full bar.

Hotville Chicken

BALDWIN HILLS/CRENSHAW » Fried chicken $ With her hot chicken joint, Kim Prince is doing her family’s legacy justice—she’s the niece of André Prince Jeffries, owner of Nashville legend Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, where hot fried chicken is said to have originated. Prince adds

spice at every step in the cooking process to produce a complex, layered flavor. Sides, like mac and cheese, are also winners. 4070 Marlton Ave., 323792-4835, or hotvillechicken.com. No alcohol.

Lalibela

» Ethiopian $-$$ The strip of Fairfax known as Little Ethiopia has long been dominated by the same handful of restaurants. Chef-owner Tenagne Belachew worked in a few of them before opening her own sophisticated haven, which invites with the swirling aromas of berbere and burning sage. Stretchy disks of injera—the sour, teff-flour pancake that doubles as a utensil for scooping up food by hand—arrive piled with uniquely pungent delights. There are wots, or stews, made with chicken or spiced legumes or lamb sautéed in a creamy sauce. 1025 S. Fairfax Ave., 323-965-1025, or lalibelala.com. Beer and wine.

FAIRFAX DISTRICT

Luv2Eat Thai Bistro HOLLYWOOD » Thai $$

Vibrant flavors and spices abound at this stripmall favorite from two Phuket natives. The crab curry, with a whole crustacean swimming in a creamy pool of deliciousness, is not to be missed (it travels surprisingly well), but the expansive menu is full of winners, from the massaman curry to the Thai fried chicken with sticky rice and sweet pepper sauce. 6660 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-498-5835, luv2eatthai.com, or @luv2eat.thaibistro.

C H E F FAV O R I T E S

❂ Ronan

FAIRFAX DISTRICT » Cal-Italian $$ At Daniel and Caitlin Cutler’s chic pizzeria, the pies—especially the How ‘Nduja Want It? with spicy sausage, gorgonzola crema, green onion, and celery—are the clear stars, but it’s a big mistake not to explore the entire menu. It’s filled with delicious delights, from cacio e pepe risotto to a sea bass served with an ever-changing assortment of banchan. 7315 Melrose Ave., 323-9175100, ronanla.com, or @ronan_la. Full bar.

❂ Son of a Gun BEVERLY GROVE » Seafood $$

Florida-raised chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo deliver a certain brand of sundrenched seashore nostalgia. Dropping into the nautically themed dining room for chilled peel-and-eat shrimp and a hurricane feels as effortless as dipping your toes in the sand. There are buttery lobster rolls and fried-chicken sandwiches alongside artfully plated crudos. 8370 W. 3rd St., 323-782-9033, or sonofagunrestaurant.com. Full bar.

❂ Soulmate

» Mediterranean $$$ It’s lovely outside, and there’s a stunning new WeHo spot with a patio that can hold 75 attractive people, plus hours that go to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Starters include various jamones and spicy paella bites. Further down the menu, there’s a lot of seafood options, from wood-fired octopus with charred romesco to salmon crudo. 631 N. Robertson Blvd., 310-734-7764, soulmateweho.com, or @soulmateweho. Full bar.

WEST HOLLYWOOD

F E R NA N D O D A R I N

EAST

MOTHER TONGUE

✤❂ Agnes Restaurant & Cheesery PASADENA » Eclectic $$

NATALEE THAI CUISINE www.nataleethai.com 10101 Venice Blvd., Culver City 998 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills

(310) 202-7003 (310) 855-9380

This low-key charmer—the work of two alums of acclaimed San Francisco Italian joint Flour + Water—deftly mixes midwestern hospitality and European technique. The casual lunch is all about cheese and charcuterie boards and sandwiches. At dinner, excellent pastas, smartly prepared proteins, thoughtfully selected wines, and great cocktails join the party on the spacious patio. 40 W. Green St., 626-389-3839, agnesla.com, or @agnes_pasadena. Full bar.

❂ All Day Baby SILVER LAKE » Eclectic $$

Szechuan Hot Chicken Sando DAYBIRD

Chef Mei Lin has crafted the perfect chicken sandwich, with an amazing coleslaw and pickles, on a potato bun. $16, 240 N. Virgil Ave., Silver Lake, daybirdla.com.

Cacio e Pepe pizza WHITE ON RICE COUPLE

PIZZANA

My favorite pizza in town, from my good friend Daniele Uditi. The dough is perfect, and it has a simple yet delicious

topping. $23, locations in Brentwood, West Hollywood, and Sherman Oaks, pizzana.com.

Eggs Benedict THE SYCAMORE KITCHEN

Probably one of my favorite breakfast items, and this place does it so well.

