Love Local: Support the independent businesses that make us love L.A.

'Tis the season for Christmas shows, festive holiday lights and, most of all, shopping, shopping and more shopping. Back to tempt your wallets this winter are a number of holiday markets and craft fairs featuring local, handmade goods for extra special gifting. Find everything from apothecary goods and handwoven handbags to artisan jewelry, candles, prints and more. Even if you’re not sure what to get family and friends on your gift list this season, these annual fairs are a treasure trove of inspiration—you’ll likely walk away with more goodies than you ever knew you needed. Support small businesses and head to the best holiday markets in Los Angeles. RECOMMENDED: See more Christmas in Los Angeles

Sure, there’s the weather and the beaches, but L.A.’s local businesses really make this city amazing. Maybe it’s the little coffee shop that always makes your morning better. Or that fantastic local indie cinema, with the community vibes and events. It could be a fantastic food spot that you recommend to incoming friends and fam. Or a bold local gallery or theater, a community-spirited garden-cum-café, a vintage shop, a cheesemonger, a bar or music venue—or even all of the above. Time Out recently asked you to nominate your most-loved spots in L.A., and now it’s time to vote. See a few of your favorites in the running? Cast your vote for them in the Love Loval Awards. And, as it’s been a tough 18 months, we’ll offer your most-loved spots—the Time Out Love Local Award Winners of 2021—a free marketing and advertising package to help them thrive. Let’s share the love! Michael Juliano, Editor, Time Out L.A. // window.beOpAsyncInit = function() { BeOpSDK.init({ account: "5f69f55f46e0fb0001fde886" }); BeOpSDK.watch(); }; // If you are a business owner, or simply want to see your favorite venue listed on Time Out, you can submit venue details to the Time Out L.A. website by sending us your information. Have questions? Check our Love Local Awards FAQ.

It’s time for the annual Time Out Love Local Awards: your chance to vote for your favourite local small businesses and independent venues. If you have questions about how the process works, how to vote for it, when voting closes, or anything else about it, read on… What are the Time Out Love Local Awards?They’re a chance to nominate and vote for your favorite local and small businesses in your city: bars, cafés, restaurants, music venues, galleries, you name it. Anywhere that you think deserves some recognition for what it does. Can I still nominate a business or venue?No, sorry. Nominations for 2021 closed on November 7. What happens then?All the places that were nominated get added to a “long list” of nominees. Time Out city editors then take a look at all the businesses and compile a shortlist of the most-loved ones. Then you get to vote on them. In 2021, voting takes place from November 11, 2021 until December 17, 2021. Do I need to create a Time Out account to vote?If you are a regular Time Out user, you can use your normal login on www.timeout.com to vote. If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to create one, which only takes a minute and is free. Can I change my vote(s) once I’ve submitted it/them? No, sorry. So choose carefully! Can I vote by email or phone?No, sorry.  I actually am a local venue, can I vote for myself and can I get my customers vote for me?Totally. You can vote for yourself, and get all your devoted regulars to vote for you too—click here for an 8

Look, Los Angeles isn’t always the easiest place to live. The traffic is painful, fire season is persistent and you’re pretty sure that there’s a higher likelihood of the Big One hitting than of ever owning a house here. But we swear, we’re actually here to talk about the good stuff: Because it’s all of the local gems—the late-night taco truck, the hidden garden, the hole-in-the-wall comedy club—that make life in L.A. fulfilling. Now we want to hear about them all. Time Out is launching its annual Love Local Awards today. They’re your chance to tell us about your favorite music venues, galleries, bars, restaurants or anything, to give it the exposure it deserves, to show it the love. You can nominate as many venues as you like, of whatever type. Once the nominations are in, you’ll get a chance to vote on the ones you think are the stars of Los Angeles. We’ll feature the most loved ones in Time Out, and those outstanding small businesses—the Time Out Love Local Award Winners of 2021—will receive a valuable free marketing and advertising package to help them thrive. They, like many of us, have had a truly awful 18 months, after all. Launching simultaneously in 14 cities across Europe and North America this year, the Love Local Awards are part of Time Out’s commitment to inspire connection and joy by capturing the soul of the world’s greatest cities and support independent businesses, while offering them a platform to give them the recognition they deserve. The 2021 Love Local A

Sure, we had cocktails to-go and patio spots serving drinks, but until this past spring it had been nearly a year since Angelenos could sink into a stool and chat up a bartender. That’s a whole lot of time for your bar etiquette to collect cobwebs. On top of that, just when we thought life was approaching something normalish again—surprise!—things swung in the opposite direction. Combine the shifting rules and safety regulations (both self-imposed and county-mandated) with supply chain and labor shortages, and a night at your favorite watering hole might still look a little different than it did during the before times. So we talked to the owners, managers and bartenders behind some of L.A.’s best bars to find out what you need to know before you open your tab. Bring some extra patience “Due to the pandemic a lot of people are short-staffing to save on labor costs, and the employees that are working are expected to carry the same workload as before. So guests should know and expect that they will have to wait a bit longer for service and that they should not get mad about it.” —Cari Hah, Hakkasan Group “Everyone needs to be aware that there are a multitude of reasons places are short-staffed, so please be patient and kind to those that have showed up. We’re doing our best!” —Kelso Norris, Genever “There has been a mass exodus of staff. Either from a resolve of moving away from a career they never were really that committed to, or being completely burnt out from having to comp

