My first memory of Dutton's is of the one in the valley, hot on those unairconditioned summer afternoons, the faintly sour smell of the paper. It was crowded, a little uncomfortable, and yet it was a place that was full of treasures. A place where a kid could wander -- completely by accident, into the Literature section and discover something magical. After my family moved to the Westside in the early nineties, Dutton's became a......

The fruit is just right | All photos by Elise Thompson for LAist Once upon a time Millie's was the only game in town. Sure, there was the House of Pies and the coffee shop on Sunset that is now some kind of brewpub -- but no one ever went there. Millie's had a strong family vibe. Everyone in the neighborhood considered it home. Most of the servers were local musicians, and everyone knew......

A group of enterprising young researchers in UCLA's graduate Computer Science department have discovered a fun new way of using your iPod playlist: Wi-Fi enabled software sends your music preferences to whatever computer is nearby. Then music tailored to your preferences pumps out of the speakers -- can you imagine walking into a coffee shop, and the Carrie Underwood track playing shuts off, and a Matthew Good album slides into the rotation instead? How......

If you're looking for something interesting to do this weekend, tomorrow night from 9:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., a group of young women under the name Fetus are organizing the first of a planned monthly event at the INMO Gallery, in Billy's Coffee Shop, at the historic 1920s Rosslyn Hotel building. The $5 admission fee includes 3 free drinks (nice!) and there will be several DJs spinning Electro, Retro, 60s-80s dance, new disco, and international......

Some things just naturally go together. Take, for instance, caffeine and the written word. So the inclusion of coffee shops in libraries makes perfect sense. The Santa Monica Public Library opened in January 2006. The Library surrounds an idyllic Southern California modern open-air courtyard where you will find the coffee shop, The Bookmark Café. At the time the library was being planned, the public was surveyed on a number of issues, and the response was......

The anticipated LA MILL COFFEE boutique opened this morning in Silver Lake on its eponymous boulevard between Sunset and the Reservoir (they close at 6 p.m. tonight and are only serving bar drinks and clovers until then). Eater LA takes in the decor: "Custom-made French wallpaper, faux crocodile, ostrich and sharkskin chairs in dark teal, sky blue and red, black Lucite tables. A dramatic brass chandelier hangs in the main room." Definitely not a......

Haven't you always wanted to grow your favorite fruit in your own backyard? This month you can have your tree -- for free -- thanks to TreePeople and SEE-LA. Just go to one of the Farmers' Markets listed in the flyer at right or fill out this form and you'll be on your way. * LA Mill Opening - Stop by the long-awaiting opening of LA Mill's new coffee shop in Silver Lake. You might......

For those of us not stuck on the 15 to Vegas, here's what's going on around town tonight: FILM The So Bad It's Good Film Fest presents the movie that showed how crazy Joan Crawford really was: Mommie Dearest. But it's "Faye Dunaway's over-the-top performance in the lead role has become legendary." There are prizes for the best Joan Crawford costume at the show: dinner for two at Saddle Ranch Chop House and a guest......

It's called Hacienda la Esmeralda's Geisha coffee, it's award-winning, it's super rare, and for wholesalers it cost $130 a pound at auction - if you can get it. The newish Intellegencia coffee shop on Sunset (right next to the Silver Lake Conservatory) got some and will brew up cups of coffee tomorrow from those magic beans for whoever would like to experience what the most expensive coffee in the world tastes like. Eater LA......

Tony, or by his Flickr sobriquet manmadepants, submitted this amazing photo to our Featured Photos Pool. In his own words...I swear on my life this is 100% real. I was walking down the street looking for stuff to photograph and this guy is just sitting outside a coffee shop with this 80 year old woman and he is taking these little sofa things out of a bag. Then he opens another compartment in the......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers......

Did you read the now-notorious article in the LA Times about food writing, anonymity, and the role of bloggers? LA Foodblogging has an excellent response here, and Variety's food blog shares two simple rules for online reviews. What’s on the menu for the Jewish holidays? The LAT suggests braised veal, leek fritters, and cilantro-tomato soup, while the NY Times is answering questions about Rosh Hashana meals via its food message boards. When the LA......

Tucked into one of the ubiquitous strip mall enclave of business on Hollywood Boulevard in Thai Town, Sapp's Coffee Shop is barely noticeable (and not to mention not terribly attractive as a lead photo--my apologies). I first got a peek at the tiny no-frills joint earlier this year, when one of my favorite (and adventuresome) foodies, Anthony Bourdain, stopped by with a local food blogger to try their authentic Thai Boat Noodles. This dish......

No, this is not "Go Metro" to a Hollywood venue, only for the concert to get out after Red Line service ends, leaving you to the streets and cabs. This is go Metro to Union Station's Old Ticket Room for a free CANON concert next month on September 8th at 8 p.m.. The catch, your entrance is your metro pass, metro rail ticket or proof of Metrolink fare. Seemingly geared towards transit optional green......