They make a killer sourdough English muffin in-house, and the honey-glazed pork belly is cooked perfectly. $15.50, 143 S. La Brea Ave., Fairfax District, thesycamore kitchen.com.

— H E AT H E R P L AT T

Jonathan Whitener’s Here’s Looking At You is, sadly, closed, but his thrilling cooking continues on a bustling Eastside corner. Whether you opt for smoked spare ribs, a hoki fish sandwich, or a breakfast sandwich on pastry chef Thessa Diadem’s sublime biscuits, it’s all great. 3200 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-741-0082, alldaybabyla.com, or @alldaybabyla.

Dunsmoor

GLASSELL PARK » Southern American $$ “We don’t use processed foods because we try to work within the limitations from before the Gilded Age.” This culinary ethos is the force behind Brian Dunsmoor’s new restaurant, where his devotion to “heritage cookery” is on full display and activity centers on a wood-fired hearth.

3501 Eagle Rock Blvd., Glassell Park, 323-686-6027, dunsmoor.la. Beer and wine.

❂ Eszett

SILVER LAKE » Eclectic $$ This stylish, cozy wine bar brings warm hospitality to the strip-mall space formerly occupied

by Trois Familia. Chef Spencer Bezaire’s menu deftly brings in flavors from around the globe without feeling overly contrived. Chicken wings are accompanied by salsa macha. Don’t miss the big fries. 3510 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-522-6323, or eszettla.com. Beer and wine.

L A M A G . C O M 10 5

ADVERTISEMENT

H A L L O F FA M E 1 9 9 6 - 2 0 2 1

❂ Found Oyster EAST HOLLYWOOD » Seafood $$$

This tiny oyster bar was a pre-pandemic favorite, and chef Ari Kolender’s seafood dishes still thrill when taken to go or enjoyed on the restaurant’s “boat deck.” The scallop tostada with yuzu kosho and basil is a must-order, and a bisque sauce takes the basic lobster roll to new heights.

Interesting, affordable wines add to the fun. 4880 Fountain Ave., 323-486-7920, foundoyster.com, or @foundoyster. Beer and wine.

❂ Hippo

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CasterEye.com 9100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 265E Beverly Hills (310) 274-1221 | info@CasterVision.com

HIGHLAND PARK » Cal-Italian $$ Hidden in a wood-trussed dining room behind Triple Beam Pizza, this Cal-Ital restaurant from Mozza vet Matt Molina balances casual and refined. Snappy wax beans are sluiced with vinaigrette for a picnic-worthy salad.

Great pastas and juicy grilled chicken thighs deliver the unfussy pleasure found at the best neighborhood spots. Eclectic regular specials like haute corn dogs add to the fun. 5916 ½ N. Figueroa St., 323-545-3536, or hipporestaurant.com.

Full bar.

❂ Jin Cook GLENDALE » Korean $

K-Town has the highest concentration of Korean food in the U.S., but it doesn’t get all the hits. Jin Cook works wonders with “authentic Korean soul food” in Glendale. This homey restaurant brings sparkle to dishes like spicy pork. Thinly sliced meat arrives sizzling in a stone bowl and then gets crusty and caramelized and reaches hyperdrive when showered with shredded mozzarella, which magically melds with the spicy meat and enables cheese pulls galore. 310 N. Brand Blvd., 818-637-7822, or jincooks.com. Beer.

✤ KinKan

VIRGIL VILLAGE

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION. 1. Publication Title: Los Angeles magazine. 2. Publication No. 319-360. 3. Filing Date: 9/30/2022 4. Issue Frequency: Monthly. 5. No. Of Issues Published Annually: 12. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $19.95. 7. Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 10100 Venice Blvd., Suite 213, Culver City, CA 90232. 8. Mailing address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: 5750 New King Dr., Suite 100, Troy, MI 48098. 9. Names and Addresses of Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor: Publisher: Shelby Russell, 10100 Venice Blvd., Suite 213, Culver City, CA 90232; Editor: Maer Roshan, 10100 Venice Blvd., Suite 213, Culver City, CA 90232; Managing Editor: Eric Mercado, 10100 Venice Blvd., Suite 213, Culver City, CA 90232. 10. Owner: Los Angeles magazine, LLC, 5750 New King Dr., Suite 100, Troy, MI 48098. John Balardo, 5750 New King Dr., Suite 100, Troy, MI 48098. Stefan Wanczyk, 5750 New King Dr., Suite 100, Troy, MI 48098. 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: Stefan Wanczyk, 5750 New King Dr., Suite 100, Troy, MI 48098. 13. Publication Name: Los Angeles magazine.

