Exploring Los Angeles. A Joie de Vivre Guide.

Description:

This is the perfect place to cure all your physical and mental illnesses. The facility covers more than 14,000 square feet and is environmental conscious. The competent staff offers massage, facials and aesthetic body care services. There are more than 120 massage therapists, nail care specialists and hair stylists on staff, so you know you will be taken care of. Services include: Shiatsu, Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue Sports Massage; Spa-Style Facials, Salt Glo, Full Body Mud Masques, Thermal Seaweed Wraps and Aromatherapy Facials. In the hair salon you can get every kind of treatment. Hair cuts, coloring, perming and scalp treatments are just some of the few on offer.

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La Velvet Margarita Cantina serves up family recipes handed down through the generations in an ambiance that is Hollywood swank with Mexican flare. Aside from the extensive menu, a long list of colorfully titled drinks include the Pink Puta and the Velvet Gringo, and of course, the restaurant's namesake La Velvet Margarita. It is a Hollywood hot-spot, so dress accordingly, who knows which star you might see enjoying their Pink Puta.

Description:

El Compadre Restaurant is perhaps best known as the home of the Flaming Margarita. This Sunset Strip restaurant is the perfect place to fill up on tasty traditional Mexican food before going out for a night of clubbing. Entrees such as the shrimp and crab enchilada combo platter are worth a try. If the rock 'n' roll scene isn't your style, stick around for the mariachis who play in the bar nightly. Check website for details.

Description:

Sushi Roku Pasadena has transformed the traditional sushi bar experience into a complete dining affair. Guests can enjoy their visit at the sushi bar, one of the hand-made bamboo dining tables adjacent to a trickling waterfall, or escape to the garden patio overlooking the courtyard. Sushi Roku's vast and colorful menu features an array of fresh California sushi, luscious salads, specialty appetizers and hot entrees. The full service bar offers a variety of hot and cold sake as well as asian martinis and an extensive wine list.

Description:

6000 square feet of futuristic décor (inclusive of strategic lighting, metal rods and chic seating), and an A-list clientele give Katana a super-trendy vibe. If Japanese food is your thing and money isn't an issue, this is the place to be. With various seating spaces and dining areas like the Sushi Bar, the Robata (the grill), and the Sunset Room, you can take your pick as far as ambience is concerned. The delicious offerings consist of an assortment of soups, rolls, main courses, tapas, sake and more, but the establishment's claim to fame is undoubtedly the grilled cuisine.

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Geisha House is a Hollywood hotspot for celebrity dining and Asian cuisine. With decibels raised high, its next to impossible to repeat your order to the staff, who are mostly on their own trip. But the food tells a delicious story. Tasty and well-presented dishes arrive at your table, and the sake and cocktails are worth a try too. Moreover, the geisha girls make their rounds, serving patrons and flirting. Private booths are available for intimate evenings, though not recommended on weekends. Geisha House opens at 6pm daily.

Description:

This Japanese BBQ chain is popular with healthy hipsters, couples on first dates and families alike. Grilling your own food is surprisingly entertaining, and Gyu-Kaku's special grills ensure that customers don't walk out smelling like meat. The versatile menu offers chicken, fish, shrimp, scallops, and vegetable options in addition to various succulent cuts of beef. Signature side dishes include the Gyu-Kaku House Salad and regulars' favorite Garlic Noodles. Happy Hour customers score discounts on entrées and appetizers, with $1 beers and two-for-one sake. Various promotions held throughout the year offer even more savings, as does the Gyu-Kaku rewards card. - Pauline Kostruba

Our Local Expert Says:

A great place to see movies. Especially if you end up in the Cinerama dome, which dates from 1963. The other 14 auditoriums are recently constructed and have stadium seating.

Description:

This 14 screen Megaplex provides an atmosphere for watching movies like no other. The projection and sound equipment is all state-of-the-art and the seating is bigger and roomier than normal megaplex seating. The ArcLight also features a 21 and over screening where you can enjoy your favorite beer, martini or cocktail while you watch the movie. For film times, ticket prices and further information, please call or see their website.

