Get Thee to the Eagle Rock Music Festival This Weekend

It’s the best music festival of the year here in L.A. — well, in my opinion since (a) it’s free, (b) it’s free, (c) it’s free, and (d) it’s kid-friendly, not crowded, diverse, and Eagle Rock’s ever-growing stable of restaurants, bars and coffee houses cater to it.

The Eagle Rock Music Festival, which takes place Saturday night, is expected to attract 20,000 people — listening to music at 17 different locations. Colorado Blvd. will be closed for the evening, as people stroll up and down the street grooving to the music.

The L.A. Times, meanwhile, writes about the continued emergence of Eagle Rock — but pegs it with the tale of an empty lot-turned-condo project-turned-empty lot at the far end of Colorado Blvd. Still, the mostly praises Eagle Rock:

Eagle Rock stumbled into a terrible decline in the 1970s. In the ’90s, it began to ascend, fueled by millions of dollars in public and private investments — and a wave of artists and bohemians priced out of the beach and unimpressed with the hip scenes of Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Echo Park.

Along with counterculture types who’d never left, they sought to create a different sort of community on what might be called an urban seam — not quite city, not quite suburb; edgier and funkier than nearby Glendale and Pasadena, but more forgiving and artsy than the metropolitan center to the south.

By and large, they succeeded. Colorado Boulevard is the most obvious testament — coffee shops and muffler shops and an old-fashioned hardware store interspersed with galleries, artisans and eateries with Malbec tastings and vegan tempeh balls.

Finding the Best Pizza in Los Angeles

(Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist)

LAist has just proclaimed the best pizza slice in Los Angeles: Vito’s Pizza on La Cienega.

Definitely a good choice — check out our Rate-A-Restaurant review here.

For best overall pizza, we still have to go with Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock. For best slice in our area, we might gravitate toward Brownstone Pizzeria, also in Eagle Rock.

Where do you guys go to find the best slice in L.A.?

Colorado Wine Company’s Great Chalkboard War of 2008

The folks at Eagle Rock’s Colorado Wine Co. are still reeling from the loss of their sidewalk chalkboard sign — which helped drive traffic into the store. The sign also was a small reminder to the neighborhood that, hey, interesting, lively things are happening here.

But turns out those sidewalk signs are illegal. The city is willing to look the other way until people complain — and indeed, someone eventually did. Mr. Grumpy Pedestrian began his campaign against the sign rather passive aggressively — kicking it to one side for starters. But then things escalated:

We would keep our dinky little chalkboard sign on our half of the sidewalk which is approximately 13 feet wide. Well, what began as a surgically precise shift of our sidwalk advertising became a grumble and a swift kick which ultimately left our advertising flat on the ground or facing the store instead of the street every day. Polite confrontations posing questions like “excuse me, sir, why do you do that” and “are you angry at wine?” became pretty heated with quotes like “all you people are only in it for the money!” and “why should I have to walk on the side of the sidewalk! I want to walk down the middle and it’s a free country!” In it for the money? Clearly he’s never been in retail.

To be fair, though you see these types of signs up and down every retail corridor in our city, they are illegal. And soon enough, after a few more run-ins with our friendly neighborhood sign abuser, we received a notice from the city forcing us to remove it from the public sidewalk. And when an employee accidentally put the sign out the following week, our landlords were summoned to appear before the city downtown! Ultimately, we settled with the city over the phone and all was forgiven provided we never EVER spit in the face of justice again by putting out our little chalkboard trying to make our business a little more noticeable.

The Colorado Wine folks have dubbed the guy “Mr. Very Angry Irish Man.” MVAIM may soon find a new target of his ire: According to commenters on the Colorado Wine Co. site, the Coffee Table restaurant and bar up the street has started using a sidewalk sign as well.

Not Everyone Will Get a Bang Out of Y-Que’s New Neighborhood Tees

Los Feliz boutique Y-Que’s new line of community t-shirts has something for virtually everyone, with neighborhoods large and small (not to mention a few cities from outside L.A.) represented. (Although, I’m thinking the “South Hollywood” shirt won’t be such a hot seller — is there such a thing?)

Each of the shirts carries an icon along with the neighborhood name — some designs generic, others purposely tied to the neighborhood mentioned. Most are harmless… but the idea of promoting the neighborhood formerly known as South Central with a gun? Hmmm…

Others, via the Y Que website (where we found all of these photos):

Boyle Heights is a little more tame, with a mariachi performer.

Vernon probably gets off easy. It’s actually the subject of two different tees, here’s the other one:

Burbank, meanwhile, is featured here:

Are those people flying on a plane? Can’t tell.

Echo Park, represented by swans.

And then there’s…

Eagle Rock.

Y-Que is located at 1770 N. Vermont; phone number is 323-664-0021.

Rate-A-Restaurant #180: Camilo’s California Bistro

Restaurant: Camilo’s California Bistro

Location: 2128 Colorado Blvd

Type of restaurant: California cuisine

They stipulated: Camilo’s has a small children’s menu, but we snuck in Evan’s pre-made lunch, which was a tad healthier than the cheese sandwich or bean burrito they had on the menu. No one complained.

We stipulated: Following an event at the Blogger Kid’s preschool, we were hungry for a close-by lunch… but weren’t sure what we were in the mood for. Maria suggested Camilo’s, where she had dined quite frequently over the past month.

What we ordered: Mike — grilled chicken sandwich (chicken breast marinated in fresh rosemary, virgin olive oil and fresh herbs, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, with pasta salad); $8.95. Maria — Santa Fe chicken salad (grilled chicken, avocado, tomatoes, black beans, corn, red onions, pasilla chiles, cotija cheese, chips and lettuce, tossed with cilantro cream dressing); $9.95.

