The Win-Dow - Excellent Cheap Eats In Venice!

There could not possibly be a more beautiful day than today in Venice, California. It's only Thursday (Little Friday!), but the holiday weekend seems to already be ON. The Boardwalk is packed. The Skatepark is packed. The bike path is packed. And the line at the new burger spot, The Win-Dow, on Rose Avenue was looong.

The Win-Dow is exactly that - a window to order, and a window to pick up, and you either take your food to go, or sit on little plastic chairs in the parking lot of the former Ranch Market and La Fiesta Brava space, which most everyone on this gorgeous day chose to do.

The new endeavor from Superba and Pitfire Pizza's Paul Hibler is open now, and the adjacent larger restaurant - American Beauty - is coming soon. I ran into Hibler in the parking lot as I was waiting for my lunch, and when I thanked him for providing a new place with actually affordable food in Venice (the burgers are $3.95!), he smiled and said, "I said I was going to do it, so I did." And we can all be glad.

The burgers are excellent. Basic cheeseburgers with super-soft buns, grilled with onions, so there's a slight White Castle vibe - in a good way. The fries are my favorite kind - thin, crisp, and hot. The lemonade is fresh, and the perfect way to wash down the food. There's a vegan burger and kale salad for the healthier options, and a fried chicken sandwich that is going to be my next conquest. I'm impressed.

The service was super friendly, as was the vibe in the parking lot, with friends and neighbors greeting each other as they enjoyed the sunshine. You wouldn't have been surprised if a dance party had broken out right there on the blacktop ... the day had that kind of feel. Stoked.

I carried on with my day, fully sated, and more than happy to report that The Win-Dow is awesome. I'll see you there again soon!

The Win-Dow
425 Rose Avenue
Venice
11 am - 7 pm Daily

The First Flower Fest Fun - Flower Power!

Flower Fest kicked off its first incarnation on a beautiful Saturday on Rose Avenue in Venice. Flower Fest is a brand new festival put on by the Venice Chamber of Commerce and the Venice Art Crawl folks (and some weed companies for good measure, though real Venice supports the o.g. longtime local medicine providers), with a fun way of showing off some of the best that Venice has to offer.

It was billed as "A Taste Of Venice", so there were a lot of food booths. Local restaurants set up little outposts of their brick and mortar locations, and there was pretty much anything you wanted, from Italian to Asian, from Casa Linda to Great White.

You didn't really get the flower vibe until you passed through all of the restaurant tents, but then there was booth after booth of lovely blooms of all kinds.

You could get flower crowns custom made, you could get them braided right into your hair ... and you could stop traffic with your giant handmade headdress, just like the groovy old hippie days in Venice.

As it was a collab with the Art Crawl, there was also plenty of art on hand.

Artists were live painting murals up and down the blocks, featuring flowers mostly, but also messages of absolute truth.

One of my favorite local artists, Beckett, was also on hand doing some live painting on a canvas set up for kids to go to town on, and his rainbow was my favorite piece I saw all day (and I don't think I was alone in that, as several bystanders stopped to photograph this little boy happily painting away, while taking it very seriously). Teach the children well!

Beckett also started his own art collection, finding a piece he couldn't live without from artist Todd Goodman. The two creatives took time out to pose together, in a summit meeting of two important Venice painters. Awesome.

A stage was set up at the closer to Lincoln end of Rose, festooned with paper flowers and blasting terrible music - at least when we were there. Anxiety-inducing beats were being spun by some D.J. that didn't really know his family audience in the early afternoon, but I heard it got more awesome as the day progressed. It culminated in a performance by Phantogram there in the street on Rose, that I was bummed to have to miss, but heard was great.

I say the more Festivals the merrier, and you really can't go wrong in Venice with food, flowers, art, and music. All the things we love. Plus, a reminder that one of the most important aspects of life is to GROW. It was a little under-attended, possibly because not very many people I talked to had known about it ... it was more a delightful surprise they stumbled on to out on a Saturday bike ride or stroll.

Congratulations to everyone on another cool thing to do in Venice ... may it grow!!!

Big Red Sundays!

The very fun Sundays at Big Red Sun returned yesterday with an afternoon of music and friends in the charming backyard garden of this great space on Rose Avenue. Everyone is so busy these days, it was a true and rare delight to get the gang all together in the name of Summer fun, live music, and friendship.

We were out gathering up the BYOB supplies, so missed the opening set by our good friend, Scott Passaglia, but he got the party started, that's for sure. There was shopping in addition to music listening, and many friends left the day with new jewelry and art purchased from the little airstream trailer store set up out back. We arrived just in time to pull up a bench and listen to tunes brand new and old by one of our local favorites, Lacey Cowden.

