The Brief

The New Beverly Cinema has had many, many lives. It’s been an ice cream factory, a nightclub and a porn theater. Today it’s the home of director Quentin Tarantino’s personal film collection — a place where you can always catch a classic double feature, or a marathon of, say, all the Twilight movies, on 35mm.

“Quentin has a vast collection. Cartoons, trailers, 35 features, 16 features,” says the theater’s operations manager Jules McLean. “We have a warehouse full of film.”

The importance of film

At the New Beverly, the projection booth is where the magic happens. Everything at this revival house is always on film, which means specialty and rare prints, vivid colors and sound, and that inimitable warmth and grain that appears on screen.

(And don’t worry if you don’t know the difference between 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm. To put it simply, that’s the difference in the width of the film strip. The bigger the number, the higher quality the image.)

“I think there's a tendency to think film is precious, which it is, and we should be preserving it. But I think it's more important to be screening the prints,” says New Beverly projectionist Danielle Wakin.

Projecting film isn’t just hitting play on a movie — there’s a whole show going on up in the booth that audience members never get to see. Before the movie starts, the projectionist checks the film reel for dust and debris. They measure the reel and mark out “changeover cues” — that’s where they’ll literally load and change reels. Most feature films take up between five and nine reels. 

“There's an art to it, there's timing … but yeah, there's nothing better than whenever you hit every changeover and it's a perfect show,” Wakin explains. “Or watching my coworker have a perfect show is also a very, very good feeling.”

Given the effort that goes into projecting film, this isn’t an experience you can get at any movie house (and it’s the center of a contentious debate in the moviegoing world). But it should be noted that the additional effort of a movie house and projectionist to screen a print that might be decades old, does turn a screening into something special.

Danielle Wakin, New Beverly Cinema's projectionist, splices film building up the pre-shows for the following showing on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024.

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Julie Leopo

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LAist

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Danielle Wakin, New Beverly Cinema's projectionist, splices film building up the pre-shows for the following showing on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024.

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Julie Leopo

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LAist

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With the emphasis on film — and the Tarantino connection — it’s easy to assume that The New Bev might be intimidating, or full of “film bros” ready to judge. But the programming is accessible and diverse.

“I think that is what makes the New Bev cool is [the movies] we show isn't just, you know, like Jeanne Dielman, which like a bunch of film school people show up. But then we had like a Twilight marathon for Twilight fans,” says Wakin. “It's like we kind of show something for everyone.”

The New Bev welcomes kids too — weekend screenings always include family matinees, where you can catch films like A Goofy Movie, The Muppet Movie, or E.T.

But one of Wakin’s favorite moments was the screening of the cult classic Phantom of the Paradise.

Phantom of the Paradise is a 70s rock musical directed by Brian De Palma with music by Paul Williams. It’s a blend of Faust, Phantom of the Opera, and a critique of the music industry, with fabulous costumes, musical numbers, and a dash of horror. While it didn’t get rave reviews upon its release, it found a dedicated fanbase, even inspiring the French duo who would become Daft Punk.

“I remember sitting there in the theater, and when Beef came on screen the whole audience roared and I was just smiling and I was like, 'this is why I work here,'” she says.

From candy to porn to 'respectable movies'

So, how exactly did Quentin Tarantino end up owning the New Bev?

Well, it’s kind of a long story.

The building’s been around since 1929, and in the '30s it was occupied by a candymaker, and then an ice cream manufacturer.

“Then it became Slapsy Maxie's Nightclub in 1937, starring the once famous Maxie Rosenblum,” says theater historian Ross Melnick.

Slapsy Maxie's was a Mid-City nightclub that is now the home of the New Beverly Cinema.

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Courtesy of the Huntington Gardens Digital Library

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Slapsy Maxie’s was a celebrity hotspot run by actor and former boxer Maxie Rosenbloom, nicknamed “Slapsie” for how he liked to throw a punch with an open glove.

Slapsy Maxie’s moved locations and other nightclubs moved in and out of the space throughout the 1940s. In the '50s, the space became a venue for live theater — The New Globe. The demographics of the Fairfax area were shifting and the neighborhood was starting to become primarily Jewish.

“The New Globe became a venue for actually Yiddish and other theater … it was actually in part because of the location, the Jewish community was leaving Boyle Heights and coming to Fairfax,” says Melnick. “And so this was a place where Yiddish theater could actually survive for a time.”

But by 1958, live theater was no longer drawing crowds. A film producer purchased the space and divided it into two cinemas, named the Riviera-Capri.

