The Brief

Cooling centers — designated locations where people can retreat when it’s baking hot outside — are a key public health strategy during extreme heat waves in L.A. The trouble is, relatively few people are using them.

Technically, pretty much any building that’s open to the public and offers a free spot to rest and cool down could be considered a “cooling center.” The city promotes more than 200 city and county libraries, senior centers, and rec centers, in addition to over 50 pools as “cooling centers.”

Then there are what the city and county call “augmented” cooling centers, which are rec centers or libraries that have extended hours, additional staff, water and snacks to offer, and a dedicated air-conditioned space within the building for people “to huddle, watch TV, play games — whatever the center can accommodate,” said Joseph Riser, a spokesperson for L.A.’s Emergency Management Department. These designated centers also allow pets.

Four “augmented” cooling stations will be open over the weekend, when temperatures are expected to peak. (You can find a full list of those centers, along with a list of participating public libraries and a link to a map and other resources, at the end of this story.)

Deciding which cooling centers to open

The city decides how many and which cooling centers to “augment” in accordance with National Weather Service forecasts for different areas across the county, as well as through feedback from city councilmembers, neighborhood councils and other government departments, such as the L.A. Homeless Services Authority and the Department of Aging, Riser said.

Officials pay particular attention to the forecast for nighttime temperatures, he added, as well as how extreme the temperature highs will be and how long the heat is expected to last.

Do people use them? 

The city of L.A. only collects data on how many people use the cooling centers that have been augmented, Riser said. During the record-long and hot heat wave in September 2022, when we just barely avoided rolling power outages, the city ultimately opened 11 of them. But it was Labor Day weekend, so many of the city's libraries, pools, and other “cooling centers” had limited hours or were closed.

In total, according to data provided to LAist from the city, only 2,254 people went to the 11 cooling centers over the 10-day heat wave. Still, it was a marked increase from the year before, when only 83 people visited five augmented centers that were open during a shorter, but still intense June 2021 heat wave.

David Anguiano, Recreation Coordinator for Mid Valley Senior Center, stands in front of the area set aside as the "cooling center." The Senior Center will have extended hours through the weekend but was empty of visitors on Friday, July 14, when temperatures were in the high 90s.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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The hottest regions of the city had the most augmented centers: three in the San Fernando Valley, four in South L.A., and two in central L.A. The final two were on the Westside.

Those hotter neighborhoods also have some of the oldest housing that can’t keep heat out. The cooling centers there had the most visitors by far.

The Fred Roberts Recreation Center in South L.A. accounted for more than 20% of all the visits. The center is in one of the areas most impacted by the urban heat island. South L.A. has some of the least tree cover and green space in the city, the result of a legacy of racist housing and zoning policies.

But many Angelenos in the hottest areas don’t know anything about these cooling centers and what they may offer, said Agustin Cabrera, policy director at Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, or SCOPE-LA. The grassroots group organizes for environmental justice and green jobs in South L.A.

“What we hear from South L.A. residents is they generally don't have an idea of where these cooling centers are located, and so that sort of matches up with what we're actually hearing from the city,” Cabrera said. “When we talk more about what they can provide, they’re generally interested, because for the most part folks either don't have access to central air or have cooling systems in their homes, or they don't want to turn them on because of fear of a high utility bill.”

Some of the free water and activity supplies at the Highland Park recreation Cooling Center, which will have extended hours through the weekend.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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Riser said the city spreads the message primarily via social media, mainly Twitter, and not always in other languages.

“We typically do things in Spanish — not nearly as much as we probably should,” Riser said. “If the council office knows that area well enough to know [language barriers] are an issue, they will get things translated and put things out to their constituents.”

But the message misses most people, said Cabrera. Organizations like SCOPE-LA work to fill in the gaps, using their close relationship in the community to spread the word.

Cabrera said it's important for the city to use culturally relevant communication, which includes not just Spanish in communities like South L.A., but other languages, as well — including indigenous languages.