14. Issue Date for Circulation Data: 10/1/2022. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: (a)Total No. Copies: 85,000*, 85,000**. (b)Paid Circulation: 1. Mail Subscriptions: 47,843*, 49,608** 3. Sales through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors and Counter Sales: 5,636*, 5,501**. (c)Total Paid Distribution: 53,479*, 55,109**. (d)Free or Nominal Distribution: 1. Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541: 25,478*, 24,697**. (e)Total Free or Nominal Distribution: 25,478*, 24,697**. (f)Total Distribution: 78,957*, 79,806**. (g) Copies Not Distributed: 6,043*, 5,194**. (h)Total: 85,000*, 85,000**. (i)Percent Paid Circulation: 67,73%*, 69,05%** 17. This Statement of Ownership will be printed in the November 2022 issue of this publication. 18. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete.

Shelby Russell, Publisher. *Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months. **Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date.

10 6 L A M A G . C O M

» Japanese-Thai $$$$

Nan Yimcharoen became an underground sensation during the pandemic, selling jewel box–like chirashi sushi over Instagram. Now she’s got a brick-and-mortar spot serving a Japanese-Thai tasting menu with exquisite courses like slices of bluefin tuna larb gorgeously assembled in the shape of a rose, and a resplendent crab curry with blue butterfly-pea-flower noodles and a sauce powered by innards and roe.

771 N. Virgil Ave. 949-793-0194, or @kinkan_la. Sake.

✤❂ Moo’s Craft Barbecue LINCOLN HEIGHTS » Barbecue $

Some of the best Texas barbecue is actually in L.A. Andrew and Michelle Muñoz’s brisket and beef ribs are meaty bliss that would be taken seriously in Austin. But Moo’s is very much a vital L.A. spot; the Muñozes weave in their Mexican-Angeleno roots with dishes like a cheese-and-poblano-filled beef and pork verde sausage. 2118 N. Broadway, 323-686-4133, mooscraftbarbecue.com, or @mooscraftbarbecue.

Beer and wine.

Northern Thai Food Club EAST HOLLYWOOD » Thai $

Offering specialty dishes unique to northern Thailand, this family-run favorite doesn’t skimp on flavor, spice, or authenticity. Tasty takeout meals include the khao soi gai (curry egg noodle with chicken), laab moo kua (minced pork), tam kha noon ( jackfruit salad), and pla salid tod (fried gourami fish). For those unfamiliar with the region’s distinct cuisine, the illustrious sticky rice is still a reliable bet.

Need incentive? Everything on the menu is less than $10. 5301 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-474-7212, or amphainorthernthaifood.com.

❂ Playita

» Mexican $ The team behind the beloved local chainlet Guisados has taken over an old seafood taco stand on a busy Eastside stretch. The results,

SILVER LAKE

as you might expect, are delicious and delightful. Playita has a fresh, beachy blue-and-white aesthetic and a tight menu of well-done ceviches, seafood cocktails, and fish tacos. 3143 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-928-2028, playitamariscos.com, or @playitamariscos.

✤❂ Saso

PASADENA » Spanish $$$ The arrival of this splashy new spot suggests that the good times might soon be here again.

It shares a charming, sprawling courtyard with the Pasadena Playhouse, and the seafood-heavy menu from chef Dominique Crisp, who previously worked at L&E Oyster Bar, begs for reuniting with friends on nice summer nights. Orange zest enlivens jamón ibérico crudités, while miso butter takes grilled oysters to new heights. 37 S. El Molino Ave., 626-808-4976, sasobistro.com, or @sasobistro.

Full bar.

❂ Sōgo Roll Bar LOS FELIZ » Sushi $$

Sōgo is hardly the only concept in town devoted to rolls, but it has mastered the form. Rice is cooked with the same careful consideration and seasoning that sushi master Kiminobu Saito uses at the high-end Sushi Note, and it manages to maintain a great temperature and texture, even when being delivered. Fish is not just fresh but also flavorful, each type thoughtfully paired with ideal accompaniments, from a tangy yuzu-pepper sauce that makes salmon sing to brandy-soaked albacore with garlic-ginger ponzu and crispy onions. 4634 Hollywood Blvd., 323-741-0088, sogorollbar.com, or @sogorollbar. Beer and sake.

❂ Spoon & Pork SILVER LAKE » Filipino $$

The go-to for Filipino comfort food offers a variety of dishes, all featuring one shared ingredient: deliciousness. Spoon & Pork puts an innovative spin on some Filipino favorites—just try its adobo pork belly, pork belly banh mi, or lechon kawali.

The dishes, which can be ordered at the counter to enjoy on the patio or for takeout and delivery, mix decadence with some authentic soul. 3131 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-922-6061, spoonandpork.com, or @spoonandporkla. Beer and wine.

