Daina Beth Solomon

The South L.A. apartment where the LAPD found Stanley Thiesfield; Credit: Photo by Daina Beth Solomon

An Unexplained Death in L.A. — A City That Has Hundreds of Them

Daina Beth Solomon
When police officers arrived at a two-room apartment just south of USC last fall to investigate complaints of foul odors, they found a body decomposed beyond recognition. Something else caught their attention, too — the black electrical cord knotted around the man’s neck. A Los Angeles Police detective declared the......
cobb salad; Credit: D. Solomon

Downtown's French Garden Closing Friday

Daina Beth Solomon
"It's literally an oasis in one of the most hardcore parts of the city -- and no one knows about it." So wrote Huell Howser in 2007 about The French Garden, an eatery in the industrial side of downtown's Arts District. But plenty of people know about The French Garden;......
Rocio Camacho; Credit: Kevin Scanlon

Rocio Camacho: The Goddess of Mole

Daina Beth Solomon
One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here. The spirits of ancient Mexican deities may soon reside in Los Angeles, enticed across the border by chef Rocio Camacho. Camacho's two San Fernando Valley restaurants, both named Rocio's Mole......
Peter Walker

Pablo Alvarado: The Man Who Organized Day Laborers

Daina Beth Solomon
One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.Pablo Alvarado, 46, normally affable and soft-spoken, bristles when he's called the Cesar Chavez of day laborers. Despite his accomplishments as director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, he doesn't......
Melissa Barak

Melissa Barak: The Rebel Ballerina

Daina Beth Solomon
href="https://www.laweekly.com/microsites/people-2013/" target="_blank">One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here. While New York has sustained sizable, world-renowned dance companies for decades, Los Angeles has yet to follow suit. Melissa Barak, ballet dancer and choreographer, sees dance as L.A.'s "next......
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Sarah Portnoy at Guisados with co-owner Armando de la Torre and students; Credit: Susan Bell

Q & A With USC Professor Sarah Portnoy: On Latino Food in L.A

Daina Beth Solomon
We all eat for pleasure. Some of us also eat in pursuit of academic knowledge. "Food studies" is a burgeoning field where scholars consider food a potent tool for illuminating a vast range of topics and issues. Among L.A. colleges and universities, you'll find classes on "Animal Ethics," "Restaurant Culture,"......
french toast at Aloha Cafe; Credit: D. Solomon

10 Best Eats in Little Tokyo: Neighborhood Grub Crawl

Daina Beth Solomon
L.A.'s Little Tokyo is home to at least 100 eateries -- Japanese and non-Japanese, old and new, traditional and innovative. And it is just about 0.13 square miles in size -- dense, compact, and easily explored on foot. (Roughly bounded between 4th, Alameda, Temple, and Los Angeles streets.) That means......