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I Hired a Naked Maid

See also: *Veruca James, Accountant Turned Porn Star: 'I'd Always Been Wild' When pink vans emblazoned with "Topless Maids" and the phone number (818) 666-HUGE parked up on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, it caused a media storm. Actor Matthew Perry and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres prank-called the bus ... More >>

Five Los Angeles Parking Secrets and 111 Places to Park (Google Map!)

(Also contributing to this report were Elisa Losson, Jennifer Swann, Ali Trachta and Ben Westhoff.) You know what sucks? Circling a block for twenty minutes, burning the gas in your car and watching someone slip into a space right as you turn the corner to claim what you dreamed was yours. As Los ... More >>

Bahooka Closing in March: One Last Meal At Bahooka Family Restaurant

Another surviving remnant of Tiki culture in L.A. will soon sleep with the fishes when Bahooka Ribs & Grog closes in March. That means no more drunken treasure hunting for maraschino cherries and stray shreds of pineapple at the bottom of giant icy bowls of coconutty cocktails. No more eating ribs ... More >>

The Fugliest Motel in Los Angeles? Best Western Royal Palace, 2528 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A.

Road-weary tourists and business travelers know it's hard to find an affordable place to get some shut-eye in this town, which is why visitors to the Best Western Plus "Royal Palace" Inn & Suites are fair to judge the rooms here as they are: fine, quiet enough and clean enough, for the low price tag ... More >>

Black Hogg Down

Chef Eric Park is packing in diners in Silver Lake, but he's not ready for prime time

Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund Chat About the Movie Adaptation of On the Road

Koreatown: America's Hippest Neighborhood

Reality show K-Town unmasks the liquid rituals fueling Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood

Koreatown Hot Spots Guide: Map Out Your K-Town Nights

See also: *Koreatown: America's Hippest Neighborhood. This week's LA Weekly cover story covers the renaissance in Koreatown nightlife. The area has seen an invasion of bar-goers, food fanatics and hipster residents, thanks to the "the Yelp effect" and other factors. But what you're really asking ... More >>

The Fugly Brown Wall Off the 405 Freeway at the 90 Freeway, in Westchester

We can thank the developers and architects who built the Alessio apartments on Centinela Avenue in Westchester for this one. To all those visitors to L.A. who emerge from LAX's arrival terminal and head north up the 405, this is what greets them: A seven-story-tall, poo-brown colored wall -- which a ... More >>

10 Best Arcades in L.A.

See also: *Family Fun Arcade Prepares to Close After Four Decades *10 Oddball L.A. Museums Worth Seeing *10 Best Standup Comedy Shows in L.A. For those of us who grew up in the 1980s and '90s, arcades were an integral part of our childhood and adolescence. They existed inside malls and in shoppin ... More >>

10 Great Cookbooks for Summer

Sure, you may have a dozen newly opened gastropubs within Yelp distance from where you live. Or food trucks. Or, arguably best of all, neighborhood taquerias. But in summer, when L.A. farmers markets are loaded with gorgeous produce, sometimes it's more fun to cook your own dinner. Just to prove you ... More >>

Pop Quiz: What's Your Picnic Style?

Picnics are one of those civic birthrights that redeems living with traffic snarls on the 405 and celebrity divorces superseding the one minute of world event coverage on the evening news. The very bones of the tradition forged by myriad outdoor spaces, summer events, and consistently genial weather ... More >>

10 Best Pizza Restaurants in Los Angeles

From our 2012 Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A. 10. 800 Degrees Not since Bill Walton led the Bruins to a 30-0 record have UCLA students had such good reason to rejoice. Westwood's newest pizzeria, a fast-casual concept dreamed up by Umami guru Adam Fleischman, is open until 2 ... More >>