❂ Sunset Sushi SILVER LAKE » Japanese $$$

With omakase boxes priced from $30 to $85, this new sushi place in the old Ma’am Sir space strikes the sweet spot between affordable and indulgent and is another exciting addition to the Eastside’s growing number of quality sushi options. It’s a sister spot to Highland Park’s Ichijiku but with a more luxe vibe and a larger menu, tailor-made for takeout. 4330 W. Sunset Blvd., 323-741-8371, sunsetsushila.com, or @sunsetsushi. Beer and sake to go.

❂ U Street Pizza PASADENA » Pizza $$

There was a moment when U Street’s vodka pepperoni pie was a shining star of Instagram, and rightfully so. The why-haven’t-I-had-thisbefore combination of pepperoni and creamy vodka sauce is an easy win. Vegetable dishes, notably a Japanese eggplant with Calabrian chili agrodolce, are more than afterthoughts.

Note that while the vodka pepperoni pie travels well, the clam pie is best enjoyed in-house.

33 E. Union St., 626-605-0430, ustreetpizza.com, or @ustreetpizza.

THE VALLEY ❂ Black Market Liquor Bar STUDIO CITY » New American $$

Some nights it seems as if half the Valley is here, enjoying the colorful patio. Top Chef graduate

Antonia Lofaso’s Italian chops are visible in the buxom ricotta gnudi with brown butter and pistachios. The deep-fried fluffernutter sandwich is a reminder that food, like life, should not be taken too seriously. 11915 Ventura Blvd., 818-446-2533, or blackmarketliquorbar.com.

Full bar.

❂ The Brothers Sushi WOODLAND HILLS » Sushi $$$

This hidden gem, reinvigorated when chef Mark Okuda took the helm in 2018, is worth traveling for. The excellent omakase is available in the restaurant on the patio or to go. You can also order à la carte or get non-sushi items like soy-glazed grilled chicken. 21418 Ventura Blvd., 818-456-4509, thebrotherssushi.com, or @thebrotherssushila. Beer, sake, and wine.

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Hank’s

» Bagels $ The L.A. bagel revolution continues at this stylish spot in the Valley that serves up carefully constructed sandwiches. Tomato, aioli, and maple-glazed bacon elevate a simple bacon, egg, and cheese, while a classic salmonand-lox construction has thoughtful touches like salted cucumbers and pickled onions.

Grab a tub of Hank’s “angry” spread—a spicy, slightly sweet concoction—to have in your fridge. 4315 W. Riverside Dr., 818-588-3693, hanksbagels.com, or @hanksbagels. Also at 13545 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, 818-588-3693.

BURBANK

Tel Aviv Authentic Kitchen ENCINO » Middle Eastern $

Deeply comforting Israeli skewers, kabobs, and merguez come with a colorful and tasty array of salads showcasing produce like red cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, and pumpkin.

The spicy sauces on the side work well with any- and everything. 17630 Ventura Blvd., 818774-9400, or telavivkoshergrill.com.

John Mark Lucas johnmarklucas.com PERSONAL BEST

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❂ Ali’i Fish Company EL SEGUNDO » Seafood $$

MASSAGE

This small, unassuming spot shames all the glossy poke purveyors popping up around town to serve mediocre versions of the Hawaiian dish. Glistening cubes of tuna, flown in fresh from the islands daily, remind you how great poke can be. The smoked-ahi dip with housemade potato chips is not to be missed. 409 E. Grand Ave., 310-616-3484, or aliifishco.com.

❂ Fishing With Dynamite MANHATTAN BEACH » Seafood $$$

A premium raw bar near the beach shouldn’t be unusual, but it is. The same goes for velvety clam chowder. Here, it achieves smoky richness—you can thank the Nueske’s bacon for that—without any of the floury glop.

1148 Manhattan Ave., 310-893-6299, or eatfwd.com.

Full bar.

❂ Little Coyote LONG BEACH » Pizza $

That most amazing slice of pizza you had that one very drunken, late night in your early twenties in New York lives on . . . in Long Beach.

The crust, made with dough cold-fermented for 48 to 72 hours, is carby perfection: tangy, crispy, thin but with a healthy puff. The concise menu doesn’t offer any revelations about what should be atop pizza but, instead, perfects the usual suspects. 2118 E. 4th St., 562-434-2009, littlecoyotelbc.com, or @littlecoyotelbc. Also at 3500 Los Coyotes Diagonal, 562-352-1555.

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L A M A G . C O M 10 7

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Notes on Cool CO N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 57

before, and b) might have been afraid to love if we did. As every real critic should—as Andrew Sarris did in his way and Pauline Kael did in hers— Tarantino took the guilt out of guilty pleasure and opened up new worlds of enjoyment and appreciation. But who was he? I mean, apart from a fan?

