An afternoon and night out in DOWNTOWN, LA

We've been downtown to concerts at the Staples Center, sample sales at the Cooper Building, exhibits at MOCA, and the token drinks and dinners at the Standard Downtown.  But we haven't really gotten into as much as we would like.  Last weekend Napper and I decided to check it out.  He needed to buy board short material for these cool belts he's making, so we thought we'd act like we were on Project Runway and dive into the Fashion District.  Wow.  Santee Alley is famous for inexpensive finds (I didn't find any and was not that into the crowds for too long), but Maple St. is where we found the best fabric stores-- in particular Michael Levine's is enormous and has a huge variety.  SO, Project Runway mission accomplished we met up with our friend Matt Byrne who is very Downtown fabulous.

We were ready to have a pre-dinner drink to reward ourselves for finding the perfect fabrics (and enormous orchids for $8 at Orchid2Orchid) but discovered that many of the great downtown watering holes (Varnish, Tony's ) don't start slinging drinks til 7pm so Matt came to the rescue with Wurstkuche-- a terribly hip spot known for their German beers and sausages.

I know, it didn't sound like my kind of place off the bat, but it is super cool-- housed in a loft like industrial space that still manages to feel cozy, the crowd is artsy, cool downtown hipster.  Skip the line that goes down the block unless you want food, then you must wait, but if you're only after a drink, go past the line and inside to the back room where there's a bar (serving all sorts of beers and some interesting wines) and seating areas.  I loved the Austrian white wine I had and their french fries with a pesto mayo dipping sauce are ridiculous.  And the rattlesnake and rabbit sausage was actually good!!  Sort of tasted like chicken as do most exotic meats.

After rattlesnake apps and drinks we headed to dinner at the much revered Lazy Ox.  It's in a very spic and span part of downtown, Little Tokyo, which sort of felt like big generic office buildings everywhere and not many people around.  The restaurant is cute and small with blackboards proclaiming the specials, candles and a bustling bar.  The food was also pretty mouthwatering-- the highlights were the burger, yellowtail and ricotta fritters.

It was a delicious and decadent day downtown!