Pharmacie: Talmadge Lowe's Bespoke Cocktails Southern Hospitality

For the past three years one of the most interesting invitations a 21 person in Los Angeles could secure was for The Pharmacie, a Mad-Men-esque cocktail party organized by gentleman "drinkist" and handsome bow tie wearer, Talmadge Lowe. For those of you who never made it to the party -- or maybe n ... More >>

8 Craft Beer Bars in the San Fernando Valley Happy Hour Specials

The glorious San Fernando Valley. Spatially vast, heavily populated, and wildly lacking in proper places to drink. Or so we thought. Today, it's time to put your ignorance to bed and minimize the attitude long enough to see the truth -- that from Burbank to Agoura Hills you can always find a decent ... More >>

Daniel Becerril's Victims Use Yelp to Fight Alleged Murderer and Con Man

Food Review or Calvin and Hobbes?

In our first food quiz, we pulled a few quotes from various food reviews, mixed them with choice bon mots courtesy one of the great wits of our time, Dorothy Parker, and asked whether you could identify who said what. In today's quiz, we swap Parker out for Bill Watterson, the cartoonist who create ... More >>

Cookbook Review: Do You Really Need Bi-Rite Market's Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones?

It happens every year about this time. Those malted milk-chocolate chip ice cream (p. 82) and blood orange sorbet (p. 162) recipes start appearing in the latest ice cream cookbooks. This year, Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, to be released in two weeks, starts us down that rocky road to what we hope wi ... More >>

Q & A with The Fung Brothers: Food Nerds, Asian Vegetable Superiority and the Lack of Drunk People in the 626

YouTube stars, comedians and brothers Andrew and David Fung ascended to San Gabriel Valley fame in February with music video "626," a witty YouTube mash-up of various restaurants and dishes in the area. "Food is the one thing that a lot of people can agree that Asians are the best at," Andrew Fung ... More >>

Snooky's Bikini Bar Customer Shot Dead by Security Guard

A rowdy customer got into it with a security guard outside Snooky's bikini bar last night -- ultimately leading to his death in the parking lot, says the L.A. County Sheriff Department's Lancaster Station. In the last hours of April Fool's day, around 11 p.m., security allegedly asked the victim an ... More >>

An Assassination in Silver Lake

Did a middle-class tagger murder a working-class El Chavo busboy?

10 Bars Most Likely to Get You Laid in L.A.

If there's one thing Valentine's Day hammers home, it's the suckiness (or lack thereof) of being solo. We're talking S-E-X, people, and for you poor souls who had an unsatisfying week sans even a prospect for V***** or D*** (we're talking body parts, not venereal disease), it's time to put it all b ... More >>

Village Voice Media Responds to Clergy

​Today 36 clergy affixed their names to a paid ad and open letter to Village Voice and the classified ad site Backpage.com. The full page ad was published in the New York Times. The religious coalition demanded that we close down our legal, adult classifieds. Neither government officials n ... More >>

Q & A With Ruth Reichl: Gilt Taste, L.A. Food, The Role of The Restaurant Critic, Her Movie The Corrective of Food TV

As you probably know, Ruth Reichl was recently in town for a launch party at Mozza for Gilt Taste, the shopping-as-literature site of which she's the editorial advisor. We caught up with her over coffee at José Andrés' Tres: frilly patisserie, coffee urns, decor like Monty Python meets Versailles ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Soban

Q & A with Bludso's BBQ Kevin Bludso: Smoke, Termination, and HTTPs

J.H. StarrKevin Bludso and his pit​ Does Kevin Bludso make the best brisket in town? There are certainly a lot of people who think so. The Compton man with Texas roots opened Bludso's BBQ about three years ago, and his small shop was quickly discovered and pushed through the cycle of Internet ... More >>

Blogger Jailed Over Bad Beef Noodle Review

We've heard of restaurateurs having hissy fits over bad Yelp reviews and even kicking out newspaper reviewers, but jailing a blogger over a bad review? That would be insane... or would it? A Taiwanese blogger was recently sentenced to 30 days in detention, two years of probation and ordered her to ... More >>