The limits on cooling centers

Cooling centers are open to everyone. They can also be one of the only options for people living on the streets or in vehicles, but unhoused advocates have long said cooling centers don’t serve their needs. Among the reasons they cite:

• Not being able to bring pets to many locations (when activated as cooling centers, like this week, all city park and rec facilities always allow pets. Service dogs are allowed at libraries.)
• Being worried about leaving their belongings on the street unattended
• Past negative experiences of being kicked out of places such as libraries
• Many unhoused people are disabled or have other health issues that may make it impossible or dangerous to even get to a cooling center amid high heat

When a cooling center is open to everyone, it may serve no one.

“It's important to have the city understand who they're trying to serve when it comes to these centers, because then they're able to ask very specific questions about what those folks need from these centers,” Cabrera said. “And so apart from just being a place where people can find relief from the heat, if it's targeting unhoused folks, what other services do they need? It allows for a more focused conversation, an engaging conversation to make these centers actually useful."

What’s next?

Riser said the city is working to prioritize opening augmented cooling centers in the hottest, highest-risk areas, including low-income and older neighborhoods where housing is least likely to have air conditioning or is poorly insulated.

The city’s Chief Heat Officer Marta Segura has also emphasized the need for what are called “resilience hubs,” trusted community spaces that can be retrofitted with solar panels and battery storage to help communities ride out disasters and power outages.

Augmented centers open this weekend

The following centers will be open through the weekend of July 14 to Monday, July 17 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. They all allow pets and provide water. Stay up to date with the latest information on cooling centers here. You can also follow LA's Emergency Management Department on Twitter @ReadyLA.

Canoga Park Senior Citizen Center (CD 3)
7326 Jordan Ave., Canoga Park

Fred Roberts Recreation Center (CD 9)
4700 Honduras St., Los Angeles

Highland Park Recreation Center (CD 14)
6150 Piedmont Ave., Los Angeles

Mid Valley Senior Center (CD6)
8825 Kester Ave., Panorama City

Cooling centers at public libraries this weekend

Additionally, the below public libraries will be open on Sunday, July 16 from 1-5 p.m.:

Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library 
6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles (323-255-0537)

Exposition Park Regional Branch Library 
3900 S. Western Ave. Los Angeles (323-290-3113)

Goldwyn-Hollywood Regional Branch Library 
1623 Ivar Ave., Los Angeles (323-856-8260)

Mid-Valley Regional Branch Library
16244 Nordhoff St. North Hills (818-895-3650)

North Hollywood Regional Branch Library 
5211 Tujunga Ave. North Hollywood (818-766-7185)

San Pedro Regional Branch Library 
931 S. Gaffey St. San Pedro (310-548-7779)

West L.A. Regional Branch Library 
1360 Santa Monica Blvd.  Los Angeles (310-575-8323)

West Valley Regional Branch Library 
9036 Vanowen St. Reseda (818-345-9806)

Maps and other resources

You can find a map of all cooling centers and other heat safety resources from the city of L.A. here, and view the county’s cooling center map and resources here.

Now that there are no more World Cup games in L.A., the hottest ticket is about to be the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts, which is opening this fall. The spaceship-like structure is in Expo Park (you can’t miss it), and they just announced that anyone who shares their South L.A. zip code will get in for free with a special pass. May the force be with you when the ticketing website opens.

Practice singing the La Marseillaise for when you cheer on Les Bleus in the semifinal World Cup game — on Bastille Day, no less — but for more music picks, Licorice Pizza suggests Grammy darling Olivia Dean’s two shows at the Crypto.com Arena Tuesday and Wednesday, and Ben Lapidus (aka the guy on America’s Got Talent who sang about Parmesan cheese) is at the Moroccan Lounge on Tuesday.

Bella Poarch will be at the Grammy Museum on Wednesday, and Slum Village is at the Blue Note on Wednesday and Thursday. Also on Thursday, Latin alternative sensations Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso take over the Greek, White Denim is at Sid The Cat and Eartheater plays the first of her two nights at Hollywood Forever.

