It’s nice discovering a cool niche in your hometown before a major publication like The New York Times plasters it across their travel page as a “hot destination.”
I’m rarely ahead of the curve but I managed to find myself in that situation almost a year ago when I “discovered” Culver City long before word got out about it.
Culver City is one of Los Angeles’s many suburbs and for years it was an anonymous part of town hardly worth a second glance.
Now it’s cool.
Sure, if you’re visiting Los Angeles, there are plenty of other places to visit first. But if you find yourself with a bit more time, swing over to this small slice of town where you can chow down at Ford’s Filling Station (a gastropub owned by Harrison’s son), drink up at BottleRock (a wine bar with tasty cheeses and salami), catch a show at the Kirk Douglas Theater, or browse through a variety of art galleries (my favorite, The Wonderful World of Animation, was sadly neglected in the NY Times article).
A dozen or so new restaurants have popped up in the last year, including the upscale, but more-affordable-than-it-should-be, Wilson. Most are walking distance from each other (and the bars as well), making Culver City very pedestrian friendly–a rarity for Los Angeles. This helps give the town a quaint, friendly vibe that is neither pretentious like Beverly Hills nor overly hip like Silver Lake or Eagle Rock.
I quite like it myself. Swing by this upcoming weekend and you just might find me hanging out enjoying the scene.