Joey "Jojo" C.'s Profile

Before you attempt to get a tee time or even a walk up, consider this. Try to think of any other regulation 18-hole golf courses in the area. No, not Riviera, LA Country Club and Bel Air. They are all private courses. You can play them for $15 million a year. So, there are not a lot of places to play on the Westside unless you're filthy rich from embezzlement or selling guns to the Communists.

With that said, it might difficult to get a tee time right away because this course gets really busy. On the weekdays, there are a lot of mens and womens and seniors golf clubs. So a lot of early tee time might be taken. What I try to do is get a tee time early in the morning before groups go out. We are talking in the 6am to 7:30am range. On the other end twilight and super twilight times are available. I've been able to get a late time and finish under 3 hours.

As for the course. I was surprised to see how good the conditions and how well managed the course was. Marshals are on strong patrol, no huge gashes on the greens and the fairways and rough were nice and consistent. So well done on that. Overall the course is a nice test, plenty of mature trees here so please keep it straight.

Your usual round here on the weekends will run pretty long, even if you choose to use a cart. But if you play with a fun group or with great friends, time may go by quickly. There are a lot of locals here who think they own the course, so there maybe a few pushy people.

Now, if you can't get a tee time, the range, short game area and plenty of greens are here to practice your game. I don't think they use grass tees at the range, so minus points there. It looks quite outdated at the practice range, but it's a suitable place for one to practice their game.

Overall, it's a good place to play and they manage it well considering the amount of traffic and play they get daily.

Hidden deeply within the medical offices on La Cienega and Wilshire is the Ruby Room. Adjacent to a music studio, dry cleaner and other businesses, the Ruby Room is hard to find, but if you find it and I hope you will; You will enjoy the many different dishes this small but wonderful place has to offer.

The dishes here range from primarily Persian, Middle Eastern to French and Italian. So kebabs, salads, stews among others. What I usually order here for a quick lunch are the sandwiches, which go from Veggie, to Filet Mignon and Ground Beef.

Lunch specials here are great. Seven dollars for a quality sandwich, salad or fries. That's all and it fills me up for the rest of the day. Kebabs are even better. Chicken, ground beef and filet mignon. All good, light and tasty.

Service here is wonderful. There's always a gorgeous Persian lady who works there taking orders, serving and bussing tables. I love her. So if you find this place, you can sit down and have a cute meal. Or you can call an order and take it home with you.

Find this place, if you can and enjoy. Great success.

Wow! It's been quite a while since I have been here. But thank God this place is still here on La Cienega. I mean, there are way too many new age and fancy-schmancy restaurants in this area; So it's really good to see something old school and authentic in WH/BH.

So Norm's  with its 50's/60's decor. Kinda like Hawthorne Grill in the movie Pulp Fiction. Though the Hawthorne Grill is no more, this Norm's and other Norm's like it (Torrance) bring me back to the old days. The old days being the Norm's on Vermont and Sunset near Kaiser and the Scientology/old Cedar Sinai building.

Now, the usual meals here are great. Steak and eggs, French Toast, Chicken Fried Steak and my personal favorite - Strawberry Waffles. Speaking of which, try it. Anytime of the day or night. 24 hours a day and you can those Strawberry Waffles anytime.

Always ask your server what the special is or take a look at the boards once you walk in. The specials are usually the best value and/or best filling meal for the price.
As for the crowds, usual WH/BH crowd. The Jewish, the young professional, the gay, the rich, the poor, they all come here. It's a good sample of the demographics of the area. But a great location just in case you want to walk around and do some window shopping. I believe there's a Sprinkles nearby, but why would you want that when there's Strawberry Waffles!

Until I find another place for Pho in Beverly Hills, this will be the place for me. I can't find one Tacos Mexico nor a King Taco in a 5-mile radius near my workplace in Beverly Hills. The same almost goes for Pho. While at home, in Lincoln Heights, there's Tacos Mex, King Taco and Pho everywhere. The lack of ethnic foods is a bit distressing as I look for it during my lunchtime hours.