Elsewhere on LAist, you can learn about the proposal to ban drive-thrus in Culver City (how very un-Californian of them!), read Libby Rainey’s ode to the USMNT and make your plans to catch the World Cup semifinal and final matches.

Events

New Moon Tea Meditation and Breathwork Journey

Tuesday, July 14, 6 p.m. 
The Black Lofts 
1901 Blake Ave., Frogtown 
COST: $20; MORE INFO

Welcome the new moon with a tea meditation and breathwork class with Frogtown Arts and Intrabreath. Isn’t it cool that each month we get a chance to start over? Breathe in the summer air and ignite your inner energy.

All Space Considered

Thursday, July 16, 7 p.m.
Griffith Observatory 
2800 E. Observatory Road, Los Feliz 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

The Griffith Observatory overlooks downtown Los Angeles at sunset on June 8, 2007, at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

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Stephen Dunn

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Getty Images

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If you’re more of a traditional moon kind of person, join the Griffith Observatory for its monthly program, All Space Considered. It’s free to attend in person and also broadcasts live from the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater. Check out previous All Space Considered programs on their YouTube playlist.

Dynaton: Convocation of Radiant Beings

Through Saturday, August 1 
Château Shatto
540 N. Western Ave., Melrose Hill
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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ALICE RAHON/WOLFGANG PAALEN

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Chateau Shatto

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I’m going to take my own advice and check out this highly recommended exhibit of the Dynaton — don’t call it a movement — movement (sorry) at the Château Shatto gallery on Western Ave., curated by Laura Whitcomb. A slice of California art history, Dynaton was first articulated in 1951, and its members staged a “decisive refusal of labels” like its predecessor, Dadaism. Dynaton looked at California “as a laboratory where Indigenous cosmologies, quantum physics, Jungian psychology, and extraterrestrial imaginaries could cohabit the same pictorial field.” I’m in. And also definitely in for lunch at Kuya Lord after.

France in LA x Grand Performances Bastille Day celebration 

Tuesday, July 14, 5 p.m.
California Plaza
250 S. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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Courtesy Grand Performances

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This is either going to be the biggest celebration of Bastille Day in L.A. ever, as it coincides with France playing in the World Cup semifinal, or you’ll see a whole bunch of French folks and francophiles drowning their sorrows in vin rouge. Either way, there’ll be plenty of music, petit bonbons and joie de vivre. Vive la France!

Yoshiki 

Thursday and Friday, July 16 and 17
Disney Hall 
111 S. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A. 
COST: FROM $56; MORE INFO

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Magnolia Pictures

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42West

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Yoshiki is by many accounts Japan's biggest rock star — he’s played with everyone from Bowie to Bono. A TIME100 honoree, he brings his inspiring life story through music, multimedia, lighting and fashion to Disney Hall for two nights.

The Odyssey in 70mm 

Opens Thursday, July 16
The Alex Theatre (and other local theaters)
316 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale 
COST: $27; MORE INFO

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Universal Pictures

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The historic Alex Theatre is a great place to check out the new Christopher Nolan epic, The Odyssey (OK, fine, it’s Homer’s epic). The Alex is showing it in 70mm, but of course it’s opening wide and available in various locations beginning on Thursday. Starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong'o and Anne Hathaway, the Greek tale of survival and homecoming is one of the most anticipated films of the summer.

Camélia Bastille Day specials

Monday, July 13 through Wednesday, July 15
Camélia 
1850 Industrial St.
Arts District
COST: VARIES; MORE INFO

... and ...

Yoonycat's Burger Pop-Up 

Monday July 13, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
OTOTO
1360 Allison Ave., Elysian Park 

Camélia is featuring Bastille Day specials this week, including plateau de fruits de mer, steak frites au poivre and by-the-glass bubbly (wine and sake).

