Abbot Kinney Boulevard

When Eugene, Ore.-based Will Leather Goods opened the doors of its first flagship store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in late September, 60-year-old founder and Chief Executive Bill Adler found himself barely a belt buckle's toss from the Venice Beach boardwalk where he started his career hawking belts three decades ago. "It was 1981, our first child had been born and there was a Screen Actors Guild strike that was going on for months," recalls Adler,...

A new crop of brick and mortar shops has quietly opened in Venice, along the unlikely stretch of Lincoln Boulevard between Palms and Venice boulevards that most commuters speed by en route to Marina del Rey or LAX. An alternative to the increasingly commercial Abbot Kinney Boulevard retail strip, these artfully curated boutiques are almost designed to be missed - doubling as hipster destinations for those in the know. All of these boutiques place an emphasis on local designers or California sources - a welcome return to the authenticity and eclecticism that hit at the core of Venice's original design vibe.

Google Inc., the ever-expanding Internet search giant, is establishing a beachhead in Venice. In a rare bright spot for the region's sluggish economy, Google is leasing more than 100,000 square feet of office space in three buildings, including the famed Binoculars Building designed by Frank Gehry. Sitting in front of the building is a huge binocular sculpture created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, perhaps befitting of the company's search theme. The move is part of a major expansion by Google in Southern California and could set up a new center of operation in the region.

When Eugene, Ore.-based Will Leather Goods opened the doors of its first flagship store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in late September, 60-year-old founder and Chief Executive Bill Adler found himself barely a belt buckle's toss from the Venice Beach boardwalk where he started his career hawking belts three decades ago. "It was 1981, our first child had been born and there was a Screen Actors Guild strike that was going on for months," recalls Adler,...

When Lianne Gold, 38, saw a crack dealer plying his trade in front of her Abbot Kinney Boulevard home in Venice, she did not call the police. Rather, she rushed out, by herself, at 11 p.m, incensed that the culprit invaded her neighborhood. "I told him to leave," recalls Gold. "I didn't ask; you don't ask people like that. You raise your voice and shout at them, and that's what I did." Leave he did, never to return--despite the fact that a mere block away, gangs trade gunfire and drugs.

Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Never heard of it, you say? And yet you may already have traveled its length. Since August, West Washington Boulevard in Venice--the stretch of restaurants, antique shops and galleries that links Main Street to Washington Street--has officially been renamed Abbot Kinney Boulevard. For the first time, Venice has a street named for its fanciful founder. With three roads named Washington in Venice alone, the change was made partly to avoid confusion.

Re the Abbot Kinney article ("Between Yesterday and Today," Sept. 25). Please be aware that the Green House Smoke Shop does not sell bongs -- we sell water pipes. Smoke shops in the city have been shut down due to this misunderstanding. Bunny Lua Venice Lua is the owner of Green House Smoke Shop. Your recent article on Abbot Kinney Boulevard describes just one small part of the dual character of Venice these days. However, what ultimately will change Venice forever is the further endangerment of the African American/Latino community and skyrocketing rental prices.

On a recent afternoon in the sun-filled kitchen at the back of Gjelina restaurant in Venice, chef Travis Lett mans an oven in which he's baking several loaves of golden-crusted bread. "I'm looking for good color, nice 'ears,'" Lett says, referring to the edge on top of the bread where it has split. He's dialing in the final details for his latest project, Gjelina Take Away (or GTA), a next-door annex that has Lett baking breads, jarring pickles and curing meats for what he envisions as a neighborhood deli selling "everyday stuff" — pizza, antipasti, sandwiches — set to open this month.

Interior designer Vanessa De Vargas has left the beach bungalow that housed her vintage furniture shop Turquoise for a different spot on Venice's hot Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Now in a space shared with Loja Designs, Turqouise's nicely priced mix of '60s Miami and midcentury Hollywood includes Henredon campaign-style end tables ($480), a dinette set in white and turquoise ($1,350) and an X-base stool, above, that she craftily re-covered with a Jonathan Adler curtain ($500).

Venice has its share of skateboard-riding, flip-flop-wearing, surf-loving, henna-tattooed residents, to be sure. But the true in-crowd resides a few blocks from that sandy scene in adorable, expensive, exclusive and small turn-of-the-20th-century cottages in the popular walk-streets section of town.

