$3.55 for unleaded. Check, albeit annoying. $3.79 for performance plus. Ugh, okay, check. $9.38 a gallon for high performance. Che-- wha???!?!?!!!? LAist Featured Photos photographer Movie Lover snapped this shot on the Westside. "While driving past a gas station in Brentwood, CA a while back, I noticed that the price had gone up. Way up." Yeah, no doubt. Let's see, April Fool's Day is next month. It's not a six upside down. This doesn't look......

My first memory of Dutton's is of the one in the valley, hot on those unairconditioned summer afternoons, the faintly sour smell of the paper. It was crowded, a little uncomfortable, and yet it was a place that was full of treasures. A place where a kid could wander -- completely by accident, into the Literature section and discover something magical. After my family moved to the Westside in the early nineties, Dutton's became a......

Photo of Meiko, who plays at the Knitting Factory tonight, by Koga/LAist for 'Meiko & Priscilla Ahn @ Hotel Cafe, 1/23 & 1/24/08' What Made Milwaukee Famous finish up their Los Angeles tour playing along with Tulsa and the British Sea Power/Colourmusic bill moves over to Spaceland. On the Westside, there's only one choice to make and that is hip-hop violinist Paul Dateh at the Temple Bar (check out our interview with him including......

For my final DineLA menu, I thought I should try something in my home town. For years, Redondo Beach was known for fantastic breakfasts and Mexican food, but not much else. For fancy dining you were looking at standard surf-and-turf - Tony's The Chart House, etc. Only in the early 90s when the Westside had filled up did gentrification move down the coast, bringing nouvelle cuisine along for the ride. Sometimes it seems like......

Vegan Waffles and 'Chicken' | All Photos by Zach Behrens/LAist All good things come from the Valley first. Lucky for those who stay "over the hill," Executive Chef David Anderson at LA's fanciest and tastiest vegan affair in the Tarzana Safari Walk (yes, that's an official Los Angeles Neighborhood, city blue sign and all), there is plans to open up a new vegan eatery with full bar on the Westside according to VegNews, who......

Fie upon those who wish downfall upon the Westside! We shall smite thee with our flaming elven sword. (That's how we talk to LAist staffers who aren't behaving; nothing whips a writing team into shape like a little dangerous elf talk.) We will now stop being nerds and give you incentive to visit the Westside. Here are some more happy hour specials that'll make you wish you lived on the beachier side of life.......

In yesterday's LAist interview with Hillary Clinton, we had to ask about public transportation. Clinton said she would increase federal funding for public transit by $1.5 billion per year, link funding to local land use policies that encourage mixed-use and transit-oriented development (discouraging sprawl) and invest $1 billion into intercity passenger rail (think high speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco, or more locally, the MagLev concept from Orange County to Las Vegas). Speaking......

Alternative 9 combines a Wilshire and Santa Monica alignment for two subways Update*: Metro called to strongly emphasize that the projected 10-year-period (three for environmental studies, seven for construction) is the reality under the most ideal circumstances (that circumstance is if we had the funding today). Metro confirms this is the timeline and the 5-year hypothetical may have been misheard or said. At the meeting, the freakily fast timeline was mentioned in the context......

Alex & Sam will play the first show of their residency at Tangier tonight | Photo via their MySpace You might recognize the girl above. Locally, that's Sam from the band Alex & Sam who is playing at Tangier all this month every Sunday night, but for those who are more pop-culture oriented (rather, American Idol obsessed), that's Samantha Sidley who got a pass from all three judges for a "Welcome to Hollywood" (she's......

'Santa Monica Subway: Alternative 4' is one of the 17 routes presented by Metro Last night, a packed room of community members at LACMA listened attentively to Metro present nineteen options to serve the Westside. This first in a series of three public input meetings (two more meetings next week) was exciting -- wheels are in motion to get Los Angeles moving, even if that reality be around ten years from now. One of......

17 potential route alternatives consolidated on this map will be presented starting tomorrow at Westside Transit Corridor meetings with the public | View larger image In an ideal world, one of the routes in solid black, pictured above, could be a reality in nine and a half years -- that would be the year 2017. Generally speaking, a project the size of a major public transportation extension to the Westside, towards the sea, could......

Wall-to-Wall Patriots fans pack Sonny McLean's Every Sunday NFL franchise or not, Los Angeles is filled with football fanatics. Many of these fans have relocated to LA from all corners of the country, bringing with them their devotion for the home team of city they left behind. Rather than sitting in the confines of their living room and watching their boys battle it out on the gridiron, many transplants have found a sanctuary in......

Photo by Elise Thompson/LAist The King's Head is arguably home to the best fish and chips in Los Angeles. Sadly, the fish and chips get so much attention that the clam chowder is not given its rightful due. Let me make up for that now. The King's Head Pub in Santa Monica serves the chowder of the gods. All other chowders should bow down before it. Other chowders dare not speak its name. I......

City Councilman Jack Weiss and O'Melveny and Myers law firm partner, Carolyn Kubota, teamed up yesterday in a Daily News op-ed piece urging the need to explore funding public transportation in Los Angeles by private sources. Chicago did it with the Skyway and Denver with their transit plan. So why not us? They say everyone can agree on three things. One, a subway between downtown and the Westside is absolutely need; two, the subway......

Gingersnaps and cocoa and rum balls and Italian knots and Kolacky and biscotti and chocolate chips, oh my! LAist has been in the kitchen, cooking up a Cookie Exchange. I Can Has JGoldBurger? Omg the PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST uses LOLspeak, I don't know what to say, my world has been all shook up like a snowglobe. It's entirely possible I was Afghani in a previous life (as well as Korean, Persian, Icelandic, and......

