From the Editor

In 2004, when we published our first big issue devoted to downtown, mixology wasn’t a word and the area’s most happenin’ happy hour was at McCormick & Schmick’s. The real estate boom was just kicking in as those gorgeous old buildings in the city’s historic core were being rehabilitated into lofts and condos. But good luck finding basic amenities... Read

Features:

Downtown 2011
Real estate has cooled, but the revival continues. Here’s your guide to living, eating, drinking, shopping, and playing in the city’s historic center 

Dr. Drew Feels Your Pain
The good doctor has spun a local radio gig into a career as America’s most famous addiction specialist. Of course, that higher profile doesn’t come without side effects  
By Steven Mikulan   

Novel Graphics
Our intersections may be gritty and seething with pent-up frustration. But for some guerrilla artists they’re the ideal showcase—lots of eyeballs and no gallerists to deal with  
By Amy Albert   

Armenian Rhapsody
Our resident restaurant critic investigates (which is to say, goes gaga over) the flavorful alchemy behind Armenian food  
By Patric Kuh 

Packing Heat
L.A. has thousands of gun owners, but unlike other towns out west, you don’t see them here. Photographer Gregg Segal’s  images change that

The SEEN
All the parties fit to crash
By Kari Mozena 

Weekender
Santa Barbara isn’t just pretty beaches and Spanish-style streets. There’s great public art and other delights—if you know where to go 
By Ann Herold  

L.A. Story
Olivia Wilde on her never-ending “year off” and L.A.’s enthusiasm for the absurd

Tastemaker
Before he founded the home store TINI, Alexis Hadjopulos turned garage sale castoffs into gold

Au Courant
The prairie skirt sweeps back into town

L.A. Archetype
Voice actor Yeardley Smith speaks for Lisa Simpson, a kindred spirit 
By Lauren Maddox 

Film & TV
It’s grim out there. Between the “Millennium” film trilogy and TV’s The Killing, the world is in the midst of a Nordic invasion
By Steve Erickson 

Culture
The Bodhi Tree Bookstore, which for 41 years educated L.A. about New Age matters, is writing its final chapter—unless a buyer steps in before October 
By Dave Gardetta

Speak Easy
SAG national executive director David White on curing dysfunction, channeling Aristotle, and protecting the talent
By Amy Wallace 

Dine
They may have been born stateside, but Zach Pollack and Steve Samson, the duo behind West L.A.’s Sotto, capture the elegant simplicity of southern Italian cooking with an accent that rings true  
By Patric Kuh

PLUS: Check out our reviews of the newest restaurants