This Ugly Beautiful Newsletter–21s
A silver medal in following through with plans
Welcome to this month’s free issue where I talk about Los Angeles as a local. Each issue provides insights, things to do, and some bites & sips worth experiencing in Los Angeles. This issue is open to comment and ❤️ by all who read it. (There may be something in it for you, hint, hint.)
Dear subscribers and friends!
Welcome new subscribers! I never get tired of writing that sentence. Thank you for joining 418 other people in subscribing to This Ugly Beautiful Newsletter!
Did you watch the Olympics? If yes, tap the ❤️/like at the top of this newsletter.
LA28
As Los Angeles prepares for the 2028 games, there are a lot of thoughts about how our Olympics will go in four years. There is a wide variety of opinions, mainly negative, about whether or not we will be ready. There have been a lot of clever comments swimming around social media like these that I plucked for this newsletter.
Possible Los Angeles-themed Olympic games:
Parallel Parking in Koreatown
Finding an apartment that comes with a fridge
Following through on plans to get coffee or Competitive Flaking
Getting from DTLA to Santa Monica (Getting from the SGV to Sawtelle, etc.) in less than an hour
The everyday obstacle course of navigating the Fairfax, Olympic, and San Vicente intersection into a two-lane section of Little Ethiopia.
On that note, guess which San Vicente I am talking about?
If you have some others I would love to read them.
A lot of people are calling for our opening ceremony to recreate the opening scene of LA LA Land. If you haven’t seen it, in the 2016 movie, Angelenos perform a musical number while stuck in morning traffic. I don’t think there are too many other moments that capture Los Angeles so well. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here.
Traffic, crowds, and infrastructure are the most talked about issues in the city. Although there have been improvements, especially with the extension and creation of LA Metro lines, we feel such a very long way off. At least we have the World Cup in 2026 and The Super Bowl in 2027 as test runs. Alissa Walker’s Torched is required reading about Los Angeles’ path to the Olympics, IMO.
As long as we are on the subject of summer, don’t forget to go to the last Grand Performances, Barnsdall Wine Tastings, and Jazz at LACMA before the end of August.
Here is some news
This spring I added travel research and booking to This Ugly Beautiful City. I thought that since I talking about the best things to do, see, and eat in Los Angeles, I would be one of the best people to plan your trip.
However, I find that more and more of my audience are Angelenos wanting to go elsewhere. I have SO MUCH world content just sitting in my brain untapped. After a long debate with myself over the summer, I decided to divide my knowledge in two.
My niche has always been travel, art, and food. I will continue that in…
This Ugly Beautiful City is local Los Angeles focused (You are already subscribed)
The Out of Office Newsletter– where all of my international travel tips, deals, and itineraries will go.
If you want local Los Angeles information stay here.
If you want travel tips around the world subscribe here to Out of Office Curated. (Launching September 3rd.)
If you want both, you know where to find me.
If you want to plan a getaway, anniversary trip, writer’s retreat, or brainstorm anything vacation, let’s chat.
What does this mean?
Since I need time to create that other side of my business, I will be producing fewer free Los Angeles newsletters. I am going from 12 to 8. The paid and founders issues will be unaffected.
I am gifting engaged readers three months of the paid subscription. Look out for an email from me.
In this issue
New posts–I still haven’t posted anything new
Updated posts
Best things I have eaten
Updated posts
Where to eat on Abbot Kinney–I am very close to deleting this post as the turnover is high and I only have so much stomach room to do research.
Mid-Wilshire Guide–Mercado by the Grove has closed. I need to go get the mushroom choriqueso before they close all of the locations. I love this dish so much. Which is less of a pain for me to get to, Manhattan Beach, Hollywood, or Pasadena?
Best things I have eaten or sipped
Seline preview–My husband and I loved Chef Beran’s restaurant Dialogue—a sad pandemic closure for us— and we were invited to try the preview menu of his next restaurant Seline. I need to be hush-hush about the menu and photos, but I loved it! I can’t wait for November.
The Corn Supremacy cocktail at Rustic Canyon–I love a savory cocktail and this is as savory as they come. It has fresh corn juice, tomato, lime, and mezcal. Rustic Canyon always uses local in-season produce. Get this cocktail while you can. This restaurant has a great cocktail program.
Thank you for reading until the end. If you made it this far, give me a like/❤️.
xoxo-Kristen
Ugh, Substack changed its photo editor, sorry that the images are so huge.