GQ Calls Downtown L.A. 'The Coolest New Downtown In America'

You like us... you really like us! GQ published a lengthy travel essay on how downtown is "America's next great city" and is as "electrifying and gritty as New York in the '70s."

We hope our city wasn't demoted from GQ's Sept. 2010 piece, titled, "10 Reasons Why… L.A. Is the Coolest City on the Planet."

GQ writer, Brett Martin, gave nods to our food and bar scene, including Bäco Mercat, Bar Amá, Grand Central Market, and Horse Thief BBQ. But he especially had a lengthy discussion on Philippe the Original for their french dip sandwich and basically said he loves it more than their competitor Cole's. (Sorry, Cole's.) He also does an SAT-like comparison to the city by saying, "As Friends was to the West Village, The New Girl is to the Arts District; its loft is located at Traction Avenue near Third Street."

However, who knows if there will be any backlash to this heartfelt love for L.A? The last time GQ called out Venice's Abbot Kinney as the "The Coolest Block In America," it wasn't so well-received. The magazine held an all-day event celebrating this fact and the town turned on them and protested against the gentrification of the neighborhood.

Nonetheless, GQ thinks even Venice residents can't resist downtown. "After decades of being all but forgotten, Downtown has approached a critical mass of cool that even the most hard-core resident of Venice or Santa Monica or West Hollywood or Silver Lake would find impossible to deny," Martin wrote.

You hear that everyone? "Critical mass of cool" should be downtown's new motto.

Related stories:
Protesters Line Up Along Abbot Kinney During GQ Event
Venice Plans To Get Back At GQ For Naming Abbot Kinney The 'Coolest Block In America'