When the 1960s hit, almost every theater in the city had to make the decision — pivot to porn, or no?

The theater was renamed again in 1970 to “the very appropriate Eros Theater, which had not only films, but also live nude dancing,” says Melnick. “The Beverly name was inaugurated in 72, and adult films continued until about 1977.”

At the end of the 1970s, local publishers started banning ads for adult films. Business started to dip for the Bev, creating an opportunity for yet another buyer.

How Tarantino got involved

In 1978, Sherman Torgan, a location scout described by the Los Angeles Times as a 33-year-old “mild mannered UCLA graduate in sociology,” took over the theater. He’s quoted as saying he “wanted to get in a business that really had sort of a positive vibe. Movies put a smile on people’s faces.”

The Times headline ran: “Theater Returns to Respectability.”

Early double features at the now “NEW” Beverly that summer included Cabaret and Sweet Charity, and Robert Altman’s 3 Women paired with Ingmar Bergman’s Face to Face.

It was during this time that a young Quentin Tarantino started going to the movies here. It was his childhood movie house, so his love for the place started early.

When Sherman Torgan died in 2007, it was a tough time for movie theaters. DVD sales were booming and services like Netflix started streaming.

Tarantino had already been subsidizing the theater for $5,000 a month, so he decided to purchase the theater outright in 2010, and took over operations in 2014. He’s quoted as saying: “As long as I’m alive, and as long as I’m rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing double features in 35mm.” 

Torgan's son Michael continues to help operate and program the theater.

Jules McLean, director of operations, in the auditorium of the New Beverly Cinema on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024.

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Julie Leopo

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LAist

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Jules McLean has now been running the New Beverly for 10 years. And her history with Tarantino goes back even further.

“I knew Quentin because we worked at Video Archives together. So we have a long history and friendship,” says McLean.

She worked as his personal assistant for years, saying “one of the things you do for a film director is try to facilitate his dream.” That’s the attitude she brings to the New Beverly.

“I'm facilitating Quentin's dream, which was part of, you know, Sherman's dream.”

Tarantino's house, a community hub

There is a LOT of film here.

According to McLean, “probably 60, 65% of the stuff we show is Quentin's collection.”

The New Bev often screens Tarantino’s films as midnight movies every few weeks — titles like Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained — the whole filmography, really.

The projection room at the New Beverly Cinema only projects film.

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McLean says even the weekday matinees sell out. It’s a relief. After the pandemic shut theaters down, there was a question about whether places like the New Bev could bounce back. But it has indeed come back, and McLean says it's attracting new audiences.

For her, it’s all about passing on that communal moviegoing experience to the next generation.

“I cannot stress how important it is to see films with an audience. That communal feeling, you can't replicate that,” she says. “I think you get something emotionally and even though you might not know the 200 people you're sitting with, you just had a collective experience.”

And she’s seen those collective experiences turn into relationships: “I know so many people that have met their husband, wife, partner here, you know, friendships just because they came to the New Beverly.”

“I know it sounds antithetical because you're just sitting passively,” adds Melnick. "But in fact, you're connecting with the filmmaker and the actors and everyone else who put that film together. And then you're connecting with everyone else around you.”

Whether you bring a date, make a friend or go solo and find a friend in the movies, you won’t be alone catching a movie on film at the New Bev.

Thanks for joining us at the movies. It’s all part of a new series from How to LA called Revival House. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts.

Data center builders don’t tell the public how much water they use, according to a new report — and the industry is encroaching into water-stressed and vulnerable communities.

The report, by the think tank Next10 and researchers at Santa Clara University, finds that planned data centers — the ganglia of artificial intelligence — are spreading to regions reliant on overtapped groundwater and strained surface water, with potentially major effects in the Central and Imperial Valleys.

But, reinforcing previous studies, the researchers found that a patchwork of state, federal and local policies allows data center operators to avoid publicly disclosing their actual water use.

California lawmakers tried to address this last year, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure. Now, the legislature is trying again, with bills mandating disclosures about water use and planning.

“We have this huge build out, and we have very little data,” said Irina Raicu, who directs the Internet Ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Paired with California’s precarious water supplies, Raicu said, “It’s just not a good combination.”

Shaolei Ren, an expert on the environmental impacts of AI at UC Riverside who was not involved in the study, said the findings point to a much broader problem.

“Limited publicly available information about data center water use makes it difficult for communities, water providers and researchers to have meaningful public discussions and responsibly assess power-water trade-offs,” Ren said in an email.

