Are you visiting LA? Great. Here’s what you do. Pick a neighborhood, rent a house, stay for at least a week, and then … never leave. Seriously. Do not leave that neighborhood for any reason. Visitors make the mistake of bouncing all over LA, then complaining that they don’t get it or that it’s merely fine. But the beauty of LA is that there’s very little to do. Embrace it. By your third day, you’ll start to accept that life really can be this wonderful and easy.
That’s my primary tip for my former home. Keep reading for recs on some of the best food and hangs in the country, with the caveat that if you’re sitting in traffic to get to any of these places you’ve done something wrong.
Top fives bangers and jams are listed first, in order.