Some people will tell you that 2017 was a tense year.
Guess it’s no surprise that one of our most popular stories involved a go-bag.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
Among our other best stories of 2017: infinity mirrors and ice cream invaded L.A.’s art scene, our new transit options ranged from first-class buses to boring (literally), and fad diets be damned, we ate a whole lot of gluten.
Enjoy the look back. Here’s to a healthy — and prosperous — 2018.
The Most Elevated Cuisine in Town
Pot: It’s what’s for dinner. So went the dinner bell in 2017, thanks in part to legalization. Look no further than Bong Appetit, a popular show on Vice in which three friends enlist big-name chefs and budtenders to infuse cannabis into gourmet dinner parties. We attended — and learned how to recreate the evening at home. More the delivery type? There’s also LaHoja, the cannabis caterer for hire. Not to mention all of the gourmet edibles you’ll be able to buy without a medical card come January (here’s a preview of some of the companies who do it best).
Luck Favors the Prepared
There were more forest fires in 2017 than any other time in California’s history, and Governor Jerry Brown declared that it’s our new normal. To help you prepare for sudden disasters, we wrote about protecting yourself in the wild, safeguarding your home and how to compile a bug-out bag that can handle everything from earthquakes to a zombie apocalypse.
Free the Gluten!
Have you been to Kismet? The bread they serve with the labneh is tie for. Then there’s Journeyman, who bake loaves in cast-iron skillets and serve it piping hot. More of pasta guy? Felix is the city’s new standard bearer. And if you want to get into an argument about pizza, be sure you’ve tried Pizzana and Cosa Buona first. Gluten — unwanted carb, model allergan — is back and better than ever.
Elon Musk Is Boring, but We’re Happy to be on a Bus
From San Francisco to Los Angeles, from SFO to LAX, California is known for labored transit, be it by car, plane or bicycle. But this year innovations were made. Cabin is a new SF-to-LA bus that lets riders sleep in luxury compartments like the trains of yesteryear. Meanwhile, LAX got a deluxe terminal for the 0.05% and Elon Musk is digging tunnels under L.A. All that said, we’re happy to take a scooter.
Delicious Plant-Based Meat? Impossible Made It, er, Possible.
Don’t like the direction the environment is headed? The easiest thing you can do is reduce your meat intake: the stats on how much pollution you’ll curb and water you’ll save are compelling. The good news: Silicon Valley has lots of money behind companies like Impossible Foods, which makes delicious burgers from five plants. And in 2017, it launched in a bunch of L.A. restaurants: The Counter, Umami Burger, The Stalking Horse Tavern, Beelman’s Pub, Brennan’s (made a sausage for pizza) and Crossroads, to name a few.
Life Mimics Art and Art Mimics Life
L.A. consolidated its position as the country’s premier city for art. The Marciano Art Foundation (the family behind Guess) opened a stunning museum with more than 1,500 works from their private collection in a former Masonic Temple. Yoyoi Kusama’s famed Infinity Room is now at The Broad, and Pacific Standard Time returned to all of the museums in town. But it’s Alejandro González Iñárritu’s mindblowing VR experience, Carne y Arena, that may have been the greatest harbinger of things to come. During its run at LACMA, participants strapped on a VR set, walked into a room and experienced a visceral yet voyeuristic look into what it’s like to illegally cross the U.S. border. It’s up for an Oscar and should be required viewing for Americans.
This article was featured in the InsideHook LA newsletter. Sign up now for more from the Southland.
