Receiving an invitation to visit Los Angeles for a month over Christmas was like winning Lotto.
It was my Aunty Nina’s way of saying thank you for looking after her brother Len for so many years. Verity and I jumped at the opportunity. Running Garnet Station cafe, restaurant, bar and Tiny Theatre had been a real challenge during Covid. The problems continued: finding staff experienced or otherwise, keeping pace with inflation, communicating with customers who had gone to ground, all while imagining how we could utilise Artificial Intelligence in our business.
So we took the opportunity to alter our paradigm, refill our tanks, and see how the Northern hemisphere was handling things. On landing, we waited almost an hour for my cousin to travel a short distance through congestion, navigating the five lane madness that is LAX airport pick-up. Overhead snakes the sleek concrete lines of the Automated People Mover, designed to deliver travellers to their terminal without vehicles. This yet to be completed viaduct that weaves around the iconic defunct 1960s control tower is part of a $15 billion upgrade.
The fact that this is the most expensive public construction ever in the city’s history speaks to the enormous wealth dwelling beneath this expansive metropolis. LA remains the largest urban oil field in America with over 700 pumping wells still in operation. Ever since Edward Doheny discovered and drilled for oil in 1892, Californians have been infatuated by the car. They love them, race them, paint them, preen them and even live in them.
Nina relished the responsibility of driving her nieces around the vast city of her birth. She is revered by her family for her limitless knowledge of boulevards, streets and crossroads, the only one who doesn’t need GPS, and at 88 can read traffic flow better than Google maps. As we cruised around, she lamented the closure of so many old established eateries. Signs in dusty windows read, 'Fully equipped restaurant for lease’. We ate a lot in the name of research, sampling burger joints, Jewish delis, kosher Mexican takeaways, rooftop bars, local patisseries, swanky market salad bars and popular cafes packed with customers.
The family run Apple Pan (1948) is an old fashioned, dimly lit smokey diner with classic red swivel bar stools fixed around a U shaped counter with front door screens that rattle with the passing traffic. Note to self that their motto, 'Do simple things exceedingly well' is the answer to longevity. This maxim also applies to the beloved outdoor Original Farmers Market (1934) that teems with people all the time. Sure does help to have such a hungry population.
It reminded me how much people really value long-established places because they add to their lives by creating a focal point and help create community in the rush of city life. The movie industry is the beating heart of LA and we caught sight of celebrities enjoying anonymity whilst lunching in a museum cafe. One of the most popular award-winning comedy-drama series this season is The Bear about the 'soul crushing realities of small business ownership' and how strong willed recalcitrant kitchen staff become like family.
Which is one of the reasons why after four years we have decided to re-open the cafe side of Garnet Station. From 5 February we will be serving fabulous morning coffee and pastries, Monday to Saturday, 7am-11am.
Of course a getaway is not complete without art, so we took in the HAMMER, Luna Luna, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Academy Museum, Santa Monica Pier & Muscle Park, Griffith Observatory and finally the Autry Museum of the American West that had the hard hitting exhibition Reclaiming El Camino, addressing Spanish genocide of the original land caretakers, the Tongva peoples.
I did miss riding my electric bike while away from home, but we walked a hell of a lot, in fact often we seemed to be the only people traversing LA on foot. We also rode the metro and caught buses which bemused my family. Drivers there are more careful given the litigious nature of the place. I seriously think NZ needs a public service transport campaign that reminds people in cars to slow down near schools, crossings, in suburbs, to share the roads and basically to care about each other.
Radical I know, then we could remove the speed humps, bumps and hit sticks and I’d be really happy, almost as happy as I am after a long holiday away. (Lisa Prager, Westmere)
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February 2024