Description:

This IMAX theater, located inside the California Science Center, allows guests to view some exciting films on one of the largest screens there are. The seven-story IMAX screen is the largest in all of Los Angeles. The IMAX experience is something you have to see for yourself. Group rates and reservations are available. Please call or see website for further details.

Our Local Expert Says:

There is something for everyone in their huge collection

Description:

For more than 50 years LACMA has been one of the finest art museums in the nation, housing a 110,000-piece collection that includes works by Degas, Rembrandt, Hockney, and Monet. The huge 20-acre complex -- it's the largest visual arts museum west of Chicago -- has been expanded even more with the recent opening of the $56-million, three-story Broad Contemporary Art Museum (also known as BCAM). Boasting 60,000 square feet of exhibition space, it's the first new art museum built in L.A. since the Getty Center opened in 1997. BCAM is one of the largest column-free art spaces in the U.S., and opening installations include works by such contemporary artists as Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein.

Other highlights include LACMA's Pavilion for Japanese Art, which has exterior walls made of Kalwall, a translucent material that, like shoji screens, permits the entry of soft natural light. Inside is a collection of Japanese Edo paintings that's rivaled only by the holdings of the emperor of Japan. The Ahmanson Building houses the majority of the museum's permanent collections -- everything from 2,000-year-old pre-Columbian Mexican ceramics to 19th-century portraiture, to a unique glass collection spanning the centuries. Other displays include one of the nation's largest holdings of costumes and textiles, and an important Indian and Southeast Asian art collection. Free 50-minute guided tours of many of LACMA's special exhibitions are offered weekly -- check the museum's online calendar for times and locations.

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Since opening in 1997, the Richard Meier-designed Getty Center has quickly assumed its place in the L.A. landscape (literally and figuratively) as the city's cultural acropolis and international mecca. Headquarters for the Getty Trust's research, education, philanthropic, and conservation concerns, the postmodernist complex -- perched on a hillside in the Santa Monica Mountains and swathed in Italian travertine marble -- is most frequently visited for the museum galleries displaying the Getty's enormous collection of Impressionist paintings, truckloads of glimmering French furniture and decorative arts, fine illuminated manuscripts, contemporary photography, and European drawings. The area that's open to the public consists of five two-story pavilions set around an open courtyard, and each gallery within is specially designed to complement the works on display. A sophisticated system of programmable window louvers allows many works (particularly paintings) to be displayed in the natural light in which they were created for the first time in the modern era. One of these is van Gogh's Irises, one of the museum's finest and most popular holdings. Trivia buffs will enjoy knowing that the museum spent $53.9 million to acquire this painting; it's displayed in a complex that cost roughly $1 billion to construct.

A new addition to the Getty Center is the Fran and Ray Stark Sculpture Collection. This collection of 28 modern and contemporary outdoor sculptures from the collection of the late legendary film producer Ray Stark and his wife Fran was donated to the Getty Museum by the Ray Stark Revocable Trust and features many of the 20th century's greatest sculptors, including works by Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miró, and Isamu Noguchi.

Visitors to the center park at the base of the hill and ascend via a cable-driven electric tram. On clear days, the sensation is of being in the clouds, gazing across Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean (and into a few chic Brentwood backyards). If you're like me and don't remember a thing from your college art-appreciation class (like I even went), get one of the new GettyGuide Audio Guides at the information desk. The nifty device allows visitors to take their own guided tour through the Getty Museum. The 45-minute human-led architectural tours, offered throughout the day, are also worth looking into. Dining options include several espresso/snack carts, a cafeteria, a self-service cafe, and the elegant (though informal) "Restaurant" offering table service for lunch (Tues-Sun) and dinner (Fri-Sat), with breathtaking views overlooking the ocean and mountains (restaurant reservations are recommended, though walk-ins are accepted; call tel. 310/440-6810 or make reservations online at www.getty.edu).

