Drew Tewksbury

Hearty spiced cider with baked apples at the Thirsty Crow; Credit: Lucas Peterson

Best Place to Get an Inexpensive Suit

Drew Tewksbury
Being your best bud's best man means getting a sweet suit that doesn't break the bank. Nestled among the myriad stores of downtown's Fashion District, Al Weiss Men's Clothing offers top-quality custom suits for not a lot of bucks. From name-brand designers like Ralph Lauren to anonymous labels, its menswear......
Credit: Drifter

Best South L.A. Fashion Label

Drew Tewksbury
Based in Compton, this new casual-fashion label showcases a post-punkalyptic style suitable for those who prefer rock & roll yoga or listen to metal while meditating. Sure, the health-goth aesthetic was so 2014, but Drifter's steez skews more to the athleisure-wear side, sporting a swagger that works whether you're at......
Brendan Ravenhill; Credit: Courtesy of Brendan Ravenhill

Best Designer

Drew Tewksbury
There's a subtlety to the creations of L.A.-based designer Brendan Ravenhill, whose lighting fixtures and furniture populate some of the city's hippest restaurants and shops, from Osteria La Buca and L&E Oyster Bar to the Springs spa in DTLA. You might even miss them on a first visit; they almost......
Credit: Maral Tavitian

Best Place to Buy African Tapes

Drew Tewksbury
As music streaming services such as Spotify have created an open archive of zillions of musical styles from around the universe, it seems there are few new sonic discoveries to be made. Crate-digging DJs scour L.A.'s record stores, depleting our city's precious supply of vinyl. If you want to experience......
Credit: Miwak Junior

Best Artisan Pipes

Drew Tewksbury
With marijuana quickly on the move to become a luxury item in California, sophisticated stoners need to up their game when it comes to their smoking habits. That's where Miwak Junior comes in. These handmade ceramic pipes are the Rolls-Royce of pipes. Available at various artisan pop-ups and craft fairs,......
Credit: Drew Tewksbury

Best Local Ceramicist

Drew Tewksbury
In the last few years, Los Angeles has been having something of a ceramics moment. Makers across the city have taken to the pottery wheel to fashion artful dishware, containers and sculptural objects. Local potters including A Question of Eagles, Mt. Washington Pottery and duo Kat and Roger have become......
Credit: Drew Tewksbury

Best Cactus Store

Drew Tewksbury
Bring a bit of the desert to your abode with Hot Cactus, a tiny shop in Echo Park precariously packed with the prickly plants. Each piece has personality, like the tall ocotillo, whose spiny tendrils reach to the heavens, or the fuzzy-looking cholla, whose spines you'd want to pet, if......
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L.A. Weekly's Curated Map of Mexican Restaurants

Drew Tewksbury
Long before Mexico was Mexico, there was Aztlán. Stay with us here, we'll get to burritos in a minute. But for now, let's go back to Tenochtitlán, the vibrant mega­lopolis where the Aztecs built the Western Hemisphere's greatest urban area of the pre-colonial era. Today, their ingenuity lives on as......
Whole fish cooked Zarandeado-style; Credit: Courtesy Club Tengo Hambre

This Seaside Baja Town Is Wilder Than Star Wars’ Cantina

Drew Tewksbury
At the height of Mexico’s cartel violence in the mid-2000s, Baja became a no-go zone to American tourists, who refused to cross the California border. In recent years, however, the region has settled down and undergone a cultural renaissance with the opening of craft breweries, trendy restaurants and galleries in......
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Top Five Metal Christmas Songs (Now With More Manowar!) m/

Drew Tewksbury
So you're looking for a way to celebrate Christmas without having to sacrifice your metalhead cred in the process? If the guys from Immortal caught you tapping your foot to Mannheim Steamroller, you'd lose all corpse paint privileges with no questions asked. So to help you save (painted) face, we've......