Los Angeles Downtown News 05-31-21

SB 805 Actors rally around bill that supports small performance venues Page 4

Holy Basil Restaurant offers a new twist on Thai Page 10

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‘Raising Vo ices’ Kim Petras returning to the stage at ‘home’

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Covered California will help OPINION

I go off when the heat is on

By Ellen Snortland LA Downtown News Columnist am blessed with long-standing friendships from my school days and was overjoyed when one of my besties from high school visited this past week. Genice Winter Rodne lives in South Dakota, where we both hail from, so I wanted to give her a vacation as far removed from the prairies as possible. It would also be a great excuse to revisit some of my favorite places after more than a year of mostly staying home.

Our first stop: dinner at the outdoor terrace restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Try the lobster bisque, a truly erotic experience for the palate. The opulence is so not what either of us grew up with.

On Saturday, we drove to Tijuana to have lunch at Los Arcos, my favorite restaurant there. After lunch, we went to Rosarito to shop. It was the nearest town to me when I lived in Mexico for two and a half years. I wanted to see if Rosarito had survived the pandemic. Lots of stores were closed, but many were open, too. All in all, I was encouraged.

We hit Universal Studios on Monday, as it had just reopened a couple of weeks earlier. Genice was excited to go, and I hadn’t been there in years. People were not allowed in unless they could show proof of vaccinations and stay masked. Sounds fair. Even with that and it being a weekday, there were a lot of people! Contrast and compare with the Great Plains: not even close, except perhaps for the Great Pains we would endure.

Things started out well enough: We boarded the studio tram tour after only a 30-minute wait. The tram is always a hoot and a perfect fit for anyone who loves the movies.

We were shaken, jolted and splashed. The venerable Animal Actors show is also a guaranteed crowd pleaser. We were part of the socially distanced audience laughing and clapping for the various animals and the super bad jokes.

So far, so good… until we lined up for the “The Simpsons” ride. We were 30 minutes into a 75-minute wait when an announcement said, “We’re having technical difficulties.

Feel free to leave the line and follow one of our associates, or stay in line if you’d like.”

Being the gamblers we are, Genice and I decided we’d wait it out.

After more time in line, the PA again came on with, “Please leave the line.” Argh! With almost half the day gone, at this point, I’m mentally calculating what our hefty admission fees actually bought us so far: the tram and Animal Actors. That’s a lot of money for two theme park experiences.

Genice and I are mature people and know these are first-world complaints. But now it’s getting hotter, with temps hitting the mid-90s. Genice stands in line to get us some soft drinks and, after more time goes by, discovers she’s in a beer line. The place is totally disorganized, and orders are glacial. Are the employees trainees? Plants for some bizarre sociology experiment? Theme park dissidents? Because our increasingly expensive park time is whizzing by, we opt for the quickest lunch options.

The park has an app that shows wait times, so we chose the newest attraction that also has the shortest wait: “The Secret Life of Pets.” This ride also broke down — twice!

And no wonder it had a short wait: It’s so lame it should be called “The Secret Strife of Guests.” After all the C.Y.A. warnings about possible heart attack, motion sickness or epileptic triggers, I would’ve had more excitement if Genice put me in a grocery cart at Ralph’s and pushed me around while yelling, “Here we come!”

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With time running low, we found the recently built Harry Potter area and were awestruck by the grandeur of Hogwarts Castle, which is masterfully spooky both inside and out. We decided to try and get on the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” ride.

We couldn’t believe our luck: We actually walked right in and got on! The ride itself was exhilarating — a perfect blend of fantasy and adventure and worth the price of admission.

After we exited, Genice and I looked at each other. “Again?” “Yes!” Here’s a tip: If it’s a scorching day and you are prone to heat-related illness, which I am, don’t go on a ride that throws you around a lot, or you may be throwing something back. At the very end of the second go-around, I had my own Expelliarmus moment as my lunch explosively flew out of me — and it was not pretty. I was mortified, but the staff assured me it happens all the time. In fact, they took me to a private room and provided me with complimentary shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops. Well done, Universal Studios, well done — you have redeemed yourself.

And that, my friends, was Ellen and Genice’s Excellent Adventure. We’ll be reminiscing about it for years to come.!

Ellen Snortland has written a column continuously since the early ’90s. She also coaches writers. Contact her at ellen@authorbitebybite.com.