Murky water use 

Few environmental impact reports for California’s data centers were publicly available online, the researchers found.

Raicu and co-author Iris Stewart-Frey, a professor of environmental science, went looking for the reports, meant to assess and disclose a project’s impacts for both nature and people under the landmark California Environmental Quality Act.

They found almost none. The ones they did find were largely for facilities in the city of Santa Clara.

Through interviews with planning officials, they discovered that projects can slip through with little environmental review if they fall under certain size or water use thresholds, or if they meet a city or county’s criteria for other approval pathways. These include something called ministerial approval, which requires planning agencies to approve a project that meets local zoning and other standards.

Even for data centers that undergo more stringent environmental scrutiny, the researchers found that documentation is rarely available to the public.

In the few cases the planning documents were posted publicly, the information — on the data center’s owner or operator, size, type of cooling system, the amount of water used, whether it’s recycled or potable — was often “missing, contradictory, or vague,” the report said.

The researchers said they contacted water providers in areas where data centers cluster, seeking usage data. None responded.

A shift to vulnerable regions

California’s data centers mostly cluster in the south San Francisco Bay Area and the city of Los Angeles, with smaller concentrations in Sacramento and San Diego.

But the report noted large, planned projects in rural and less affluent regions — like in Santa Clara County’s Gilroy, as well as in the heavily agricultural Imperial Valley.

“They need a bunch of cheap land,” Raicu. “If we’re not careful, they will end up being pitched, very convincingly, to communities that have real needs — without enough attention being paid to the water part.”

Khara Boender, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, which has opposed bills mandating more granular water-use reporting, said in an email the industry is “committed to being a good neighbor.”

Boender argues that data centers collectively “used significantly less water than other essential industries in 2025, including the agriculture, power, food and beverage, and semiconductor sectors,” but the coalition offers no data to back that up.

Collective use matters less than local impacts in a state where each community has its own mix of water supplies and strains, according to a previous study published by a team at UC Berkeley.

Whether data centers use a lot or a little water relative to agriculture or other industries, “what matters most is the scale of new local use compared to available local supply,” the Berkeley team concluded earlier this year. “Unfortunately, this picture is clouded by data deficiencies.”

In this week’s report, the Santa Clara University team drilled into those local supplies and community vulnerabilities to anticipated expansion.

“We’re at the brink of this happening in California,” Stewart-Frey, the environmental scientist, said. Her report, she added, isn’t advocating against data centers. But “communities should know what they’re getting themselves into.”

Debates over proposed data centers are erupting in a Kern County desert community with dwindling groundwater and in the hot Imperial Valley, which draws from the strained Colorado River. 

Monterey Park residents in the San Gabriel Valley successfully opposed one data center project over environmental concerns and inadequate information and secured an upcoming vote on a citywide ban.

In a letter to city officials, a representative for the developer dismissed opponents as “rage-baiting an uninformed mob to pressure your decisionmaking.”

Raicu pushed back. “If those communities are uninformed about the issue — whose fault is that? Who should be informing the people so that you don’t have this kind of pushback, if there is no need for it?”

New laws v. Big Tech

Last year, Assemblymember Diane Papan, a Democrat from San Mateo, authored a bill requiring data center operators to report estimated or actual water use to their water supplier when seeking or renewing a business license or permit.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure amid industry pressure, saying he was “reluctant to impose rigid reporting requirements about operational details on this sector without understanding the full impact on businesses and the consumers of their technology.”

Now, Papan is trying again with two bills. One largely reprises last year’s measure, with additional reporting required to the city and county. The other would bar local governments from approving new or expanded data centers unless the developer discloses information about their water use and plans.

It would also set other requirements — like prohibiting development in overdrafted groundwater basins in places like the San Joaquin Valley, unless state water managers OK it.

“You cannot manage what you have not and cannot measure,” Papan said. “The public likes transparency, and they should.”

Both bills cleared a key legislative chokepoint this week but face staunch opposition from the tech industry and business groups.

“If they run out of water, guess what happens? And they can’t cool their systems — are they going to succeed?” Papan said. “To which I say, help us help you.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

Founders Jenny Yang and Chris Capizzi spent seven years operating as a pop-up without a brick-and-mortar location. Opening their doors to local vendors pays homage to their own roots selling at Los Angeles markets, from the Melrose Trading Post to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market.

