LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by LA/OCman

http://laist.com/2013/08/09/_some_of_you_may.php

Awesome! Alma is one of the best restaurants in the city, and anyone who hasn't eaten there needs to immediately

[ConstructDTLA]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Awesome! Alma is one of the best restaurants in the city, and anyone who hasn't eaten there needs to immediately

Is Alma in that strip club building? The building that SHOULD BE torn down?

Thats depressing if theyre getting more permanent in there.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by citywatch

Ppl are posting mixed messages on the subject of park space in dt & it being overrun by homeless campers. So some complain....& understandably so....that due to park space in dt being overrun by the homeless, it therefore wasn't a nice place to be, while others are complaining....& understandably so....that while park space is being fenced off to keep out homeless ppl, it also no longer can now be used by anyone at anytime.

Welcome to a catch 22. It's also seems like a no win situation.

btw, easy, the reason why the land next to angel's flight has been closed down to the public isn't cuz it's being sold by the CRA. It has been gated off cuz too many ppl in the hood apparently have been unhappy....& rightly so...about the area becoming swamped with the homeless & drug users. IOW, Angels knoll would have been shut down to the public even if the CRA still were in existence & the city had no need to sell the land.

I feel bad for ppl like brudy, & it's sad that other ppl living in dt like stethjeff or hunterk have their patience with the hood tested on a regular basis. That's why I say that outsiders....including me....can't get a really good sense of dt unless they're living the experience 24/7 like a brudy, stethjeff, hunterk, colemonkee, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a terrific public space taking up that entire corner, just not what currently exists.

I think that the Metro stop and Angel's Flight makes that corner a great place to make an educational/historical park. Place an old preserved LARy, some plaques about transportation in LA, info about the future streetcar - basically one big awesome park that'd make a nice hangout spot for locals and tourists alike. Could definitely become something unique.

I'm just not that convinced that we need to protect another homeless encampment in DTLA Especially not one next to next to AF and GCM.

[colemonkee]

Originally Posted by HunterK

Is Alma in that strip club building? The building that SHOULD BE torn down?

Thats depressing if theyre getting more permanent in there.

I believe Alma is in a stand-alone single story structure immediately adjacent to the strip club building.

[inSaeculaSaeculorum]

There's strip clubs in the historic core??

[brudy]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

I can honestly say that I never gave a crap about Angels Knoll and I possibly live closer to there than you do. I love Angels Flight, love the fact that there's a metro stop there, love that GCM is across the street, and love the possibilities of what can be done there. As it stands now though - a patch of dry grass with its own standing army of homeless men - is gross. Don't care for what's currently there.

Highly doubt you live closer than I do, but that's a pissing match for another day. We need to distinguish between the bottom section by the metro and the top part, which never had dead grass. Yeah, there were some homeless people there, but it was green and open. The bottom section was definitely a mess at night.

[BrandonJXN]

I think everyone is missing the real issue when it comes to Angels Knoll: What will become of the goats?

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

I think everyone is missing the real issue when it comes to Angels Knoll: What will become of the goats?

They're huge Zooey Deschanel fans so I'm sure it's devastating

[LA/OCman]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Awesome! Alma is one of the best restaurants in the city, and anyone who hasn't eaten there needs to immediately

Well Illithid Dude, you must have good taste. Check it out...Alma was just named the Best New Restaurant in the Country according to Bon Appetite magazine:

http://laist.com/2013/08/12/dtlas_alma_wins_bon_appetits_best_n.php

It is this kind of news that is helping to change the image of our little DTLA. Yes, it is next to a strip club...but Alma has made it big. Fantastic news!

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by LA/OCman

Well Illithid Dude, you must have good taste. Check it out...Alma was just named the Best New Restaurant in the Country according to Bon Appetite magazine:

http://laist.com/2013/08/12/dtlas_alma_wins_bon_appetits_best_n.php

It is this kind of news that is helping to change the image of our little DTLA. Yes, it is next to a strip club...but Alma has made it big. Fantastic news!

Awesome. Sounds like my weekend plans have been set

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Alma is fantastic. when i went there (with a group of 6 early in the year) we literally had everything on the menu and it was all so good.

[Hubris]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Awesome! Alma is one of the best restaurants in the city, and anyone who hasn't eaten there needs to immediately

If you can afford it; that place ain't cheap.

Interesting juxtaposition of luxury cars parked on a rundown street.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Hubris

If you can afford it; that place ain't cheap.