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EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski STAFF WRITERS: Andrew Checchia, Andres De Ocampo, Julia Shapero CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sara Edwards, Kamala Kirk ART DIRECTORS: Arman Olivares, Stephanie Torres STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Luis Chavez CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Myriam Santos ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Michael Lamb FOUNDER EMERITUS: Sue Laris

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Covered NEWS California will help

SB 805 supporters include actors Danny Glover and Edward James Olmos.

Photo by Andrew Checchia

Actors rally around small performance venues

By Andrew Checchia LA Downtown News Contributing Writer tate Sen. Susan Rubio hosted a rally May 19 in support of her California Legislature bill. The bill, SB 805, aims to support small performing arts venues as the state emerges from the pandemic, providing payroll-focused funding to sponsor workers who often work for no or sub-minimum wage pay.

The event was hosted outside CASA 0101, a small theater in Boyle Heights founded by Josefina López. López wrote the now-famous play-turned-movie “Real Women Have Curves” more than 30 years ago while working in local LA theaters.

Her work’s success funded CASA 0101 — now a major East Los Angeles theater hub and community center that López proudly declared she bought instead of a Beverly Hills mansion.

“What options do we have to tell the truth?” López said about artists like herself who get their start in local theaters, opening the rally. “I didn’t want to die with my

S CASA 0101 is Josefina López’s community theater in Boyle Heights.

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stories left in me. (That’s) why SB 805 is saving our lives.”

The rally’s speakers picked up López’s passionate torch. Several notable film and theater actors — among them Danny Glover, Edward James Olmos, Michelle Krusiec and Kirsten Vangsness — spoke in support of SB 805 as members of a coalition of dozens of performing arts organizations and venues.

They all co-signed a document approving the legislation, which Rubio called “a lifeline.”

“It matters that we all stand together,” Rubio said. “I know what the performing arts have meant to me. I happened to have been involved in gangs, and now I’m a state senator.”

Many at the rally spoke poetically about the transformative power of theater, including Rubio. She grew up in Downtown Los Angeles and participated in community theater, which she said provided her a safe place to avoid the illicit activity that surrounded her as a child. She was heavily involved in the performing arts before becoming a teacher for nearly two decades and eventually a politician — a journey López described as “from the barrio to the state Capitol.”

Rubio framed the bill as essential support for community performance venues that suffered hard during the pandemic and as a kind of ideological boon from the state government. But a common theme across all the speakers was the bill’s decided untimeliness. Many believe the bill has been both practically and ideologically “overdue.”

“SB 805 is way overdue,” said Oscar nominee Olmos. “It makes no sense that we even have to ask for it.”

Some took a less arts-centric approach, opting for an economic argument.

In the actual legal text of SB 805, it claims every SNPAC (small, nonprofit performing arts companies) creates an average of 64 jobs every year, contributing to a total “121,436 jobs created by the sector” annually. “Criminal Minds” actress Vangsness and actor French Stewart also pointed out the money that flows into communities through local theaters, highlighting the influx of cash around performances.

“When you invest in theater, you’re also investing in the restaurant next to it,” Stewart said. “If corporations are people, people are also infrastructure.”

This banner backdropped the speakers Wednesday, May 19, as they addressed a crowd of supporters and media.

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Photo by Andrew Checchia

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ACTORS RALLY AROUND SMALL PERFORMANCE VENUES, 5 Others brought up how local theaters provide powerful outlets for their communities. Many people who are marginalized or live at society’s fringes struggle to break into major public arenas, making small performance venues their only options to share their stories.

“Artists are the gatekeepers of the truth,” Glover said. “Community theater is about healing (and) transformation. This is what we need. We need this for the community. We need this bill.”

“We shouldn’t have to ask for this,” said actor Ben Guillory, who founded the Robey Theater Downtown alongside Glover. “When this bill is passed, we’ll be able to go on fulfilling our mission statements. SB 805 makes it doable.”

Theaters like the Robey and CASA 0101 will receive funding through SB 805’s allocation infrastructure. But the actual money would come from a $1 billion arts funding request, championed by Rubio alongside fellow Democratic state Sen. Ben Allen. The proposed funding would also go toward funding museums, building arts-oriented economic infrastructure, increasing community access to the arts and creating job training programs.