“Mega giant online sellers have the scale and the resources and the patience and the reach to capture most people,” Capizzi said. “Whereas for us, I think we have to be really creative — we have to band together.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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Yang and Capizzi’s long history of vending at markets taught them how isolating running a small business can be. At their market, they aim to build connections with each vendor and strategize the best timing and layout so everyone can succeed.

“[Amazon and Barnes & Noble] are Goliath, and we’re not even David — we’re just the ant underneath David’s foot,” Capizzi said. “I think we can do what we do and try to get as many people, at our level or even smaller, to get together.”

Weekly markets at A Good Used Book have captivated the neighborhood since its opening in October 2023, with charming names like “Sunday Funday,” “Saturday School” and “Hi-Fi Friday Night,” plus hand-drawn flyers by well-known artist Noah Harmon. Now, it’s become a weekly occurrence where LA pop-ups can display their own crafts, allowing local readers to indulge in a little more than a pocket paperback.

Each week holds a Pandora’s box of niche snacks, crafts or trinkets you didn’t know you needed, ranging from Southeast Asian-inspired trail mix to natural incense sticks to vintage Japanese audio equipment. One week you might be enticed to adopt a kitten from a rescue booth outside, another week you might impulsively get a stick-and-poke tattoo in the back of the store.

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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On one sunny Sunday afternoon, Brandon Stanciell hand-tossed fresh pizza dough on the sidewalk outside the bookstore. His 2-year-old pop-up, Pizza Ananda, which he named after his daughter, is an homage to her and to Italian cooking, a hobby he started during paternity leave. An hour before the market closed, Stanciell had already sold out and garnished his last pepperoni-and-hot-honey pie for one lucky customer.

“I love that places like this allow us all to meet at once to share what we have and give it to the community around us,” Stanciell said.

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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For the owners, building a community market is about deepening relationships with the people who walk through their doors. In an increasingly digital landscape, it is also a reciprocal partnership among local businesses.

“A lot of people talk about community building nowadays as a marketing strategy,” Capizzi said. “But I think the actual community building comes from talking to each vendor and each customer and being a consistent presence in the neighborhood.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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While customers browsed for unique titles, Gerin del Carmen worked her booth of ceramic dishware, oyster-shaped trinket holders and vases resembling miniature boxes. As a ceramicist, del Carmen draws from her Filipino heritage, including the Balikbayan boxes that represent immigrants sending gifts to family in the Philippines.

“Sharing the community and your space is such a big deal. This is not a huge, gigantic Barnes & Noble store,” del Carmen said. “It has so much foot traffic, and the fact that [the owners] are setting up and sharing the space once or twice a week with other vendors and other artists is huge.”

Yang and Capizzi may think of themselves as an “ant underneath David’s foot,” but A Good Used Book is building a colony of vendors, rooted in community.

Whether you and your friends are looking for a brunch spot to cater to everyone's palates, or taking a trip to the historic Grand Central Market, food halls make for an easy, affordable place to satisfy cravings — especially in SoCal, where diverse selections of dishes reign supreme.

But these spaces fill a void much deeper than our appetites. They bring new life to old storefronts, factories or even airfields (see list below), and can offer a way to keep dollars within the community by becoming a hub for local businesses.

With that said, here's a short list of food halls where you'll get more than just a killer meal.

For good vibes

BLVD MRKT food hall on the corner of 6th Street and Whittier Boulevard in downtown Montebello.

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BLVD MRKT is an open-air food hall in downtown Montebello that feels like a party. The 8,500-square-foot space currently has five eateries, or "concepts" as they're known in the restaurant industry, and hosts live DJs every Friday night and Sunday during brunch. They also host Open Vinyl Night on the second and forth Tuesday of every month, where patrons get $2 off beers and margaritas from Alchemy Craft if they bring a vinyl record to be played in the BLVD courtyard.

The space is pet-friendly and has growing concepts like Los Taquero Mucho, which offers classic al pastor, grilled chicken and slow-cooked carnitas tacos, as well as specialty flavors like vegan tacos with whiskil sautéed in coconut milk, and Pork Belly Cochinita Pibil Tacos, perfect for those who crave crispy, slow-roasted pork with a hint of sweetness.

Los Taquero Mucho participates in BLVD's incubator program, run by co-founders Barney and Evelyn Santos. The program offers mentorship to local entrepreneurs until they can set up shop permanently.

Pork Belly Cochinita Pibil Tacos with salsa from Los Taquero Mucho at BLVD MRKT in Montebello.

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BLVD MRKT is part of the couple's commercial real estate development firm, Gentefy. Its mission is to invest in retail and hospitality projects that ignite economic development and revitalization in Black and brown neighborhoods.

