Arts District Specialty

Any given morning, you can expect the line for Maru to dribble down the block. The crowd skews creative, and the craft of coffee is taken seriously. They also make delicious tea drinks, including one of our favorite matcha lattes in the city. There's another location in Los Feliz.

There was once a time you could get Stumptown only in Portland, Oregon. Thank goodness things have changed. We keep the bold roast on tap at goop HQ and happily visit the shops when we're in the Pacific Northwest, New York, New Orleans, and downtown Los Angeles. Stumptown’s latest location, in the fashion district along bustling Los Angeles Street, offers a good amount of seating for the smallish space. We like to come here for downtown meetings or lazy Sunday pour-overs.

Whether you’ve had Van Leeuwen on the streets of Brooklyn or parked up on Abbot Kinney, it’s instantly recognizable by its sunny yellow truck. They’re particularly famous for their vegan ice cream, a combination of cashew milk, coconut milk, cocoa butter, and carob beans that’s incredibly creamy and indulgent (and a major victory for the dairy-sensitive). They’ve got a few locations now: Greenpoint, Boerum Hill, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn; the East and West Villages in Manhattan; and the Arts District and Culver City in LA. You can always track their many food trucks on their website.

The Arts District is experiencing a major resurgence right now, and the Urban Radish, by far the best place in the area to pick up groceries, was one of the linchpins that made it possible. From the hydroponic herbs out front to the street art decorating the walls outside, it's the kind of place that feels very of the neighborhood. The family-owned spot stocks its shelves with gorgeous, locally sourced produce, and there's a sizeable butcher and cheese shop in the back, behind rows of pantry staples. The adorable eatery offers three hyper-fresh meals per day, which can also be ordered for takeout or delivery for a night in or office lunch. Plus, don't leave without cruising through the well-curated wine shop in the corner.

Though the menu is extensive, the offerings leans heavily on bratwurst—more specifically, bratwurst made using only the finest meats, with veggie-friendly and exotic options thrown in for good measure (pheasant with herbs de Provence, for example). Fittingly, everything comes tricked out with your choice of gourmet toppings—sweet peppers, sauerkraut, and fancy mustard for days—plus, the option to tack on a side of truffle fries. The communal tables are set up beer garden-style and outfitted with paper tablecloths and crayons for the littles, though it gets more and more jovial (i.e. boozy and loud) the later it gets so consider planning a lunch if eating with the whole brood in tow. The sprawling space is really great for large groups—each person orders at the walk-up counter so everyone ends up paying for themselves, and the draft and bottled beer assortment is one of the best in the city. The original is in Venice.