Esotouric … The Crime Bus Tour Returns

You might have read my post a few months ago about the 1947 Project’s crime bus tour. Well they are back, with a new name and new tours!

One of the tour guides, Nathan Marsak on the bus

Branded under the new name Esotouric, they now offer five tours including The Real Black Dahlia”, “John Fante: Dreams of Bunker Hill”, “Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place”, “Riot on Sunset Strip”, and “Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles”.

The Black Dahlia tour was interesting. I really think a mystery novel/history nut type is going to appreciate these tours the most. And also Los Angeles residents. There are other crime bus tours in LA like Dearly Departed Tours which I think cater to more of a tourist as they are more celebrity driven.

The only thing I kind of don’t like about these tours is the fact that you’re sitting for 5 hours on a bus with maybe two or three stops. It starts to drag. But one of the new tours, The John Fante one, features a 45 minute walk around downtown. Love it. I want the change in scenery.

Frankly I want more than a history lesson and a drive by. I want get out, walk around, explore, really get a feel for the things they’re talking about.

Moving from the topic even more, I really think the perfect tour format is done by Charles Phoenix. Read my blog about his tour of downtown Los Angeles. There’s also a video about this tour at that link.

Esotouric’s tours are on Saturdays… and the following are scheduled. Check their website for more information on each tour and all the bios on the tour guides. You can also buy tickets there.

Tours are $55. (or 4 tours for $190 with the season pass)

Upcoming Esotouric tour schedule:

Sat May 5 – The Real Black Dahlia
Sat May 12 – Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place
Sat May 26 – Pasadena Confidential
Sat June 16- John Fante’s Dreams of Bunker Hill
Sat June 23 – Riot on Sunset Strip

They are also on Gold Star Events for half price, $27.50. Click Here to go to their page on Gold Star.

Note! You have to be a member to browse Gold Star Events pages so please sign up here. It’s free and takes just a few minutes. Plus if you click that link I get a free $1 credit. =)

Check out their website for all the information. http://www.esotouric.com/

Last Remaining Seats Returns

Ever wanted to check out all those old amazing theaters downtown that aren’t in use anymore? Well the L.A. Conservancy is letting you see movies there just like they used to before it all went to hell down there. (Please some billionaire buy Broadway and restore all these places)

From FranklinAve.net:

Every year, the Conservancy throws open the doors to several of downtown’s movie palaces and treats them as intended — running movies. The events sell out fast, so don’t delay.

If I have a complaint, though, it’s that this year’s crop of theatres is yawn-inducing. The Orpheum and the Alex Theatre are renovated and still open for various events, so there’s less of a curiosity factor with them. Meanwhile, the John Anson Ford Ampitheatre was never a movie palace…

Here’s the schedule (all Wednesdays, at 8 p.m.):

May 23 — “North by Northwest” (Orpheum Theatre)
May 30 — “Roman Holiday” (Los Angeles Theatre)
June 6 — “Flesh and the Devil” (Orpheum Theatre)
June 13 — “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (Los Angeles Theatre)
June 20 — “La Balandra Isabel llego esta tarde” ( John Anson Ford Amphitheatre)
June 27 — “Scarface” (Alex Theatre)

Tix are $15 for Conservancy members, and $18 for everyone else. If you haven’t been to the Los Angeles Theatre (or the Orpheum, for that matter), you owe it to yourself to check it out.

More information and tickets at http://www.laconservancy.org/

13th Annual Dine Out Los Angeles Thursday, April 19, 2007

Dine Out Los Angeles is a one-day fundraising event, where Los Angeles area restaurants donate 20% or more of their day’s proceeds to Aid For AIDS to help prevent homelessness and hunger for individuals and families impoverished and disabled by HIV/AIDS.

This is such an easy way to support the HIV/AIDS community – you have to eat, right? So on Thursday April 19th, 2007, for breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurants from West Hollywood to Silverlake to Hollywood to Long Beach to Pasadena to West Los Angeles to Beverly Hills to the Valley and more will be donating monies from meals purchased that day. One day. One meal (or more). It is so simple and delicious! 

For more information, check out their website at http://www.dineoutla.org/

For a complete list of participating restaurants, click here.

The Restaurant at the Getty Center

I’ve got the perfect romantic restaurant for you. The perfect Sunday brunch, the perfect anniversary, the perfect, “Meet me at the top of the hill” date: The Restaurant at the Getty Center.

