Los Angeles: The Reservoir Dog Tour

by Neil Woodburn on

Reservoir Dogs is one of the most successful indie films ever produced.  It is not, however, one of those glamorous cinematic visions which draws tourists by the busload to the various locations where it was filmed.  Indeed, part of the brilliance of Reservoir Dogs was that most of it took place in nondescript, unsexy parts of Los Angeles.  The film has no famous “Pretty Woman” hotel which fans can gawk at from across the street and imagine Julia Roberts gallivanting about within. 

Rabid fans of Reservoir Dogs, however, do have a handful of locations easily accessible for a visit on a day trip to Los Angeles.  One of my favorite websites, Movie-Locations.com, has an entire page dedicated to these locations. 

Start the day off with breakfast, for example at Pat and Lorraine’s (4720 Eagle Rock Boulevard) in the city of Eagle Rock. This is where the gang gathered to wax eloquently about the art of tipping.  Or, loiter in the alley between 55th and 56th Avenue where Mr. Brown gets shot. 

There are a dozen other locations from the film listed on the site.  Pop the movie into your car’s DVD player, drive around L.A., and check ’em out yourself.  If anyone asks what you’re doing, tell them Mr. Blue sent you. 

Red Corner: Why Cuba needs a Food Revolution

by Neil Woodburn on

One of my favorite places to eat in Los Angeles is a Cuban restaurant called Versailles. Their garlic chicken and plantains are simply phenomenal.

So why is the actual island of Cuba consistently rated as having some of the very worst food on this planet?

Paul Mansfield of The Observer decides to find out for himself. He recently traveled to Cuba where he learned that the state-owned restaurants (and they are all state owned) were mostly horrible. The government realizes this, however, and has allowed private citizens to open up paladares–small “restaurants” within people’s homes. The market is tightly controlled by the government, however (max 12 diners, for example), and Cubans have told me that the moment a paladar becomes too popular and takes business away from state-owned restaurants, it gets shut down.

As you might suspect, the paladares are where Mansfield finds the Island’s best food–although best is a subjective term here. When compared to the other horrific food on the island, anything simply palatable falls into the best category by default. Case in point, after a week of traveling and eating, Mansfield came up with only two recommendations that sound worthy of trying. All the others seemed hardly palatable.

Tofu Festival

by Neil Woodburn on

File this one under, “Only in LA.”

On August 12-13, the city of Los Angeles will be celebrating the 11th annual Tofu Festival.  An entire weekend will be spent honoring this bean curd panacea that is oh-so-very Los Angeles, despite its Chinese roots. 

Although details of this year’s festival haven’t been hammered out yet, judging from last year’s extravaganza, visitors can expect more than 40 vendors whipping out a multitude of tofu masterpieces.  There will also be sake tasting, cultural music and dance performances, and live bands.  And, according to the above photo, a tofu eating contest as well.  Oh yum. 

Blogging New Orleans!

by Adrienne Wilson on

How sooo out of the loop I feel these days trying to get more Americans to walk and exercise! Perhaps I missed a memo that went out, but where and when did our sister site, Blogging New Orleans come around? Seriously? I was scrolling down just to see what has been happening on sister sites across the board when I discovered one I never knew existed!

Anyhow, Blogging New Orleans looks quite up-and-coming and focuses on everything you’d want to know about the city and more. After reading two pages of posts I’ve caught up on some of the latest Katrina updates, the current road conditions, places to dine, places to hang and other Nawlin’s ramblings from Heidi, Kelly, Steve, Henry, Jay and all the rest of the bloggers on deck. If you’re working up a summer time vaca to New Orleans you’ll want to check them out. I’ve already found one place I’d like to visit on my next march through the town – the Audubon Aquarium.

Thanks a mil and welcome!

New York’s Rooftop Bars

by Neil Woodburn on

As the temperature rises and summer approaches, a New York phenomenon steadies its legs, brushes off the winter wear-and-tear, and throws open its doors to the forlorn, huddled masses who have spent far too long of a winter indoors keeping warm. Yes folks, New York’s rooftop bars are starting to open up for the summer.

While New York’s regular bars are legendary, the city’s rooftop bars offer views, atmosphere and fresh air simply unavailable at street level.  There is truly something very cool about standing, drink in hand, at the top of one of New York’s buildings, surrounded by skyscrapers and the rest of the towering metropolis. 

Thankfully, for those out-of-towners visiting New York that have only seen the top of the Empire State Building, The New York Times has just published an extensive list of the city’s rooftop bars as well as a handful of reviews.  So, find yourself the nearest elevator, press the up button, and join the rooftop dwellers in their seasonal revelry.