Week one down.
Melrose Hill, retail vacancies, and rooftop pizza.
Happy Friday, everyone. We made it through the first week of the Rag. Congratulations to us all.
Since it’s almost the weekend and you’re probably feeling generous, you can share this with your friends, your mom, or that random dude you met at a party in Silver Lake using the button below.
A brand new neighborhood (to scenesters)
Last night, I finally checked out Bar Étoile in Melrose Hill. I went with a friend, and we split the trout rillettes, the yams, and the chicken. All were fantastic, and the space is beautiful. You should go if your ideal night consists of good food, a martini, and generally being around people with great clothes.
Bar Étoile is part of the greater Melrose Hill renaissance of the past several years, which is still fascinating to me even after reading about it in Eater, the Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, and more than a few others. In short, the vast majority of the commercial properties around the intersection of Melrose and Western have been purchased by thirty-something Los Feliz resident Zach Lasry, renovated, and leased to art galleries, restaurants, and adjacent businesses catering to the creative class.
What was previously a nondescript stretch of discount furniture stores is now home to restaurants like Ètra and Kuya Lord, the first West Coast location of blue-chip international art gallery David Zwirner, and the impossibly photogenic LA Grocery & Café (which was founded by two Honey Hi veterans and recently cameoed on Hacks).
Most recently, the long-standing nonprofit art space LAXART moved to a new spot on Western, adjacent to Clearing, Sargent’s Daughters, and Shrine.
More change is coming as Zach gobbles up more and more real estate (if you’re wondering how he’s affording all this, his dad is billionaire financier and Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry) and renovates in partnership with the very cool LA-based consultancy Creative Space.
I’ve reached out to the development team for details on upcoming tenants and projected growth, and I’ll update everyone when they respond. In the meantime, a Saturday afternoon of gallery hopping (plus a bite at Bar Étoile) doesn’t sound like the worst idea.
Thoughts on an Echo Park intersection
Ever since the closure of Señor Fish in 2023 and more recently, Sage* across the street, the primo intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Logan Street in Echo Park has been without two of its anchor tenants.
In the short term, there’s a gap-toothed hole in the streetscape (Aimee Lou Wood, but with buildings). Long term, the eventual filling of these highly visible vacancies promises (threatens??) to reshape the energy and character of the neighborhood’s retail center.
In an effort to prevent the arrival of a Carl’s Jr. in the heart of Echo Park, I’ll be referring all community suggestions for 1700 and 1701 Sunset to the buildings’ leasing agents through the end of the month.
Here are a few of the Rag’s picks (and a few nightmare scenarios) for Sunset and Logan. Please submit all additional suggestions via DM at @eastside_rag or by responding to this email.
DREAM: All Time Echo Park. There’s always a line at All Time, it never misses, and the Echo Park crowd could use an offshoot a few miles closer. Plus, there’s room behind the old Señor Fish for a dreamy outdoor space like the one at the Los Feliz flagship.
NIGHTMARE: Any chain ever. We love you, but we don’t want you.
DREAM: A 24-hour diner. Imagine: you stumble out of El Prado or Bar Flores, slide into a sticky pleather booth, and someone with a husky voice calls you “honey.” You might get a waffle. You’ve never been happier.
DREAM: Cheesecake Factory Echo Park. I know we said no chains, but this is the one exception. You just know it’d be a hit.
NIGHTMARE: Great White Echo Park. A message to Great White: you were cute when it was just one or two of you, but it’s getting to be a bit much. It’s kind of like when that one family you know keeps on growing (and growing) and what you thought was charming becomes a question of civil rights. Please stay away.
DREAM: A garden center. An opportunity for the Echo Park crowd to be plant parents, but chances are high they’d also do really great street plantings outside.
DREAM: A bar with an arcade. Slightly dingy, but GQ would for sure do a shoot there. The perfect place to impress with your secret Skee-Ball finesse and be a dork within reason.
*Never have I paid so much for such mediocre food, I can’t believe this place lasted as long as it did <3
📅 Mark your calendar…
There’s a “curated market” happening in Silver Lake on Sunday. I don’t really know how that’s different from a yard sale, but the organizers made a poster that feels sort of elevated, so if you’re in the market for vintage goods, clothes, ceramics, jewelry, art, or antiques, you should check it out at 620 N. Occidental Boulevard.
🍽️ And now for some table scraps…
Rooftop pizza in Silver Lake! Pi LA will open on June 14, right above Wasteland and Byredo on the corner of Sunset and Hyperion. It’ll serve signature pan pizzas, brews from Five Point Five Brewery, and freeze pops from Sno Con Amour. Most importantly, it has a truly massive roof deck in the heart of Sunset Junction.
Can the Morgan Wallen fandom be separated from Trumpism? No, according to Variety’s Jem Aswad.
If you’re going to Yosemite this summer, you won’t be staying in the High Sierra Camps. For the seventh summer running, the highly desirable glamping sites have fallen victim to a shortage of potable water and adequate toilet facilities.
Electric air taxis are coming to the 2028 Olympics. Archer Aviation will be offering four-person air taxis during the LA games — all for prices comparable to an Uber Black (sure, okay). If everything goes according to plan, customers will be able to grab airborne transportation from hubs including Dodger Stadium, LAX, SoFi Stadium, and Santa Monica, and get from venue to venue in an average of 10-20 minutes. The thing looks like a death trap to me, but I’d also sell my soul to get from Echo Park to LAX in 10 minutes, so we’ll see.
Altadena favorite Miya will reopen on May 27. It’s been closed since the fires, and it’s one of the first restaurants to return in a neighborhood that still feels super quiet four months later. Support them!
For the entertainment people, Christopher Rosen is joining The Ankler as deputy editor. He was previously at Gold Derby, and before that, Entertainment Weekly.
Erstwhile Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal was arrested for throwing a rock.
I cannot wait for Sirens. Meghann Fahy talked to the NYT while making an Edible Arrangement and revealed she initially auditioned for Alexandra Daddario’s role in The White Lotus S1.
Echo Park’s Ototo will be hosting a summer pop-up at Mauna Lani in Hawaii. So if you happen to be on the Big Island, don’t worry — you can still get a meal at your local favorite.
If you like vintage fashion, but don’t like paying for it, use this not-so-secret Instagram account.
Is this sofa from Pierce & Ward the best or worst thing you’ve ever seen? I can’t afford it, obviously, but I’m curious.
Have a great weekend, and keep letting me know what you want to read next :)
Melrose Hill is a gentrifier term created by real estate agents lol