Where in L.A. is this? Hint: campus.

Wow – between the Dodgers in the playoffs and the arrival  of G-D (Gustavo Dudamel, who made a splashy debut last night with the L.A. Phil at Walt Disney Concert Hall (broadcast live on FM 91.5, hope you got to hear it too!), it’s an exciting time to be an Angeleno.   This week’s puzzle pic was chosen in tribute to baseball fever – but it’s not located at Dodger Stadium.   I’m going to give a one-word hint:  campus.   I’ll be interested to see if anyone gets this.  If you know where it is, post your answer as a comment, and be as specific as possible.

As for last week’s puzzle, it was solved in a flash by Jeff, who located it at The Brig, a bar in Venice where it’s on the outside wall, and then again by runner-up Billy Mernit, who noted that it’s visible on Abbot Kinney Boulevard as you drive toward the beach. This distinctive mural went up in 1973, and has been repainted three times since.  Luckily I was able to locate the artist, well-known Southern California muralist Art Mortimer, who gives us the full scoop via e-mail:

Mural at The Brig, Venice, on Abbot Kinney Blvd.

“The two people in the mural are Babe and Betty Brandelli. When the mural was painted (1973), the place was called “Brandelli’s Brig.” Babe and Betty were the proprietors. Babe had been a Golden Gloves boxer in Venice in the ’30s, and the place was full of memorabilia of his boxing days. I’ve been told by the present owner that originally the place was built with a bar downstairs and a dance hall upstairs. When Babe took it over, he and Betty lived upstairs and there was no more dance hall.”

Background detail: Mortimer paints mural within mural.

Art continues: “And yes, that’s me in the background, over Babe’s shoulder, painting the mural. My original concept was to create a monument to the process of painting a mural. But when I found the site and met Babe and Betty, I just HAD to put them in the mural– and the “painting” concept got pushed into the background. I was going to put a mural inside the mural inside the mural, but L.A. County Parks and Recreation (the mural’s sponsors) wanted their scaffolding back to loan to another artist for another mural. I don’t think there’s a name for that picture-within-a-picture sort of image.”

How interesting is that?  Thanks so much, Art, for the mural and the history.

Puzzle #2 Location Scout winner:  Jeff.   Runner-up:  Billy Mernit.  Thanks for playing, and please play again!

He began by reminding me of the idea he was throwing around a few weeks earlier. It would be pretty cool, I thought, but was doubtful if anyone was going to try. And right on cue as if I was watching a magician performing on stage, the copper coil appeared in his hands. The idea was to brew hot coffee through a tube submersed in super cooled water resulting in instant (relatively instant) iced coffee. While we were sufficiently distracted looking at the carefully bent copper tubing, David was setting up the rest of his equipment, the magician shifted into mad scientist mode. The copper coil fit neatly inside of the roughly two gallon pitcher and the end of the coil peaked out of a small hole cut out of the bottom of the pitcher. He plugged up the crack around the hole with a wad of putty and began filling the inside of the pitcher and the coil with ice. “The salt,” he explained turning the little Morton’s girl and her purple umbrella upside down, “will catalyze the cooling process.” After filling the remaining space inside the pitcher with water he began to prepare the coffee. The top of the copper tubing had a small plastic pour over cone fitted to it with an extra tube for releasing the pressure that might plug up the cone. The filter was prepared and put into place, the hot water came to near boiling, and the coffee was ground up, placed into the filter.

it slowly crawled round and round, inch by inch down the cold coil.

The whole contraption was delicately balancing on top of a squat pyrex measuring cup turned upside down with a six ounce Gibraltar glass awaiting the end product. The whole pageant, from the moment he brought up the subject, to when the copper coil was first unveiled, to this final step, looked effortlessly precise. As if there was no question in David’s mind about whether it would work or not, his steady hand poured the hot water over the fresh grounds in the filter. The small audience of three or four of us left over from the cupping that morning eagerly watched to see what would happen. There was a moment of apprehension as it took nearly twenty seconds for the first few dribbles of liquid to emerge at the end. My imagination was working to fill in the details of what the liquid looked like as it slowly crawled round and round, inch by inch down the cold coil. The first evidence of surprise showed in David’s face as he said, “Huh, place your finger in that, it is actually pretty cold.” Amazing! We were all ready to taste it. “Hmm, it’s a bit salty,” “Yeah soy sauce,” “It smells a bit alcoholic.” We tried a few other coffees until we found one that suited the process well. Welcome to the Counter Culture Coffee Training Center in Atlanta.