The day after the rally, May 20, SB 805 was passed by the state Senate’s Appropriations Committee, sending it to the Senate floor. There, on May 26, senators passed the bill. It will now head along to the General Assembly and ultimately the governor’s office, where its fate will be decided. If passed, the funding would eventually reach the community theaters and performance venues many fear will go under before their pre-pandemic business can trickle back in.

“I’ve had a career because of small theater,” said working local actress Vanessa Stewart. “If (SB 805) doesn’t pass, these incubator theaters will go away. If SB 805 does pass, then thousands of jobs will be created. It’s the most progressive piece of legislation California has seen in years.”

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Covered NEWS California will help

Echo Park Lake reopening proves to be bittersweet

By Andres de Ocampo LA Downtown News Contributing Writer nhoused Echo Park Lake tenants returned there May 26 by sharing their personal experiences with the cruelty of carceral housing and the “destructive efforts” of separating families and communities.

Echo Park Lake residents were displaced by a March 25 sweep directed by District 13 City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell as part of Project Roomkey.

Unhoused Tenants Against Carceral Housing hosted the press conference, during which formerly unhoused residents could share their experiences since their displacement from the community in the park, which included a communal shower, garden and pantry.

“Let’s drop the science of what’s going on with Project Roomkey,” said Leonard “Phoenix” Averhart, a UTACH member.

City and state officials “are telling you they got us housing and it’s all love but when you show up to these sites, they tell you that this is a shelter. You have no rights and you have no privacy.”

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Averhart described the living situation within the Project Roomkey program as having 7 p.m. curfews and other restrictions.

“We don’t even have keys to our own doors,” Averhart said. “We have to have someone open our doors like we’re kindergarteners.

Workers can come into your room whenever they please.”

He explained a Project Roomkey worker barged in on him while he was using the restroom.

“He challenged me to a fight because I checked him on (barging in),” Averhart said.

Averhart proposed that unused land and abandoned infrastructures, like schools and shopping centers, should be utilized for housing.

“You renovate that, put some RVs up and let people stay in that,” he explained. “Let people earn their keep. If they’re low on money, let them clean around the area in exchange for their housing.”

Averhart’s proposal is not far from the other speakers with UTACH, all of whom want the government to fund a more suitable living ar-

rangement than Project Roomkey.

Antoher UTACH member, Diana Doo, said she was “thrown out” of the Project Roomkey on May 21 because of unfounded complaints about tardiness and pepper spray possession.

“It’s going to sound crazy, but I was happy to be out of there,” Doo said. “Even though I have no place to go, I’m happy I don’t have to deal with that anymore. I just feel normal again.”

Doo explained she was not always homeless.

“I lost my job and couldn’t work because of an abusive employer,” she said. “It messed me up mentally, to the point where I couldn’t hold it together.

“I couldn’t work, and I lost my apartment.

The next thing I know I’m on the streets. When I got to (Echo Park Lake), I was like everyone here. I stayed in my vehicle, and I noticed how the community worked here and I thought, ‘I’m better,’ but I had to check myself.”

An unhoused Echo Park Lake community member offered Doo a tent to sleep in, but she refused initially because of the homeless stigma.

“When I really joined the community and I stepped out of the box, it was an experience for me,” Doo said. “I got to be a part of a community that kept each other safe. We looked out for each other, and we did not ask for anything from anyone.”

UTACH’s Cecelia Acho lived in the Echo Park Lake encampment for seven months before the city closed it.

“We advocated for ourselves during (the COVID-19 pandemic),” Acho said. “We spent time together and created these things that we imagined together and now they want to separate us and put us in hotel rooms.”

Acho said the events did not affect city and state officials who initiated the city sweep on the park.

“We were figuring out how to solve these problems that come about due to the lack of affordable housing in California,” Acho said.

Wilkens Joseph moved from Florida to LA two and a half years ago to study criminal justice. Homeless after the pandemic, Joseph discovered Echo Park Lake after unfortunate events in Skid Row. “(The Echo Park Lake) was not a bad community,” Joseph said. “This was a place where you can feel like your stuff is going to be safe.

My body, my mind is going to be safe here.”

Joseph works five jobs and goes to school.

He said the community is important for someone like him.

