The Official Los Angeles Shopping + Dining Thread

[lawyerdad]



Thanks for your replies! Everywhere I read about LA it is mentioned LA public transit is absolutely terrible. Maybe I sohuld consider renting a car for the week. Will it make my stay that much better? I've read that driving around can take long too because of all the traffic jams. And how's parking? Would your suggestions for places to stay remain the roughly the same or would it change significantly?

I'm with Baron on the public transportation. LA is a lot more spread out than some other cities, so it can take a little longer and can require more planning to get around via public transportation. But it's not nearly as impossible as people like to suggest. That's half LA-bashing by outsiders, and half excuse-making by car-addicted Angelenos.
Traffic issues are also somewhat exaggerated if you're not trying to commute on one of the major freeways. That said, trying to get around in a car can be a frustrating hassle if you don't know the city. Parking is so-so, depending on neighborhoods. Not as hard as, say, NY or SF. But enough to add a bit of hassle and time. And if you rent a car, between the rental charge and what hotels will likely charge you for overnight parking, you'll probably come out ahead just paying to Uber places that seem too difficult to reach by public transportation.

 

[lawyerdad]



When did Uber and Lyft become public transit? 

Fair point, but isn't the real point of discussion whether or not he needs to rent a car?

 

[ShootThePier]

I've had a few friends from other countries stay with me. They are quite happy walking 6-10 miles a day. Most L.A. residents don't walk more than a mile day unless it is for exercise. We should take that into account before warning of the weakness of our public transportation system.
Knowing what you want to do is a great start. The first half of your stay I would recommend somewhere in Hollywood or DTLA along the Metro Red line. That will cover your shopping, dining, and cultural influences. Second half, I would stay in Santa Monica. More dining, culture, and most importantly, the beach vibe that I think you're trying to capture. I haven't shopped in Santa Monica for years, but I'm sure there are some great places, but pricier than Hollywood/L.A.
My big question for you is the type of accommodations you are accustomed to, and what you are willing to pay per night? You have lots of great options, but pricing can vary greatly.

 

[foodguy]



Passing it on to the customer in such an 'in your face' way was always going to lead to trouble. Just raise your prices across the board 3% and keep it behind the scenes. Especially when you consider the restaurants involved... if someone's going to go to Animal and pay $35-45 for an entree, that entree costing $36-46 now certainly isn't going to drive anyone away and most likely 99% of the guests won't even notice there was an increase. If it didn't come off like corporate greed from people already making a fortune, I might feel the slightest bit sorry for them. As it stands, I'll be glad if it blows up in their faces.

i agree that the matter could have been handled better. but i do think it's important to remember that restaurants -- particularly fine dining restaurants -- are fairly thin margin businesses. i believe the industry standard is something like 4%. certainly there are places that do better than that, and places like some of the animal guys places that can get away with charging high prices without having to pay for expensive service, ingredients, etc., are even better.

 

[foodguy]

as someone who has ridden public transportation in la for the last 20 years (blue line from long beach to DTLA FTW!), i'd say that it's a lot better than it used to be. but it still works best in narrow corridors and those corridors don't really reach the beach or the mountains. on the other hand, i find traffic to be MUCH worse than it used to be. not the freeways so much, but crosstown streets, particularly on the westside, are jammed most of the day. only used to be that way during rush hour. i fear my dear friend @lawyerdad may be the proverbial frog in the gently warming water if he hasn't noticed it . i would agree with the two-locale scenario someone else recommended. spend a couple days DTLA/Hollywood/Ktown for the urban thing (metro rail is great there), then move to Santa Monica (preferably north part of town) for convenient access to the beach and mountains.

 

[lawyerdad]



i agree that the matter could have been handled better. but i do think it's important to remember that restaurants -- particularly fine dining restaurants -- are fairly thin margin businesses. i believe the industry standard is something like 4%. certainly there are places that do better than that, and places like some of the animal guys places that can get away with charging high prices without having to pay for expensive service, ingredients, etc., are even better.

You know my views on this so I won't belabor it, but doesn't brooks implicitly acknowledge that in suggesting that they just raise their prices? As I've droned on about it before, one thing that really rankled for me is the intellectually dishonest claim that they didn't want to raise prices because it would depart from some supposedly pure symbiosis between ingredient prices and menu prices, as though things like rent, debt service, utilities, and marketing aren't somehow built into menu prices . . .

 

[lawyerdad]



as someone who has ridden public transportation in la for the last 20 years (blue line from long beach to DTLA FTW!), i'd say that it's a lot better than it used to be. but it still works best in narrow corridors and those corridors don't really reach the beach or the mountains. on the other hand, i find traffic to be MUCH worse than it used to be. not the freeways so much, but crosstown streets, particularly on the westside, are jammed most of the day. only used to be that way during rush hour. i fear my dear friend @lawyerdad may be the proverbial frog in the gently warming water if he hasn't noticed it . i would agree with the two-locale scenario someone else recommended. spend a couple days DTLA/Hollywood/Ktown for the urban thing (metro rail is great there), then move to Santa Monica (preferably north part of town) for convenient access to the beach and mountains.

Fair enough. And since my daughter was born nearly 15 years ago, I've made a point of always living near work, thereby limiting my exposure to traffic nastiness, so others' perspectives will obviously vary.

 

[venividivicibj]

You know my views on this so I won't belabor it, but doesn't brooks implicitly acknowledge that in suggesting that they just raise their prices? As I've droned on about it before, one thing that really rankled for me is the intellectually dishonest claim that they didn't want to raise prices because it would depart from some supposedly pure symbiosis between ingredient prices and menu prices, as though things like rent, debt service, utilities, and marketing aren't somehow built into menu prices . . .