High point: The chicken sandwich held up well later that evening, when I was able to utilize the large sandwich’s leftovers for dinner.

Low point: Service was a tad unattentive. Took a while for the food to come out.

Overall impression: Nice spot, decent food, perhaps not overly remarkable. Not necessarily a first-choice destination, but one that’s a good fall-back when other plans fail. Convenient to us, and since we frequently find ourselves in Eagle Rock, it’s a nice spot to have on Colorado Blvd.

Chance we’ll go back: Probably, especially if we’re looking for a slightly classy place in the ‘hood with decent prices.

For a complete list of our more than 180 restaurant reviews, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site.

Thursday Odds and Ends

:: I find myself obsessed lately with this catchy tune from 2005, Nizlopi’s “JCB Song.” A big hit in the U.K., it never crossed over to this side of the pond, and I just discovered it on an import compilation I recently bought.

Of course, so much of why I like it has to do with being the dad of a 3 year old. Everytime I hear this song I want to go grab the Kid Formerly Known As Blogger Toddler and do something fun with him — so it’s a good thing.

(Photo: Gina Lee)

:: Since we’re kind of on the father tip here, you may have already visited the blog Matt, Liz and Madeline. But in case you haven’t, it’s a heartbreaking yet superbly written ongoing journal of a local Yahoo! staffer who’s chroncling his life as a new dad adjusting to a new world without his wife, who passed away the day after their daughter was born. Matt and Madeline appear to live close by (Atwater Village or Glassell Park, it seems) — local faves like Swork coffee are frequently mentioned.

:: Now on to another topic entirely: Radio. Congrats to Mimi Chen, most recently a colleague at KCSN, for scoring a sweet new gig: A DJ post at the new 100.3 The Sound. Mimi’s no stranger to the AAA format, having been a DJ at the late, lamented 101.9 KSCA “L.A.’s Finest Rock.”

Thursday Odds and Ends

:: I find myself obsessed lately with this catchy tune from 2005, Nizlopi’s “JCB Song.” A big hit in the U.K., it never crossed over to this side of the pond, and I just discovered it on an import compilation I recently bought.

Of course, so much of why I like it has to do with being the dad of a 3 year old. Everytime I hear this song I want to go grab the Kid Formerly Known As Blogger Toddler and do something fun with him — so it’s a good thing.

(Photo: Gina Lee)

:: Since we’re kind of on the father tip here, you may have already visited the blog Matt, Liz and Madeline. But in case you haven’t, it’s a heartbreaking yet superbly written ongoing journal of a local Yahoo! staffer who’s chroncling his life as a new dad adjusting to a new world without his wife, who passed away the day after their daughter was born. Matt and Madeline appear to live close by (Atwater Village or Glassell Park, it seems) — local faves like Swork coffee are frequently mentioned.

:: Now on to another topic entirely: Radio. Congrats to Mimi Chen, most recently a colleague at KCSN, for scoring a sweet new gig: A DJ post at the new 100.3 The Sound. Mimi’s no stranger to the AAA format, having been a DJ at the late, lamented 101.9 KSCA “L.A.’s Finest Rock.”

Rate-A-Restaurant #173: Brownstone Pizzeria

Restaurant: Brownstone Pizzeria

Location: 2108 Colorado Blvd (Eagle Rock)

Type of restaurant: Pizza

They stipulated: Weekday specials include two slices of cheese and a drink for $4.95, or two slices with topping and a drink for $5.95. We were set to get the specials — but they’re not offered on Saturday.

We stipulated: We had a big breakfast and were planning on having an early, so we wanted to have a simple, quick lunch. We were heading in Eagle Rock’s direction, and we’ve been wanting to try Brownstone anyway.

What we ordered: Slice with mushrooms and a slice with meatballs, $2.95 each

High point: What a nice surprise — the thin crust is a great, ultra thin consistency, and the slices a good size. Especially as a nice snack, it hit the spot.

Low point: Sad to discover that the weekday special wasn’t available on the weekend. Service was also a bit surly. But perhaps that was part of the New York pizzeria experience.

Overall impression: Hmm, Eagle Rock can now lay claim to being one of L.A.’s pizza mecca, as it’s home to both Brownstone and to our fave, Casa Bianca. Brownstone is a perfect addition to Eagle Rock’s ever hipper Colorado Blvd., and offers up one of the best by-the-slice experiences I’ve had in L.A.
By the way, Colorado Wine Co. allows Brownstone customers to come in with their slices and enjoy it in their wine bar with a glass or two. That sounds like a future plan.

Chance we’ll go back: Considering how often we’re in the neighborhood, there’s no doubt.

For a complete list of our more than 170 restaurant reviews, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site.

Los Angeles Draws Itself

The Center for the Arts/Eagle Rock — a member of Northeast Los Angeles Arts Organization — will bow the exhibit “Drawing Los Angeles” this Saturday.

The juried exhibition examines “the trends, themes, and terrain of drawing in Los Angeles today.” Opening reception takes place May 10 at 7 p.m.; exhibit continues on display through June 14.

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock is located at 2225 Colorado Blvd., and is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Eagle Rock Picks Its "American Idol" Contestant

Looks like they’re rooting for Ramiele Malubay at the Eagle Rock Plaza. (Ramiele’s from Florida, but as you know, Eagle Rock boasts a large Filipino population — and don’t count that big vote out nationwide.)

Yes, I’ve started watching (hey, it’s my job, people). Not sure any contestant has my vote yet, but David Cook’s rendition of Chris Cornell’s version of “Billie Jean” was the only interesting performance last week.