East Hollywood is the part of Los Angeles that most people drive through on the way somewhere else: a dense grid between Hollywood proper and Silver Lake, bounded roughly by Western, Hoover, Franklin and Melrose, containing Little Armenia, part of Thai Town, a large hospital complex and one of the busiest Metro stations in the city. It is also, for anyone out after eleven, one of the more reliable places in central Los Angeles to find a kitchen still running.
The late options here are specific addresses rather than a general district, and several of them are counters rather than restaurants. Tell Karpo the hour and it will name what is actually still open.
Why the neighbourhood stays open
Three overlapping reasons. It has large immigrant communities — Armenian, Thai, Mexican, Filipino — whose restaurants keep hours set by their own customers rather than by a nightlife economy. It has a major hospital complex generating shift work at every hour. And it sits between several neighbourhoods with heavy nightlife but thin food supply, so it absorbs their spillover.
The practical effect is that the late food here is not novelty food. It is the same food the neighbourhood eats at seven, still being cooked at midnight, which is a considerably better proposition than a limited late menu.
The three corridors
Vermont Avenue is the main north-south spine, with the Metro B Line running beneath it and stations at Sunset, Santa Monica and Beverly. Sunset Boulevard carries the Thai Town run east of Western — Thailand Plaza and the restaurants around it — and several of those kitchens run properly late. Santa Monica Boulevard through Little Armenia holds the Armenian and Lebanese rotisserie and kebab houses, where the standard late order is chicken with garlic paste, pickles and bread.
Between them these three streets cover almost everything worth eating in the neighbourhood. The residential grid in between is quiet, dense and mostly apartment buildings, and there is very little reason to walk it after dark.
What to order at each
At an Armenian rotisserie: whole or half chicken, garlic paste, pickled turnip, and flatbread — and take away rather than eat in, because most of these rooms are functional rather than comfortable. At a Thai Town kitchen: the menu you are handed is usually not the one you want; ask for the Thai-language specials or point at what the next table has. At a taqueria on Vermont or Santa Monica: al pastor if there is a trompo turning, and the salsas are not decorative.
The other genuinely useful late category here is the Mexican and Central American markets and bakeries, several of which run long hours and will sell you pan dulce and coffee at hours when nothing else is on.
Around the food
Barnsdall Art Park at Hollywood and Vermont holds Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, a UNESCO World Heritage listing, on a hill with a free view across the basin — the best thing in the neighbourhood by a distance and worth doing in daylight before an evening here. The Vista Theatre at Sunset and Hillhurst, on the Los Feliz border, is a single-screen cinema of the kind Los Angeles has very few of left.
For anything after a show or a late film, this neighbourhood is the right place to end up rather than the right place to start, which is worth building into the evening's order.
Getting there
Metro's B Line has three stations along Vermont — Hollywood/Vermont, Vermont/Santa Monica and Vermont/Beverly — which makes this one of the best-connected neighbourhoods in Los Angeles and a genuinely viable late destination without a car, up to the point where the trains stop. Buses run all three corridors. Street parking is generally available on the residential blocks, and easier than in Los Feliz or Silver Lake next door.
Practical notes
The late corridors are Vermont Avenue, Sunset Boulevard through Thai Town east of Western, and Santa Monica Boulevard through Little Armenia. Kitchens here run on community hours rather than nightlife hours, so the full menu is usually available late. Metro's B Line serves Hollywood/Vermont, Vermont/Santa Monica and Vermont/Beverly. Barnsdall Art Park and Hollyhock House (a UNESCO World Heritage site) are at Hollywood and Vermont with free hilltop views. The Vista Theatre sits at Sunset and Hillhurst. Street parking is generally available; confirm individual closing times, which vary widely.
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Ask Karpo first
East Hollywood's late food is a set of specific counters on three long boulevards, not a walkable strip. Ask Karpo what is confirmed open right now, which corridor to aim at, and whether the B Line is still running.