"Blvd Mrkt is our first project," Barney Santos wrote in a text message. "It was our social proof to prove to banks, investors and cities that a socially conscious business model could exist in a traditionally overlooked area."

VCHOS Pupuseria Moderna also has a spot in the BLVD courtyard, offering handmade pupusas with filling choices such as shrimp with spinach and cheese, and tender beef birria with a side of consommé, onions and cilantro. Coffee lovers can get an Oaxacan Mocha at Cafe Santo, or stop by Cold Pizza for a wood-fired slice.

For eclectic tastes

Rodeo 39 Public Market in Stanton.

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An O.C. favorite, Rodeo 39 Public Market lives on Highway 39, also known as Beach Boulevard, in Stanton. This 40,000-square-foot space is an eclectic mix of more than 20 food and drink concepts and retailers. There are three outdoor patios and five murals, plus an arcade, tattoo shop and photo booth. Food options cover everything from Lil' Breezy's adobo breakfast burritos to Cajun crab fries at The Crawfish Hut.

Mural by artist David Flores outside of Joystix arcade at Rodeo 39 Public Market.

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Rodeo's menu choices make it well-suited for a casual weekend brunch. At its entrance sits Here & There, where you can grab a coffee or matcha latte, or try one of their signature drinks like the Iced Vienna, a combination of milk with caramelly demerara sugar and your choice of matcha or espresso, topped with sweet cream and garnished with sea salt. The result is a drink that's smooth and not too sweet.

Eggyo bulgogi egg sandwich with spicy mayo at Rodeo 39 Public Market.

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Eggyo, a recent addition to Rodeo, offers Korean corn dogs and fluffy egg sandwiches on crispy, house-baked milk bread. Try the bulgogi option with spicy mayo for a savory kick. If you crave a cocktail, venture over to CAPO, which also serves craft beer. Or just sit on one of their sun-filled patios while you decide what to try.

For a page from history

The Hangar in Long Beach.

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The Hangar is a 17,000-square-foot food hall that pays homage to Long Beach's aviation history. It sits on former Boeing Co. land where military and commercial aircraft were built. Today, it serves as a dining destination at the Long Beach Exchange Shopping Center, or LBX, neighboring the city's international airport.

This space currently has a mix of 14 food concepts and two retail shops. Patrons can enjoy local favorites outside their flagship locations, like the Joe's Special bagel sandwich from Cassidy's Corner Cafe, with bacon, egg and the star of the show — tangy jalapeño cream cheese. Fans of spice can try Jay Bird's Nashville Hot Chicken, which offers chicken sandwiches and tenders, and Blazin' Fries, all with six levels of heat.

Historic aviation photos are displayed above food concepts at The Hangar food hall at LBX in Long Beach

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Inside, there are vintage pictures of aircraft that were built at the site, and a wall of clocks showing the time in cities named Long Beach across the country.

A Pan Am Hawaii travel poster (left) and a TWA Spain travel poster (right) at the patio of The Hangar food hall.

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Outside, you'll find patio seating with umbrellas where you can sit and watch the occasional plane fly overhead. Or sit and enjoy the adjacent display of towering Pan Am and TWA posters promoting travel to Hawaii, Spain and Paris.

For fun and work

Mercado La Paloma on Grand Avenue in South L.A.

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Audrey Ngo

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Open since 2001, the approximately 34,000-square-foot Mercado La Paloma sits in the Figueroa corridor of South L.A., and is known for its focus on community, art and culture. From rotating art exhibits to colorful tiled tabletops, this space feels like it was made to nurture creativity.

Interior of Mercado La Paloma.

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There are meeting rooms to rent starting at $25 an hour. It's a space where locals can bring their laptop to work or study, or have a long conversation with a friend, with bites from six acclaimed restaurants.

Holbox's Erizo dish at Mercado La Paloma.

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At the Mercado, visit Holbox for Michelin-starred seafood dishes like Erizo — velvety sea urchin laid atop a bed of tender scallop ceviche. The combination is fresh, flavorful and oceanic. Tip: If you can swing it, come on a weekday to avoid a long line, or order ahead.

For something sweet, walk over to Oaxacacalifornia Cafe & Juice Bar for a Spicy Pineapple Juice with a gingery kick, or go for the classic pairing of Hot Oaxacan Chocolate, made with your choice of water or milk, and light-as-air conchas crowned with a solid layer of vanilla or chocolate streusel.