Realizing that fine-art museums can be boring for kids, the center provides several clever programs for kids, including a family room filled with hands-on activities for families; weekend family workshops; Art Detective cards to help parents and kids explore the grounds and galleries; and self-guided audio tours made specifically for families.

Entrance to the Getty Center is free and no reservations are required. Cameras and video cams are permitted, but only if you use existing light (flash units are verboten).

Seeing the Getty Without the Crowd -- Avoid the masses at the Getty Center by visiting in the late afternoon or evening; the center is open until 9pm Friday and Saturday. The nighttime view is breathtaking, and you can finish with a late dinner on the Westside.

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MOCA is Los Angeles's only institution devoted to art from 1940 to the present. Displaying one of the country's finest collections of American and European art, the MOCA holds roughly 5,000 objects of various visual mediums -- ranging from masterpieces of abstract expressionism and pop art to recent works by young and emerging artists -- housed in three distant buildings. The Grand Avenue main building (250 S. Grand Ave.), which has received numerous design accolades, is a contemporary red sandstone structure by renowned Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. Also at the Grand Avenue location is the museum's popular restaurant, Patinette (Mon and Fri 11am-5pm, Wed 11am-2pm, Thurs 11am-8pm, Sat-Sun 11am-6pm; tel. 213/626-1178), the casual-dining creation of celebrity chef Joachim Splichal (Patina).

The museum's second space, on Central Avenue in Little Tokyo (152 N. Central Ave.), was the "temporary" Contemporary while the Grand structure was being built and now presents rotating exhibits in a warehouse-type space that's been renamed the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA for entertainment mogul and art collector David Geffen. Unless there's a visiting exhibit of great interest at the main museum, I recommend that you start at the Geffen building, where it's also easier to park.

The third gallery is the MOCA Pacific Design Center (8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood) -- it's the compact building next to the Pacific Design Center. Unlike the other two, admission to this gallery is free, and emphasis is on contemporary architecture and design, as well as new work by emerging and established artists.

Description:

Encompassing more than five acres on UCLA's North Campus, this is considered by many to be one of the premier sculpture collections in the country. The garden features more than 70 sculptures by such names as Alexander Calder, Auguste Rodin, David Smith and Francisco Zuniga, just to name a few. The garden's collection is maintained by UCLA and continues to grow with each passing year, so there is usually something new to see each visit.

Description:

In business since 1984, Angeli Caffe serves up its own unique brand of Italian fare, with some delectable Californian flavor thrown in for good measure. The menu offers such favorites as spaghetti tossed in extra-virgin olive-oil, Garlic Lemon Roast Chicken, Tuscan bread salad, Lasagna Bolognese, and pizzas with a host of toppings that will leave you stumped. Beers and wines are also available, and in the management's own words "harassed parents with children", senior citizens, and corporate hot-shots are all welcome, so come along everybody—join the party!

Description:

El Taurino is known for its weekend special dish barbacoa estilo texcoco lamb steamed in an oven. On the weekends the lines snake through the restaurant and families are tightly pack into tables. Another popular dish is the consume which is a lamb broth with garbanzo beans and vegetables. The restaurant is lively, adorned with posters of matadors, pictures of bullfights and bulls' heads mounted on the walls. One of the best and busiest eats in town, El Taurino manages keep things orderly with a systematic and specialized window service which is used for ordering and payment. With such efficiency, its no wonder weekend after weekend the crowds keep coming to El Taurino for more.

Description:

Hotel Angeleno, a Joie de Vivre Boutique Hotel is set at the crossroads of Brentwood and Bel-Air, 1 mile from UCLA and 7 miles from Hollywood. Guestrooms have complimentary wireless Internet access, work station with ergonomic chair, and laptop-size safes. Other amenities include an outdoor heated pool surrounded by a patio with fireplace, fitness center, restaurant, and lounge.