As his taste entered the mainstream (even the Pulp Fiction soundtrack was a hit), the world’s more established, assimilated work—the classical, the popular, the financially successful—became increasingly uncool, and the stigma that once afflicted the shit Quentin loves was transferred to the socalled Hollywood values of glamour, romance, mass appeal, and the welltold story. In the Tarantino ’90s, all that was aligned with the corporate, with tradition, was false, a cliché; to be conscious, you had to be self-conscious. You had to be, on some level, what is now celebrated as meta, evasively “above” story. In a few years’ time, parody seemed a very highbrow form, Gus Van Sant was remaking Psycho shot for shot, and you would hear people in the theater lobby redeeming a bad movie with a single word: “homage.” This was not cool.

Not to me at least. And I’d wager not to Tarantino either.

As if to culturally course-correct, he countered with Jackie Brown right on time. Here, the filmmaker applied something of his heart to style and taste: the long, caressing, sometimes silent close-ups of Pam Grier’s face— as if to say, she is the event, enjoy her as much as I do—his pace slowed to let emotions sink in, the use of cutting to elucidate relationships, likewise the use of the Delfonics.

This was not the boy Tarantino geeking out on cool, but an aging nerd a little bit in love. After Jackie Brown,

it was safe to say Tarantino would be around for the rest of our lives. After three singular and distinct features, he had demonstrated the interest and ability to expand, cinematically, his definition of himself without losing himself. What would he do next? It seemed like anything.

It was hours into the amazing, tedious death pageant of the Kill Bills, my attention dreamily redirected by the passion of Ennio Morricone’s score, that I realized Tarantino, with Asbergarian virtuosity, was contracting, not expanding, as if having sampled, in Jackie Brown, the world outside the video store, he changed his mind, turned around, and ran back inside. Now, about running away from emotions. The movie pays lip service to vengeance as Pulp Fiction does to whatever it was supposed to be about, but Uma Thurman is no Clint Eastwood; she does not, with a look, convey the bottomless wound, the refiner’s fire of cruelest injustice, and Tarantino is no Sergio Leone; he does not muster the vastness of scorched emotional landscape or attain the operatic. Likewise, his recent cycle of celebrated vigilante flicks, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Though sparkling with bravura set pieces and delicious scene-chewing from great actors, they are, at best, like eating candy for dinner—for over two hours.

What Tarantino does do, and does better than anyone, came through quite starkly—as it often does with powerful artists—in his weakest work. Death Proof shows his passion dies in life but lives through death.

What I mean is, scene after characterdriven scene is ludicrous, but when Kurt Russell, via madman Tarantino, mows down those bitches like the badass he was born to be, I actually whispered “Fuck” through a mouth of crispy-ass, hot, buttery popcorn.

Which is how I came back to what, in my genuine and lasting admiration, I had been resisting all along: how old I was in 1994. Now I can’t get out of my 40-year-old head what Leslie Fiedler, in his book Love and Death in the American Novel, saw in the American character: an unending boyhood, unable to deal with erotic love, pathologically obsessed with death.

I can’t wait for the next one.

Garcetti’s Last Laugh CO N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 7 8

Do you think, racially, the city is more in tune—or is it more divided—than when you took office?

It’s certainly better than when I grew up. But there’s still plenty to do. I’m incredibly hopeful. I see a MuslimJewish dialogue here that’s stronger than most places I know in the world.

I mean, we’re a city of 10 million people. Can you find plenty of racism? Of course. I’ve seen it even in the fancy neighborhood where I live now. The mayor’s [neighborhood] when I was growing up? Both the Jew and the Latino would’ve [been] dead there. But now it’s like, yeah, the Black bishop behind us, the Indian couple across the way, the Latinos and Orthodox Jews. I think L.A. is probably among the best places in the world when it comes to race relations.

How well is L.A. positioned for the future? Are we regressing or progressing?

You want the mayor to singlehandedly carry every bit of optimism. I will bring it every day. But if we can’t as Angelenos find that optimism, we’re screwed. If we can, there’s no better place. Think about it: What other city wouldn’t die to know that it’d be getting one or two new rail lines, let alone 15? What other city wouldn’t die to know they’re having the Olympic and Paralympic games, let alone the World Cup and the yearly Grammys and Emmys and Oscars? What other city wouldn’t die to have an airport that is the busiest in the world, that’s gonna be the first big city to go 100 percent renewable power? I can go through a list of 50 things that, if there was one or two of those, most cities would be thrilled.

This is what we’re banking on.

L A M AG . C O M 1 0 9

wasn’t fully accounting for his biofuel profits, he simply referred them to his business partner. And even the white supremacist polygamous leaders of the Order didn’t have the guts to question the Lion.

