Los Angeles is ending the year just the way it started it: With a whole lot of rain and some of the greenest, snowiest scenes in recent memory. In the first few months of 2019, that lush tranquility quickly gave way to full-blown wildflower hysteria—we’re talking miles-long backups to see the sublime bloom at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve and freeway-halting, trail-closing, Disneyland-sized crowds all descending on a single hillside in Lake Elsinore to ‘Gram (and trample) the wildflowers.
The food world had its own superbloom of sorts as Angelenos flocked to any spot frying Nashville hot chicken or pressing smashburgers. But it was the white tablecloth joints that garnered the most attention when the Michelin Guide returned to bestow its hoity-toity stars upon some truly-deserving spots. Throughout the year, Pilot, Sorra, Bar Sopra and Pasadena’s Granville added to the city’s stable of rooftop bars and restaurants, while Pasjoli, Auburn and Angler offered fresh takes on fine dining. There was something old (a reinvigorated Formosa Cafe and Dear John’s), something new (a first-ever cannabis cafe) and something… out-of-town (see: Tartine, Gino’s East and, for a weekend, Katz’s). And then there was the hero L.A. needs right now: CVT Soft Serve founder Joe Nicchi, who decided to charge influencers double.
Speaking of Instagram hype, pop-up “museums” continued to hang around way past their welcome. Obsessed with some specific corner of pop culture? There was an Insta room for that this year, be it dumplings, eggs, disgusting food, scary movies, Hello Kitty, Schitt’s Creek, Louis Vuitton, Lisa Frank, Spongebob or Mickey Mouse. And that doesn’t even include the spate of sort-of-suspect, unlicensed spots: a Blade Runner bar, Spice Girls and Disney sing-along brunches, and a Harry Potter cafe (alright, that one’s actually kind of charming).
In fact, this was the year that intellectual property conquered just about everything in L.A., with movies and TV jumping outside of the screen and into theme parks, restaurants and, for some reason, gas stations. The Jurassic World (née Park) ride opened at Universal Studios and brought a tiki bar along with it. And Disneyland welcomed an entire Star Wars-themed land, complete with a boozy cantina. All sorts of Friends pop-ups celebrated the sitcom’s 25th anniversary, Stranger Things took over the Santa Monica Pier, Los Pollos Hermanos started cooking up a new delivery service, a Downton Abbey tea party unfurled a blanket on the Grove’s lawn and the Iron Throne appeared Downtown… with cans of Mountain Dew. Meanwhile, West Hollywood’s rotating nostalgia-fueled restaurant space hosted both 90210 and Good Burger (Kel said the thing, it was glorious). And The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel brought the Westside’s roads to its knees when a Santa Monica gas station started charging 30 cents per gallon.
L.A.’s museums put the spotlight on women and artists of color this year, with career-spanning looks at still-working artists like Shirin Neshat, Julie Mehretu, Annie Leibovitz, Betye Saar and David Hammons. And the art world seemed to put its focus on L.A. when Frieze and its surreal backlot-spanning installations made its West Coast debut. It arrived in L.A. the same year as some free-to-visit exports (see: Photoville, the Second Home Serpentine Pavilion and the opening of Fort Ganesvoort). And speaking of free, MOCA announced it’ll drop admission fees next year (and attracted attention with buzzed-about exhibitions like “With Pleasure” and Xu Zhen’s gravity-defying In Just a Blink of an Eye). But our absolute favorite installation this year (and, honestly, in recent memory) occurred neither in a museum nor a gallery, but an empty power plant in Bell Gardens that was turned into a madcap dandelion factory. Of course, not everything was rosy in the museum world: People groused about LACMA’s redesign, the Academy Museum pushed back its opening date (again), the Main Museum shuttered (ArtCenter has since swooped in to take control) and the Marciano melted down in spectacularly suspect fashion.
There’s still so much more we have to say about 2019 in L.A.—and you’ll find all of our “best of,” year-end lists below—so to round things out, we present a “We Didn’t Start the Fire”-like rapid-fire list (sans Joelian rhyming) of the rest: The government shutdown turned Joshua Tree into a temporary trash nightmare, and Uber’s boot from LAX caused rideshare chaos (at first). Musso & Frank turned 100, and the Huntington Library and Catalina Island both celebrated their centennials, too. The Alamo Drafthouse finally opened, the Music Center unveiled its refreshed plaza, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater moved into its new home and Vidiots was saved. Anthony Davis rescued the Lakers, the Dodgers choked and LAFC made it to the conference finals. L.A. mourned the death of Nipsey Hussle, Kanye West staged an Easter service at Coachella and an opera at the Hollywood Bowl, Just Like Heaven brought your aughts iPod playlist to life, Ringo joined Paul onstage at Dodger Stadium while Camp Flog Gnaw fans booed Drake offstage at Chavez Ravine. And it (sort of) snowed in L.A.
