The Long Weekend
This is it — the unofficial start of LA summer. Cinespia opens its 25th season at Hollywood Forever on Saturday, Fleet Week takes over San Pedro Friday through Monday, and a fresh round of free outdoor things kicks in everywhere from Santa Monica to Hancock Park. The city wakes up this weekend.
I tried to keep this one focused. The three big-ticket weekend things below, two new restaurants worth the trip, a swan boat at dusk, and a new section we're calling AWOL — Always West of Lincoln for the Westsiders who don't believe in crossing the 405.
Eight days of summer ahead. Let's go.
Cinespia opens its 25th season with E.T.
Sat May 23 · Gates 6:45pm, film 8:30pm · Hollywood Forever Cemetery · $24
A quarter century of films on the Fairbanks Lawn. Cinespia is one of those LA rituals that's somehow gotten better with time, and they're opening this season with Spielberg's heartstring-puller — best watched horizontal on a blanket, surrounded by a few thousand strangers all softly losing it during the bicycle scene. Pack a picnic (booze is allowed), bring a low chair or thin blanket, get there well before gates for good Lawn real estate. The DJs, photobooth, and beer-and-wine bar are part of the night.
Get tickets at cinespia.org
Battleships in San Pedro, or banjos in Topanga
Fri May 22 – Mon May 25 · Both run all weekend
LA Fleet Week hits its 10th year on the San Pedro waterfront — free public tours of active-duty Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine ships, aircraft flyovers, the Galley Wars cook-off, and a maritime expo of 90-plus exhibits. The closest LA gets to a hometown Memorial Day tradition, and the harbor weather that weekend is reliably perfect. Park at the Battleship IOWA lot and walk.
Or head up the canyon to Topanga Days, 51 years running — three days of music on two stages (Canned Heat, Cyril Neville, and Long Beach Dub Allstars headline), a pie-eating contest, a kids' Fun Zone, and the Memorial Day parade on Monday morning where local kids on decorated bikes and the Tae Kwon Do class wind down Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Take the shuttle; the parking is brutal otherwise.
Cuban salsa kicks off the Latin Sounds season
The ninety-minute plan you make in the morning.
Latin Sounds: Son Mayor at LACMA — Sat May 23, 5–7pm. The Latin Sounds series kicks off its season on the Hancock Park lawn with Son Mayor, the Ortiz brothers' vintage Cuban salsa outfit, going since 1988. Free, no reservation, bring a blanket. Tacos 1986 is the food truck this week. The Metro D Line drops you at Wilshire/Fairfax, two minutes away. lacma.org
Two restaurants worth the planning
Both are on every LA writer's hit list right now. Both deserve it.
Sqirl is finally serving dinner — Virgil Village. Jessica Koslow waited a decade and a beverage license to do this, and dinner has been open since February. Smoked beet agnolotti, cabbage stuffed with duxelles, "sqimps" (grilled squid stuffed with shrimp-chorizo emulsion), half-sized martinis in half-sized glasses. The Sqirl you know at breakfast, grown up for the evening. sqirlla.com
Amiguita — Silver Lake. Afro-Caribbean from chef Alejandro Eusebio (Top Chef alum) in the old Ruby Fruit space at Sunset Junction. Turquoise walls, jungle mural, charcoal oven doing the heavy lifting. Order the yuca latkes, plantain gnocchi in Nigerian curry, charcoal-grilled mussels, Mibrasa vaca frita. Mon–Sat, 5–10pm; walk-ins still possible most nights, which is rare on that block. amiguitala.com
A swan boat at dusk on Echo Park Lake
Around $13 an hour, two pedals, lotus beds on one side, downtown skyline on the other. The LED night-ride version after sunset is the one to do — the lake lights up, the boats glow, and you've got the most photogenic 60 minutes in the city. Pair with tacos from Guisados a block away, or a mezcal at Tabula Rasa Bar afterward. Last rental goes out an hour before close (11pm most nights). Weekends sell out by mid-afternoon; book ahead, or go Tuesday-through-Thursday and walk up.
wheelfunrentals.com
For the Westsider who refuses to cross the 405
Venice, Santa Monica, the canals, the pier, the patios that aren't worth giving up. Everything below sits west of Lincoln Boulevard — meaning you don't have to leave, and arguably you never should.
