2011 had everything: game-changing burgers, fancy bowling alleys and flying little people. Join us on a leisurely virtual stroll through the year that was...
November 9 began like any other fall day. Then came word that the debut of Short Order—the long, long-awaited burger joint from the late Amy Pressman with some help from Mozza’s Nancy Silverton—was finally upon us. And best-burger-in-LA lists quickly got revised...
Through a yellow door at the back of Papaya King, there it was—a roaring club with live music sets from Florence + the Machine and unknown bands. If you haven’t seen LP tear apart “Halo” for a packed house, we regret to inform you your 2011 is incomplete.
He already had a Top Chef crown, a pile of confounding kitchen gadgets from the future and some impressive tattoos. Now Michael Voltaggio can say that his much-hyped restaurant is one of the toughest reservations in town. He also got new ink that says “ink.” How meta.
At a red-curtained theater of debauchery in the basement of the Roosevelt, things got incredibly weird. Like drinking-in-a-birdcage, stage-full-of-monkeys, troubling-contortionist, flying-little-people weird. Yes, you did just see Zac Efron high-fiving somebody dressed as Big Bird.
Just two flights of stairs up from Beacher’s Madhouse—yet seemingly galaxies away—a refined hideaway of bourbon, board games and bowling was born. Thus causing you, for possibly the first time ever, to use “refined” and “bowling” in the same sentence. Unironically, anyway.
It’s not a fussy place. It’s not an exclusive place. It’s just a place that built some beer taps right into your booth. If you aren’t lucky enough to get one of the three special tables at the back, there are plenty more taps where you usually see them.
And in the twilight of 2011, just when you thought our city had run out of magic, Pamela Anderson showed up to toss you her keys. (She’s staying in Canada a lot these days and didn’t want her place to sit unused.) It’s the perfect spot for your one-piece-swimsuit party.