Hundreds of miles west of Atlanta, on the far edge of the continent, I visited another coffee laboratory. This experimental coffee bar was recently given life with much press and excitement. As I made my way down Abbot Kinney Boulevard I was surprised at how comfortable the heat was. I then realized that the ocean was less than a mile from where I was, providing a cool breeze in what would otherwise be an unbearable desert. My first impressions of this cafe were true to what I had imagined. There was a west coast informality about the space that made everyone unsure about where to stand or what direction to face to get some service. If you go directly to the bakery counter that faces the entrance, you will find the host or hostess running between the back room and front of house. They will be the only person not wearing a black apron or vest over their regular clothing. On that particular Wednesday, she was wearing an attractive green shirt that helped direct the visual space. She was too busy to greet each customer as they entered but it became clear that she would be the first stop along the way.

The amount of care and precision might be easy to dismiss, until you smell and taste that first sip.

I ordered a croissant and was directed to the next barista station to open up. I asked my barista what brewed coffees were available and what methods I could choose from. She showed me the menu of available “in season” roasts and told me that I could either have her brew it for me on the clover (an expensive and precise machine that brews a single cup at a time), or I could step to the back counter and have Chris prepare me something at the “slow bar”. The “slow bar” is designed to  push the customers expectations away from the quick fix coffee to a much slower pace. It is introducing coffee to people in a whole new light, similar to Atlantas training center, they are providing more education than most may have expected even existed.

I ordered a Chemex filtered coffee from Chris. The Chemex process is a simple elegant way to extract coffee using a paper filter and specially made glass urn. He began by pouring a small amount of hot water over the filter to pre-soak it. He measured out the coffee on a scale, selected the correct grind setting and put the whole bean coffee through the grinder. The hot water temperature was check one last time before he began slowly pouring the water over the coffee grounds. The cone filter holding the ground coffee was sitting perfectly inside the glass Chemex urn and the urn was sitting squarely on a scale that Chris was using to pour the correct amount of water. The amount of care and precision might be easy to dismiss, until you smell and taste that first sip. It becomes clear that the amount of precision given to the extraction, has also been given to this product at every stage from the farm to the processing and finally its preparation. Welcome to Intelligentsia Coffee and their Venice Beach location.

I watched the four baristas at their four separate stations carefully pulling espresso shots and comfortably pouring beautiful latte art.

Chris and Melissa Owens operate the “slow bar” at this new Intelligentsia shop where they are sharing the finer points of coffee with southern California. The staff of about ten, having had little to no prior barista experience, were trained up by Melissa and Chris. This left the Owens’ with little time to explore their new neighborhood, however the training has been quite thorough. On just their third day open I watched the four baristas at their four separate stations carefully pulling espresso shots and comfortably pouring beautiful latte art. It is natural to assume that the west coast gets the best new fads first but this time around, before LA there was Atlanta.

In the beginning of 2006 Chris and Melissa moved to Atlanta having relocated from New York City, they came to share coffee with Atlanta. Melissa became the “Coffee Boss” at Octane in West Midtown, responsible for implementing a rigorous training program for their baristas. This led to the success of many of their staff in regional and national barista competitions in the past few years. Just a short walk down Marrieta Street at the King Plow Art Center, Chris was hired to work at the then new Counter Culture Regional Training Center in Atlanta. Here he trained people on proper extraction, milk and espresso techinques as well as making service calls and participating in weekly cuppings.  An emerging awareness of responsibly cultivated, traded, and prepared coffee among baristas and coffee drinkers is causing a growing movement in Atlanta. Chris and Melissa have since left Atlanta, first spending some time at Ritual Coffee in San Francisco, now at Intelligentsia in Venice Beach. There has been, however, a lasting effect on how Atlantans make and drink their coffee.

Back in Atlanta the resources for excellent coffee are here and the excitement is here as well. There is of course more to learn and alot of room for growth especially as the coffee industry as a whole moves toward more specificity and transparency. The coffee drinking public, from Portland to New York City, is coming to demand a better quality cup of coffee, fortunately for Atlantans it is so close the can probably already smell it. Quality training programs for baristas are starting to catch on at other shops in town, and as always the Counter Culture Training Center religiously continues its coffee cuppings every friday morning. For those who can spare a little extra time on a friday, stick around after a cupping. You just might get carried away, playing with coffee. (a)

Empty Stores on West Third Street. Photo from WWD.