MAINopoly: A Taste of Main Street — Sun May 24, 1–5pm. Five blocks of Main Street turn into a walkable Monopoly board for the afternoon. Twenty restaurants — Triple Beam, Holey Grail, Library Alehouse, JuneShine, Papille Gustative — exchange "MAINopoly dollars" for tastings. $30 GA, $55 VIP with the Go-to-Jail beer garden. Park at the pier, walk south, pace yourself. mainopolysm.com
Hot Girl Walk — Sun May 24, 9:30am, Dorothy Green Park. Mia Lind's viral walking-and-affirmations meetup hits Santa Monica on MDW Sunday. A free 2-3 mile loop along the beach path, athleisure encouraged, no fitness pretense. Coffee at Demitasse after. Register on Eventbrite so they know to expect you. hotgirlwalk.com
The Annenberg Beach House pool opens — Sat May 23. The Marion Davies mansion is long gone but her tiled, marble-decked pool is still there — and it opens to the public for the season this Memorial Day weekend. $10 adults, $4 kids, $5 seniors. Free to wander the courtyard, splash pad, and beach courts whether you swim or not. Parking fills by 11am on weekends; bike or walk in if you can. annenbergbeachhouse.com
Abbot Kinney → Venice Skate Park → coffee — anytime, free or $5. The Westsider's perfect lazy afternoon: stroll Abbot Kinney top to bottom for the shop windows, drop down to the boardwalk at the Venice Skate Park (the one with the bowls right on the sand — the skaters here are world-class and the show is free), then double back up Rose Ave for a flat white at Menotti's or pastries at Great White. The whole loop is two miles and the entire day costs the price of a coffee.
Felix Trattoria — Abbot Kinney, Venice. If you're staying west and need one reservation worth keeping, this is it. Evan Funke's pasta laboratory: tagliatelle al ragù, sfoglia rolled by hand, sourdough focaccia that exits the wood-burning oven still steaming. Resy opens 30 days out at 9am. Set the alarm. felixla.com
Day by day
Tonight · Tuesday
Billy Vera's Big Band Jazz at Vibrato Grill. Herb Alpert's Bel Air supper club — wood-paneled, hill-perched, the kind of room your parents would have called "a real night out." Billy Vera, the man behind "At This Moment," brings his big band for one show at 7:30. Book a table, order the steak, drink something brown. vibratogrilljazz.com
This Friday
Jazz at LACMA: Brian Swartz Quintet on the Smidt Welcome Plaza, 6pm, free. Swartz is a trumpeter, vocalist, and arranger who's recorded with Bublé, Patti LaBelle, and Keb' Mo', studied for years under Bobby Shew. Bring a picnic, get there early for a seat. The new David Geffen Galleries are right there if you wander beforehand. lacma.org
Sunday · MDW
Moulin Rouge! at Cinespia — Hollywood Forever, gates 6:45, film 8:30. The 25th anniversary of Baz Luhrmann's glittering opera, screened where you'd want to see it. A second-chance ticket if you missed Saturday's E.T. cinespia.org
Memorial Day · Monday
Pool, slow coffee, don't drive. The win on Memorial Day is doing nothing well. Book a ResortPass at a hotel pool, or call a friend with one. The 405 will not reward your ambition. resortpass.com
Lock these in now
Saturday May 30 · Mulholland Drive at Cinespia. The 25th-anniversary screening of David Lynch's masterpiece, held at Hollywood Forever — where Lynch himself is buried. There won't be a more loaded Cinespia night this year. cinespia.org
Saturday June 6 · Penmar Wine Mixer (no boat required). The Penmar is the casual bar-and-restaurant tucked inside the Penmar Golf Course on Rose Ave — so this is the rare wine event that isn't actually about golf, despite the venue. Tastings from a dozen-plus wineries, a live DJ, cheese and charcuterie, and a custom souvenir glass plus a limited-edition hat thrown in if you grab Early Bird ($59.99 vs $80.50 regular). 3 to 7pm. Take a rideshare. tickets.thepenmar.com
June 13–14 · Blue Note Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. Patti LaBelle, Robert Glasper, Samara Joy, Gregory Porter, Wyclef Jean, Cimafunk, Kokoroko. Two-day passes are out, hosted by Arsenio Hall. hollywoodbowl.com
Saturday June 20 · Opening Night at the Bowl: Best of Broadway. Halle Bailey, Darren Criss, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Lea Salonga with the Bowl Orchestra. The official summer launch. hollywoodbowl.com
The oil sprayer I keep gifting people
Look — I don't know how I ended up as a person who has opinions about a glass oil-mister, but here we are. Ten bucks on Amazon, refills with whatever olive oil is already on your counter, gives you the even, light coating that makes a sourdough crust crisp and a salad dressed instead of drowned. I keep buying these for housewarmings and friends never not love it. The kind of small upgrade that makes your kitchen feel three degrees more competent.
Affiliate link — if you buy, we get a few cents and you get a glass oil sprayer. Both wins.