Where to Take Your NY Friends in LA

I met my bestie, Kat, at the beginning of freshman year at Chapman University. She’s from Pound Ridge, NY and I’m from Bellevue, WA, but we both wanted to major in Public Relations & Advertising and found ourselves in Orange, CA for college. She likes to say I asked to sit next to her at the cafeteria (I don’t think I’ve ever asked to sit next to someone), but I’m pretty sure we just met in our first PR & Ad orientation session. Anyhow, we both lived in the same dorm building, quickly bonded over cars and cancer (a crazy combo, I know), and even ended up pledging the same sorority, which we both eventually dropped.

After college, we both made the move from Orange County to Los Angeles, but Kat moved back to New York during the pandemic in 2020. Since then, we’ve both made an effort to keep up with each other and see each other as much as possible in New York, LA, and even Europe (read about our trip to Zurich and Mallorca).

Kat visited LA and stayed with my roommate Jordan and I for 5 days in February to celebrate her birthday. Since she has spent plenty of time in Los Angeles, I had to think of things that she hadn’t done or things that she could only enjoy on the West Coast. I packed our itinerary and needed a week to recover, but it was a blast!

DAY 1: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13

Kat escaped frigid New York and LA welcomed her with a torrential amount of rain. Not the constant sprinkling I’m used to in Seattle. The kind of rain you NEED an umbrella for. We started the day by grabbing coffee at a nearby artisanal corner store called Rose Market.  Then, Jordan joined us and we drove to Santa Monica for our 11am Elephante reservation for their Express Lunch deal, which is $40 for 3 courses. It’s one of those sceney restaurants full of influencers at night, but for lunch it’s usually chill. On most days, it has nice views of the ocean (book the Sunset Room on Open Table, not the Cactus Room), but it was so dreary.  It was crazy to see the restaurant completely empty, but people gradually started coming closer to noon. We each chose a different appetizer and entree and shared everything. 

Then, we went back to our apartment to wait out the rain. We ended up watching Kinda Pregnant on Netflix, which was horrible, 0/10 do not recommend. The rain unfortunately did not let up, so we went to the recently-re-opened Helms Bakery for a sweet treat. It was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be based on photos I had seen on Instagram, but there were some fun pastries and a great selection of niche aesthetically pleasing canned beverages. We saved them to eat after dinner. I got a corn cookie, Kat got some sort of guava pastry, and Jordan got a jelly donut and a croissant. We originally were going to go to happy hour in downtown Culver but it was just absolutely dreary, so we just grabbed In N Out and brought it home and then we watched Friends with Benefits. 

DAY 2: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14

The sun was back yay! We started the day at Community Goods in West Hollywood, made famous by the Biebers. The line didn’t look too long, but it took 45 minutes for us to get to the front and order. The breakfast sliders were hyped up to us and they were good, definitely don’t skip on the avocado and bacon! You can’t really go wrong with Hawaiian bread. I don’t typically order matcha, but I really liked the matcha einspanner latte. It isn’t actually on their menu but it’s one of the most popular drinks I saw on their Yelp page, so you just gotta be in the know. We also ordered the pistachio toast and the banana bread with guava spread (this spread was so good!). Note that only the one on Edinburgh Ave serves food. The new location at the Pacific Design Center is just a walk-up window for drinks. This place is so popular I could totally see them expanding and becoming the new Alfred. Rumor has it they’re going to be in Brentwood soon.

Next, Kat wanted to walk down to Glossier, so we went for a stroll down Melrose Ave and Kat popped in and bought a shirt at Cherry. Then, we drove to Beverly Hills to check out the Eclipse Sample Sale. We weren’t really fans of the brands that were featured this week (so much pleather?), so we left empty-handed. 

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021 and Jordan and I kept saying we’d save it for a rainy day. We ended up going on a sunny day, but honestly it was so underwhelming. I feel like all the cool movie memorabilia is scattered between all the different studio lots, so there wasn’t a ton, but we saw Dorothy’s red slippers and some cool Avengers props. Even the outside part was pretty blah. The one room with all of the Oscar statues was cool, but overall I think the museum was pretty lackluster. I think they should have more exhibits that teach people about the whole filmmaking process from casting to sound mixing, cinematography, and editing, etc. It was just unimpressive and not that interactive. I won’t be back.

The bar in the lobby of the museum, Fanny’s, was pretty cute. They have a sit-down restaurant, bar, and coffee cafe area, so you can hang out there no matter what time of day. It’s Oscar season, so they had cocktail specials named after the best picture nominees. Jordan, Kat, and I rested our legs for a bit and grabbed some drinks at the bar (cocktail for Jordan, grapefruit juice for Kat and I). 

For dinner, we headed over to The Grove, which is a whimsical outdoor mall that feels like Disneyland, complete with a big fountain and a little tram ride. It also has a big Barnes and Noble and an AMC, and a lot of brands do pop ups here. There’s nothing really like it in NY. Kat used to live at the giant Park La Brea apartment complex nearby and would walk to the Grove all the time. The Farmer’s Market has a ton of different food stalls, so we decided to go there for dinner. She loved the sirloin cap, so we went to the Pampas Grill stand and filled up our plates. This was one of the only places that had a line, so you know it’s good.

