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Hotel Cafe
By Alex Palmer
One block west from the intersection of Hollywood and Vine the Hotel Café's red neon sign perpetually reads "Vacancy", but there are plenty of nights where even standing room is hard to come by in here.
It's characteristic of this club to be uninterested in impressing people with a line going out the door. Hollywood is full of posh clubs that treat long lines as valuable advertisements, charging hilariously high cover charges, and offering bathrooms that are as lavish as the dance floor. Which is why, especially in Hollywood, the Hotel Café is such an anomaly and continues to be so adored.
Here they showcase musicians who are simply good; who play solid songs with honest lyrics and skilled playing. Zack Hexum's jazz-inflected pop, Sonya Kitchell's bluesy love songs, and Jim Bianco's rusty piano-driven songs about troubled relationships are the usual sort of singer-songwriter music the Hotel features. They try to keep it about the music and aren't just unpretentious but anti-pretentious.
The Café fosters a familial atmosphere where the singers get to know each other from week to week, sometimes playing each others' songs or adding vocals and backup to each others' albums.
The musicians like to stick around after their performances, sipping beers or Penfolds Merlot and, at least the night I was there, doing some of the loudest cheering. It has become a place for musicians to hear other musicians. You are likely to spot local artists who are just coming out to check out a show or their friends' bands performing. Something about the small corner stage, grungy red brick walls or spindly ceiling fans give the artists a sense of comfort to be in the performing space.
The wine list reflects the low-key vibe of the Café. Featuring five reds and five whites, the list offers high-quality basics. The list diverges from the usual emphasis on California wines by offering choices from a variety of areas including Italy, Oregon, and four from Australia. The Erath Estates Pinot Grigio is a great choice, with apple and pear flavors that go well with the informal dining of the main room (but avoid the Toasted Head Chardonnay with the overly syrupy oak taste).
Since the crowd can't live on wine alone, the Hotel offers a light menu of quesadillas, salads, and Panini sandwiches for their patrons. Squeezing the 12 or 15 small tables together into three long ones, everyone shares legroom and table space as they talk before the show.
The audience shares the same sensibility as the musicians, striking a nice middle ground between being smart and arty but remaining casual. There are plenty of hoodies and flip-flops in the crowd, and overheard conversation topics tend more toward politics and books than tabloid gossip.
So order a bottle of the Kenwood Yulupa Cabernet or the Penfolds Merlot to share with friends. The dim interior with brick walls and red velvet curtains makes red wine a more ideal choice. The Trinity Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon is especially rich and smooth choice with deep cherry and currant flavors. As the musician begin, wine glasses are set down, conversation fizzles out, and all attention shifts respectfully to the stage as another interesting and refreshingly unpolished artist begins his or her set.
But recently the intimate, un-Hollywood scene of the Café has been flirting with the big time. Zack Braff, a regular of the club, managed to get several of the Hotel's regulars, including Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin, and Schuyler Fisk, included on the heavily-promoted The Last Kiss soundtrack that came out in August.
The Café is also getting its name out across the US this fall with the second Hotel Café tour, co-sponsored by Myspace. Twenty-five of the regular Hotel Café performers are setting out on a tour bus and six or seven acts will perform each night, hopefully recreating the feel of the Café without over-commercializing the scene back home.
From the looks of the club and the crowd, the increased exposure has yet to change what the locals love about the Hotel Café and the club's address remains, at least for the time being, the most Hollywood thing about it.
Grand Avenue
By Alex Palmer
There's more culture to Downtown LA than the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It's true that Grand Avenue in the Bunker Hill District of Los Angeles is best known for the refinement of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and the hard-to-miss Disney Hall, which attract much of LA's elite art community seeking an evening's entertainment. But this summer as the LA Philharmonic ends its season and the weather gets warmer, the few blocks of Grand between 1st and 4th begin to cater to a younger and more laidback crowdwith art, film, and especially in its music and wine options.
