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If you can’t find it at H.D. Buttercup, it probably doesn’t exist. The mother of all home emporiums carries Khyber Pass rugs, and all manner of lamps, beds, and pots for plants. Mosey through 100,000 square feet of vendors showcasing the imported, the ultramodern, and the antique. » 3225 Helms Ave., Culver City, 310-945-5440. (Awarded Best of LA 2006)
Las Vegas is the last place you’d ever expect to go green. A dizzying buffet of high-rise hotels, boisterous tourists, casinos, clubs, and lights flashing all around, the city of sin is hardly a picture of eco-friendliness.
The CityCenter—the newest addition to the Strip—promises to change this, however. A 76-acre city-within-a-city, the CityCenter will house hotels and residences, restaurants, and a $40 million public fine art program. Currently under construction and scheduled to open its centerpiece building, Aria, by the end of 2009, the CityCenter is destined to be one of the world’s largest environmentally sustainable urban communities. Inhabitat reports that the CityCenter is the largest privately financed development in the history of North America vying for U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED certification. Indeed, the Center is slated to span 18 million square feet, which Inhabitat says is more square footage than all of the existing LEED-certified buildings combined.
Traveler invited HotelChatter senior editor Juliana Shallcross to share her favorite San Francisco hotels in September’s cover story, “Classic San Francisco.” Juliana revealed some gems, including the Hotel Vitale, which she describes as a “small but elegant 199-room property on the Embarcadero, the city’s traditional waterfront.” When booking, she says, request a room overlooking the water. “The Bay Bridge views are great. And there are free yoga classes, too.”
Another reason to like the Vitale: It belongs to the Joie de Vivre hotel group, which aims to donate a minimum of $200 per guest room per year to community organizations. Hotel Vitale’s philanthropic partner is the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, whose members and volunteers build trails, restore wetlands, propagate and plant thousands of native species, study hawk migration, and bring 15,000 schoolchildren to the Parks each year for educational programs. Hotel guests can help by donating one dollar of their total bill to Joie de Vivre’s “You Can Make a Difference” program.
One more plus: The Hotel Vitale is located within walking distance of a wide variety of public transportation, including BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the historic waterfront trolleys, ferries to the North and East Bay, cable cars and Muni (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency).
The owner of the historic theater is looking for a buyer or a partner. By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A downtown Los Angeles theater that has hosted some of the biggest names in entertainment since the 1920s but struggled in recent decades is once again in search of a white knight — one who could pay $12.5 million to buy it.
The Variety Arts Center was purchased in early 2007 by the former owner of the Pasadena Playhouse, David Houk, who hoped to stage plays and musicals in the historic five-story building at Figueroa and Ninth streets.
But Houk was unable to secure the federal tax credits he had hoped would help fund restoration and operation, he said, so now he must sell it or find a new partner willing to buy into his dream of bringing the old stage back to life.
New Downtown Sushi School Plans to Teach Traditional Skills
by Richard Guzman
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| Dozens of sushi fans enjoyed food prepared by Katsuya Uechi (in white) at the opening this month of the Sushi Institute of America. The Arts District establishment will offer a $3,000, two-month course in sushi preparation, as well as one-day cram sessions. Photo by Gary Leonard. |
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Master sushi chef Katsuya Uechi admitted that as a kid, he wasn’t exactly a great student, which makes his role as the head of a new Downtown Los Angeles school somewhat ironic.
But this is a school where Uechi is right at home doing what he does best: preparing sushi.
There is also a noble purpose, implied Uechi, who founded the small Katsu-ya restaurant chain in 1998. He has partnered with Noritoshi Kanai, president of the Japanese food-importing business Mutual Trading Company and a pioneer in bringing sushi to America, partly because he is concerned about maintaining the authenticity of traditional Japanese sushi. He also noted a shortage of qualified chefs.
Organizers Expect 30,000 People for Grand Avenue Celebration
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| The fifth annual Grand Avenue Festival will feature free performances, scavenger hunts and more. The event takes place Sunday, Sept. 28, on Grand Avenue between Temple and Fifth streets. Photos by Gary Leonard. |
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Much of the talk these days about Bunker Hill’s major thoroughfare, Grand Avenue, focuses on the street’s future. As the target of redevelopment plans, including the $3 billion Grand Avenue project and a proposed 16-acre park, Grand Avenue will no doubt become an even more important corridor for Downtown Los Angeles in years to come.
Later this month, however, the fifth annual Grand Avenue Festival will celebrate the street’s existing cultural institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the L.A. Opera and the L.A. Philharmonic. Those and other entities will present special performances and events. The festival will also offer sidewalk attractions, food and drink and interactive activities.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign the state budget this morning, his office said. That would make the budget law 85 days after the fiscal year began, a record in state tardiness. Schwarzenegger is expected to veto line items amounting to millions of dollars in spending.
