The Art Newspaper

Essential LA: Ann Philbin

The director of the Hammer Museum shares her top picks

By The Art Newspaper. Web only
Published online: 30 September 2011

Ann Philbin is crazy about street food, like the venerable Pink's hot dogs

The authentic and relatively new Chinese Garden at the Huntington (see guide, p24) in Pasadena is really worth a visit.

While in Pasadena, don’t miss the amazing collection at the Norton Simon Museum (p23)— in the exquisite galleries designed by Frank Gehry.



The Westwood Village Memorial Park (p19)— across from the Hammer Museum (p16)—is a beautiful little cemetery and the list of stars buried there is impressive: Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Natalie Wood, Roy Orbison, Jack Lemmon, Burt Lancaster, Truman Capote, and on and on.



For lunch on the Westside, FarmShop (p31), in the Brentwood Country Mart on San Vincente is exceptional. For dinner, my new find is The Hungry Cat (p31) in Santa Monica. Great seafood—fresh urchin brought in daily from Santa Barbara. LA has really been the epicentre of the recent gourmet food truck / street-food craze. Whether it’s the venerable Pink’s Hotdogs (p20) on La Brea or the Mexicali Taco & Co (p12) downtown (they were recently voted the best taco in LA and literally set up their grill in an empty parking lot), some of the best food in LA is served on the street.



Zuma Beach (p30) is a beautiful long beach above Malibu where dolphins surf the waves and whales come in close to shore because of a deep trench in the ocean. Magical, especially off season.

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