Anyways, this place always seems to fill me up and fit the bill. Though I know I've had better Pho at other places, Ab Pho does an adequate job. What do I always order?

13: Chicken Pho or the 14. Beef Pho.

Overall: The soup is good, it's salty, but what do you expect.
Noodles: Great, but I've had better
Meat: Just about right, a little smaller than I wanted. But there's plenty of it. And that's good.
Beverages: Sweet, condensed filled Vietnamese coffee works for me.
Service: Asian restaurant. I expect rudeness and they were quite nice and decent.
Atmosphere: WestHo/BH mix of business people, spolied shopping princesses, uber gay middle class and the occasional hot hot girl. I like people watching here.
Size: A little small, looks like they can only fit about 20 people, God help you if they're busy.
Price: $7-8 for a bowl, $1.50 and up for drinks. Expect about $12 for a meal.
Overall: The food hits the sport every time I go there. I've had better in Westminster and Alhambra. But when I'm in the mood for Pho I go to Ab Pho and they do it just fine.

Hey a 24 hour restaurant right next to the elevators. So I stayed here at the hotel for a couple of nights. So when I have a case of hungries, I usually go here for a late night snack. This would consist of Fish N' Chips or Chili or a burger. The menu is quite big and everything taste great.

Now in the morning, they have an even better menu. They ran out of stuffed French Toast, so knock off a star for that. But I had the Swedish crepes and they weren't too bad. Now for the prices, look to find things running from $8 and up. Steaks and stuff are a little more. But if you don't want to spend time in line at the Food Court, or if you want some food to go up to the hotel room or if you want a place to sit at the casino, the Pechanga Cafe works well within your budget.

Nooooooo!

Where can I get my "Dreamtime" Tea!
Online, of course.

http://whitttard.co.uk

There are worse kept gyms (24 hour and others included)
There are worse parking situations (24 hour at Pico, Old Town Pasadena and some days Altadena)

...since I work out early, early in the morning (5am-7:30am): Parking, overcrowdedness, no equipment, stinky people and creepy girls checking out my cute self....then I have no qualms against this gym, nor 24 hour fitness as a franchise and with humanity in general.

This is the place where I will lose that extra 30 pounds of Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. And maybe just maybe I'll be a baller.

Plan: Lunch

1-entree plate of Orange Chicken and Chow Mein, no rice. Large Diet Coke. About $10. It's all good. It tastes good.

Time alloted: 1 hour
Starting place: Work (La Cienega & Wilshire)
Ending place: Panda Express (Beverly Center)
Distance: 1 mile

Start: (approximate time of action)
Clock out-1 minute
Say bye-bye to the receptionist-10 seconds
Smile at that hot blond girl from HR-5 seconds
Elevator to underground parking-2 minutes
Drive to Beverly Center-5 minutes
Checking out hot chick walking down La Cienega-30 seconds
Look for parking-3 minutes (7 minute busy)
Escalator to mall-2 minutes
Checking out hot chicks-1 minute
Three escalators to food court-2 minutes
Checking out spoiled jailbait trashy chick -1 minute (2 minutes for extra small skirt)
Order food-2 minutes (5 minutes if busy)
Eat food -15 minutes, 30 minutes if on date, 5 minutes if date is not into Panda Express, 3 minutes if date starts talking about her problems
Walk back to car-5 minutes
Check out hot chick who I might think is a tranny-2 minutes
Curiosity takes over and I need to take a closer look at tranny-3 minutes
Tranny takes curiosity in me-1 minute
Tranny walks up to me in high heels-30 seconds
I begin to get scared-10 seconds
Run over to car-50 seconds
Exit off La Cienega-1 minute
Ponder about the tranny at stop light-3 minutes
Ponder about turning car around to West Hollywood-5 minute
Remember that odd moment at that Amsterdam bath house with that dude from Barcelona-6 minutes
Call in sick for the day-3 minutes
Drive to nearest strip bar-5 minutes
Waste $400 on lap dances to regain my masculinity and lose all thoughts of the Beverly Center tranny-4 hours
Call every girl on my cellphone begging for a booty call-10 minutes
Drive down Sunset looking for the hottest club trashy girl for a quicky-2 hours
Suddenly make eye contact with that tranny from the Beverly Center who happens to be working the street-3 seconds
Make a mad dash home-30 minutes
Cry myself to sleep-6 hours

....Great food, Panda Express always hits the spot. Cool location with other options. The mall is always clean. Double that for the food court. Great people watching and maybe you can do a little shopping.