Dr. Lawrence Resnick, Women's Breast Specialist in Santa Monica, Sued for Alleged Sexual Harassment During Breast Exam

Google MapsThe Women's Breast Center is located along Wilshire in Santa Monica​Last thing a girl wants to encounter while undergoing an already-uncomfortable boob ultrasound: A creeper with fondling rights. That's not to say that Dr. Lawrence H. Resnick, president of the Women's Breast Center ... More >>

Dodger Stadium Catches Fire, Frank McCourt Makes Payroll: What Else Can Go Wrong?

Frank McCourt has only begun to fight​Quite a weekend in Dodger land. For those of you just back from SLO, let's recap... Dodger Stadium, the jewel of Chavez Ravine, ranks an abysmal 25th out of 30 ballparks in customer reviews on Yelp. That may help explain why attendance is down 7,000 per game.O ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Lukshon

Morning News Roundup: Hunger Challenge, Movie Food, Mr. Robata

Happy humpday. Enjoy your morning dose of daffy food news. --Hunting LA's best roast chicken, from Costco to Melisse. [Exile Kiss] --U.S. bans some food from Japan over radiation fears: dairy, fruit, veg. [WSJ]‎ --Break out the skinny jeans. Yelp adds "hipster" as an ambiance descriptor. [NY Pos ... More >>

Party Bus Shooting in Hollywood: Suspect on Bus Fires Into Crowd of 'Wonderland' Clubbers

The L.A. party-bus controversy just got a whole lot heavier​Updated after the jump with new details and Tweets from the scene. Just after the top-40 Hollywood club Wonderland had ushered its patrons out onto the sidewalk of North Cahuenga Boulevard last night -- at about 2 a.m., or 3 a.m. und ... More >>

Happy Hour: El Carmen

luckyangeles/flickrInterior, El Carmen​ The Place: El Carmen, 8138 W 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA, (323) 852-1552. The Hours: 5-7 p.m. Mon.-Fri. The Deals: $3 cans of Tecate, $4 margaritas, $2 guacamole, $5 combination platters (two tacos with rice and beans), and free chips and salsa.

LAPD Warns Restaurant Owners of Health Inspector Scam

Flickr/jrmystJesus doesn't worry about a C​Yesterday the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) sent out a news release warning restaurateurs of a potential scam targeting local restaurants. Both organizations say they've received numerous calls from restaurant ow ... More >>

West Hollywood City Deputies Spent At Least $13,788 on Perks -- Fancy Meals, Gift Cards, $370 Mont Blanc Pens -- Last Year

Make that F. Solomon​EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: WeHo resident Ed Buck, who filed the public records act request, says $13,788 was just a FRACTION of the unethical charges he found in the pile of city credit-card receipts. He estimates that, once properly combed, luxurious spending will reach $100,000 f ... More >>

The EAT: Los Angeles iPhone App

​The catalog of great food apps continues to grow, now with another one that is specific to Los Angeles. The EAT: Los Angeles iPhone app hit the app store last night. The information on the app is the same as in the terrific guidebook, only sortable and searchable, with Google maps, touch phon ... More >>

Book Review: Italy Dish by Dish, Airfare Not Required

​How often do we pre-order books these days? Hardly ever, as the book market is so flooded with new and "gently used" copies today we aren't exactly worried that Italy Dish By Dish: A Comprehensive Guide To Eating in Italy is going to sell out as quickly as LudoBites reservations when it is re ... More >>

Put Down Your ePhing iPhone and Eat Night

Mykl Roventine​ Dear Reader, Tomorrow, that would be Thursday, February 17, please join Squid Ink in celebrating its completely unofficial first food-related holiday: Put Down Your ePhing iPhone and Eat Night. To illustrate the need for such an event, please consider the following: The Yelp ... More >>

