LA Weekly recently published its Best of LA 2010, the best spots for food, drink, shopping, nightlife, recreation, etc. Echo Park isn’t a stranger to this list – quite a few spots made the cut in those categories (and boy are there a few!).
Check out the Echo Park spots that made the list, along with an excerpt from LA Weekly:
Bob Baker Marionettes: Best bob, stage and puppeteers
“Inside, the theater continues to provide the backdrop for a series of heartwarming stage productions, brought to life by the 86-year-old and his team of young puppeteers… A local institution, Bob Baker Marionettes is now the oldest operating children’s company in L.A. While the puppets may be the ones drawing the crowds, it’s Baker who still pulls the strings.”
Elysian Park: Best Park Hidden in Plain Sight
“Compared with Griffith Park, which has great scrubby, Wild West–looking hiking trails, more of Elysian is domesticated and park-like while still maintaining a strong feeling of nature.”
Angelino Heights Best Historic Neighborhood
“…Angelino Heights’ proud, decades-long residents lend the place another level of solidity. Start at Carroll Avenue to experience the epicenter of tasteful, Victorian splendor, but work your way out from there, as architectural eye candy lies interspersed throughout this semi-circular neighborhood.”
Echo Park Time Travel Mart: Best One-Stop, Head-Scratching Shopping
“Outside, the handwritten ‘Out of order, come back yesterday’ note taped to the slushy machine has been there since the beginning. The dinosaur eggs in the refrigerator still haven’t hatched. It really is the most inconvenient convenience mart.”
Rock Paper Salon: Best Hair Salon Experience for Men
“At RPS, you get the full experience that has made the young stylist an Eastside word-of-mouth success: great, modern hair advice, refreshments, friendly conversation and the solemn promise to never “make you metro unless you really, really want to.”
The Fretted Frog: Best Un-Centric Guitar Store
“The Fretted Frog is the brainchild of French expat Roland Belloir (the “Frog”) and his Echo Park shop is utterly relaxed, a haven for acoustic guitar fans and players to gather for impromptu jam sessions and between-strum banter. Belloir’s stock features rare and hard-to-find brands, small companies that specialize in beautifully crafted instruments.”
Iko Iko: The Odd and the Beautiful
“Scattered across minimalist-style tables made by Okuda — available for sale — are anything from misshapen, strangely elegant flowerpots to vegetable brushes that resemble potatoes to Hannah Keefe’s chain jewelry, so intricately woven they look like textile. The aim here is to inspire, arouse curiosity and have fun. Who needs a $12 million stuffed shark when you have $12 spud-like scrubs?”
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We all know it: Echo Park is the raddest. But it’s nice to get a little acknowledgment – LA Weekly’s Best of LA 2011 is out, and once again, we’ve got quite a few locations in our ‘hood to celebrate.