It’s only open for lunch Tuesday through Saturday, dinner Friday through Saturday, and brunch on Sunday. A few weeks ago when my mother was in town from the east coast, I wanted to spend the day at the Getty as she loves art, so I booked a reservation for brunch at noon.

From Gayot:

The Getty Center is still one of L.A.’s hottest attractions, though demand for reservations has eased up enough to allow for the occasional spur-of-the-moment culture fix. And if you’re visiting the Center and simply must dine more elegantly than at its various caféterias and food carts, try to book a table at its stunningly modern, white-on-white restaurant. What you’ll get for your (top) dollar are table settings worthy of a museum and beautiful-to-behold contemporary cuisine presentations. Appetizers include carpaccio of seared ahi and crab timbale with gazpacho sauce, while entrées feature a porcini and artichoke risotto with onions, and seared big-eye tuna with horseradish potatoes and a roasted shallot vinaigrette. The view is the most breathtaking in L.A., especially at sunset.

And they give it a 16/20 which I totally agree with.

The views from the restaurant are amazing and you’re sitting on top of high art. The restaurant takes advantage of the Getty’s location, with the best views to the west out over the rolling Santa Monica Mountains and all the way to the Pacific. The food is almost as remarkable as the views: fine grilled items, seasonal produce, and an excellent wine selection. They get most of their produce from local farmers’ markets and then create a menu around that.

I’ve heard brunch may be the best meal here. Catching up on the latest exhibit, and then adjourning to the restaurant is a wonderful way to spend a Sunday. There’s a full bar, so you have the option of ordering a sprightly mimosa or something called a wasabi bloody mary. Tall and iced, it packs a sharp blast of heat. I had the Charbay Blackberry Vanilla Mojito. Very good.

For brunch I had the Blue Crab and Rock Shrimp Cake “Benedict” Hollandaise Sauce, Avocado Salsa and Chipotle Aioli. Also looked good, the Meyer Lemon and Ricotta Pancakes with Fresh Banana, Blueberry Coulis and Applewood Smoked Bacon. wow. I’m hungry again. They also serve a nice plate of a assortment of breads including a great banana bread.

From City Search:

Elegant, modern California cuisine from Chef Anthony Jacquet fits in perfectly with the Getty’s setting, which strives to contextualize itself within the L.A. experience. The lunch menu’s star exhibitor is the lobster risotto, resplendent and complex with sweet, tender claw meat, fresh vegetables, basil and preserved lemon. Free-range chicken breast is stuffed with aromatic goat cheese and shiitake mushrooms, and maple glazed Tasmanian salmon perches haughtily, aspiring to Richard Meier, on diced potatoes, rich with green garlic aioli and rappini. The delicate pear and hazelnut Napoleon is the perfect coda. Dinner entrees include venison medallions, Muscovy duck and pan roasted arctic char.

Reservations are recommended! Call (310) 440-6810 or Reserve a Table online.

Prices: Lunch appetizers, $7 to $12; entrées, $15 to $19; desserts, $5 to $7. Dinner entrées, $20 to $38. Brunch entrées $15-$30

Getty Center Restaurant
1200 Getty Center Dr (Cross Street: Sepulveda Boulevard)
Los Angeles, CA 90049
(310) 440-6810

Parking is $8. You park at the base of the hill and ride the tram up the hill to the top of the center. The restaurant is to your immediate right after you walk up the front stairs before you get to the lobby. It’s north of the research center.

Also… it’s fairly casual on Sunday and during the week, business casual is fine.

Calendar Live did a review in 2003 that hits it dead on. Read it Here.

The Beastly Bombing at the Steve Allen Theater

I have a operetta I think everyone should check out at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood… it even got a write up in the NY Times (see below). NY Times writer I’m not so I’ll let it do the talking…




A Very Model of a Modern Meta-Musical

By M. G. LORD



Los Angeles



”The Beastly Bombing” (or a Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by Tangles of True Love)” is not your ordinary operetta. It is a buddy comedy about white supremacists and members of Al Qaeda who meet while attempting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge, all set to jaunty melodies evocative of Gilbert and Sullivan. The skinheads and terrorists gambol about the stage, engaging with pill-popping first daughters, a Saudi-loving president, a pedophilic priest, the New York City Police Department and Jesus. In a rollicking dance number, the neo-Nazis, terrorists and a Hasidic extremist bond over what they have in common: “I hate Jews.” (The Hasidic extremist hates secular Jews.)