Some of this summer nightlife comes from MOCA itself with the experimental and unbuttoned entertainment of its Night Vision series (www.moca.org/nightvision). Taking place on 15 Saturday nights from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the museum stays open late to show films, art, and music. They also provide something else you don't get during a typical MOCA visita cash bar. The wine selection at the bar is not particularly adventurous, but has its share of diversions. A glass of Beringer merlot receives an added spice from the warm evening air as you mingle with the other MOCA guests in the outdoor Sculpture Plaza. The tame merlot also balances the sometimes familiar/other times obscure mix spun by Night Vision's resident DJs Part-Time-Punks. The duo spins most of the Saturdays, warming up the crowd with a danceable mix of 70s punk, 90s grunge, and motley variations in between.
The Night Vision program has a free-flowing, multi-media atmosphere with a variety of entertainments. Pop in to the screening room for a short film, then catch a few songs from the night's musical act or take a quick tour of the Rauschenberg exhibit before everything closes up at midnight. The crowd is mainly 20- and 30-something students and locals and a general sense of friendliness and freewheeling energy pervades the evening. The volunteers behind the bar are especially friendly and knowledgeable about the works and artists, and it's worth chatting with them as you order your next glass of cabernet.
Besides Part-Time-Punks, a half dozen other DJ acts are scheduled to play sets over the summer, including hip-hop DJ Sloe Poke on July 15 and indie music don Steve Aoki (aka Kid Millionaire) on July 8th. All-girl trio The Like perform on July 22, offering the dreamy and delicate music that has made them a local favorite with LA's indie crowds. A sweeter tasting winelike the house sauvignon blanc or chardonnaybetter accompanies the warm and smooth singing style of The Like. If the museum bar does not offer enough of a wine selection, slip away to the Spiral Court right next to MOCA and grab a patio seat at the Tesoro Trattoria. On summer evenings this Italian restaurant caters to young artists and college students as much as it does the museum and symphony crowd. Especially on weekends, arty t-shirts and Sketchers shoes are as common as tuxedos or heels.
The more than 300 entries on Tesoro's wine list emphasize Italian and Napa Valley vintages that go well with a hearty pasta dish or a light salad, or maybe just by themselves. The sound of the patio fountain serves as relaxing background music as you sip on a glass of Stag's Leap syrah or Sterling Vineyards' Three Palm merlot.
Inside the place bustles on weekends and the paintings of Venice and large portions create a relaxed but stylish atmosphere. Outside, over the hum of flowing water and conversation, it's possible some nights to hear the strains of jazz piano or violin seeming to come out of nowhere. In fact the music wafts in from the adjacent California Plaza stage, where another local art foundation, Grand Performances (www.grandperformances.org), hosts its weekly shows.
The nonprofit group is celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer with another exciting lineup of music, dance and theater from all parts of the world. Held under the open LA sky, events this summer include DJ lessons, Congalese rumbas, and performances by Mexico's only deaf theater company Seña y Verbo. Better yet, all the shows are free. One of the unconventional acts is the Senegalese hip hop trio Daara J who perform on July 28. Incorporating reggae, funk, Cuban pilón and French rap into their hip hop, the group will be mixing standard samples with acoustic guitar for their July show. Though Tesoro has little in the way of South African wine, the bold but dulcet tastes of Tesoro's Jade Mountain Syrah suits Daara's combination of gritty rap vocals with a surprisingly melodious undercurrent.
Moving from South Africa to South America, July 29th is the Sounds Eclecteco concert, cohosted with KCRW and featuring Tijuana-based Nortec Collective and a handful of other banda performers and artists. To accompany this mix of music, with its optimistic, accordion accented melodies, a glass of one of Tesoro's chiantis would be a good match, particularly the Ruffino Ducale Gold or Monsanto with their light fruity taste and dry finish will leave you feeling warm even if it's one of LA's rare cold nights.
At the end of most shows, Grand Performances hold an open discussion with the audience to get thoughts and interpretations of the event, emphasizing the communal nature of the music and Los Angeles in general. It's hard to imagine seeing that at an LA Philharmonic show.