I T A L L S TA R T E D T O unravel, as so many

The Mobster and the Mormon CO N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 9 3

as they toured the estate, before wondering aloud if there were any neighborhood ordinances prohibiting the keeping of lions on the property.

One of the benefits of partnering with the Lion was that it gave Jacob cover whenever the Order questioned him about where he was getting the money for his new extravagant lifestyle.

The Lamborghini had been a gift from the Lion (which was true). He and Sally were merely house-sitting for the Lion at the Castle (which was untrue).

But at a certain point, Jacob started caring less and less about the Order’s questions and became more and more brazen about his spending. He enlisted the help of another of the Lion’s friends, a Turkish biopharma billionaire named Sezgin Baran Korkmaz (everyone called him Baran) to launder some of his money. Through Baran, who often bragged about his friends in the U.S. government—including a couple he code-named “Grandpa” and “Grandma,” whom court records identify as former CIA director James Woolsey and his wife, Nancye (who have never been accused of being involved in any of these scams)—Jacob went on a $133 million spree. He used Baran to purchase the Mardan Place luxury hotel in Turkey, an airliner called Borajet, a waterfront villa in Istanbul, and a yacht called the Queen Anne.

How much the Order knew about Jacob’s spending is unclear, but even if the elders were keeping track of every penny, there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it. Even with his skimming—often more like dunking— Jacob was bringing the cult too much money for them to rock the boat. And, besides, whenever they confronted Jacob about their suspicions that he 1 1 0 L A M AG . C O M

nefarious plots do, with a phone call.

The identity of the female caller is unknown, other than that she was a member of the Order. Her motives for calling the FBI are also unknown, although it’s not hard to imagine why a woman trapped in a misogynistic cult where young girls are beaten unconscious if they object to marrying their uncles would eventually look for a way out. What is known, though, is that the source tipped off the FBI about Jacob’s biofuel company and his subsidy scam.

So, in 2015, the feds began to quietly investigate Jacob.

Just not quietly enough.

In February 2016, Jacob received a tip of his own, that the FBI was about to raid his biofuel facility at the Order’s compound. Who precisely that tipster was is also something of a mystery; Jacob and his cult had greased enough palms around Utah that it could have been any number of informants in state or federal government.

All we know from testimony is that the caller told Jacob something like, “They’re coming. Next Wednesday.

With warrants.”

Jacob freaked. He called his employees and ordered them to destroy every bit of evidence that could prove he’d been involved in illegal activity. More important, he made sure they also destroyed any documentation that included “Mr. L’s name” so there’d be no trace of his Armenian partner’s involvement. If there was one thing that terrified Jacob more than the FBI, it was the Lion.

“I did not want Levon to be part of my case,” he later testified. “I was afraid of what he would do to me and my family.”

When the FBI did raid Jacob’s biofuel company, agents didn’t find much.

Computers had been wiped, desks and bookcases were empty, dust outlines marked spots where binders and other documents had been recently removed. The bust was a bust.

Nevertheless, it spooked not just Jacob but also the Lion. When Jacob

met with the mob boss shortly after the raid—at a room in the Wynn casino in Las Vegas—the Lion ordered Jacob to strip down to his underwear.

“He wanted to make sure I wasn’t wearing a wire,” Jacob later recalled.

Satisfied that his young partner wasn’t a snitch and that his own participation in the scam hadn’t been revealed, the Lion calmed down and offered Jacob reassurances.

“My boys will look into it and take care of everything,” he told him. “Stay strong, and keep your feet planted.”

One of those boys—the head boy, in fact—Sargsyan, the Lion’s phony attorney and self-regarded future successor, was, at the time, starting a new side company for his boss, a hard-money lending operation called SBK (set up to offer high-interest financing to shady companies, like porn websites, that couldn’t get loans from legitimate banks). And Sargsyan did indeed “look into it.” He ordered his FBI plant, the Rolex and Gucciloving Broumand, to run the Lion’s name through the agency’s data bank to see if he’d been ensnared at all in the biofuel investigation. As it turned out, the Lion’s name was all over the FBI files. “It rang all the bells,” Broumand reported.

Now it was Sargsyan’s turn to freak.

Figuring the jig was up and that it was only a matter of time before the Lion would be indicted and sent to prison, he began planning his own emergency retirement from the Armenian mob.

He started by embezzling money from the SBK company he’d just set up—$23 million in total (compensation, he reasoned, he had coming to him). He also, in a fatefully stupid act of hubris, stole one of the Lion’s private jets by having its tail number changed so that it was now registered to him.

Which is how the Lion caught on that Sargsyan was stealing from him.