Women’s Wear Daily has a story on the increasing number of boutique and specialty retail store closings around Los Angeles, with Robertson Boulevard, Melrose Place, Montana Avenue and West Third Street taking the hardest hits. I covered this for the LA Business Journal back in March when more than 30 storefronts were either empty or in the process of closing up shop. Other parts of the city have been affected as well, including Venice’s Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and a drive down Pico Boulevard between Robertson and La Cienega boulevards yesterday revealed some new empty retail spaces that I hadn’t noticed before.

But not all parts of the city are losing places to shop: Malibu Lumber Yard, the new swanky retail center next to the Malibu Country Mart, just opened last weekend. Good idea or bad idea? Time will tell, but in the meantime, head over to the Lumber Yard for free Crumbs cupcakes on Saturday (April 25). They’re giving out 1,000 freebies starting at 9:00 a.m., per EaterLA.

• More coverage at RackedLA

Check out this June 2, 2008 story: Photos offer closer look at condo rented by Redding

related article: Santa Monica’s third homicide of 2008 ( May 21, 2008 )

***

Well, it’s been suggested that I include a disclaimer in this post, so I’ll begin by doing so.

DISCLAIMER: I had nothing to do with the posters/flyers found on a popular street in Venice, California on Sunday, May 4, 2008.

Okay, got that out of the way. But I can certainly see why some might have had any conspiracy theory tendencies twitching today. And in the event that you have that inclination, you might want to read this story before you pull the trigger.

Let me explain. The posters not only show a picture of the late Juliana Redding, they also ask the question, “Who killed Juliana Redding?”

It’s the same question that appeared in a March 17, 2008 headline on this blog. In fact–as of this moment–if you were to Google “Juliana Redding,” that post is likely to rank #1 or #2 out nearly 29,000 results.

A Los Angeles woman did just that. We spoke on the phone this morning. She does not wish to be identified.

I contacted the woman after learning she had photographed the posters. And she’s kindly agreed to share her photographs here.

The story of the “mystery posters” unfolded not far from Santa Monica (where Redding had been found murdered in her apartment March 16).

The posters recently turned-up in neighboring Venice on Abbot Kinney Boulevard.

“Abbot Kinney” features high-end shops popular with tourists. It’s also a short distance from the beach.

At about 10am yesterday, the woman approached the café where she’d planned to meet a friend for coffee.

“I was walking down the street and there were just all of these pieces of paper all over the pavement,” the woman told me.

She initially wondered if the posters were aimed at promoting a movie; a somewhat common tact taken by folks marketing films in the area.

The posters simply said, “Who killed Juliana Redding?” The woman had never heard of such a movie. Nor was she familiar with the person’s name within the question.

(Fact is there is no such film. But Juliana Redding was once very much alive.)

“So, I walked over to my friend who was sitting outside of this café, and I just said, ‘What are these posters?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know, but it’s really annoying because it’s all over the pavement.’”

The woman, who has her own blog, felt compelled to take a brief stroll down the block and document the scene.

“They (posters) were just all over the ground. Sprinkled on the ground.”

She tells it so well, let’s give her the next few paragraphs:

”So, I just walked up and down the pavement and I took some photos. And there were probably at least 15 that I saw within a two block radius on Abbot Kinney. And it seemed like they’d either been put there Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

“Some of them were stuffed underneath doorways or wedged into windows at the retail stores. But it was clear someone had just gone and thrown them all over the sidewalk.

“And I guess it was just surprising because there was no contact information. And it seemed odd that if someone was trying to help solve this mystery, why wouldn’t they put some kind of contact (information)?

“I mean, the only thing it seemed to do was make people want to go look at it and then go Google (the name) Juliana Redding to see what this was about. So, it’s just kind of an odd campaign.

“You might want to do a disclaimer and say (the posters) have nothing to do with you. Because it’s odd.”

Point noted. Whew!

But the posters remain interesting.

Why not any contact information? Even a number to call police?

And why strew them along a trendy Venice street?

According to at least one media report, Redding “was working to make ends meet as a hostess at a tapas restaurant and wine bar in Venice.”

Perhaps the flyers are aimed at pressuring law enforcement to step-up its investigation. Miffed shop owners get the attention of local leaders.

Yikes, now I’m posing a conspiracy theory. I’ll slow down

And who’s to say police aren’t working their tails off? They’ve kept a lot of information between themselves and the killer(s).

Including the findings of the autopsy report.

As always, your comments are welcome here.

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