Plus, its sister restaurant OTOTO in Elysian Park is hosting a one-night-only Yoonycat's Burger Pop-Up from 5 to 8 p.m. on Monday. The menu includes a burger (soy-braised short rib sugo, Gruyère, horseradish aioli), a corn fritter with charred scallion crème fraîche and pickled carrots/jalapeño/onion, and financier à la mode for dessert, with a sake pairing option. Walk-ins only — early arrival encouraged.

Joel Ruano was raised by his grandparents in Lamont, a community made up of about 14,000 people, a few miles from Bakersfield.

Growing up, college was not in Ruano’s plans. And though he loved watching movies, he never envisioned a career in filmmaking.

After earning his diploma, Ruano worked at carrot factories. Then, he operated heavy machinery at a distribution center before landing a job at an electric vehicle company. For years, he believed his future lay at the industrial warehouses that surround his old neighborhood.

But when the company went bankrupt in 2023, Ruano decided he wanted a change. Encouraged by his loved ones, he enrolled in Glendale Community College’s film, television and media arts department, which now offers coursework in documentary filmmaking and the chance to study abroad.

For students like Ruano, these opportunities have been transformative.

Los Angeles is home to renowned film schools like USC, UCLA and the American Film Institute. But their cost of attendance can be an obstacle for some students. Community colleges offer affordable alternatives.

“This is my career path now,” Ruano told LAist. “I just love holding the camera and seeing through the monitor and getting the first taste of what the audience is going to see. And I get to control that vision.”

Making up for lost time  

At Glendale, department chair Geri Ulrey makes it a point to keep in touch with students after they graduate. She also hosts alumni mixers and pings former students when she has something to share that may be of interest.

That’s how Ben Do found his way back to Glendale. He earned his associate’s degree at the height of the COVID pandemic, so most of it was done on Zoom. As a result, Do graduated with no in-person film experience, something he always lamented.

Ulrey messaged him years later, inviting him to consider the school’s new documentary film production courses.

Soon, Do became part of Planet Story Lab, a course that provides mentorship from professionals and the chance to do fieldwork.

Do also appreciates the chance to hear directly from people in the field, who are often guest speakers. This includes documentary director Laura Nix.

“Just hearing how she approaches talking to people about the process of what a documentary is” has been helpful, Do said. “People think it's a very educational thing and very straightforward, but there's a lot more creative and emotional liberties that come with it as well.”

Glendale Community College students spend two weeks in Baja California. Their filmmaking work involves learning from and interviewing locals.

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Finding the 'freedom to be unsure'   

Redd Davis came of age in Burbank, with the Warner Bros. Studios looming in the background. Celebrities were a common sight. Still, even though Davis knew a career in film was possible, they were scared to take the leap. Their uncle is a screenwriter, and Davis knew how hard it was for him to break into the field.

“My grandma came here from Mexico when she was 13,” they said. “She had to build a life for herself and be able to support my mom.”

The way Davis saw it, they’d been given a “really rare opportunity to make a stable life.”

“And I was really nervous to mess with that,” they said.

Davis was determined to earn a living, but they were not sure how. After high school, they enrolled at Glendale and, as a treat, signed up for a course called “Beyond Hollywood: Race, Gender and Sex in Movies,” taught by Ulrey. Davis figured there was no harm in exploring film just a little, just for fun.

But the course drew them in.

“It felt almost like an English literature class,” they recalled. “It was a lot of conversation and writing and just dissecting ideas. I became very interested in anything that [Ulrey] was teaching, so I just kept taking classes with her."

Still, when Ulrey mentioned documentary filmmaking, Davis wasn’t very interested.

“I thought that I just wanted to do narrative work,” they said.

But David trusted Ulrey. So when she brought up the opportunity to learn documentary production in Mexico — including underwater filming techniques — Davis thought it best not to forgo the opportunity.

And so, last summer, Davis became part of a camera crew at Bahía de los Ángeles, a coastal region in Baja California, with a population of almost 800.

