Erewhon In Venice

The high end grocery store, Erewhon, opened its doors in Venice this morning in the old Samy's Camera location, and judging from the lines for the valet parking off Venice Boulevard (Yes - valet service to grocery shop in Venice ... sigh ...), it's already a hit with the locals - who may or not BE locals, because I didn't recognize anyone.

The place is impressive - like a nicer Whole Foods. The prices match, but in this case, I have to kind of get it, because the quality is so high. Super high. Like one of the most beautiful produce sections I've ever seen, with all the colors of the rainbow represented by the gorgeous fruits and vegetables.

Speaking of rainbows, there was even a Unicorn in there for opening day, slinging her organic chocolate. That made me feel a little better about having a kind of chain come to the neighborhood - like at least it's still a little weird in there. AND I'd way rather have a kind of chain selling super healthy and mindful product than any b.s. corporate retail store. You pick your battles ...

I spoke to the "Managing Director" of the place, and he was pretty cool, and clearly eager to please the neighborhood, imploring us to always feel free to approach him with comments, questions, complaints, requests ... seeming actually interested in the feedback from residents of the surrounding area. Which is nice, and a refreshing change from all the businesses that just come in and try to railroad their own ways through without pause to consider how it might affect Venice and its People.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to love walking a block over to get the finest possible ingredients for even the most impromptu meal. I'm also pretty sure my shelves are still going to be mainly filled by Ralph's and our Venice Farmer's Market, because as nice as this place is, it does cost an arm and a leg. There is a beautiful flower section in the front, where a little bouquet with lilacs (my hometown springtime favorite) was $46.00. The prepared stuff is super delicious looking, but also super spendy. So there you go. It's great. but you're gonna pay top dollar. But life is short (but probably not AS short, when you treat your body and life in this top shelf style).

So ... welcome to the neighborhood, Erewhon Market! I'll see you sometimes.

Erewhon Market is now open at 585 Venice Boulevard.

Venice Community Garden - An Urban Oasis

I had just about had it with urban problems this last month. I thought I was actually going crazy from chopper noise that one night that they hovered right over my house for four (plus) hours, just to get some Best Buy robbers (you've got to wonder what the resources wasted for HOURS cost vs. the electronics swiped. Really.). Two days later I went to the beach for some peace and quiet, only to be hovered over by choppers, for again, four hours. I was beginning to think it was me they were after, but I've been pretty good lately.

OVER it, I pedaled for home, and for some reason (likely less noise) I took another route that day. As I sped down Mildred, I burned rubber skidding to a halt, when BEHOLD, right in front of my face was the most glorious, abundant garden with a big cheerful sign reading "Venice Community Garden"! How this had gone on unknown by me (for almost a year!) I don't know, but there it was, bursting with life - and produce. I've been yearning for a simple balcony - anything! - to grow stuff on, so this was like the end of the rainbow for me to chance upon.


I got online when I got home to track down the story of the place, and a few days later, I was sitting at the sunny patio table in the middle of the VCG, talking with its founder and director, Kip Wood. I have all sorts of garden questions, and he knows what he's talking about, having completed the Master Gardening program. He and his family had a little garden at their Venice home, but builders came and put up yet another square box living complex next door to them, which took away all of their sunlight. You need sun to grow things. Talking about the need for a community garden with friends became Kip walking the streets and really looking for a space.

Kip came upon a "For Rent" sign at the Garden's current site on Mildred, then just a scrubby, overgrown plot of land that had nothing on it. He called the number and reached Donald Novack - the owner of Hal's (my last month's Beachhead subject - synchronicity!), who also owned this plot of land. As the real estate market was/is struggling, Donald agreed to rent the land to Kip and his fellow gardeners at a low cost, as a benefit to the community (and maybe some excess produce to use in the kitchen at Hal's).


Now they had a site for a Garden, but that was just the beginning. The land needed to be cleared, the soil needed to be tested, gardeners needed to be recruited, and it was on. It seems to be a charmed project, as just when anything has been needed, help has come. The LACC (Los Angeles Conservation Corps) provided land clearing equipment and labor - for free. A Construction company took away all the old dirt and refuse. Venice Youth Build kids came and did volunteer work. All systems were go, but then they found out that the soil had arsenic in it from when Mildred was an old railway line. Not good for growing edibles. 100 tons of undesirable soil was taken out, new soil was put in, and wooden beds were built to elevate the individual plots up off the ground. The word was put out, and pretty much since they've been up and growing, there has been a waiting list for the 54 plots of around 150 names (much to my dismay).


