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There is more to L.A. than meets the eye
by Elizabeth D. Sommer Spratt
If you think L.A. is alfalfa sprouts, avocados and earthquakes, you are missing out on a truly diverse cultural and epicurean experience.
West Hollywood alone offers a wide assortment of dining and entertainment delights. Shopping, too, is plentiful, with the tendency toward high-ticket home furnishings and haute couture.
La Cienega is peppered with oriental rug and antique stores between Sunsetand Beverly Boulevards. The Trashy Lingerie shop is worth seeing, if only for the shock value. The Beverly Center at La Cienega and Beverly Boulevard offers standard mall stores like The Limited and The Gap. Neo Romantic, a specialty clothier, will transport you back to the era of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Hard Rock Cafe serves some killer milkshakes, but the line forms early, so plan ahead.
Sunset Strip, the section of Sunset Boulevard between Doheny Drive and Crescent Heights, is home to The Whisky-A-Go-Go, The Roxy, The Viper Room, The Comedy Store, and Thunder Road - a restaurant and showroom for new and vintage Harleys. For the Bullwinkle and Rocky fans, creator Jay Ward has a small shop full of paraphernalia ranging from George of the Jungle boxers to Super Chicken videos. It is located just east of La Cienega on Sunset.
Star watch at Spago, 8795 Sunset Boulevard, Chef Wolfgang Puck's famed restaurant. Expect to pay $25 to $50 per person for the cuisine and clientele watching, reservations are required. Barney's Beanery, 8447 Santa Monica Boulevard, offers generous portions of everything from all-day breakfast selections to pizza, pasta, hot dogs, chili and more than 40 different combinations of gigantic potato skins -- yes, one order is enough for four people. Barney's beer list boasts domestics from Arizona to Wisconsin, and imports from Africa to Wales. The atmosphere is casual, the prices affordable and seating is on a walk-in basis.
Finally, for a quick, inexpensive bite to eat, check out Carney's Express Limited, 8351 Sunset Boulevard. At this passenger car turned diner, coffee is only 80 cents and doesn't come skinny or steamed. Burgers and hot dogs are Carney's specialty, but healthier fare is available, all for less than $5.
Don your baseball cap and sunglasses as you stroll down West Hollywood's renowned streets, and have your pen ready to give autographs to tourists. "You're somebody famous, aren't you? I know I've seen you in something"
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