Will Tweet For Fried Food: On The Road With A Hungry Kathy Griffin

Tiffany Rinehart ​ What do you do if you're on the road all the time, have grimly chewed your way through way too many chain restaurant meals and have six hundred thousand social network followers? If you're comedian Kathy Griffin you turn Twitter into your personal Yelp or Chowhound, one tha ... More >>

Remembering Jose "Pepe" Rodriguez: La Serenata In Santa Monica And His Happy Hour

Yelp user Joan S. La Serenata Santa Monica, Never A Glass Wall​Most weeknights, the Santa Monica outpost of La Serenata, the "other" Mexican restaurant on 4th Street in Santa Monica, resonates with a post-tequila calm that pales next to the constant laugh track and cocktail shaker buzz at Bord ... More >>

SoCal Snowboarder Crashes, Dies At Mountain High Resort

Mountain HighAnother boarder gets out of the trees​Updated after jump: Coroner confirms that boarder was not wearing a helmet, and more details, including the exact slope where he died. Originally posted Dec. 28 at 12:20 p.m. Yesterday evening at 6 p.m., just after the sun went down at the M ... More >>

L.A.s Better Business Bureau Investigated For Giving Non-Existing Businesses Memberships, 'A' Grades

BBBDid the L.A. Better Business Bureau sell 'A' grades?​Their slogan is "start with trust." But the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles has been accused of abusing the trust of those who rely on it to find ethical retailers and services. After an ABC News investigation uncovered allegations ... More >>

Knife-Wielding Robber Breaks Into Room At Downtown L.A.'s Alexandria Hotel, Gets Cards And ATM Codes From Terrified Couple

​The Alexandria, the historic residential hotel on 5th and Spring that has a checkered past, advertises rents of "$650 to those tenants that (sic) income qualify." Perhaps The Alexandria, which has long seemed poised to joint downtown's  gentrification wave, should consider raising the rent ... More >>

Beat The Heat: A Round-Up of L.A.'s Ice Cream Sandwich Spots

Coolhaus Truck​ It might be mid-August, but it looks as though summer has finally arrived. In the same way we Angelenos become unglued at the first drop of winter rain, we also start to melt the moment the mercury rises beyond 85 degrees. So what do we do when we want to beat the heat? One o ... More >>

Our Way or the Autostrade

At Terroni, it's no substitutions, Southern Italian-style

No More Celestial Nights

Starry Kitchen, out of the backyard and into the food court

Rumor Milling: No, Walter Manzke's Not Leaving Church & State Sunday Night Dinners At The Bistro

Ah, the Internet: invented by Al Gore, home to millions of fact-checkers. For anyone worrying that Walter Manzke has left or is leaving Church & State, the man just took 2 days off. Your pigs ears aren't going anywhere, and neither is the chef. Manzke thinks that the rumor got started on Yelp, and w ... More >>

Oktoberfest L.A. Drowns in Sorrows

View more photos in the Oktoberfest slideshow. When the air becomes crisp and the summer turns to fall, Germans host a raucous event as a gateway to season change: Oktoberfest. The mere mention of Oktoberfest conjures up images of sauerkraut and sausages, beer maids shuttling steins overflowing wit ... More >>

An Open Kitchen Policy: Starry Kitchen Serves Home Cooking At Home In North Hollywood

Photo Credit: Nguyen Tran​Before the restaurant, even before the food truck, there is the home kitchen, the starting point for most culinary businesses. One North Hollywood couple has opened theirs up to the public. Husband-and-wife team Nguyen and Thi Tran are now operating Starry Kitchen fr ... More >>

Lobster Las Vegas: The City Where Crustaceans Go to Die

Las Vegas is the city where crustaceans go to die. Apart from the copious amounts of tea I drank this past weekend at the World Tea Expo at Mandalay Bay (see Squid Ink for the dispatches), I also ate lots of seafood. The populace at large, in fact, seems to have seafood on the brain. I spotted this ... More >>