After prepping on campus for two weeks, a small group of Glendale students set out to the field station in Mexico, accompanied by Ulrey and cinematographer Jerry Henry. Students majoring in biology, geology and oceanology also joined them.

In Bahía de los Ángeles, students use specialized cameras for underwater filmmaking.

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Jerry Henry

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As soon as Davis stepped off the bus, the heat in Bahía de los Ángeles was overwhelming.

“We didn't sleep in rooms,” they said. “We pulled out cots and would lay down at the beach. We would literally sleep under the stars.”

Come morning, the film students would gather their gear, confer with Ulrey or Henry, plan out their day, then spend the bulk of the day filming.

On occasion, the students got to go on boat rides, hiking or swimming in the sea.

Davis had read about Mexico in their mom’s journals, but this was their first time in the country. “It was special,” they told LAist, a chance to create connections and memories of their own.

The trip also enabled Davis to cultivate a professional relationship with Henry, who’s provided opportunities for them to work on set as a production assistant. These experiences have helped Davis see that filmmaking involves a wide array of work, including — but not limited to — being an actor, writer or director. As an example, Davis noted that people who work in greenery departments devote themselves to providing plants for film sets.

Davis still doesn't know what they want to do once they graduate, but they are navigating the uncertainty with joy and confidence. “I feel more freedom to be unsure,” they said.

The trip to Baja, Davis added, “really shattered any doubt or hesitance I had left” about a future in filmmaking.

In the past, a voice inside would always ask: “How are you going to be able to afford a car, and then an apartment? Your groceries and your utilities?”

After Baja, Davis determined to figure it out. "I'm completely in love with this," they said.

Recovering a lost passion  

For 36-year-old David Shuck, the documentary filmmaking courses have enabled him to recoup and hone something he loves.

As an undergrad at Bowdoin College in Maine, he studied abroad at the Czech National Film Academy; but, at the time, “there was no practical film production offered at my college,” Shuck said. “I was pretty much all self-taught.”

Time passed. And life took Shuck in different directions. Still, the love of film remained.

To refresh his skills, learn new techniques and meet like-minded people, Shuck also enrolled at Glendale.

For one recent project, he created a documentary about his wife, who’s an immigration attorney.

“I wanted to be able to communicate the Kafka-esque nightmare of bureaucracy ... that [undocumented] people have to navigate once they've been abducted,” Shuck said.

The shooting took Shuck about about six weeks. During this time, he followed his wife to and from the Adelanto Immigrant Detention Center in the Mojave Desert, repeatedly. Shuck filmed her working later hours and captured her frustration. After one particularly hard day, he documented her treating herself to an ice cream sandwich and a few episodes of Malcolm in the Middle.

In his documentary class, Shuck learned that it's "more compelling to see what people are doing in the moment rather than rehashing what’s been done already.” Ultimately, he turned 13 hours of footage into a 15-minute video.

“It would be really nice to be able to earn a living doing this. But I am just excited at the prospect of being able to make the next project and being able to make it sustainably through the community college system,” he said.

He’s told Ulrey and his other professors: "I'm going to kick around until you kick me out of here."

Last summer, a group of students made a film about a local woman named Alejandrina Díaz Oleta, a restaurant owner and chef.

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Nurturing the next generation of filmmakers  

Currently, Ruano is part of a team of students working on a documentary about future firefighters in the L.A. area.

This work has enabled him to get hands-on training in every part of filmmaking, including pre-production, shooting and post-production, he said.

At Glendale, Ruano has learned that “being organized is very, very crucial.” He’s also learned that “having great communication” is key to creating something with a group of people.

Most importantly, he’s learned he’s capable of academic success.

“Coming back to school was very stressful for me,” he said, remembering the challenges he faced in high school. “This was sort of my moment to redeem myself.”

In June, Ruano became a first-generation college graduate. Come fall, he will continue to pursue filmmaking at Cal State Northridge — one of the many universities where he was admitted.

In the short term, Ruano is set on earning his bachelor’s degree and then maybe going into a master's program.

