Best of the City: The 12 best things Time Out L.A. editors saw, ate and visited in 2023

Big artists in small rooms is the Goldilocks concert going scenario, and this DTLA-adjacent venue’s 1,600-person capacity is kind of remarkable given the caliber of acts in its inaugural year: HAIM, Carly Rae Jepsen, Wilco, Porter Robinson and Phantogram, just to name a few. Moreover, it’s just a cool-looking place on the inside, the latest polished rock club from Michael Swier, who runs the Teragram Ballroom and Moroccan Lounge and teamed up with Bay Area promoter Another Planet Entertainment for this one. It’s not perfect—balcony sightlines could be better and parking is a little tight, though that’s not really the venue’s fault—but in a year dominated by price-gouged stadium tours, the Bellwether has been a much-welcome addition to L.A.’s otherwise thin roster of midsize venues.

Until just a few years ago, you would’ve found a Hooters on the plot of land where Level 8 now sits. And that, really, spoke to the disappointing quality of nightlife offerings around South Park’s trio of entertainment complexes. Now, though, the Houston Brothers’ eighth-floor, eight-in-one clubstaurant has brought a bit of globetrotting fantasy to the area with its hidden-entrance restaurants, colorful rooftop bar and cathedral-themed lucha libre club. It’s a pricey splash of sensory overload, but give in to the excess (and make a reservation on the early side to avoid the crowds) and you’ll walk away with one of L.A.’s most unique nightlife experiences right now.

The depth and footprint of Metro’s new, years-in-the-making subway stop behind the Broad means you won’t find any escalators. Instead, you’ll need to take one of a half-dozen high-speed elevators down to the concourse—and press up against the glass as you do so you can closely gaze at all 61 feet of Pearl C. Hsiung’s towering High Prismatic. The colorful, geyser-like mural pays tribute to the forces that shaped both the land and culture of the surrounding Bunker Hill, and it just might be the single grandest greeting into L.A.’s subway system.

Two of my most exciting art visits this year were because of the venues: the near-final phase of the Hammer Museum’s multi-year expansion and the reopened and reinvigorated Hollyhock House. But as far as what was actually on the walls, there was no feast for the eyes quite like the Broad’s Keith Haring retrospective. The energetic show opened with a Day-Glo display of paintings and sculptures that practically demanded sunglasses. But amid Haring’s familiar stick figure-like motifs and wall-sized works speaking out against nuclear war, some of the best moments were the quieter ones: personal Polaroids of the late artist with a slew of celebrities, PSA posters created during the HIV/AIDS crisis and a soberingly, purposely unfinished-looking painting created shortly before his death from the disease.

Even L.A.’s narrowest freeway feels unbelievably wide when you’re standing on it—that was one of my biggest takeaways from the car-clearing ArroyoFest. But my other big thought was that hopefully we don’t have to wait another 20 years for an event as joyous as this one. For one morning in October, six miles of the 110 was shut down to automobiles and in their place you found families (including plenty of pets) walking and cycling on the freeway through Northeast L.A. and Pasadena. It might be the only occasion you’ll ever hear the words “fun” and “freeway” uttered in the same sentence.

After a few dark years in the world of local screening rooms, there was finally some light for cinema-loving Angelenos thanks to the reopening of Vidiots, the Vista and—most marvelously—the Egyptian Theatre. Now under the ownership of Netflix but still largely programmed by the nonprofit American Cinematheque, the 101-year-old venue looks a little closer to its Old Hollywood days: Contemporary cladding inside the Egyptian-deco auditorium is gone in favor of the desert block walls they were hiding and a streamlined homage to the original proscenium. The three-year, $70 million restoration project has made the moviegoing experience flat-out better, too, with a stylish concessions area, plush and comfy reconfigured seating and an array of film formats (digital, 35mm, 70mm, nitrate).

“Immersive” has become a shorthand for four walls with some screens and mirrors, a borderline red flag for ticketed events. But one experience truly warped us into another world this year, with plenty of items to punch, smash and spin along the way: Super Nintendo World. Yes, it’s part of a high-priced theme park, but nothing else this year was as exuberantly hands-on and transportive as Universal Studios Hollywood’s latest expansion. Every surface is bathed in bold colors and adorned with light-up interactions, with unmarked nooks that make you feel like you’re poking around a truly secret area. The Mario Kart ride is chaotic fun, the cafe full of animated Toads is adorable and every little sound effect chimes with cheer.

For more than half the year, February’s low-elevation snow was a shoe-in for this category. But then in August came word that L.A. was bracing itself for a hurricane—a what now?! Hilary ultimately arrived in L.A. as a tropical storm, the first one to hit the area since 1939. For most of L.A., its winds and rainfall were ultimately no worse than a Santa Ana day or winter deluge. The lead-up to it, though, was unlike any other weather event to hit L.A. in recent memory, with a seemingly equal split among Angelenos of those who hysterically stocked up on bottled water and those who treated the impending downpour like it was a routine spritz. For everyone else in the middle, it was just a memorable reminder to prep your emergency kit for the Big One.