“Nobody in my school knows I’m homeless,” Joseph said. “For a long time, I thought about if I actually wanted to be in front of a camera and say this, but I have to let you all know that they are not treating us well.

“Anyone can end up in this situation. I never thought I would be homeless when I came to California. I’m glad that I came to tell my story because without an understanding, you guys will never know. You’ll only know what the media tells you and what Mitch O’Farrell and Garcetti will tell you.”

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Covered California will help ART & CULTURE

Kim Petras returning to the stage at ‘home’

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor op star Kim Petras’ lockdown was like a roller coaster. She spent it missing her Coachella debut, working on new music and caring for her newly adopted puppies. But after a year and a half away from the stage, one thing’s consistent: She’s looking forward to performing in front of fans.

Her return is something close to her heart. Petras is performing as part of Adam Lambert-headlined Outloud: Raising Voices, a three-day concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Downtown Los Angeles Friday, June 4, to Sunday, June 6.

“Online concerts are nice, but it’s nothing in comparison to real energy and real people,” said Petras, who has 570 million global streams. “I love Adam, so I’m excited to play with him. We’ve wanted to do something together for a long time, so this is really awesome. I love the LGBTQ community. I’m a part of it. So, there’s nothing better than that.”

Petras and Lambert will be joined by the likes of Sofi Tukker, Daya, Hayley Kiyoko and Bronze Avery. Lambert, on behalf of his Feel Something Foundation, is hosting and curating a show during Stonewall Day’s Sunday, June 6, lineup.

Outloud: Raising Voices launched in 2020 as a 10-episode series on Facebook in lieu of Pride celebrations happening in cities across the country. Since its debut, Outloud garnered over 1.4 billion media impressions and won several industry-topping awards.

Petras, who hails from Germany, is excited that Outloud is in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles.

“I really do feel at home in LA whenever I come back here after touring or playing somewhere else,” she said. “I’m so happy to be back. All my friends and my favorite clubs are here. I love playing shows in LA, too.

“The last one I did was, I think, the Shrine, and it seems like 500 years ago after this pandemic.”

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The pandemic was productive, however, for Petras. She worked on her new album, about which she couldn’t elaborate.

At first, being locked down was hard because Coachella, for which she was making her debut, was canceled. Becoming a new dog mom to three little puppies helped get her through.

“I’ve always wanted to do that, but I was always on the road,” Petras said. “I also started reading books and re-reading books, like horror books, anything like that. I kept in touch with my friends and my family.

“I could have just gotten really depressed and unproductive and all of that. I’m happy that my friends got me through it. I think the most important thing in life is to have friends that can get you through anything.”

Music isn’t so bad, either. She performed her latest single, “Malibu,” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The video features fans like Demi Lovato, Paris Hilton, Jonathan Van Ness, Charli XCX, Loren Gray, Madelaine Petsch, Jessie J, Pabllo Vittar, Aquaria, Todrick Hall, Nikita Dragun, Aly & AJ, Dorian Electra, Slayyyter, Brittany Broski, Teddy Quinlivan and Bowen Yang, among others.

That just confirms the effect her music and personality has had on fellow artists.

“They know what it is like to be an artist and how hard it is,” Petras said. “It means the world to me when people who I respect respect me and say nice things about me as a performer, as an artist, as a singer, as somebody who loves what I do.”

These days, she loves Madonna, Cher and ’80s music.

“That’s kind of my jam these days,” she said enthusiastically. “I like old music. I don’t know why, but I think it’s because I haven’t been dropping a lot of music as well in a while. I didn’t want my new music to be too influenced by current music or what’s going on right now.

“I made a point of deleting Instagram and Twitter and all of that off my phone while I’m writing my album. I wanted it to be just me.”

Outloud: Raising Voices WHEN: 4 p.m. each day Friday, June 4, to Sunday, June 6 WHERE: LA Coliseum, 3911 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles COST: Various ticket levels INFO: 213-747-7111, ticketmaster.com or weareoutloud.com

Earlier this year, Kim Petras appeared on the remixes for two viral TikTok hits: the LGBTQ anthem “Jenny (I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship)” by the Studio Killers and the hyperpop bop “SugarCrash!” by ElyOtto and featuring Curtis Waters. Both songs racked up millions of streams upon release.