Isn't there also a fad about automatic gratuity too?

 

[foodguy]



You know my views on this so I won't belabor it, but doesn't brooks implicitly acknowledge that in suggesting that they just raise their prices? As I've droned on about it before, one thing that really rankled for me is the intellectually dishonest claim that they didn't want to raise prices because it would depart from some supposedly pure symbiosis between ingredient prices and menu prices, as though things like rent, debt service, utilities, and marketing aren't somehow built into menu prices . . .

no disagreement from me. i know those folks and like most of them, but as often as i asked them for a better explanation, they kept falling back on the party line. it was a mistake and i don't blame anyone for being pissed about it. i was just commenting on the notion that restaurant owners are getting rich easily.

 

[winston86dit]



I'm sorry if this thread isn't meant for questions like this, but I am really having a hard time figuring out where to stay when visiting LA (from the Netherlands, have visited the States a couple of times but never been to LA). As I'll probably be using public transit, I'm kind of looking for hubs that make a lot of different neighborhoods easily reachable. I've read it is important to know where you want to go when going to LA. My main interests are shopping (not really interested in Rodeo Drive kind of stores, more interested in American Rag Cie and General Quarters kind of shops), visiting the various beaches, going for a drink in the evening (accesable bars), nice spots to lunch or dine and finally I'd like to do some hiking. I'm not really interested in the entertainment industry stuff or seeing celebs, visiting the hollywood sign or going to universal studios. I plan on staying at two different places for three nights each. So, which neighborshoods would be best to stay? If it matters, I will be traveling alone. Any advice is appreciated.

I personally would stay in West Hollywood somewhere, probably around Melrose Place area. You can walk to a lot of things such as Alfred's for coffee, INK and INK sack for dinner and lunch, Crossroads, Urth cafe, APC, Rag & Bone, Elder Statesman, etc for some shopping and you're very close to a lot of other nice places such as Maxfields, H Lorenzo, and Gracias Madre. Also taking an uber or bus from there is quite easy if you want to get over to La Brea to see American Rag or you can walk over to Fairfax for all the restaurants and shopping there.

For the second stay, I would stay in Venice. A lot of stuff to do, quite a bit of shopping and some nice restaurants and it has that kind of quintessential surf vibe to it. Then you can make it over to Santa Monica if you want and just rent a bike or something and cruise on the beach.

Not sure what kind of place you'd like to stay in but I stayed here a while ago in W. Hollywood and it was great.

The Charlie
http://www.thecharliehotel.com

 

[foodguy]



Isn't there also a fad  about automatic gratuity too?

there is and this will probably only increase. this one has a sound explanation: when the city of los angeles raised the minimum wage to $15, it affected all restaurant workers, tipped or not. In most states, there is a separate minimum wage for tipped employees, to reflect the amount of money they earn from gratuities. this raise really pissed off a lot of restaurant owners because right now they are in a situation where they are paying servers an average of $45 after tips, busboys $25 after tips, but cooks $13-14, because they legally can't share in tip pools.
Service charges are treated different from tips. Tips belong to the servers and must be shared within the direct chain of service (front of the house). Service charges belong to the restaurant and can be distributed as they wish. So restaurants are going with a flat 18% service charge and putting everyone -- servers and cooks alike -- on salary. This allows them a little more ability to incentivize cooking.

 

[foodguy]

By the way, if anyone is planning on going to our The Taste event at Paramount Studios, come on by. I'll be circulating. But I'll only be there tonight for the opener and tomorrow morning for the Field to Fork event I'm hosting.

 

[venividivicibj]

there is and this will probably only increase. this one has a sound explanation: when the city of los angeles raised the minimum wage to $15, it affected all restaurant workers, tipped or not. In most states, there is a separate minimum wage for tipped employees, to reflect the amount of money they earn from gratuities. this raise really pissed off a lot of restaurant owners because right now they are in a situation where they are paying servers an average of $45 after tips, busboys $25 after tips, but cooks $13-14, because they legally can't share in tip pools.
Service charges are treated different from tips. Tips belong to the servers and must be shared within the direct chain of service (front of the house). Service charges belong to the restaurant and can be distributed as they wish. So restaurants are going with a flat 18% service charge and putting everyone -- servers and cooks alike -- on salary. This allows them a little more ability to incentivize cooking.

What can I do if the service sucks/they don't deserve 18%? (if it's a mandatory service charge)

 

[ShootThePier]



there is and this will probably only increase. this one has a sound explanation: when the city of los angeles raised the minimum wage to $15, it affected all restaurant workers, tipped or not. In most states, there is a separate minimum wage for tipped employees, to reflect the amount of money they earn from gratuities. this raise really pissed off a lot of restaurant owners because right now they are in a situation where they are paying servers an average of $45 after tips, busboys $25 after tips, but cooks $13-14, because they legally can't share in tip pools.
Service charges are treated different from tips. Tips belong to the servers and must be shared within the direct chain of service (front of the house). Service charges belong to the restaurant and can be distributed as they wish. So restaurants are going with a flat 18% service charge and putting everyone -- servers and cooks alike -- on salary. This allows them a little more ability to incentivize cooking.

Minimum wage in L.A. doesn't reach $15/hr until 2020 correct? This is going to be a problem, not only for L.A., but surrounding areas are going to be affected as well. In the end, prices will increase equally, and only the taxman will see the increased income.

 

[foodguy]



What can I do if the service sucks/they don't deserve 18%? (if it's a mandatory service charge)

not a lot. speak to the manager. don't go back.