If you’re filling up at the Shell station on the corner of Arroyo Parkway and Del Mar Boulevard, make sure to stop inside to pick up the gas station convenience store staples: some lotto tickets, a bag of chips and, oh, a hazy double IPA, a pastry sour and a rice lager. Pasadena has its share of gastropubs, taprooms, big-box liquor stores and a couple of small bottle shops, but the food mart at Arroyo Shell has them all cornered when it comes to the curation of chilled cans and bottles of beer. The cans go up for sale as soon as they come in, and owner Shibli Haddad resets the fridges multiple times a week. There’s always something fresh to keep repeat customers interested (he’ll tease new releases on the shop’s Instagram), but there’s a balance between flavor-of-the-month brews and reliable lagers, pilsners, IPAs and Kölsch. Anaheim’s Bottle Logic is the only steady fixture, though 903 and the Brewing Projekt are often in stock, as are some local entries like San Gabriel’s Ogopogo and Glendale’s Paperback. It’s all wrapped up in a setting that, yes, is still unmistakably a gas station convenience store, but one with artist-commissioned murals, a chalk wall that might have surprised Pikachu one month and parched SpongeBob the next, and a feel-good playlist that jumps from Frank Sinatra to the Strokes. Photograph: Time Out/Michael JulianoShibli Haddad As you might expect, it wasn’t always like this. Haddad’s father owned the station until his death in 1998, when the family l

The Last Bookstore’s arched tunnels of tomes and peekaboo windows of hardcovers are an Instagram fixture, but we’re not sure we ever realized just how popular they really are. The Downtown L.A. shop is apparently the world’s most-Instagrammed bookstore. That’s according to findings from the U.K.’s business training website the Knowledge Academy, which came to the conclusion based on the volume of related Instagram hashtags. The organization started with a list of the world’s best bookstores, and then from there counted the number of hashtags tied to each (as of February 2021). Photograph: Jake Giles NetterThe Last Bookstore The West Coast actually claimed the top two spots on the list: The Last Bookstore pulled in 110,498 hashtags, while Powell’s in Portland was right behind it with 94,241 (and San Francisco’s City Lights was ninth). Tokyo’s Book and Bed, Paris’s Shakespeare and Company and Porto’s Livraria Lello rounded out the top five. If you’ve never been to the Last Bookstore, well, book it to the corner of 5th and Spring Streets and pick something out from their pretty stellar selection of both new and used texts. But if you have, it’s probably not a shock that it landed atop the list. What started as a store operated out of a DTLA loft in 2005 grew into a palace of publications a few years later with its move into an old bank building. Inside, that means you’ll find marble columns in a cavernous entry space, complete with old vault doors and mezzanine offices that’ve

We’ve been all about the renaissance of the drive-in, but as summer weather and a return to (mostly) normal linger on the horizon, we have our sights set on outdoor movies. So editors from Time Out sites across the globe pitched in their picks for the most beautiful outdoor cinemas in the world. We’re not just talking about an open field with The Greatest Showman and Bohemian Rhapsody on repeat: The 40 venues and series we selected show a mix of crowd favorites and deep dives in medieval castles, canyons, palace courtyards, piazzas or right on the water. While we’re certainly a little bit jealous of some of the international picks on the list, we’re unabashedly boastful that L.A. landed three picks on the list, including Rooftop Cinema Club’s luxurious Hollywood terrace, Cinespia’s cult-favorite cemetery screenings and, in the number one spot, the Hollywood Bowl.   Photograph: Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic Association/Adam Latham   Where do we even begin when it comes to the Bowl, easily L.A.’s most magical performance space? For starters, there’s simply no bad spot in the hillside amphitheater, whether you’re going big in a box or sitting on a bench and spending the difference on wine (the BYOB policy: also pretty magical). Even the approach to the theater, as you climb your way up through the Hollywood Hills, feels unlike any other venue. Though live albums from the Beatles and Monty Python and annual fixtures like the pyro-filled 1812 Overture top the Bowl’s resume, 

With four new restaurants, 200 outdoor seats and a rooftop, Culver City’s new food hall was already a sight to behold—and it’s added even more. The sprawling 7,500-square-foot Citizen Public Market opened in November in the Citizen Publishing Company building, and now the historic former home of Culver’s most influential newspaper—and even some fictional ones for nearby movie studios—is the site of some of L.A.’s coolest new dining concepts. The building blends Art Deco and Beaux Arts architecture, and under its grand arches, exposed beams and large windows you’ll find a few of L.A.’s coolest culinary names—including Nancy Silverton, who opened her much-anticipated pizza-leaning concept here. In total you can eventually expect eight dining and drinking options housed within the two-story space, such as a new, forthcoming California soul food restaurant from Alta Adams chef Keith Corbin, plus a designated bar. For now only some these concepts are open, and most offer takeout or delivery services in addition to dine-in. Here’s what you’ll find in Culver City’s expansive new food hall.   Photograph: Courtesy Stan Lee   Bar Bohémien Citizen Public Market’s rooftop is now open, and it’s serving Spanish-style tapas and Parisian charcuterie boards alfresco (the bar comes from the team behind Highland Park’s Cafe Birdie, so expect similar vibes). On the drinks side, you’ll find a menu full of refreshing cocktails, as well as a small selection of local beer and wine. The indoor-outd