10. Avoid barraging your date with questions. This isn’t a job interview. The best conversations I had were about smelly markers and what kind of drink gives the worst hangover. 9. Avoid weird open-ended questions like “What are your vitals?” “What’s your story?” (“Well, I was born on a snowy day in December, it was a breach birth, my mother was in extreme pain...”) 8. Don’t hit on the speed-date hosts. They are getting......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Brrrrrrrrr... did you enjoy cuddling under your blankets last night during that blast of cold weather? Don't forget that it snowed in Los Angeles less than a year ago (and will SCV be so lucky?). Maybe this is Los Angeles' way of saying hello to Beckham with a little frosty cold treat. We're enjoying it. After all, some of us are transplants. Besides the top stories that you probably already know by now, A.M.......

A bistro is a café that serves simple meals in a relaxed setting, the kind of place you can go where you don’t have to worry about meeting anyone’s expectations for relative fame or fashionable dress. My favorite places in L.A. this year generally fit this definition. 1. Pazzo Gelato (my review) Many of my friends look at the dessert menu before they even consider a main course, so let’s start there. After lunch......

While the Du-par's in the Farmer's Market at Fairfax & Third, which has been shuttered for I can't remember how long, is finally set to re-open on December 26 at 6:00 A.M, it's time to say farewell to venerable coffee shop Highland Grounds, which after today will temporarily shut down to undergo a makeover and rechristening. The space that was once a gay bar known as Greg's Blue Dot and then Highland Grounds for......

Photo by Ibarionex Perello Bookblogger Laila Lalami of MoorishGirl will be reading from her new book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, tonight at 7:30 pm at Beyond Baroque in Venice. Lalami, although currently a SoCal expat, lived in Los Angeles for many years. She wrote this on her blog about coming back for a Duttons' reading yesterday: "I hadn't been back in Los Angeles more than an hour when a Land Rover honked at......

Four years. For some, this feels like it was a lifetime ago. For too many Americans, however, the fateful morning of September 11, 2001 feels like it was just yesterday. Whether you were at Ground Zero, a coffee shop in Los Angeles or walking along the streets of London, the world as we knew it changed that day. While it was unquestionably one of the darkest hours in America's history, it also served as......

What's the buzz at the water cooler these days? Of course the water cooler was beaten to death (no pun intended) with the happenings of PopeGate 2005, and then we seemed to quickly burn through the "hot at the moment" rumors of Dave Chappelle going mental, checking into a hospital, fleeing to Mars, take your pick. But now, no one can escape THE REVENGE OF THE SITH. Every local place LAist has stopped in......

What can LAist say about the trendiest, most-ego centric, annoying, crowded, attitude-y coffee shop in all of Los Angeles? Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #17 8591 Sunset Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90069 Hours: Monday - Thursday 6:00 AM - 11:00 PM Friday 6:00 AM - 12:00 AM Saturday 7:00 AM - 12:00 AM Sunday 7:00 AM - 11:00 PM Conversations at the flagship "you must be seen here" Coffee Bean almost always center around......

Back from the Holidays, LAist brings you yet another look at people and coffee and buzz-like activity (we're going into our fifth month, people) as it relates to Los Angeles. This week, LAist took a trip to the hip and happening and happy and horror-filled location that is Hollywood -- more specifically, Sunset Boulevard where there's more billboards per capita than in any other place in town. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #16 7915......

About four months in the works, The Coffee Buzz continues its quest to put a finer point on neighborhoods, the people who frequent them, and the coffee they drink. And this week, LAist travels to yet another in-mall coffee haunt, taking us to the... Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #15 14006 Riverside Drive Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 Hours: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM Saturday 8:00AM - 8:00 PM Sundy 8:00 AM......

Although LAist has visited some coffee haunts in the last few months that felt as if we had miraculously ended up in a totally different part of the world (i.e. Pasadena), there are other pockets of Los Angeles that also make one feel as if they've taken a trip through the Twilight Zone. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #14 7502 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 Hours: Monday - Friday 6:30 AM - 8:30......

Aaah, lucky number thirteen. Well, here on LAist, there's no such thing as an unlucky number, although there is such a thing as a coffee shop that's famous. You know, in sort of a trendy, wannabe, Paris Hilton kind of way. Coffe Bean & Tea Leaf #13 8793 Beverly Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90048 Hours: Monday - Friday 6:00 AM - 12:00 AM Saturday - Sunday 7:00 AM - 12:00 AM If you watched......

Sometimes Los Angeles may be Los Angeles but doesn't feel like Los Angeles, which is totally the case for the wonderful town they call Pasadena. Nice and far away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, the self-entitlement of the Westside and the Hip-Factor of Hollywood, Pasadena and the coffee shops that reside there feel normal, comfortable and relaxing. And yes, that's even the case when there's a bomb scare. Coffee Bean & Tea......

This week, LAist decided to redirect our navigational computers from Santa Monica back over the hill and into the abyss (or what some call The Valley) to spend some time at the coffee shop that some might call the carousel coffee shop and what others may call the ironically closed coffee shop. Either way, whatever you call it, it's located here: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #11 16101 Ventura Boulevard Encino, CA 91416 Monday......

It looks like it belongs on the island of Maui. It's green and lush and beautiful. Yet it's strictly for the game programmers of Activision, the weight-lifters of 24 Hour Fitness and a variety of business park-ers who spend their 9 to 5 here... Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #10 3150 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90403 Hours: Monday - Saturday 6:00 AM - 8:00 PM Sunday 7:00 AM - 8:00 PM Down......