Cowden fully entranced the garden party, and had every eye and ear riveted to her throughout her set. Even her dog, Bootsy, was rapt and totally flattened by the story-telling tunes of her very talented owner. It was honestly so quiet for her that I'm pretty sure all auto and pedestrian traffic had been held out on Rose out of sheer respect. It was silent - until massive applause pierced the skies at the end of every tune. Always take the chance to hear Cowden sing ... it's something special.

After a little mingling in the sun and enjoying the perfectly curated tunes from DJ Bright Moments (Paddy Wilkins) between sets, it was Matt Ellis' turn to beguile the garden. He too brought out new tunes to blend in with his well-known and loved selections, and we all tapped our toes along as the sun got a little lower and colors turned to twilight. Vavine Tahapehi joined her husband on a couple of numbers, and all was right in the world as you glanced around at all of our friends smiling and enjoying themselves, seemingly far away from any cares of the outside world. Which is precisely what afternoons like this are for  - to remind us of all the good that still exists. Right here.

We wound up the night at the always-wonderful Galley (where they had the Olympics showing out on the patio tv - excellent), and another Big Red Sunday was on the books. Be sure to keep an ear out for the next one, because it's a perfect way to while away an afternoon in Venice. Thank you to all who made it happen!

The Rose - By Any Other Name ... Does It Smell As Sweet?

We've been eagerly awaiting the re-opening of The Rose Café (established in 1979) in Venice (now called "The Rose"), and got in there last night to check it out. I'll have to reserve judgement until they're totally up and fully running, but so far ... we miss the old Rose.

My friend, Nori, is currently using a cane post foot surgery. We pulled in to The Rose parking lot, and were told by the valet that the first hour is free, and after that it's $9.00 per hour. Even for hobbled people with canes. Gone is the kindly old valet that charged like $2.00 for all day or something. Yeah, no thanks. We parked on the street, and Nori limped along for two blocks.

The space inside is lovely. There is no gift shop now, and in its place is a big, full bar. That's great, though I did love that little shop and its unique cards and gifts.

I guess it's the same owners, but they clearly want to capitalize on being Google-adjacent, and the homey old feel of the former Rose Café is no longer. It's pretty slick, and obvious that they want to compete with Gjusta down the street, with the same various stations for pastries, to go food, and all that.

The servers (very nice, almost ass kissy - which I get, they're new) referred to new Chef Jason Neroni as "Chef", which I always find slightly off-putting. "Chef likes to serve ... " I get that hierarchy stuff in the kitchen, but let's cool it on the aggrandizing, because, frankly, we didn't really like the food so far. At all. They won't be serving the full dinner menu for a couple of weeks, but what we had from the bar menu was really not even ok. We wanted the pizzas we'd seen posted on Instagram, but were told those weren't available, and we could just get cheese pizza by the slice. Out came a super oily piece of what might have been a Stouffer's French Bread pizza. Thick. Overcooked.

The sashimi Nori ordered was really good, but a little, tiny plate of it. The sheep's cheese we ordered came in a soupy Chef Boyardee-style sauce, with a tiny hunk of hard bread on top all sticky from the gross sauce. We tried to get at the cheese without getting sauce on it, and there was not enough bread even for that. We asked for some more bread - as it wasn't nearly enough for two - and were later dismayed to find that that "side of tiny bread" was $5.00 on our bill, which was not relayed to us when asking. The parking costs two tiny loaves of bread! Ridiculous.

We had fried chicken with a lot of gristle and a sauce drizzled over it that when I scanned my taste memory, the closest thing I could come to in describing it to Nori (not a meat eater) was vomit.

The wine pours were tiny, and honestly, the only thing we liked was the coffee shop type lemon bar we had for dessert, because that was the only thing that sounded good or not like breakfast. Oh, we also liked the decor and the patio, but where we sat was right across the street from Google, who seemed to be hosting a YouTube kids show, and all we heard throughout dinner were little girls screaming like they once did for The Beatles. Times have certainly changed at The Rose.

We relayed all of our concerns to the servers, who were lovely and gracious, but the one probably set herself up when she asked us, "Is everything amazing?!" The long pause was almost answer enough, but Nori cracked me up when she replied, "Amazing might be a little strong." Speaking truth to power.

I hope The Rose settles in and works it all out, because it's always been a great meeting place for the People of Venice, and it's a gorgeous space. I just hope they don't forget that people loved their old Rose Café, and we're still here, Google be damned.