I didn’t want to go to one of the big comedy clubs in LA since most of them require a 2 beverage minimum since Kat and I don’t drink. I found cheap comedy tickets to The Hollywood Comedy on Eventbrite, so we saw a show there to round out our Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, it sucked. I think around 10 comedians performed, and only two were funny. I learned my lesson not to be cheap on comedy because you get what you pay for (not to be confused with cheap improv, which slaps at UCB). Next time, catch us at the Comedy Store or Laugh Factory!

DAY 3: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15

Kat is an early riser and so we went to Saba Surf in Venice for coffee before our brunch plans. It’s a relatively new coffee/surf shop/community space. I tried a Thin Mint matcha and it was actually pretty good. There were some very cute doggos in there and Kat bought a t-shirt and saw an influencer she follows, so all in all would recommend.

We drove down to Hermosa Beach to pick up Michelin Bib Gourmand breakfast burritos from Barran’s 2239. You have to pre-order them by messaging them on Instagram on Wednesday-Friday to pick up on the weekend. We got the bacon burritos and drove down to the beach to have a little picnic. The weather was perfect and the burritos did not disappoint! Kat was wowwed, and that girl has eaten a lot of breakfast burritos.

One of the most stunning drives in LA County is going down Paseo del Mar to Palos Verdes. I think it’s more visually interesting than Malibu. We pulled over to take some photos of the cliffs, then went down to Point Vicente Lighthouse and walked on the trail for a bit before heading down to see sea lions in San Pedro.

I saw a video of the Marine Mammal Care Center on Instagram and so we booked the $5 ticket donation. We got a little informational tour from a teenaged docent and then went outside to see the sea lion pups. They were so cute! Fun fact, a lot of sea lions in California are born on June 15. You don’t get to see them too up close since it isn’t a zoo and the goal is to release them back into the wild. Apparently the people who work there don’t even really touch them.

Next, we stopped by Ralph’s for some hydration and saw the Girl Scouts so I had to get some cookies (Tagalongs for Kat and then we also tried the Adventurefuls). We drove back up to Hermosa Beach for some Creamy Boys ice cream for a snack. It’s a little ice cream shop that makes New Zealand-style ice cream, just vanilla soft serve ice cream blended with fruit or toffee.  We tried the Mixed Berry and the Hokey Pokey, which was my favorite. 

For dinner, we were supposed to go to a Mexican restaurant called Ensenada’s for our second burrito of the day; however, I didn’t realize that they closed at 4pm. We ended up driving up to Manhattan Beach, walking along the water and watching the sun set. We were truly blessed with the best weather!

Then, we got Mexican food at a little restaurant called El Tarasco in Manhattan Beach. It was a pretty simple menu and there wasn’t much seating. We shared the chicken taquitos and a carne asada burrito. There was no cheese, no side of rice and beans, which was fine since we weren’t too hungry. For dessert, we had Girl Scout cookies.

Our evening activity was watching a movie at the Old Town Music Hall theater in El Segundo. It’s super cute and has curtains and they usually show classic movies. They have a little organ performance before the movie starts and it’s really just a fun, unique experience. We saw Best In Show, a little 2000 mockumentary about dog owners competing in a dog show. It stars Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Lynch and it’s pretty silly. The movie ended around 9pm and we were exhausted.

DAY 4: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16

Kat’s birthday! She was up early of course, so checked out Cafe Nido in Silverlake before attending the 10am service at Hillsong. The cafe was nice in that it had a bunch of seating and there was a little library where you could borrow or rent a book to read. I’m not religious, but Kat has been doing bible study with some friends and wanted to go. It was “Mission Sunday” at Hillsong that day and it felt very corporate because they just showed a bunch of videos from their global leader and announced they were shutting down their San Francisco church…it was giving a monthly all hands. 

After church, we went to brunch at B Twenty Four in Lincoln Heights and met up with two other friends, Casey and Katie. From there, Kat went to downtown Culver City with Casey and got an $18 Hailey Bieber smoothie at the grocery store of all grocery stores, Erewhon. With its colorful displays of bottles of fresh juices and soups and $30 sea moss gel, it’s more of a museum than a grocery store and honestly it’s fun just to people-watch and wander the aisles.  There are no location in NY yet, so this is a prime LA-only experience for NY friends or really any visitors. I got gas at Costco and hang out at home before all of our friends came to our apartment to carpool to dinner at Massilia in Santa Monica.

Honestly, getting 11 people from 3 different counties to commit to a dinner is probably the biggest feat I’ve accomplished in a while. Kat was planning to wear a black turtleneck and jeans so we told everyone the optional dress code was Steve Jobs and everyone actually did it.  The food was just okay, but the restaurant was super cute and wasn’t too busy since it was a Sunday night. It was great to catch up with people I hadn’t seen in a while and it was a great night.  

DAY 5: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17

We started the day with coffee at Motoring Coffee, a cool coffee shop/motoring club (don’t ask me what a motoring club is) in West LA. There were cars in the cafe and then a co-working space that was for members only. There wasn’t a ton of seating, so we just took our coffees to go and went for a stroll down Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice. 

For brunch, we went to Tartine in Santa Monica. The space actually used to be a funeral home, but now it’s a bakery with a great outdoor patio. The salmon tartine is one of my favorite dishes in LA! We had a good yap before bringing Kat to LAX. 

It was such a fun long weekend! It sucks when my friends move thousands of miles away, but I cherish the moments we get to spend together!

Miss you already Kitty, can’t wait to be reunited hopefully later this year <3

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