You can see why instantly. It's so completely great to just step inside the fence into this green paradise of growth. As Kip said, "Things just WANT to grow here." We are blessed with a wonderful climate for gardening, and everything just goes bezerk - including weeds, so it's a constant job to stay ahead of it all. "But it's the best kind of work", said Kip. "When I'm trimming plants, my mind is quiet, I'm relaxed, I'm grateful, you just feel good about it." At $25 a month for a plot, with so many fruits (vegetables, herbs, flowers, etc..) of your labor, you can feel good about your grocery store savings too.


While I was visiting, different gardeners came and went, checking on their crops, watering their plots, picking some FRESH produce for dinner, or even just to stop in and chat at the table. All of them were so clearly thrilled and grateful to have their plot (I get it), they were pretty much beaming as they went about their business. One guy (thanks, Ross!) shared his pineapple mint with us ... PINEAPPLE mint?! I'd never even heard of it. Kip pointed out that benefit to gardening as well, that stores can only carry so many varieties of things, but one look at a seed catalog and it's a whole new gigantic world of possibilities. PAGES of crazy potatoes alone.

The Venice Community Garden really is about Community too. There are fruit trees and herb pots planted for all to share. They have lectures, classes, art, dinners, "Crop Swaps", a Squash Hunt for the kids at Easter time ... all kinds of fun, educational stuff is always going on. We started talking about how everyone's lives would be so much better if we could switch to a barter/trade system vs. capitalist b.s. ... but that's a longer conversation for another day. One lady that was watering her plot while I was there said she was away for a month and had her co-gardening friend send her weekly photos of the plot, as she missed it so. Again, I get it.


I didn't want to just sit and chat with Kip as his time in the garden was limited, so we talked while I helped him fill up the compost bin things (and learned about them), which goes right back to fertilizing the garden. I got a good old fashioned splinter, and immediately was transported in my mind back to youthful days of helping my Grandma Olson in her majestic garden when I would visit her. Gardening not only made her the tannest Norwegian you'd ever encounter, but made her beloved and kind of famous in LaCrosse, Wisconsin for how very green her thumbs were. I was telling Kip about her, and he stopped me and asked, "Would you say she was happy?" My eyes well up at just the memory of my answer, "Yes. One of the happiest people I've ever known, until her very last day." Kip just nodded, and his point was made.


As my day was made. I went home with a bunch of freshly picked beans (from Kip and His Giant Beanstalk), two kinds of mint, and a wish that I'd brought something to carry more home in. But more than that, I went home inspired, impressed, and grateful that Venice has these pockets of magic that make you (almost) forget all about police choppers and such b.s. There was a tangible love of the space, a shared love that when you stop and think about it, should really apply to our Community as a whole. So let's knock off the robbing, the police chasing, the bike stealing, the hating of any ilk, and put those wasted efforts toward things that will grow, thrive, and make us all the better for it.

Thanks.

And if you have or know of any open spaces in Venice that could be donated for a while or forever, that would help the Venice Community Garden expand (or relocate if need be one day). Then I could have a plot and grow things and make you a delicious pie or something in gratitude. Please contact Kip Wood at KipWood23@gmail.com if that sounds good to you.

Travis Lett - Gjelina's Food Artist

"Travis Lett is a good person. He's an artist too, and his artistry is food." So said my friend, photographer Kwaku Alston when I was doing a story on him (2/16/10)and talking about his favorite Venice spots, of which Travis's restaurant, Gjelina, is most certainly one. I've seen Travis around for years, and couldn't be happier that such a really good guy's business endeavor has taken off so well {Full disclosure: it's one of my favorite Venice spots too, so this is gonna be totally biased, OK? Cool.}. So well that he's a super busy guy and it was only yesterday that we finally had a chance to sit down for a minute and share a few Venice/life stories.

Travis is from New Jersey, grew up there and then headed off to UC-Boulder to study fine art ... painting, sculpting, all of it. He always liked to cook, and his Grandparents were farmers in Ohio, so he grew up with a healthy appreciation for the origins and benefits of naturally grown produce, and the sources of food is still what interests him the most about the field. When interns or someone asks Travis when he decided to be a Chef, his answer is, "I still haven't." Meaning he never chose it as a career, but paid for his art schooling by bumping around as a prep cook, and got really good at it, until a friend in L.A. needed someone to help him open his sushi restaurant (Tengu), and off Travis went, for what he thought would be a few months.

That few months stretched out longer, and after crashing in Hollywood or his car for a while, that got old and he looked for a place in Venice, as he said, "It was obviously the place to be, where I gotta be ...". (I exactly know the feeling he speaks of. Clearly.) He found a place down by Speedway & Horizon, and has been in Venice ever since. 930 in the Westwood W Hotel hired Travis as Chef and he began his "rough draft" concept for what Gjelina would become in the future, by buying everything he could from Farmer's Markets, organic and local, and creating menus based on seasonal availability. This was a bit more radical at the time, especially for a Corporate-owned hotel restaurant, so after a while, it was time again for Travis to move on. (Yay).