This uptick in cultural events around Grand Avenue comes at a time when downtown, and these couple of blocks in particular, are about to go through a significant revitalization. The Grand Avenue Committee and The Related Companies have commissioned Frank Gehry for a massive renovation project, of which the Walt Disney Concert Hall is just a prelude. Gehry hopes that phase one, which will add a towering hotel, retail area, and pedestrian walkways to the block across the street from Disney Hall, will help transform this growing cultural center into a vibrant meeting place for a wide range of Los Angeleans.
With demolition set to begin in early 2007, this summer is a good time to stop by Grand Avenue for a performance and a couple glasses of wine. In a year you may not even recognize the place.
Tangiers
By Alex Palmer
Tucked away in Los Feliz, right next to the southern edge of Griffith Park, Tangier Grill hosts some of the best nights of music going on in L.A. It also boasts an excellent wine menu! As you first walk in to the bar, Tangier looks like a cozy neighborhood cocktail lounge. It has an old British colonial vibe, with bronze and red covering the walls and dim Moroccan lanterns, making the place seem even smaller than on first survey. But as your eyes adjust and you start poking around, the true size of the place becomes apparent.
Tangier is actually four venues. There is the bar where the mellow crowds squeeze in to chat and drink their Sterling Merlot or martinissome stand in pairs but most cluster in groups around the small tables, talking about German philosophy or Swedish pop music or politics. But there is also the sylvan patio with fountain and netted ceiling, and the expansive restaurant, and finally the lounge with stage and sound system. Despite appearances, it seems like every time you walk a few feet there is another doorway leading to another interesting retreat.
In the restaurant, Tangier offers mostly traditional but tasty dishes like grilled salmon filet and juicy Angus burger, with a handful of gourmet salads (no African dishes despite the name). Prices range from $10 to $20. But their wine menu stands out as a little more adventurous, including Humanitas' fruity Cabernet and the mocha-accents of Vinium Cellars' "Pets" Syrah, prices ranging from $6 to $10 a glass. The dark red leather aesthetic makes for a relaxing dining experience, but be sure you finish your meal early enough to catch a few of the acts performing in the snug lounge.
The best part about Tangier is the unusual yet consistently good musicians who play there, raging from a three-person folk band or a French DJ quartet, sharing the same modest stage. Most nights feature a lineup of three or four acts that play either a folky, indie strain of distinctly American music, or the more eclectic international acts.
The bluesy singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell fits into the first group. She has been playing weekly shows during the past month, showcasing her throaty jazz-inflected vocals and five previous albums' worth of material. Mandell's songs employ a flowery-on-the-surface and sharp-at-the-core sensibility. With the audience listening intently and appreciatively, she shifts between a breezy cover of Merle Haggard's "I've Got a Tender Heart" to darker territory in "Snakebite" where she channels the cool fury of PJ Harvey as her voice takes on a biting edge. She also throws in a cover of Cole Porter's "I Love Paris," which many in the audience recognized from the Carl's Jr. commercial featuring Paris Hilton. The audience kept thinking they knew where she was going only to again be surprised by the next song.
Mandell's music goes well with the Yalumba Viognier Tangier features. The wine's striking floral perfume hints at everything from apricots to melon, but these first impressions give way to a surprisingly dry lime and honeyed pear flavor. While Tangier's Terrasola Chardonnay offers a familiar buttery taste, the Viognier will give you a wine experience you probably were not expecting.
In the same mode of Mandell's singer-songwriter style are a handful of other acts, like the jazzy chanteuse Jessica Hoop and the folk bands Wisely and Circle Course. Besides these artists, there are also more internationally oriented acts that bring crowds to Tangier most nights of the week. Dengue Fever is one of these more exotic acts, with a fast-paced mix of 60s organ-heavy surf rock and Cambodian folk songs, accented with funk and sax notes. They are a big hit with the audience, especially when they break out "Sni Bong" with its driving guitar riffs and melody. The vocals of the lead singer Chhom Nimol are what stay with you hours after their showher voice sounds equal parts femme fatale singing a James Bond theme or a rollicking partier in a Bollywood film.