As we hobbled back along the two blocks to Nori's car, we just kind of had to laugh. And hope for the best.

The Rose
220 Rose Avenue
Venice

Venice Art Crawl - The Afterburn Edition

September's Venice Art Crawl was one for the history books. SUPER fun, all evening long. This was the second "Afterburn" edition, with Venetians returning from Burning Man bringing some of that Playa to the middle of closed-down Rose Avenue.

The street was closed between Third and Fourth Streets, with art installations and colorful crowds of Burners and just folks out walking their dog that stumbled upon this eye and mind blowing art extravaganza.

It was a pure celebration of FREEDOM, in art, in dress, and in the collective minds of everyone there. Everything was all lit up, and music was thumping from the giant rave scene anchored by a giant Trojan Unicorn, filled with dancing revelers. It was awesome.

There was so much to see, from the art to the costumes, but the best part was bumping into friends every few feet. To a person, all said, "THIS is why we love living here! THIS is what Venice is supposed to be like!" Exactly and Amen.

The Yellow Submarines were present, with a little chill camp between them.

There was live painting going on up and down both sides of the street, with the art fully available for purchase, and inspiration.

There were a lot of interactive things going on too, that gave you a good feel of what it must be like at Burning Man (I've never been. I'm cool with that.). There was a keyboard sound studio thing you could make your own beats in.

I think my favorite piece (other than the unicorn) was this flat stringed instrument thing that a whole group could play together on at once. It brought unity through music, and friendship through jamming. I loved it.

There was a big bird cage people could sit together and chill (and be photographed in).

There was a covered wagon with people piled high atop it, perhaps on the way to the Unicorn Stampede at the other end (People in unicorn costumes running).

There was a neon corn hole game and a giant Connect Four people were playing. Pretty Sneaky, Sis!

There was no police presence at all, that I saw, and that was extra great. No one being hassled for nothing, just people having a great time.

There was a complete mingling of the Skid Row West population on Third and Rose, the hipsters that hang on Rose, and friends and neighbors that live for these moments in Venice. Again, totally why we live here.

After seeing pretty much everything and everyone (except Alex Rodriguez!) on Rose, there was still a lot of art to see, with Art Crawl venues stretching all the way down to Washington (the end I never seem to make it to, sorry!). After one amazing glance back, we set off to see what else we could see.

On the stroll South, we ran into a French couple looking at a map. I asked if they needed help, and they were trying to find the main part of Main Street. I pointed them in the right direction, and told them to take a detour on Rose. They had no idea what they were in for, and I totally wished I'd seen their faces. Hope you had fun, Frenchies!

On we went to the slick new men's surf and skate wear shop, General Admission. They were showing the awesome photography of Akira Kobayashi put on by Kana Manglapus featuring Venice back in the day. They were also serving up cocktails, which we enjoyed while spilling out on to Brooks Avenue and chatting with friends. One friend asked of another, "Do you two know each other?" To which they replied, "Probably." It was like that. One lady said, "Doesn't this remind you of how First Fridays used to be?" Which is exactly what I say about Art Crawl every time, and why we love it so much. It feels like real Venice, and those that know, know exactly what that means.

As nice of a time as we were having with the surf boys, we still had some time to see more. We gave our hugs and directions to the next spot, and headed over to Solé Bicycles to see more surf and skate (our favorite) photography from Brian Averil.

It was also super cool, made even cooler by having many of the works printed on Wood. There was a Venice company there, Blocksmith, who takes your photos and prints them on wood for you. I loved it, and you'll be getting a story about them soon.

As the clock had not yet struck midnight, we still had some time to squeeze in a little more. Some guys were having a house party on Venice Way, celebrating the release of their magazine, Rank (a Venice-based art and literary publication.

This was a great way to end the night, as it was a bunch of locals celebrating in a house (which they were cool enough to open to a slew of strangers, as everyone can do on the Art Crawl. Get your party spot listed for December!), comparing notes on all that we'd seen. They kindly had drinks and snacks, and even more dancing.

As I ambled on home after yet another house party, I couldn't help but smile the whole way home. It was a beautiful night in every way, in one of those rare instances where everyone agrees that it was.

www.theblocksmith.comThe feeling that I think people go to Burning Man to try and feel is something that you can find and feel anytime you want, because it's inside of all of our people that we have right here every day. File this one under "I Love You, Venice" for sure.

Thank you to all the hard working volunteers that put on this wonderful showcase of Venice with each and every Art Crawl.