Interesting juxtaposition of luxury cars parked on a rundown street.

fwiw, that restaurant is in the middle of the 3 bldgs whose backsides are shown in this pic....it's the shortest bldg next to the tallest one at the NE corner of Broadway & Olympic....which I posted a few months ago to show the parking lot where the proposed apt bldg by GH palmer is supposed to go up.....




ladowntownnews.com


I like how the pieces of the puzzle are being slotted together....slowly but surely. So Alma hopefully won't be stranded in the middle of rundownness for too much longer.....with the new Ace hotel in the converted old UA theater bldg across broadway, next to an old office bldg being converted into apts by Barry Shy, & the parking lot surrounding Alma hopefully being filled in by GH palmer's proj in the not too distant future....which will be directly next to & to the south of the old bldg being converted into the sparkle factory stores.

Alma, the downtown kitchen that could, has been named the best new restaurant in the United States by Bon Appétit magazine.

Headed by 27-year-old chef Ari Taymor, who started cooking in pop-ups and partially funded through Kickstarter, Alma opened on a nondescript stretch of Broadway last fall with only 39 seats and an ambitious menu that combined California farmers market ingredients with the latest in modernist techniques.

It won almost instant admiration. “Nobody is cooking quite like this in L.A. at the moment,” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ Jonathan Gold, who listed Alma at No. 36 in his 101 Best L.A. restaurants list. He described it as a “sure step toward the cuisine most often seen in restaurants with six-month waiting lists and $145 tasting menus."

Los Angeles Magazine’s Patric Kuh wrote that the restaurant "burns with a refreshing passion...I just never expected to have such a revelation in an eight-table restaurant next to a hostess dance club."

Following Alma on the Bon Appétit list is Saison in San Francisco, Rolf & Daughters in Nashville, Fat Rice in Chicago and Ava Gene’s in Portland. Rounding out the top 10 are the Pass & Provisions in Houston, the Optimist in Atlanta, Jeffrey’s and sister restaurant Josephine House in Austin, Texas, the Whale Wins and sister restaurant Joule in Seattle and Aska in Brooklyn.

In his review, Bon Appétit dining editor Andrew Knowlton confessed early reservations about Alma, but concluded, "By the end of my meal, I was an Ari Taymor apostle. Despite his age and relative inexperience, this guy is cooking on a level I rarely see or taste. I eat out almost every night, so it takes a lot for me to get overly excited about a meal. But there I was, like a teenage boy on his first real date. At Alma, I'd experienced something special -- that unique moment when potential meets skill and anything seems possible. I saw a star born."

[colemonkee]

Alma is pretty legit, and while it's not cheap by any means, you can easily spend a lot more. I took the GF there a few months ago and we licked every plate completely clean. The area around there is certainly sketchy, though, which will definitely be helped by the opening of the Ace Hotel next year.

[Illithid Dude]

Yeah, Alma is definitely located on the ass-end of Broadway.

[blackcat23]

The rumors of a Hilton at the corner of Grand an Olympic don't look like they're going to pan out. Looks like it's going to be (sigh) another 7 story wood frame apartment building.

[colemonkee]

^ Ugh, that would be incredibly short-sighted. What's the source on this rumor?

[blackcat23]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

^ Ugh, that would be incredibly short-sighted. What's the source on this rumor?

Unfortunately, not a rumor. Whoever purchased the land filed plans with the city planning department for a 7 story building with 280ish apartments and 12,000 sq feet of retail at 1000 S Grand. I'll post the link when I get a chance.

Edit:

http://planning.lacity.org/cts_internet/...013%2D2455%2DSPR&fuseaction=case.summary

08/09/2013

DIR-2013-2455-SPR

1000 S GRAND AVE 90015

PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF A
7-STORY MIXED-USE PROJECT
CONSISTING OF APPROXIMATELY 274
DWELLING UNITS AND 12,000 SQ. FT.
OF RETAIL SPACE, LOCATED IN THE
[Q}R5-4D-0 ZONE.

On a corner lot that is entitled for so much more.

[Kingofthehill]

Can we issue a moratorium on 7-story/wood frame/type 5 construction? Since nobody using this building criteria ever builds anything memorable, I figure it might as well be banned. It seems as if Type 5 construction in LA proper almost guarantees a crappy, ugly-looking building.

[brudy]

Originally Posted by Kingofthehill

Can we issue a moratorium on 7-story/wood frame/type 5 construction? Since nobody using this building criteria ever builds anything memorable, I figure it might as well be banned. It seems as if Type 5 construction in LA proper almost guarantees a crappy, ugly-looking building.

Seriously. Can this be not approved?