Photo by Aya Shimizu

Full lineup More acts are scheduled to be announced, but here is the lineup as of Friday, May 28.

• Friday, June 4: Sofi Tukker with Daya, Jake Wesley Rogers, LP Giobbi, Tygapaw, Madeline the Person, Ryan Cassata and Saro.

• Saturday, June 5: Hayley Kiyoko with Bronze Avery, Mykki Blanco, Crush Club, Kaleena Zanders, La Doña, Madame Gandhi, Brooke Eden and Malia Civetz.

• Sunday, June 6: Adam Lambert, with other performances by (in alphabetical order) Angel Bonilla, Chely Wright, Kim Petras, Sam Sparro, Vincint featuring Parson James, Qveen Herby and Ty Sunderland, and Zhavia Ward. The day will also feature appearances and remarks by Angelica Ross, Conchita, Geena Rocero, Ryan Jamaal Swain, Valentina Sampaio, Yungblud and Whoopi Goldberg.

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Covered DINING California will help

Holy Basil offers a new twist on Thai

By Frier McCollister LA Downtown News Contributing Writer hef Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat and Tongkamal “Joy” Yuon are the couple behind the popular food stall Holy Basil in the Fashion District’s Santee Passage.

Specializing in Thai street food favorites turned with a mindful, creative twist and fresh ingredients, Holy Basil hosted a pre-pandemic pop-up in Highland Park. That was followed by a stall that opened in February after a stint in a nearby alley in September.

The Bangkok natives met in Los Angeles 15 years ago, while working at the locally beloved Thai restaurant Chan Dara’s Pico Boulevard location.

“Joy was the bartender, and I was a busboy at Chan Dara,” Arpapornnopparat said.

“I was going to school. It was more of a parttime job.”

Arpapornnopparat was a Santa Monica City College fine arts student and then transferred to The Art Center in Pasadena to pursue a degree in graphic design.

In the meantime, Yuon began managing Chan Dara.

“Joy and I were just working in the restaurant, and we were really interested in whatever we were doing there in general,” Arpapornnopparat said.

“We got our experience there. Joy started managing at Chan Dara. That’s how we got a glimpse of how to run a restaurant.”

With her bartending experience, Yuon was interested in developing a beverage concept that resulted in the couple’s first enterprise: The_Base.

Formally founded four years ago, the company develops and sells wholesome, organi-

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cally sweetened beverage concentrates with exotically devised flavors including strawberry shiso, hibiscus agave, gooseberry marigold and blackberry charcoal. Seasonal options are also available, via its website: the-base.co.

Yuon was inspired by a trip to Thailand and then Arpapornnopparat’s graphic design background spurred the product development.

“That company (The_Base) started out of the blue,” Arpapornnopparat said. “We always knew we wanted to do something on our own. She went back to Thailand, and she was so interested in making sparkling drinks, any kind of healthier options, like spritzers. She came back home, and I was going to the Art Center and I had a school project of redoing (consumer) packaging. So that’s how it started. It was one of my projects at school, doing packaging, learning how people interact with brands. It grew out from the classroom and our passion.”

The_Base beverages are offered at Holy Basil as finished products in cans.

“Usually The_Base (product) is a concentrate,” he said. “It’s more almost like an exclusive wine club, where people can do mixology on their own at home or just make mocktails at home for their family. But the product we offer at Holy Basil is a complete product in a can.”

The experience of developing the beverage concentrates introduced them to Los Angeles’ larger, vibrant culinary scene. Soon, the couple experimented with Thai cuisine and the dishes they grew up with in Bangkok.

“When we were working with The_Base (beverages), we worked with a lot of chefs.

So, we have access to multiple chef friends,” Arpapornnopparat said.

Initially, a pop-up was posed as a one-off.

“We started Holy Basil as a pop-up, not even to test the market,” he said.

“We just wanted to do something with Thai cuisine, really presenting dishes we grew up eating, with the flavor we wanted. In the beginning, what we were doing on the street was just a fun thing. Really it was just a fun thing to test if the concept of the food we were doing was something people cared about.”

The first pop-up in Highland Park was staged next door to its friends at the noodle and condiment shop, Chinese Laundry, on York Boulevard. The pop-up menu was focused more on Izakaya-style bar snacks and small bites.

“That was our original passion that we were going for. Izakaya,” Arpapornnopparat said.