While doing some restaurant consulting gigs, and trying to sort out what was next for him, Travis would walk from his place to Abbot's Habit to get coffee and work, and passed by this building on the corner every day, with an open half-door, with Pit Bulls inside. He's say hello to the dogs and soon got to talking with the owner, Fran Camaj, who just so happened to want to open a restaurant in the space there that he already owned. From the very beginning, they agreed on the local, organic, seasonal approach to a menu, as well as the idea that it needed to reflect the Venice Community. A third partner, Robert Schwan - another long-time Venice resident and restaurant manager (72 Market Street, Wabi Sabi) - shared their vision, and they took a chance on hiring a young Chef in Travis that valued his creative freedom and ideals (Oh, the designers and architect too - all Venice folk). They have backed him up every step of the way, and the mad success of Gjelina has been their reward for their (not much of a) risk.

Gjelina is named for Fran's Albanian mother, hence the Albanian "Gj" spelling. It is always busy, and people are always enjoying it. The back patio is my favorite place to sit, enjoying truly delectable dishes (and maybe some lovely wine?) in the sunshine of the 'hood. When discussing the fruition of his vision, Travis told me that "what's dear about it to me is that we're getting food from the right sources." They purchase their ingredients from local artisan producers, from olive oil makers, to cheese, to the gorgeous produce at the Farmer's Market right up the street. Because of their dedication to this, Travis said, "There is a shifting balance in the way people think about their food, you can feel it happening." And it's because of people like him that this is so.

Travis said he thought that if you communicate with, and understand your customers, offering them a fun, stylish place, with delicious food, created with integrity and in a value-driven sense, Venice would react resoundingly well - and they have. He straight up says that this restaurant was opened with the belief that it was meant to be HERE, for the people of the area, and would be irrelevant out of its context (like when people want him to open one up in Vegas). He wanted it to represent US, and be a place for the Community to gather (and these days the A-list celebrities really seem to want in on that Community too ... what are you gonna do?). The partners' idea was that they wanted to have a place "that seems like it was already here." I think they've nailed that ... that bustling corner of Abbot Kinney now seems like it was always so.

I told Travis that I have a problem, and that is that I love certain things on his menu SO much, that I have to get them every time, lest I be haunted by them for days later (looking at you, Gruyere/Caramelized Onion/Fromage Blanc/Arugula Pizza & Butterscotch Pot de Creme with Salted Caramel and Creme Fraiche - of which I have said I might want it to be my last taste on Earth. For real.). He laughed and said where some people might take off the 4 least-selling items on a menu, he'd rather take off the 4 BEST sellers, so that people try something new, as he wants his guests to "Experience this place WITH me." I promise, in that case, to open my taste buds up next time, at least a little. Which is also why the delish BLT you might love and want every time may not always be on the menu. The tomatoes out of season will not be served by Travis at Gjelina, but when they're back and thriving, you'll appreciate that ol' sandwich all the more. (and those tomatoes will soon be grown right on Gjelina's own rooftop garden!) The same bit of a rebel (in a city - Greater L.A. - of ass-kissers, let's face it) yell comes out with Travis in the little comment on the front of the menu that says, "changes and modifications politely declined". I completely respect this, as I feel like it's his vision, no ma'am, you cannot have your dressing on the side, hold the everything, annoying little requests. But Travis explains it more like it's not his elite Chef that knows everything better than you stance, it's that "I'm kind of a Socialist when it comes to my Restaurant ... I want to please everyone the same." So the dishes are all prepared the same way, he encourages his staff to not spend extra energy on one person over another, and if customers are cool, they may get the extra attention to their experience, vs. the ones who like to hear themselves bitch about everything (my read on them, not his).



We chatted in the sunny, huge-window-ed upstairs of Gjelina, that is now a cool apartment-type place to kick it, but may soon host private dinner affairs. What a great space to talk about Venice and one's place in it - overlooking all the AKB businesses and foot traffic, people honking, waving, and dinging bike bells below us.

And speaking of bike bells ... I was telling Travis about my stolen/returned Delores the Bike story to explain my desire to build Community and tell our stories to each other, and it turns out he has a good one of his own. His Beach Cruiser was taken from his yard, an all too often told bummer of a tale. He wrote it off, and hoofed it around instead for about six months. Then one day he was leaving his house and there was his bike, back in the yard, having been fully improved, complete with freshly pumped up tires, and even some replaced parts. He said there may have been some Burning Man Playa dust on it, but he couldn't be sure if it was the thief's, or his own leftover memories. How about that?! Another one that makes you go, "Only in Venice". That would also go for Travis's feelings about Gjelina, and where he wants to be.

EAT LOCAL!

(Extra points if you can bike or walk there. Which we can.)


Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, 90291
310.450.1429