The Golden State - More Than A Store, A Lifestyle

When I was about five, I saw the Sunkist soda "Good Vibrations" commercial, and knew that California is where I wanted to live when I grew up. Then I saw A Star Is Born and knew that I wanted to live where Kris Kristofferson lived in the movie - in California. Then I heard Led Zeppelin's "Going To California", and that just sealed the deal. As soon as I finished college (and after a year in Hawai'i), I headed to California ... Venice, in particular.

Over the years, I've grown to love California as much, if not more, than I love Minnesota. A lot of that has to do with freedom, the wild West, the sun, the surf, the music, the open-minded people, and creating a lifestyle that lets me appreciate all of the best of that to the fullest. I don't want to live somewhere that's like everywhere else, which is why I tell the stories of the people and places that I love, that have a distinct sense of place, and that embody all I love about where I live. Like The Golden State.

Stephanie Stuart is a fourth generation native Californian, born and raised in Los Angeles. Her family was in the film biz, and she grew up surrounded by the industry. Stuart worked as a stylist for editorials and film and television, then wound up as a costumer on Seinfeld. She had her first son on the last night of that job, and then focused on raising her three boys, all the while thinking of how she'd really like to open a concept store for all things tied to a California lifestyle. It was also a reaction to the recession, getting away from big box stores and realizing the backlash people were having to corporate takeovers, and wanting to do something independent and unique for our area.

The chance came to open a store on Ocean Park Boulevard in 2009, which was short lived, before opening again as a pop up store within Big Red Sun on Rose Avenue in Venice, then moved into their own space next door (now Lily Ashwell). The synergy there was great, and the store gained a loyal following for lovers of all things California. "I find that people will go out of their way to support us, and tell their friends. This has all been pretty much word of mouth," Stuart told me gratefully.

When the lease was up on the Rose space, Stuart and her husband, Steve, began looking for a new spot, and found a gem on Lincoln Boulevard, right next to Superba Food and Bread. They opened their doors on Lincoln this past April, and have never been busier. The store is gorgeous, light and breezy, and full of everything you want, from gorgeous beach cover-ups and bikinis, and the latest and coolest threads for the dudes, all the way to books and olive oils!

Jewelry and wall hangings share space with art and cards, all of it the full embodiment of a West Coast lifestyle. "People are creating a lifestyle that's not about money, it's about enjoying their life in California," says Stuart. "I'm impressed by California every day ... its resilience, its resources, and its beauty, from the beach to the mountains to the desert."

All of those highlights are included within the walls of this wonderful shop, making it feel as if you went on a good old fashioned road trip just by walking around looking at all the great stuff.

It gets even better when you go out to the back patio. There Stuart teamed up with the Superba folks to create a hydroponic garden outside to provide fresh produce and herbs for the restaurant next door! It's a beautiful refuge back there, and you feel miles away from busy Lincoln Boulevard just outside the front door. There is a fire pit and large picnic tables, with the idea that they'll start having events back there, from dinner parties with neighbors to yoga classes ... all very Californian, of course.

A mural by Dee Dee Cheriel will be added to the outside wall next week, all of coming together to be a low impact space to just chill and build more community, with anything you need just steps away. It's truly lovely, and resourceful, and all around just great.

The Stuarts feature California brands in the store, some favorites being Iron and Resin and Freedom Artists for Men's clothes, Raen for sunglasses, Electric and Rose (designed by Venice locals) for both men and women's surf and yoga couture, and Turquoise and Tobacco (another Venice local and dear friend Laura Genevieve!) for excellent local jewelry. They even have their delicious smelling The Golden State candles hand poured just for them.

When not in the store, the Stuarts can be found, of course at Superba next door, at Clutch on Lincoln, at new favorite in Louie's of Mar Vista, but probably their favorite spot is to just hang out in their glorious back garden with their boys and their friends. I get it ... I didn't want to leave either. It's exactly the kind of place we want to keep Venice unique and awesome.

"California is timeless and classic and brand new all at once, and I wanted to create the context to tell that story in our store, as well as be a vessel for local and regional designers," explained Stuart. She has done exactly that, as from the moment I walked through the door, I instantly felt that same groovy excitement as I did when I was a kid listening to "Good Vibrations", which should absolutely be the theme store for this fantastic oasis of California gold, both a state and a state of mind.

The Golden State is located at:
1916 Lincoln Boulevard
310-392-7800
TheGoldenStatestore.com
Instagram.com/@thegoldenstatestore
Facebook.com/thegoldenstatestore

Open Tuesday - Friday 11 - 6
Saturday & Sunday 10 - 6
Closed Monday