Feed Body + Soul is set to open this fall in Venice, in the former J's Kitchen space on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. The healthful-food-focused restaurant has a full liquor license and has enlisted bartender and consultant Marcos Tello (1886 Bar, Bow & Truss) to create a drinks list of organic cocktails.  According to Feed Body + Soul, the restaurant "is inspired by the belief that eating well can be a daily indulgence. " The executive chef is Matthew Dickson, who is planning a seasonally inspired menu with California-style dishes to be paired with the all-organic beverage program.

First published on July 31, 2011 . Revised and expanded in early 2012. You could spend a solid year sniffing out cool spots for travelers in Venice, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Malibu -- scores of hotels, hundreds of restaurants and bars, more than 30 miles of coastline. But you're new to the scene, or you haven't visited in a while, and who has a year anyway? These 11 micro-itineraries will lead you to fresh fruit, ancient art, pub darts, magic, gymnastics, Venus on roller skates and J. Paul Getty on how to be rich.

On a recent afternoon in the sun-filled kitchen at the back of Gjelina restaurant in Venice, chef Travis Lett mans an oven in which he's baking several loaves of golden-crusted bread. "I'm looking for good color, nice 'ears,'" Lett says, referring to the edge on top of the bread where it has split. He's dialing in the final details for his latest project, Gjelina Take Away (or GTA), a next-door annex that has Lett baking breads, jarring pickles and curing meats for what he envisions as a neighborhood deli selling "everyday stuff" — pizza, antipasti, sandwiches — set to open this month.

Google Inc., the ever-expanding Internet search giant, is establishing a beachhead in Venice. In a rare bright spot for the region's sluggish economy, Google is leasing more than 100,000 square feet of office space in three buildings, including the famed Binoculars Building designed by Frank Gehry. Sitting in front of the building is a huge binocular sculpture created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, perhaps befitting of the company's search theme. The move is part of a major expansion by Google in Southern California and could set up a new center of operation in the region.

The parade that is Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice is in full swing on a Sunday afternoon. Parents wrestle Bugaboos through the crowded street. Shoppers use iPhones to snap photos of sales displays. At Intelligentsia, hipsters linger over $5 cups of sourced coffee. You make your way through it all on the way to a quiet courtyard near California Street. There, behind a clothing shop and a hair salon, seated beneath a towering tree, is Yo Takimoto, master Japanese woodcarver, ready to teach.

In New York, Dominique Lévy and Robert Mnuchin of L&M Arts sell blue-chip modern and contemporary art out of an impeccably appointed, impenetrable-looking Upper East Side townhouse. So you might assume their much-anticipated new gallery on Venice Boulevard, opening Sept. 25, would be a high-art compound, cut off from street life for reasons of security and visual purity both. Try again. "From the beginning, we liked the idea of creating a garden, a garden-gallery," says Thai-born, L.A.-based architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture, who cut his teeth working on museum projects for Tadao Ando.

Small business owners have a hard enough time getting customers in the door. But the merchants of West Washington Boulevard in Venice had an even tougher time because there are several other Washington streets or boulevards around Los Angeles. "I'd given directions to enough people through the years to be very frustrated," said Carol Tantau Smith, who has been selling jewelry and gift items on the boulevard for about eight years.

Feed Body + Soul is set to open this fall in Venice, in the former J's Kitchen space on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. The healthful-food-focused restaurant has a full liquor license and has enlisted bartender and consultant Marcos Tello (1886 Bar, Bow & Truss) to create a drinks list of organic cocktails.  According to Feed Body + Soul, the restaurant "is inspired by the belief that eating well can be a daily indulgence. " The executive chef is Matthew Dickson, who is planning a seasonally inspired menu with California-style dishes to be paired with the all-organic beverage program.

Jennifer McGarigle, just back from a two-week trip to Italy, has little time to settle into her home. She snips burgundy and magenta roses and arranges them in monochromatic bunches minutes before 17 guests are scheduled to arrive for a patio dinner party. Dozens of wasps assault the outdoor centerpieces filled with poppies. The two resident pugs, Daisy and Lucy Pickles, are getting snippy with each other every time there's a knock at the front door. And now the heat lamps aren't lighting.