In the long term, he wants to find a way to bring art and filmmaking to Lamont, where he grew up.

“I'm only one of thousands of people who have really great stories to tell,” he said.

Ten years ago, the California State University system launched a program to address food insecurity and provide housing support after research found around 1 in 4 students was going hungry.

Since its inception, through the Basic Needs Initiative, food pantries have served more than 77,000 students annually and referred over 5,000 students for housing resources. However, gaps have widened and student needs have expanded.

In the next 10 years, Dilcie Perez, vice chancellor for strategic enrollment management and student success at California State University, said the focus of the Basic Needs Initiative is “getting beyond basic.”

“ What that says to me is holistic support to students where we are sharing the responsibility of understanding what might be a barrier or hindrance to students and proactively putting those in place,” she said.

10 years of the Basic Needs Initiative

 Rashida Crutchfield, a professor and executive director at the Center for Equitable Higher Education at Cal State Long Beach, led the research in 2016. The study found that 24% of the CSU system’s 460,000 students could be going hungry. The report also found that as many as 12% of students suffer “housing displacement,” such as homelessness.

Crutchfield said having quantifiable data helped shift the narrative from a part-time job being the solution to fix the “starving student” perception to showing the problem was much bigger. And it “ generated evidence that helped policymakers and higher ed administrators act and invest,” Crutchfield said.

The research, Crutchfield said, showed that  the cost of higher education includes higher costs for food and housing, as well as things like childcare, transportation and computer services.

Following the research, CSU launched the Basic Needs Initiative and went from 11 campuses having programs for food insecure students to all campuses now having Basic Needs staff.

But the needs of students keep rising, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating their plight: In 2019, food pantries were serving more than 35,000 students annually. In the last year, that number was around 77,000. In 2019, CSU campuses assisted around 3,400 students with CalFresh applications; in the last academic year, campuses assisted around 16,000 students, according to data shared with LAist from CSU.

Gap widens and needs persist 

Speaking to a network of coordinators from CSU’s network of schools, Perez said the Basic Needs Initiative needs to go beyond being reactive to more proactive.

The CSU system, she said, is losing  between 25,000 to 29,000 students a year in their second or third year, with a significant number of them identifying as Latino.

“ Friends, we have a leak in the system that we have to close because we are doing a social injustice to our students,” she said. “When we invite you in, say we want you here, we believe in you, and then all of a sudden they go away without any acknowledgement, no one contacts them, no one comes with a plan to bring them back.”

The institutions, she said, were not set up to serve students who benefit from Basic Needs programs. For example, students are being withdrawn, dropped or failed from a class because they have a financial hold on their account — even though some of them rely on financial aid.

In its next iteration, Perez said the Basic Needs Initiative will go beyond just strengthening student support services to address what is happening in the classroom, bringing together other university departments and community organizations.

“Many of the answers lie in our local communities,” she said. “And so it's making those intentional connections for transportation, childcare, housing.”

When chef Elisa Da Prato arrived in Los Angeles from Italy last December, she only planned to visit family for three weeks and then return home to the charming town of Lucca in Tuscany. But after hosting a successful Silver Lake pop-up dinner, Da Prato was introduced to a landlord who offered her a unique opportunity: she could test her culinary concept in a vacant space for three months and then decide to close up shop or go permanent.

Since May, her Tuscan-inspired restaurant Da Prato has been operating out of a 3,000-square-foot condo in downtown L.A. with an initial agreement to stay open until the end of July. (She recently made the decision to extend the lease until the end of the year.)

“I’m not an independently wealthy person and this is not a vanity Instagram project,” Da Prato said. “This is just me doing the best I can to invest in and make a wager on myself, and hopefully come out of it with a nice salary and do some beautiful work.”

Beef and porcini ragú Toscano at Da Prato.

