Echo Park spots to curb your cravings for National Pizza Week!
This week is National Pizza Week, and what better way to celebrate than with a gallery of Echo Park’s most delicious pizzas? It should, after all, have its own food group.
Masa's Chicago deep dish (vegan style). Flickr photo via veganbakesale
Masa of Echo Park lures people from all over Los Angeles with its authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza. In addition to the amazing service and ambiance at Masa (we love you guys!), the kick-ass owners and great food, they offer a hearty selection of vegan options (which includes a vegan deep dish option).
Vote for Echo Park for Curbed’s neighborhood of the year
The annual Curbed Cup is back – where website Curbed LA pegs sixteen neighborhoods against each other, competing for LA’s best neighborhood by popular vote over several rounds. Echo Park went up for the challenge last year and lost to Old Bank (ultimately, Hollywood took the title).
Today, Curbed LA features Echo Park versus North Hollywood in round one. Here’s how Curbed LA describes our little neighborhood:
“What is this, 2006?” you’re surely asking. Yeah, yeah, Echo Park already happened (even the LA Times discovered it late last year), but all those hipster move-ins were just prelude to the bigger and badder gentrification now underway. This year, a tiny 1881 bungalow went for $695,000, a hipster flip went for $739,000, and Heyday Partners’ Dick+Jane townhouses both sold almost immediately for asking or close to it. The Smurf Village/Durbin and the small lot subdivision Morton Village both got reanimated this year, as did the Metropolitan Water District apartments on a neglected side of the neighborhood. EP’s namesake lake was drained for a rehab this year and even snooty Conde Nast Traveler wanted in on the neighborhood action.
So far, Echo Park has the lead at 65%. Click here to vote!
7-Eleven still vying for Echo Park strip mall
We’ve been following a story for quite some time now about a proposed 7-11 for the vacant storefront on the corner of Glendale Boulevard and Berkeley Avenue. The chain has been eyeing the space since the start of this year, having also applied for a license for the sale of beer and wine for the new store.
The possibility of the new 7-11 has raised many concern amongst residents. In addition to its close proximity to other existing convenience stores (just across the street is an AM/PM), a 7-11 already existing in Echo Park, and the sale of beer and wine (always a controversy), the space itself is a challenge. There are few parking spaces available, and the intersection is a disaster – with traffic consistently backed up on Berkeley as it is, a high-traffic store could contribute to the current traffic headaches of nearby residents.
Despite some pretty vocal opposition by residents, the Greater Elysian Echo Park Neighborhood Council (GEPENC) approved the 7-11 in late October (with conditions), but only serves as an advisory position to the city’s planning department. A recent zoning hearing with the city was postponed, but will be rescheduled likely for February of 2012.
The representatives of 7-11 seem optimistic and pretty open to neighborhood concerns – at last night’s neighborhood issues committee meeting of the Echo Park Improvement Association, representatives spoke about working with the current landlord on signage and lighting issues, and are in the process of developing design concepts that meet our concerns, amongst other issues. They’ve also limited the hours of beer and wine sales, along with banning the sale of single bottles and cans (also a condition recommended by GEPENC). Additionally, they’ll be cleaning up the parking lot, hoping to remove the unsightly brick wall, repainting/repaving the parking lot, and improving signage.
Which brings to mind: Also unfolding are the issues with the lot as a whole. This year the little flower/bike/tobacco kiosk was dismantled, the salon disappeared, and it looks like La Pizza Loca and the flower shop are vacating (no word on if it’s by choice) by the end of this month. The fate of the Tacos Mexico restaurant is also uncertain – and even the 7-11 reps admitted at last night’s meeting the strip mall is about 60% vacant. We’re a little worried that these places are being squeezed out because 7-11 is planning on making improvements (that little flower shop is amazing), and any new applicants will likely be paying much higher rents.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for that next zoning meeting with the city in early 2012. Otherwise, our crystal ball says 7-11 will likely be a new neighbor on Glendale Boulevard.
Photo: A rooftop view of Echo Park
Photo by Arturo Rivera
This awesome photo was emailed to us by Arturo Rivera, taken from a rooftop in Echo Park. Nice view from up there!
Crawl along Sunset Blvd. for cold beer and Echo Park music – it’s Beer Week!
in Announcements, Eat & Shop, Lifestyle, Nightlife | 0 comments
LA Beer Week (or “weeks” really) is like Christmas to me, the most important holiday of the year – but we don’t mesh with the whole drinking and driving thing, so we prefer to hang local and support the ‘hood!