Remember the Lion’s private pilot?

The one who flew him around the world with a minimal paper trail?

He snitched on Sargsyan, telling the Lion about the switched tail numbers.

Sargsyan’s was a stunning betrayal by one of the Lion’s oldest and closest lieutenants. And yet, for a man famous for his anger issues, the Lion’s initial reaction was shockingly restrained; he simply filed a civil suit against Sargsyan, demanding he return the money and the Gulfstream.

Still, it didn’t take long for the Lion’s temper to get the better of him. During a break in those civil proceedings, as Sargsyan and his own (presumably real) attorney were meeting in a private room at a restaurant near the downtown L.A. courthouse, the Lion burst through the doors and began shouting at Sargsyan in Armenian. (Rough translation: “You are trying to wear my underwear!”). A while later, during his taped deposition in the case, the Lion continued seething in English. “When I lose my trust,” he said, staring icily into the camera, “it finishes up not good. Very bad.”

Not long after that, in July 2016, things did indeed get very bad—for the Lion. An attempt was made on his life by a drive-by gunman outside of NOIL headquarters. The Lion, as it happens, wasn’t there, but his son, George, accompanied by a bodyguard, was getting a ride home from work in a company Escalade when a Honda Pilot pulled up alongside and opened fire.

George wasn’t hit but the bodyguard sustained serious injuries when a bullet ripped through his back. The shooter, a Mexican gang member, was captured and confessed to police that he’d been offered $200,000 by a Glendale narcotics detective to “send a message” by shooting up the Lion’s car. The detective, he said, even lent him his Honda for the job. And that detective’s name turned out to be John Balian, one of “the boys” on Sargsyan’s payroll.

After that incident, Sargsyan understandably went into hiding, holing up in various L.A. hotels, convinced the Lion was hunting him. He wasn’t wrong; he heard from his “law firm” on Rodeo that the Lion and his “goons” had turned up at the office looking for him. So Sargsyan hired off-duty Beverly Hills cops to provide security and began using his own resources— like Broumand—to dig up intel on the Lion that might help Sargsyan survive.

Eventually, though, he came to the chilling realization that there was only one way for him to get out of this mess alive; he had to strike a deal with the feds and agree to testify against the Lion, Jacob, and the boys.

S O M E B O D Y AT T H E F B I clearly has

a flair for the cinematic. Because on August 23, 2018, the bureau orchestrated simultaneous arrests in different cities of Jacob and the Lion

that were so theatrically timed, they’d have Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola biting his knuckles in envy.

One bust took place at the Salt Lake City International Airport. The agency had received information that Jacob was about to flee the U.S. for Turkey, where he’d stashed more than $100 million. So agents fanned out across the check-in desks and departure gates. They found Jacob’s wife Sally and two of his sons, wearing disguises, at separate TSA security lines, heading for a flight to Istanbul. Jacob wasn’t with them, but he was spotted soon enough in a jetway about to board the Turkey-bound plane.

The other arrest took place in downtown L.A., where the Lion, who had coincidentally just returned from a visit to Turkey, was arriving at a federal building for a scheduled appointment with the IRS. Agents watched as their target entered the lobby, leaving his armed bodyguards outside. They waited until the Lion cleared the metal detectors. Then they pounced, tackling him to the ground and slapping on handcuffs. The Lion, no slouch in the drama department himself, started clutching his chest as if having a heart attack. The agents drove him to several jails before finding a facility with an infirmary.

A few days later, the Lion would be transferred to the Davis County Jail in Salt Lake City, which happened to also be where Jacob was incarcerated.

Because the central crimes of the case originated in Utah, that’s where both men would be arraigned and eventually tried by U.S. attorney Richard Rolwing. But it was not a happy jailhouse reunion. “He blamed me for everything,” Jacob would remember of their encounters behind bars.

And Jacob blamed the Lion for everything too. “You ruined my life!” he sneered at his old partner.

Jacob ended up pleading guilty to tax fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. He’s still awaiting sentencing and has since been moved to Weber County Jail, where he’s been suffering through a revolving menagerie of unbearable cellmates. At one point, he was forced to bunk with a devil worshipper who would read aloud from a satanic bible (until Jacob beat the crap out of him and the warlock was transferred to another cell).

Meantime, most of the rest of those involved in what Jacob once grandiosely referred to as the Plan have either been convicted or are wending their way through the justice system.

FBI agent Babak Broumand is currently on trial; Glendale detective John Balian served a year of a nearly two-year sentence; Jacob’s bookcooking brother, Isaiah, also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Edgar Sargsyan pleaded guilty, as well, to unrelated charges, and is also awaiting sentencing, although thanks to his cooperation with the authorities, he’ll likely catch some sort of break.