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Oscar Mendoza

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Running a restaurant in L.A. has been challenging over the last few years due to inflation and rising labor costs, the pandemic, entertainment-industry strikes, devastating fires and ICE raids. Chefs like Da Prato have been looking to find flexible and creative ways to run a restaurant that go outside the pop-up model and traditional lease structure. And if California Assembly Bill AB 1679 — which would allow certain pop-up businesses to operate in vacant storefronts for 120 days — becomes law, the landscape of running a business could change for the better for budding entrepreneurs.

Elisa Da Prato preparing her honeycomb and lemons dish.

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LAist

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Right place, right time

Prior to opening in downtown L.A., Da Prato dealt with two closures: Elisa in Barga, Tuscany, due to the pandemic, and the well-regarded Etrusca in Brooklyn, which investors shuttered after just five months. So this new no-strings-attached lease structure in L.A. was particularly alluring for her self-funded project.

Da Prato entered a partnership with her landlord David Mirharooni of Brickstar Capital, a family-owned real estate investment company whose other clients include Danny Boy’s Pizza and Mastro’s Steakhouse. Mirharooni also helps Da Prato with backend support, like insurance and accounting, and assists with construction. While Mirharooni hasn’t done a lease structure like this before, everything aligned because he had a vacant space he needed to fill and he wanted to do a favor for Da Prato, who was a friend of a friend.

The dining room at Da Prato, with a print of Lyonel Feininger's “The White Man” hanging on the wall.

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Oscar Mendoza

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Courtesy Da Prato

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“We're not here just to make revenue for three months,” Mirharooni said of the 40-seat restaurant that’s open four nights a week. “We really see promise with chef Elisa and are hoping that this pop-up is successful enough to be able to convince her to stay in the L.A. market …. because ultimately, if it becomes a long-term deal, it's not only good for us as landlords but it's great for downtown L.A, which is not the easiest place to run a restaurant today.”

Da Prato is a playground for the chef’s hyper-seasonal and regional dishes that are inspired by ancient Roman cooking and the flavors she grew up eating while spending summers at her grandparents’ home in Tuscany. Her farmers market produce translates into experimental dishes like beef tartare on a bed of sliced plums, and lemon slices coated with honeycomb and dusted with rose petals. Edible flowers make an appearance on many dishes, a nod to her mother’s style of cooking. There is beef and porcini ragú pasta, grilled lamb punched up with colatura, a fish sauce, and Italian wines to round out the rustic menu.

While Mirharooni would love Da Prato to stay permanently, she thinks at most she’ll remain in L.A. until the end of this year.

“I don't think that a restaurant is an actual sustainable model, like a lifetime project,” Da Prato said. “For me, it's been, how do we offer something really special to the community that is still profitable for me as a small business owner?”

A new horizon for pop-ups

Eddie Navarrette, the chief consultant of FE Design & Consulting, a company that helps independent owners open restaurants and bars, said of Da Prato’s lease structure: “It’s extremely unique for me, but very welcomed.”

Traditionally, lease terms are for three, five or 10 years — and the agreement can take months to put together, Navarrette said. Oftentimes, landlords require personal guarantees, adding pressure for the owner.

Pop-ups exist in a gray area because no real infrastructure for them exists. Enter California Bill AB 1679, which Navarrette’s advocacy organization Independent Hospitality Coalition is sponsoring. If AB 1679 becomes law, it will help create a framework for the language and codes to operate pop-ups. The bill, co-authored by Assembly members Mark Gonzalez and Buffy Wicks, would require cities and counties to create permits to allow temporary low-risk businesses — like ones serving coffee or tea — to operate in vacant storefronts for 120 days.

Navarrette said lease structures like Da Prato’s “can be conducive in creating a more vibrant restaurant culture by giving restaurants more flexibility and leniency in their commitments, as opposed to making it such a burden to take on a business for such a long period.”

Da Prato is now focused on embracing the temporality of owning a business and controlling when it closes.

“It’s so tough seeing this beautiful thing that you create get blown away,” she said. “So this time, I'm like, then let's just make it a sand mandala that gets blown away.”