So strap on those beer drinking/dancing boots for the Echo Park Musical Beer Crawl Tuesday, October 11, 2011. More than a handful of Echo Park businesses and venues are participating, including Backside, City Sip, El Prado, Grill ‘Em All Truck, Lot 1 Cafe, Masa, Mohawk Bend, Origami Vinyl, Sunset Beer Co., Taix 321 Lounge, The Echo/Echoplex, and Two Boots. Yeah!
Each place is offerings special discounts or rare keg tappings, be sure to check out what each place is doing by clicking here.
How do you take advantage of these discounts and special gatherings around Echo Park? “Passports” are now available for you to print out and flash at the participating venues. Click here to get your own! (Oh, yes, and it’s free!)
Echo Park rules: LA Weekly’s Best of LA list
in Announcements, Art & Music, Eat & Shop, Lifestyle, Nightlife | 0 comments
We all know it: Echo Park is the raddest. But it’s nice to get a little acknowledgment – LA Weekly’s Best of LA 2011 is out, and once again, we’ve got quite a few locations in our ‘hood to celebrate.
Keep reading what Echo Park businesses and locations made the Best of LA cut:
Spitfire Girl: Best Ironic Baubles for a Best Friend
Located along our stretch of Echo Park known as antique row, Spitfire Girl gets kudos for being a “more authentic version of Urban Outfitters’ indie accessories department.” From horses and owl-themed products to art books, jewelry, and woodcut wall art, LA Weekly recommends a stop as “you should have no trouble finding a unique gift for any lover of irony or beauty.” We have to admit we’ve never been to Spitfire Girl… we will definitely go now!
LA Weekly link
2203 Sunset Blvd. • (213) 989-1977 • spitfiregirl.com
Rewind Audio: Best Electronics That Don’t Fit in a Pocket
Audio geeks rejoice: “This is not the insanely priced stuff sought by audiophiles but great, quotidian, mainstream electronics…” says The LA Weekly.
Even better? “Their pristine little Echo Park shop attracts a steady stream of people in their 20s seeking a retro look and electronic equipment that’s fun to touch, as well as a 40s-and-up clientele who miss the richer sounds often lost to digital.
LA Weekly link
1041 N. Alvarado St. • (213) 273-8904 • rewindaudio.com
(more…)
“Perfect Echo” photo exhibit presented by resident Martin Cox
Echo Park resident and photographer Martin Cox has taken some pretty stellar images of our neighborhood lake over the years, and now he’s sharing it with us all! Through November 2, you can check out his gallery of images in a show titled “Perfect Echo” at a Silver Lake gallery. According to The Eastsider LA, along with other Los Angeles neighborhood images, the exhibit will display the beautiful Echo Park Lake juxtaposed with sullen images like sunken shopping carts. While the show opened in early September, you still have time to check it out!
The Gallery is located at 3517 West Sunset at the Silver Lake/Echo Park border (enter through Dustmuffin)
Just head north through… Enendale?
Bing Maps has us scratching our heads when we searched for our Echo Park neighborhood. Is “Enendale” code for something? Last we checked the historical name for the area is Edendale, but even that isn’t really used. Does Bing know something we don’t know…?
A happy weather weekend for Echo Park
Some weird weather the past week, eh? There’s been a little bit of humidity in the air as of late (I’m not complaining, having just come back from Virginia a few days ago), causing some “monsoonal” rains in the dessert and bulbous (cumulus?) clouds over the mountains.
Nearby neighbor Will Cambell posted this photo of the Silver Lake sky the other day on his blog, and there was even a report of drops of rain Elysian Heights/Echo Park on Tuesday. This weekend promises some nice, sunny, and cooler weather with a high of 80 degrees. Sounds like a perfect weekend for some Elysian Park BBQs?
Map: How walkable is Echo Park?
Apparently, very walkable!
With an average “walk score” of 75, Echo Park is #19 of 95 neighborhoods scored by the website walkscore.com. The green highlights in the map shown above indicate a high walkability zone (where “daily errands do not require a car”), while the red areas are less walkable (where “almost all errands require a car”).
Now, we love the walking thing – in a beautiful neighborhood like Echo Park, it’s wonderful, free exercise and we get to explore the many hidden stairways.
You may notice that the map, however, doesn’t show ALL of Echo park, missing the neighborhoods west of Alvarado and south of the 101, but you get the picture.
Click here to check out the full map and details from the Walk Score website.
