One Night in DTLA: A Photo Essay

Trying to be good about not drinking and driving, being good to the environment and embarking on new adventures, we have been enjoying the bus taking so far this summer. We stroll down our hill to Sunset and catch a bus heading toward downtown or toward the beach.

Here the Limited bus passes us by...


and as the sun starts to set a little on our hood, out transport to fun slowly pulls up to the stop.


Hop on the bus, Gus.

Yeah, sometimes when taking the bus we will get about halfway or far enough to where we need to transfer and if a cab comes along we will just hop in for convenience sake. You can take the man away from the car, but you cannot take car tendencies away from the man. It's still good for the environment though, right? I mean, the cab would be driving around empty anyway if we weren't in it, right? Wrong. This is not the way supply and demand work. It is the way justification for behavior works.


Pulling up in Little Tokyo, we are early. We decide to swing by Wine Bar C to visit Jazz. Lo and behold, Calbi is parked outside. Yes, it looks suspiciously like another Korean BBQ taco truck we all know and, well know. We all know what truck I am talking about. However, there is no long line. D gets some food anyway because we are going to eat small plates with a group, so he has to front load that food adventure by assuaging his hunger first.


I stroll into the kitschy and much loved Bar C to order some drinkseses...

Ice cold sake. D will inevitably pour the decanter the wrong way spilling ice water all over the bar. This magic trick has yet to fail. I am waiting for the day he gets it right and we have a dry clean bar in front of us when we leave. *waits*

We sample the tacos. Lettuce heavy and sauce light.


These were pretty durn tasty. The sauce is very different than "those who shall not be named". A little thinner, but equally savory and delicious. We tried chicken and beef, and both were very good. I have yet to wait long for Korean BBQ tacos, as luck has been in my favor every time I have ventured out seeking the food of "those who shall remain nameless in this post". I am not sure how long I would wait for these, maybe 10 minutes. I have no line aversion. But I am looking forward to trying the food from some of the many other gastro-truck offerings in the Southland. Ice cream, french fries, sushi, and so on. You know.

Nevertheless, our trip to Bar C is somewhat in vain because neither Jazz nor Yumi work there anymore. I do not see more trips there in my near future. Those two, their welcoming natures and the party they were able to generate at a moment's notice were the main draw.

We move on to meet friends around the corner at Izayoi. We met MAG, with whom I have been carrying on an internet friendship for months. We also met several of her friends and had a great time. Izayoi was celebrating their anniversary and booze was half off. HALF OFF! We consumed some serious amounts of sake and Kirin. Turns out, the best bar snack to accompany copious amounts of beer and sake is deep fried fish bones. And about 6 plates of them. It looks like some kind of prehistoric Trader Joe's snack for neanderthalithic yuppies. Fish bones, good.

Eventually we did leave, and things seemed to go south as soon as we walked out the door. In good ways and bad. There were more drinks, karaoke, a possible bar fight (words were exchanged) and banishment from said karaoke bar. No dancing or jumping? WTF?

Not sure if it was the beautiful summer night, the fish bones, or the bus. But this was one of those nights when one forgets their age and their mortality. Everyone is 23 again, and we owned the universe. Until we took a cab home and went to bed, all before 11 pm.