You must understand the amount of conflict within myself to write a review about this place. As a native Angeleno from East Hollywood, you know the darker side of Hollywood. Not as gay and polished as West Hollywood and not as white and aspiring-actor-musician-failure as North Hollywood. So my roots reside in the ghettos of East Hollywood and my current home of Lincoln Heights. Despite the long stays and illegitimate children I've left in cities like London, Nice and Fiorentina...I still consider myself a child of the graffiti strewn and lower economic strata that lies  between Melrose and Sunset east of Western.

With that said, I've seen Silver Lake become a balanced area that contains the blue collar, immigrant class that my family came from and still considers itself. And then, there are the hipster, vegan, artist, Westside rejects, Farmer's market, loves organic (even though organic, green and eco are marketing terms derived from the New World Order) class that are slowly making their way into the "nice ghetto" that was the Silver Lake-Sunset Junction that I remember from my youth and from the eighties. I liked that area when it was a haven for ghetto gays back in the day.

Scenes from La Mill:
-Dude dressed up like from straight in the seventies. I understand your love for 1970's David Bowie and his Ziggy Stardust act. But I love and know more about David Bowie than you ever will. But I keep my love for him by just singing "Life on Mars" out loud in my car on my 2hr drive home on the 10 from the Westside.

-French film makers with their handycam. They were interviewing hipsters, dachschunds, the occasional homeless man collecting cans and shooting shop signs. You know what? There's about 100 people doing that right now in hipster villages Williamsburg, New York, Paris and West London.

-The photographer. Great raw urban images dude! You're the 5 billionth person in LA to do that great sunset shot of the poor Mexican kid in Echo Park.

-Hot Natalie Portman look-alike serving me coffee. It's so on.

-Hot girl driving a Carman Ghia with a full back tattoo. You only think of yourself as unique with your interesting vintage car and bad ass tattoo. Listen, you look like every girl with a weak tattoo and a crappy car. And that tattoo does not hide the fact that you're from the stucco, generic happy suburban wasteland that is Porter Ranch. You know who you are and that you should be working at Wet Seal.

-Me. Angry douchenozzle who absolutely loves the sandwiches and breakfast menu here. As I waste my time people watching and going through a systematic destruction of Silver Lake a la the Communist Manifesto. As I try to make myself seem intelligent by referencing classic works, I secretly love the wide range of coffees like the Valrhona, the Caffe coin Leche and the Orange Cappucino. What I should be doing is enjoying the diversity that Silver Lake has become and just shut up and enjoy my coffee.

-Great range of interesting coffees that can be brewed right at your table.
-Even better menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees.
-It's a higher brow version of Starbucks. Think of a West London-Soho coffee house but with poorer people. Or maybe a Vienna coffee shop in a modern motif.
-Great place to go people watching and even better place to appreciate yourself. Sometimes I think of myself as an elitist, uber-styled douche. But my queries about my over-ego is stalled by the characters I see here and walking around Silver Lake.

...Go here, enjoy good coffee, tolerate...that is all.

I work in the area so this place is one where I usually visit. Now good for me that this location is a mere two blocks for my workplace and thus a short walk in the morning.

But what is even better is that the great employees here know my name and my drink as well. Sometimes when I walk in they have someone ready to make my Hazelnut Ice Blended. How player is that?

Another great thing about this location is that even at 10am, they don't run out of things like certain bagels (Combination, Jalapeno and Cheese). I live, run and fuel up on my Hazelnut Ice Blended and Combination bagel. So it all works out here for a great start of the work day.