Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Eating
1
Alcove
B1
2
Casita del Campo
C2
3
L&E Oyster Bar
D4
4
Yuca's
B1
Drinking & Nightlife
5
Akbar
B3
6
Faultline
A4
Silver Lake & Echo Park
Behold the Silver Lake ideal - revitalized modernist homes, groovy bistros, coffeehouses
and boutiques patronized by a real community of upwardly mobile, progressive creatives.
Which is to say, Silver Lake, a once-gritty Eastside hub has long since gentrified. Rents
have soared, working-class Latino families were pushed out and yuppie babies came along
with gaggles of Eastside soccer moms pushing jogger strollers around the reservoir. Silver
Lake's terrific shopping and dining are still worthy of praise, yet gone is the grit and the
funk.
But you'll find both in Echo Park. One of LA's oldest neighborhoods it is punctuated by
a serene lake featured in Polanski's
Chinatown,
and for decades has been home to poor,
working-class Latinos. Well, the artists and hipsters have arrived, but not in Silver Lake
numbers just yet. The
panaderias
and
cevicherias
, swap-meet shopping and lively streets
are still here. Let's hope they stick around.
Surrounded by shingled craftsmen homes that rise with the steep streets and looming
hills to the north, and blessed with keyhole downtown views to the south, Echo Park Lake
is patronized by cool rockers, laid-back vatos, flocks of ducks and crows, and it's home to
wild, wind-rustled palms.