As for the Lion, he wouldn’t stay long at Davis County Jail. Within a few months, he was practically running the place—trading favors with other inmates, using their PIN numbers to place phone calls—until the warden had enough and transferred him, in 2019, to the more restrictive Salt Lake City Metropolitan Jail, where he’s been ever since.

While still at Davis, though, there was one final plot twist in this story that nobody saw coming.

The Lion fell in love. And not just with any woman, but with Hannah Tucker, one of Jacob’s three wives.

The two had met before, when Jacob had brought Hannah—in her twenties, his youngest wife—along on one of his Turkish business trips. The Lion was immediately smitten, and his feelings were apparently reciprocated. So when Hannah visited her husband in Davis County Jail, she’d also sneak off for a rendezvous with the Lion, bringing him extra blankets and other comforts. Before long, jail officials noticed, she was skipping the visits with Jacob and spending all her time with the Lion, who promised to run away with her once he found a way out of his legal troubles.

Ironically, though, that love affair may well have sealed the Lion’s fate and ensured that he would never leave prison again. Once Jacob found out about Hannah’s visits, he was so infuriated that he agreed to flip on his old partner, testifying against him in court.

Unsurprisingly, the Lion was convicted on March 16, 2020. Like Jacob, he hasn’t been sentenced yet, but he faces as many as 180 years behind bars.

L A M AG . C O M 1 1 1

Q

EMAIL YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS ABOUT L.A. TO ASKCHRIS@LAMAG.COM

Is it true that cottages on Griffith Park Boulevard were built by Walt Disney?

THE BEST OF ASK CHRIS This month we are running some of our favorite questions, including one from Chris’s first column in December 2006.

suction sand from the sea floor and deposit it onshore, deepening harbor channels and creating those postcard-perfect wide beaches that keep the tourists coming. Some California beaches have had this treatment at least once, and some receive help every year.

That sand you’re lounging on at Dockweiler Beach, for example, once lined the harbor at Marina del Rey two miles north.

A:

Storybook architecture swept through L.A. in the 1920s, and the bungalow court near Hyperion you’re referring to was created in 1931 by one of the masters, designer-builder Ben Sherwood. Back then, Walt Disney Studios was housed three doors away, where the Silver Lake Gelson’s is located. According to Dave Smith, founder of the Walt Disney Archives, director Hamilton Luske and animators Dick Lundy, Lee Morehouse, and Fred Moore were all residents of the court. Almost all of the men were working at the studio when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937, and, according to Smith, “Everyone at the studio was working on Snow White.” The dwarfs’ cottage in the film does strongly resemble the cottages on Griffith Park, so it looks as if the animators might have taken their home to work with them.

Q: Do we really import sand for our local beaches?

A: The California coastline has been getting regular touch-ups for 1 1 2 L A M AG . C O M

decades. Beach sand has eternally washed in and out with the seasons, but starting in the 1930s, river damming and

channeling nearly eliminated those fluvial supplies.

The county, the state, and the Army Corps of Engineers have stepped in to

Q: I’ve heard that restaurants with no alcohol license that allow people to bring in their own booze are committing a crime. Is this true?

A: Like speeding and jaywalking, BYOB is against the law, but everyone does it. The restaurateur without a type 41 or type 47 liquor license who lets you uncork that bottle of pinot noir is indeed in violation of Section 23300 of the

California Business and Professions Code and risks a $1,000 fine and/or a year in county jail.

That rarely happens; when it does, it’s usually because a competing restaurant owner has ratted them out. So it’s unlikely you’ll send your favorite restaurant owner to the slammer.

Q: How can I bum a ride on the Goodyear blimp?

A: The 192-footlong airship has hovered over the city since 1920, when Goodyear had a factory on Central Avenue. Conceived as a mode of industrial transport, the impractical ride was a far better PR stunt. Since 1966, the blimp’s home has been a field off the 405, in Carson, where the company offers non-employee excursions through charity auctions. Every year, Goodyear hosts a Toys for Tots benefit with a flight for five as the prize.

—CHRIS NICHOLS

I L LU S T R AT E D BY M A R K M AT C H O

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GGOOD OOD TTIMES M ES IMES F OR FOR E VVERYBODY

5,500 MILES On 5th October 1931 Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr., two daring American aviators, completed the world’s first nonstop, transpacific flight from Japan to the United States. They took off and landed 41 hours later in Wenatchee, Washington, having covered a distance of 5,500 miles. At the time, it was the longest flight ever made over water.

LONGINES SPIRIT ZULU TIME

Longines_HQ • Visual: CP1_SP17 • Annonce: 31638 01Jul22 CP1_SP17 (US) • Issue: 01/07/2022