Mar Vista

Alana’s is one of our favorite coffee shops on the west side. The coffee is really good, and the comfortable back patio is great for chatting with friends on weekends and knocking out some work during the week. It does tend to get crowded mid-morning, but if you don’t mind sharing a picnic table with other guests, it’s not a big deal.

This spot used to be a local dive, and when El Chucho took over, they kept the parts that make a dive bar so cool: a pool table, sports on TV, beer. And then added an impressive shelf of natural wines and DJs spinning vinyl all night. It feels legitimately cool in a way a lot of LA bars don’t achieve.

Accomplice shares a space—and a food menu—with Little Fatty, one of our favorite Taiwanese spots. The bar is pretty packed with diners during dinner hours; if you're coming in for a drink, expect that seats won't start to open up until 9 p.m.

The Mar Vista farmers market has excellent produce, great prepared foods, and an especially good energy about it.

Little Fatty is Taiwanese spot that shares space—and a drink menu—with Accomplice, the bar next door. Hard to beat: something with mezcal, followed by a dinner of cucumber salad, scallion pancakes, XO noodles, and shrimp and pork wontons. (We also love Little Fatty for takeout.)

Yoga terminology (Iyengar or hatha, yin or flow) rolls as easily off our tongues as the ABC’s these days, but the trauma-sensitive kind taught by Laura Mckellin was entirely new to us. Mckellin developed her style while working with patients at the Veterans Association in Denver after obtaining a master’s in somatic counseling psychology. Nowadays, in Los Angeles, Mckellin is available for one-on-one somatic healing sessions in the comfort of your own home, or you can join her class at Light on Lotus in Mar Vista.

COVID-19 Update: Temporarily closed. Chef-owners D. Brandon Walker and Jill Davie opened their massive, light-filled space last year, adding a much-needed restaurant to the neighborhood. It’s become a go-to for Mar Vista locals for its take on California cuisine, with a menu full of healthy veggie options like the carrot hummus with beets, arugula and frisee, and the roasted broccoli and cauliflower entrée with a sweet chili puree and almonds. Heartier dishes include a black rice and farro hot pot with black eyed peas, eggplant, and kale slaw in a shiitake mushroom broth, as well as an expertly-roasted organic half-chicken with salsa verde. The raw bar, meanwhile, offers great happy hour snacks, including shucked oysters and a scallop ceviche. COVID-19 Disclaimer: We are working hard to keep our listings as up to date as possible (deliveries, outdoor dining, etc.), but given the evolving nature of local COVID-19 restrictions, we recommend double-checking the information in this guide with any business you plan on visiting. Also, please note that we have not vetted any businesses listed within our guides for their compliance with applicable safety regulations.

You can book infrared sauna sessions at this Mar Vista studio in either thirty-minute or one-hour increments–we like the full hour, so you can take advantage of the in-room shower. The private-room lighting can be adjusted to pitch black, and the saunas themselves are high-tech enough to connect to a playlist on your phone via Bluetooth. Also cool: The main event here are the “float pods," which are personal sensory deprivation tanks you can book for an hour at a time. There’s a small parking lot in the back, plus really easy street parking at night.

Taku and Keiko Shinomoto, the owners and curators of this much-loved shop, urge customers to slow down (like the animal the store is named for) and enjoy life’s small pleasures. The focus here is on everyday items, made beautiful, whether it’s gardening shears, beautiful Tenugui cloth napkins, coffee grinders, or sake pitchers.