O'Reilly's Pinot Noir, a complex and sensual Tangier specialty, fits better with Dengue Fever. The raspberry and black cherry tones give was to a light spice. The wine is rich and exciting, though when the bartender recommended it he clarified that it was "not because of Sideways".
Dengue Fever and acts like the lushly instrumental El Ten Eleven and the more combative DJ group Birdie Nam Nam bring out the peregrine atmosphere of Tangier, reminding you again of how much interesting music is going on in LA.
LARGO
By Alex Palmer
Largo has everything you would expect from an L.A. club. Located right at the edge of the Hollywood circus, near the corner of Fairfax and Melrose, the musty, modest-sized club is a hot spot of celebrity sightings, fine drinks, and hard-to-get reservations. Beck, Tom Petty, and Jack Black have all made appearances and if you reserve a table or stand back by the kitchen, you might end up chatting with someone whose video is getting heavy rotation on MTV (or more likely these days, MTV2). But as "L.A." as Largo sounds, pretension and star-worship are hard to find here. Instead, Largo exudes understated classiness. Getting everything from a rock concert to dinner theater, the audience comes here for a pop show, but an intelligent pop show.
Since the wait for even the regular performers can be lengthy and there are no promises, you can score a standing space by the bar, or the best option is to secure a dinner reservation by calling ahead (323-852-1073). You still pay the cover charge (usually $15) and have to buy at least $10.00 of drinks and food, but you get a VIP-grade table and enjoy your dinner and drinks during the show. The limited menu offers solid entrée choices (the Glazed Honey Chicken Breast is excellent!) and the wine list includes selections that go well with Largo's appealing performers. Largo offers a suitable pair of Merlots: the Caliterra with its fruity taste and toasty feel go nicely with the casual but cultured atmosphere, but a better choice might be to get a bottle of the Barton & Guestier. This French Merlot has a smoky after-taste that accompanies a meal and the music perfectly.
The regular performers, a mix of pop's mainstream and fringe players like wistful singer-songwriter Jude and the now-defunct Toad the Wet Sprocket's frontman Glenn Phillips, treat their shows as an opportunity to entertain, not just to play. They joke with the audience and their bandmates, and seem to really have fun. They show off their talents, but are just as excited as diners when a set goes well. Chris Thile, the 24 year old mandolin virtuoso from the bluegrass band and Largo regular Nickel Creek, introduced his incredible stringed rendition of a Bach sonata by telling the audience, "If I pull this off, I better get a kiss after the show!" The artists usually stick around by the stage's exit as people leave, so you actually can give them a kiss of appreciation if you want, but a handshake might be acceptable too. If you are feeling generous, you can offer them a glass of champagne. Largo offers bottles of both Veuve Cliquot and Moet et Chandon.
The most familiar of the Largo family is Jon Brion, the musical multi-tasker who is recently making headlines for co-producing Kanye West's number one album, "Late Registration." Though Brion has discovered an unlikely knack for hip-hop, his usual interest is the deceptively simple Starbucks-friendly pop-rock artists, like Rufus Wainwright, Aimee Mann, and Fiona Apple. Since 1997, he has had a weekly residency at Largo, performing a mix of his own material and other artists' songs on any instruments that happen to appeal to him. Brion's more buoyant performances make the spicy Placido an ideal pairing with the entertainment. The Italian Chianti's harmonious taste and floral hints elevate the drinker's jaunty listening experience.
But as enjoyable as the Placido can be, a bigger draw of Brion's shows is the likely appearance of his friends and collaborators. Besides Largo regulars like Thile and Grant Lee Phillips, Fiona Apple, Michael Stipe, and even Sir Paul McCartney have graced Largo's stage unannounced. The fact that superstars are performing for a few dozen fans stops mattering as the exuberance of Brion and his guests take over. The obvious exhilaration felt by Brion and his collaborators about the songs they are playing, and who they are playing with, turns the performers on stage into any other excited members of the audience. As the bouquet of merlot fills your nostrils and the plucking of a Dylan cover or pounding of an old blues tune drowns out any celebrity pretension, you may find the simple joy of hearing a new favorite song. It is easy to forget that Hollywood is just a few blocks down the street.