Junction
Despite living just minutes away from the uber-hip sunset junction-shopping district ("junctioning" the neighborhoods of Silver lake and Los Feliz), I haven't shopped the strip in months. So this last Saturday, I did a quick tour of some of my favorite shops as well as a bunch of new ones on the scene.
First I stopped off at the latest offspring of the Giant Robot store that first opened up in West LA. The new store, small but well stocked, is located across the street from the Jiffy Lube on Sunset near the Santa Monica Intersection. There is a Giant Robot sign in the window that is almost impossible to see from your car. It shares space with a Gallery whose name is slipping my mind at the moment. Anyway, the store is a great collection of Kubrick toys, Asian/Urban knickknacks, t-shirts, and books. check it.
Next I popped over to a new sneaker store called Kicks where Vice used to be. Kicks is your typical sneaker-freaker shop. Rare limited edition Nike's in glass cases, where the slightly more affordable Saucony and Addidas shoes are on typical shoes store platforms to be handled and compared. I didn't really see anything new and exciting, but if you’re into that thing, the prices are reasonable (fuck, since when is 70 bucks for a pair of canvas sneaks reasonable...) and there are some good colors. I prefer a little sneaker shop in the Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo called Footland Sports. Good selection with decent prices.
But I digress, next I stopped quickly into Pull My Daisy. This shop is owned by my friend Sarah and is monitored by her dog Bingo (as is most of the block). Bingo is the coolest Daschund I’ve ever met and Sarah compares in the human storeowner category. Her shop is a nice mix of local punk rock/diy designers and just under the mainstream big names. The place has a great community feel to it, and she sells any shirts that I happened to slap together so for this, I think she rules...
Later in the day I came back to the Junction with my girlfriend. We had both spotted a new shop called Silverlake Shoes that sparked both of our interests. We snagged parking right outside the store and wandered in. Low and behold, there is Sarah at the register talking to a couple who had about 4bags of shoes they had just bought. Sarah had seen the store go on the market and felt that she HAD to give the area its first legit shoe boutique. The shop has only been open for a week, so it looks like they are still outfitting the space, but I get a good vibe from it, and I think it’ll do well. Check it out. From there we walked down to the Silverlake Cheese shop, and bumped into a friend of jenny's who does wine tastings there. We picked up some cheese and wine for a relaxed evening of movie watching and then hoofed it back up towards Silverlake shoes. Across the street is a new "bakery"/cafe called Town and Country. Again, brand spanking new. They've got some tasty looking summer salads and whatnot as well as an assortment of Home-style baked goods. We picked up a Rasberry Lemon Tart to eat after our cheese fix.
All in all, the Sunset Junction maintains its place as one of the better shopping districts in the LA area. All the storeowners are nice and the stuff runs the gamut price wise. An honorable mention goes to Gilly Flowers, which used to be two blocks away from my house and now resides at the Junction. The owner is a great guy with friendly dogs, and his taste in Flowers and Foliage rocks. Aight, hopefully I’ll be back with more updates of places I’ve found or enjoyed in the last month or so.
First I stopped off at the latest offspring of the Giant Robot store that first opened up in West LA. The new store, small but well stocked, is located across the street from the Jiffy Lube on Sunset near the Santa Monica Intersection. There is a Giant Robot sign in the window that is almost impossible to see from your car. It shares space with a Gallery whose name is slipping my mind at the moment. Anyway, the store is a great collection of Kubrick toys, Asian/Urban knickknacks, t-shirts, and books. check it.
Next I popped over to a new sneaker store called Kicks where Vice used to be. Kicks is your typical sneaker-freaker shop. Rare limited edition Nike's in glass cases, where the slightly more affordable Saucony and Addidas shoes are on typical shoes store platforms to be handled and compared. I didn't really see anything new and exciting, but if you’re into that thing, the prices are reasonable (fuck, since when is 70 bucks for a pair of canvas sneaks reasonable...) and there are some good colors. I prefer a little sneaker shop in the Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo called Footland Sports. Good selection with decent prices.
But I digress, next I stopped quickly into Pull My Daisy. This shop is owned by my friend Sarah and is monitored by her dog Bingo (as is most of the block). Bingo is the coolest Daschund I’ve ever met and Sarah compares in the human storeowner category. Her shop is a nice mix of local punk rock/diy designers and just under the mainstream big names. The place has a great community feel to it, and she sells any shirts that I happened to slap together so for this, I think she rules...
Later in the day I came back to the Junction with my girlfriend. We had both spotted a new shop called Silverlake Shoes that sparked both of our interests. We snagged parking right outside the store and wandered in. Low and behold, there is Sarah at the register talking to a couple who had about 4bags of shoes they had just bought. Sarah had seen the store go on the market and felt that she HAD to give the area its first legit shoe boutique. The shop has only been open for a week, so it looks like they are still outfitting the space, but I get a good vibe from it, and I think it’ll do well. Check it out. From there we walked down to the Silverlake Cheese shop, and bumped into a friend of jenny's who does wine tastings there. We picked up some cheese and wine for a relaxed evening of movie watching and then hoofed it back up towards Silverlake shoes. Across the street is a new "bakery"/cafe called Town and Country. Again, brand spanking new. They've got some tasty looking summer salads and whatnot as well as an assortment of Home-style baked goods. We picked up a Rasberry Lemon Tart to eat after our cheese fix.
All in all, the Sunset Junction maintains its place as one of the better shopping districts in the LA area. All the storeowners are nice and the stuff runs the gamut price wise. An honorable mention goes to Gilly Flowers, which used to be two blocks away from my house and now resides at the Junction. The owner is a great guy with friendly dogs, and his taste in Flowers and Foliage rocks. Aight, hopefully I’ll be back with more updates of places I’ve found or enjoyed in the last month or so.
posted by lakeside at 8:47 AM
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