Their beverage fans served as the frontrow audience for the pop-up in Highland Park.

MAY 31, 2021

“Through The_Base (brand) there were a lot of customers who never knew that we cooked,” Arpapornnopparat said. “So, they came and tried it and they loved it, so we saw we have enough support to do this thing.”

They discovered Santee Passage as a likely spot for The_Base headquarters and their restaurant concept, though the menu changed.

“With the restaurant, we didn’t want to do the Izakaya concept,” Arpapornnopparat said. “Just because it’s our first restaurant, we wanted to be consistent. We didn’t want to deal with an alcohol license. We didn’t want to be open nighttime, things like that. So, we decided on more of a fast casual (concept).”

The Holy Basil menu is more extensive than expected, given its small space and kitchen.

“Tom yum soup, there’s shrimp and chicken,” Arpapornnopparat said. “For our tom yum, the way we make it is different from

From left to right are chef Wedchayan Arpapornnopparat and Tongkamal Yuon of Holy Basil.

Photo by Luis Chavez

MAY 31, 2021

other restaurants. We make a recipe based on the shrimp itself. I would direct people to the tom yum, in my opinion, which is very different from other places.”

The broth for each version of the soup is made from fresh, scratch-made shrimp and chicken stock. The tom yum goong ($13) is made with fresh Ecuadorean white shrimp, oyster mushrooms, roasted chili jam, lime, lemongrass, makrut leaf, galangal and cilantro. The tom yum gai ($13) swaps out the shrimp for fresh jidori chicken, in its scratchmade chicken stock.

“The pad kee mao, the drunken noodle, it’s actually (prepared) in the way I grew up,” Arpapornnopparat said.

“We wok fry it. You can smell the aroma from the whiskey. I don’t know if other restaurants are doing that. We use fresh noodles.”

His version of pad kee mao ($15) takes wok-fried and smoked flat noodles and tosses them with crisped pork belly, egg, bird’seye chili, Thai basil, garlic, scallions and XO sauce. It’s finished with the aforementioned secret ingredient: whiskey. There are also a range of rice bowls and fried rice dishes ($11$15).

A selection of small plates top the list.

These include egg rolls ($6), hand-rolled and stuffed with glass noodles, wood ear mushrooms and ground pork shoulder; chicken wings ($8) brined in fish sauce and tossed in sweet chili jam served with housemade papaya pickles; or housemade sausage ($6)

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made with ground pork shoulder in XO sauce and bird’s-eye chili.

The small plates hearken back to the Izakaya bar food that served as the couple’s first inspiration. It’s a mode that they serve in earnest once a month or so, under the banner “Yum-Los Angeles” as a self-styled pop-up at Holy Basil.

Arpapornnopparat described a couple of the dishes.

“So we will do more contemporary dishes with Thai flavor,” Arpapornnopparat said.

“Thai ceviche, pickled crab with fish sauce and lime and we dress it with garlic, chili, multiple herbs and palm sugar. Clear glass noodle with dried shrimp and peanuts, dressed with lime, chili and fish sauce.”

Check Holy Basil’s Instagram page for the next Yum-Los Angeles pop-up opportunity.

By the way, beer and wine service is planned.

How is business these days, as restrictions lift?

“It’s up and down,” Arpapornnopparat said.

“We’ve been fortunate to have support from the downtown (community). We still haven’t had our grand opening, to be honest. We are still trying to see what menu works and obviously staying true to our company and then hiring people. Hiring people has been a bit tough, especially training them and teaching them from scratch on how we cook. So that also takes a little time but it’s been OK. We can only see it getting better now, that’s how we see it.”

The couple live on the same block as San-

Gra pow neuh is wok-fired house-blend certified Angus ground beef, holy basil, long bean, bird’s-eye chili and garlic served over rice and topped with farmers market fried egg.

Photo by Luis Chavez

tee Passage and they’re enthusiastic Downtown residents. “For me, I feel that Downtown is such a special place. It’s a neighborhood of its own. We love each other. During the pan-

demic, it got everyone together and we began to actually see each other (it’s) this spirit of uplifting each other. For those who are still struggling, it can only get better.”

Holy Basil Santee Passage 718 S. Los Angeles Street, Suite A 213-559-4994 holybasildtla.com the-base.co

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