Eagle Rock

When the word "outlet" appears, any good bargain hunter usually stops to investigate. Such was the case when I was in Eagle Rock recently and spotted Catfish Bite Outlet. This small and tidy shop is filled with comforters, pillows and pillow shams, dust ruffles, tuffets and duvets that are sold in high-end catalogs and specialty stores. Bedding ensembles range from twin to Eastern king and are sold individually, not as sets.

MUSIC Nick Waterhouse Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock 7:30 p.m. Thu. $10 centerartseaglerock.org. EVENTS L.A. Vegan Beer Fest The Roxy, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood 1 p.m. Sat. $45 roxyonsunset.com BEER TASTING Golden Gopher Beer Society Golden Gopher, 417 W. 8th St., L.A. 7 p.m. Mon. Free 213downtown.com DJ NIGHT DJ Ruckus AV, 1601 Cahuenga Blvd., L.A. 10 p.m. Mon. avnightclub.com RESTAURANT OPENING Crust Pizza Bar 11928 Ventura Blvd., Studio City Mon. crust.com

Much of the real estate market is still stuck in deep winter, but Highland Park is showing signs of spring. Investors have descended on this and other communities in Northeast Los Angeles, snatching up bargain-priced Craftsman homes located within an easy distance of downtown. It's an echo of the housing boom, only this time speculators are drawn by the crash in prices. Attracted by an abundance of foreclosures and aided by interest rates near record lows, renovators are giving distressed properties a makeover.

Much of the real estate market is still stuck in deep winter, but Highland Park is showing signs of spring. Investors have descended on this and other communities in Northeast Los Angeles, snatching up bargain-priced Craftsman homes located within an easy distance of downtown. It's an echo of the housing boom, only this time speculators are drawn by the crash in prices. Attracted by an abundance of foreclosures and aided by interest rates near record lows, renovators are giving distressed properties a makeover.

First, Jollibee and Goldilocks -- both popular restaurants in the Philippines -- opened their doors in 2005. The next year came Seafood City, a supermarket that features an almost endless supply of seafood and other Filipino specialties. Today there are seven shops and restaurants clustered together at Eagle Rock Plaza, a mall that caters to thousands of local Filipinos.

More than 100 LA artists will converge on the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, for a monstrous live drawing and fundraising festival. Patrons will witness five hours of live drawings and have the opportunity to purchase the drawings, with proceeds going to the nonprofit organization Outpost for Contemporary Art. There will also be silk screenings, live DJ sets, food vendors and more. Center for the Arts, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock. Noon-6 p.m. $10. http://www.centerartseaglerock.

Four Café Where: 2122 1/2 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily Price: Soups, salads and sandwiches, $4 to $12.50 Contact: (323) 550-1988; http://www.fourcafe.net

Your Nov. 19 article on Eagle Rock and Occidental College did a great disservice to our community. Eagle Rock is a much more complex, far more desirable place to live, work and play than the article suggested. Your writer should have done a little more research before he put pen to paper. The relationship between Occidental College and Eagle Rock may not be a perfect one, but to put the blame for any imperfections solely on the neighborhood is a cheap shot that insults those of us who live here.

Sadly, Thanksgiving's feast lasts but a few days, depending on how fast you plow through leftovers. But at Dave's Chillin-n-Grillin in Eagle Rock, the traditional holiday meal is served every Thursday -- on a bun. It's called the Pilgrim: For $7, patrons get a French roll filled with grilled turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and turkey gravy. In New England, where shop owner Dave Evans is from, the sandwich is especially popular after Thanksgiving. A hearty delight for lovers of leftovers.

I must take issue with the woman who passed over Eagle Rock as a place to buy a home in which to raise her children because it's part of the Los Angeles Unified School District ["Factoring in Schools," May 16]. She obviously didn't do her homework. Although the LAUSD overall has a less-than-stellar reputation, there are pockets of very good schools located within it, and Eagle Rock is one of them. I'm raising my kids in Eagle Rock and am happily putting them in local schools, which have excellent highly gifted, gifted and high-ability magnet schools on our campuses, as well as on-site gifted programs.

It's 1922 and nothing much is up in Pasadena. Not among the orange groves, not along the leafy streets. Just as the little old ladies like it. But wait. Down in the Arroyo Seco, a crew has just started putting up some kind of stadium. On Pepper Street, Mallie Robinson's 3-year-old son may already be showing signs of amazing athleticism. Over at Polytechnic School, a tall 10-year-old named Julia McWilliams is developing the taste and aplomb that will make her America's best-known chef.

Although a chilly rain was pounding and there was an opening in the roof above her anvil, Heather McLarty's blacksmith shop was dry and warm for those crowding inside on Sunday. And why not? A fiery, 2,300-degree propane-fed forge was blasting away inside her shop — which happens to be a 25-foot-tall Sioux-style tepee in the backyard of her Highland Park home. The North Figueroa Street residence she shares with actor and fabrics artist Troy Evans was one of 60 studio sites in Highland Park, Mount Washington and Eagle Rock that attracted some 650 art enthusiasts to the Arroyo Arts Collective's 19th annual Discovery Tour.

Not long after she began studying to become a mortician, Amber Carvaly started to dream about death. In one dream, she found herself in an embalming room surrounded by gleaming silver tables. In another, she found herself in a cemetery, and in a third, her grandmother had died and, as her mother stood by, Carvaly let out an ear-piercing, heart-wrenching scream. Each time she awoke in her studio apartment in Eagle Rock scared, yet strangely reassured. Weeks into a demanding curriculum on such topics as the cultural history of undertaking, preparation for embalming and funeral ceremonies, she hadn't grown numb.

Accessed by a driveway bridge, this downtown-close contemporary was constructed on a lot previously considered unbuildable because of the steep grade. The newly built house is recessed into the site and designed with the garage on top to minimize obstruction of the neighbors' views. Existing walnut and oak trees create privacy. Location: 4865 Mount Royal Drive, Eagle Rock 90041 Asking price: $669,000 or for lease at $3,500 a month Year built: 2011 Architect: Christopher Griffin House size: Three bedrooms, four bathrooms, 2,117 square feet Lot size: 0.28 of an acre Features: Living room, dining room and bedroom balconies; 15-foot-tall living room ceiling; tankless water heater; fire sprinklers.

Take your family to the inaugural Taste of the Eastside 2011 at Barnsdall Art Park. The event unites L.A.'s Eastside communities with a lively afternoon of food, drinks and music. Sample flavors from local eateries from Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Eagle Rock, Echo Park, Atwater Village, Highland Park and more. Participating restaurants include Local, Little Dom's, Cookbook, Hugo's Tacos and Auntie Em's Kitchen. Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sun. http://www.tasteoftheeastside.com.

First it was pot shops. Now it's erotic massage parlors. In the last two years, they've proliferated in the city ? just as dispensaries did, and for a familiar reason. In both cases, Los Angeles failed to quickly assess and act upon the ramifications of a new state law. Police say they've seen numerous illicit massage parlors open in Hollywood, Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley. But the biggest explosion has been in Eagle Rock, which is a community that was also inundated with medical marijuana dispensaries.

A former Los Angeles Fire Department captain was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday for the death of a woman whose naked and brutalized body was found in the middle of a street about a mile from his Eagle Rock home. David Del Toro, 54, who was a 23-year veteran of the department when arrested for the 2006 killing, sat expressionless and stared ahead as the verdict was read. The panel acquitted him of first-degree murder for the strangling and beating death of 42-year-old Jennifer Flores.