Occasionally it doesn’t totally suck to work my weekend job on the Westside. Especially if there are art openings going on. I got to use that: “Well, I’m in the neighborhood anyway.” excuse last Saturday night. After a “hearty” Krishna carbo load at Govinda’s Restaurant, I and fellow art crawler, MXL, hit Mark Mothersbaugh’s Rugs During Wartime and Peacetime exhibition cum warehouse sale at the Scion gallery in Culver City. (Yep, that Mark Mothersbaugh,......

Last night I was casually checking out what various travel websites had to say about the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Most of the summaries in Frommers sounded like this: Silver Lake, a residential neighborhood just north of Downtown and adjacent to Los Feliz (home to the Los Angeles Zoo and Griffith Park), just to the west, has arty areas with unique cafes, theaters, graffiti, and art galleries -- all in equally plentiful proportions. The......

There are no less than nine green events tomorrow. Surely, the Los Angeles area is getting a lot more hip about being green. And hopefully, when this fad is over, it will be a staple of our lives, embedded into our quotidian conscious. The big event tomorrow is the Opportunity Green Conference at UCLA. The pricey, but well talked about event in green circles, is bringing together sustainable businesses in hopes of creating a community......

In a story of truly fucked notions, the LAUSD is short $53-million because they overpaid around 36,000 employees due to a rushed installation and implementation of Business Tools for Schools, a payroll system that couldn't handle calculating the nuances of a teacher's "complicated job assignments and unusual work schedules," according to the LA Times. It's not only that they overpaid employees, they also underpaid and didn't even pay some employees, owing some $7 million.For......

The LA Times is reporting today that Metro may be seriously looking at an extremely different route for half of the proposed Purple Line subway extension that would take commuters from Downtown to Santa Monica. However, the idea discussed here would take underground riders from the Hollywood/Highland station to Wilshire Blvd. along Santa Monica Blvd., traveling through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills hitting near the Beverly Center mall and Cedars-Sinai:The new concept is still......

As firefighters sought to contain the smoldering remains of California, officials are keying in on how the fires started. One of the largest fires, the Santiago fire that burned 22,000 acres was, reportedly set by an arsonist. President Bush toured parts of California and declared, "We're not going to forget you in Washington D.C." I guess he didn't visit any poor children. There's at least one good story to come out of this tragedy.......

For the fifth year in a row, Liquid Kitty on Pico has won Citysearch's title of Best Martini in LA. Liquid Kitty harkens back to LA's dark, Chandleresque side, with dim lights and strong drinks. It reminds me of both the rat pack martini bar Olive, and a little bit of Yee Mee Loo's, an historic Chinatown bar. The Hollywood speakeasy feel is enhanced by the lack of any kind of sign out front with......

If you are on the Westside and thinking pastrami, you are probably thinking about Johnnie's on Sepulveda. If you are in South Los Angeles and you are thinking pastrami, you are definitely thinking about Johnny's on Adams. That's Johnny's with a "Y". Two blocks East of Crenshaw, Johnny's is conveniently located just a few blocks off the 10 freeway. This neighborhood stand has been serving up giant, monolithic pastrami dips since 1956. Even though......

BOO-ya! There's still time to check out some Halloween events, including the Hollywood Hell House and Bordello's Voodoo Vixens Burlesque show tonight at 10p. This accident on the 5 may tie up traffic until tomorrow: authorities are still counting only 3 casualties, but who knows how drivers will react to the construction and clean-up now taking place. First the water, then the power, now the phones? Mayor Villaraigosa is proposing a 9-percent phone tax.......

Did you know you can still get tickets for Monday night's Rilo Kiley show at the Santa Monica Civic? Do you know why you can still get tickets for the show? Because it's in Santa Monica. And when the people of Santa Monica aren't trying to destroy old trees and houses, they're looking for things to do Other than see great rock shows. Let's think of things they do on the Westside other than......

Dear _____, Cool! I'm totally in and excited to see you this weekend too! Yeah I totally heard all about Art Crawl X and am excited to check it out. Isn't it something crazy like over 25 galleries and stores all around Echo Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz and Atwater Village are participating and holding shows and exhibits and stuff? And like at night some are having bands perform and tattoo stations and I heard......

View Larger Map NOTE: One approach equals one left turn signal, some intersections have more then one new left turn arrow. One left turn signal can cost up to $80,000. Mayor Villaraigosa is making sure his recent replacement at the Department of Transportation is a good choice. Today, they announced the 30/30 program:LADOT will install and activate 30 left turn arrows in 30 business days at some of the City’s most congested and bottlenecked intersections.......

When a new development is planned and traffic impact studies are needed, the developer hires the consultant, not the City. So you can see how residents are wary if the developer is in cahoots with the consultant to downplay results in favor of the development. And right some where:In Sherman Oaks, the local homeowners group was following a proposed 89-condo and 16,000-square-foot mixed-use project on Ventura Boulevard. The developer agreed to update an old......

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), charged with managing the electricity grid in California, has issued a Flex Alert for both tomorrow and Thursday due to the current hot weather and demand for electricity, which is approaching capacity. Flex it by turning off unnecessary lights, turn ing AC up to 78 degrees or higher and not using major appliances until after 7:00 PM Free jazz tonight at Hollywood and Highland along with a wine......

Once upon a time, before Little Miss "Nooo-no-no" came along, when someone said "winehouse", we only thought about the sweet vino emporium on the Westside, called, um, Winehouse. This 30-year institution has made an appearance on LAist before, but like a hydra, Winehouse is adding a new arm. This new arm is called Taste. It's the answer to many a winebuyer's quiet prayer: At Taste, you can take your chosen wine for a test-drive.......