Day: May 12, 2009

Drive & Find: Ep 1: Cantalini’s Salerno Beach

Post author By Brian and Mike
Post date May 12, 2009

We started Drive & Find a few years back because, frankly, we were damn intimidated by the vast Los Angeles culinary scene. It’s a simple concept: two Westside dudes are hungry… they pick an area of town… they take a drive … they find an alluring restaurant … they dine there. This concept has brought us all around LA – from seafood to Thai to total crap – nonetheless our affinity for the unknown remains.

DATE: Sunday, May 2, 2009

RESTAURANT: Cantalini’s Salerno Beach Restaurant
193 Culver Blvd; Playa del Rey, 90293
310.821.0018
www.salernobeach.com

Their slogan: “The Best in Traditional Italian Cuisine.”

Our Slogan: “The Best in Traditional Italian Cuisine … on that part of Culver Blvd.”

Drive Time: 20 minutes

LIKES: Saltwater smell outside. The house band straight out of an early ‘90s Steve Martin romantic comedy. Cozy date spot. The hand-painted walls. Leather booths outside for table waiting. Cute, oddly dressed hostess. A lot of cork popping all around. Locals in beach attire.

DISLIKES: Thirty minute wait at 7:45 p.m. on a Sunday. The enflamed MAC Tools Autoracing parka worn by a dude at an adjacent table. At times feeling like we were in coastal South Carolina. The bread. Their middle school class project website (www.salernobeach.com ).

Music

The Vaselines, May 10, 2009, El Rey Theater

Post author By Sung
Post date May 12, 2009

Reader Picks

NBC: Los Angeles’ Best Venue: Spaceland? Or Troubadour?

Post author By Ryan
Post date May 12, 2009

Anybody who reads this site with any sort of regularity no doubt knows my passion for pointless surveys and user-generated polls (more examples here, if you must). As such, it thrills me to no end to now direct you to our colleagues over at NBC Los Angeles who, in a new (presumably and hopefully recurring) feature titled “The Golden Local”, ask their readers which of the following rock venues deserves the title Best Local Venue: Spaceland? Or Doug Weston’s Troubadour? You have but 14 hours left to cast your vote at press time; get over there and be heard right now, and don’t forget to list the reason why you’re voting for who you’re voting for. One of our recent favorites:

SMOKE SAYS
The Troub will sell me smokes, but Spaceland will let me Smoke my Smokes inside; as a Smoker, I appreciate being surrounded by Smoke and increasing to the overall Smokiness of the Smoked Air.

» Best Live Music Venue Poll (NBC Los Angeles)

Food Under $10

Under $10 Westside Free WiFi Watch: Bolivar Cafe

Post author By Miller
Post date May 12, 2009

Cafe Bolivar is one of my top three favorite cafe offices. You can go to Yelp and learn about the varied experiences of casual patrons who don’t really know what they’re talking about and who base their review on 1.5 visits (though it is rated quite high by most yelpers, I should add); meantime, I’m here to tell you that you should come to this cafe and work for three reasons:

The green sauce
The yellow lentil soup
The arepas
The guava pastries

Oh. That was four. Anyway, OMG I love those guava pastries. Haven’t had one in ages, ’cuz I can’t eat that wheat poison no more. But as far as wheat poison goes, it’s pretty terrific.