The best lost and found in town

Good morning, it’s Friday, June 19 (Juneteenth) and you can expect morning clouds to surrender to the sun by afternoon.

A handgun. A Gucci cardigan. Countless clothing-stuffed shopping bags. A not-insignificant amount of cocaine. A single, red-heeled Christian Louboutin shoe. Michael Jackson’s black fedora. A Rolex. And so many sunglasses. 

You can tell a lot about a place from its detritus. And the castoffs left behind at the Ivy — an L.A. hotspot for more than four decades — include both the louchely glamorous and the quotidian. Along with the aforementioned items, diners also regularly forget credit cards, cell phones and designer handbags. 

“Most people come back. We get a lot of calls immediately after the fact,” India Wolfe explained, noting that customers typically return within a day for their shopping expedition spoils forgotten under a table, or mislaid items of clothing. “But I think maybe 5% or 10% [of stuff] never gets picked up.”

Wolfe's parents Lynn von Kersting and Richard Irving opened the flagship Ivy restaurant on Robertson Boulevard in 1980, and she now runs the Ivy restaurant group with them.

The restaurant is not quite as paparazzi-teeming as it was during an earlier era of L.A. celebrity culture, but it’s still very much a local institution — and a stalwart for star spotting. 

The reputation is so potent that even Angelenos without all their faculties in place are well aware of the Ivy’s VIP power: On a recent weekday afternoon, a confused looking, slipper-clad man with a Cedars-Sinai hospital sticker on his shirt wandered past the valet stand and onto the sun-dappled patio, asking the beautiful people power-lunching at various tables if they were famous. He was quickly and politely escorted back to the street, and the lunch rush continued apace.

Wolfe has worked at the restaurant on and off since high school, and grew up seeing the strange and wonderful things diners sometimes left behind after a meal. She also oversees the restaurant group’s Instagram account, which in recent years has been satirizing the Ivy’s high-end lost and found with videos starring their longtime busser Mario Juarez. (Most of the wares in recent clips, like a floor-length fur coat and Prada purse modeled by Juarez, are props, though real forgotten items do make occasional appearances, Wolfe said.)

The restaurant keeps an informal lost and found in their upstairs office, with some folded clothes and an overflowing bowl of sunglasses. There were a few pieces of jewelry in this week, though they mainly looked junky. Anything really valuable is put in the safe.

The gun — left behind sometime in the 1990s — was promptly retrieved. Michael Jackson’s black hat — which had his name written inside of it — was never picked up. No one, to Wolfe’s knowledge, has ever returned for drugs (largely cocaine, some marijuana) left behind at the restaurant. The Rolex, which appeared to be real, was kept at the restaurant for decades before Wolfe’s father finally gifted it to a friend. And after storing it in the office for nearly a year, Wolfe took home the shaggy wool Gucci cardigan herself. 

“I sometimes wonder how these things get left behind, because I understand an earring falls off or something. But a watch, it seems like you would have to remove it?” Wolfe mused. 

The same could be said for the single Louboutin heel.

For Bestsellers, L.A. Material's guide to the top-selling items at local L.A. businesses, Pablo Goldstein takes us to Jitlada, the mainstay East Hollywood restaurant that's been run by Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong and her late brother Suthiporn “Tui” Sungkamee since 2006. Singsanong didn't just let us in on Jitlada's top five best selling spicy meals. She also gave us the scoop on the top five best selling non-spicy dishes, like "celebrity chicken," a favorite of Michael Cera's, as well as the favorites of other celebrity regulars to this strip mall institution.

AIR QUALITY CONCERNS: A massive Boyle Heights warehouse fire extinguished Wednesday left lingering concerns about air quality in the surrounding area. A new shelter-in-place order was issued Thursday, with firefighters saying smoke being vented from the charred building could affect nearby residents, the L.A. Times reports.

CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH: The L.A. Local has a comprehensive guide to Juneteenth events in Inglewood and South L.A. this weekend. 

MICHELIN PREDICTIONS: Ahead of next week’s Michelin California ceremony, Eater LA’s Matthew Kang stakes guesses on who might earn new stars and which stalwarts could get downgraded. 

NANCY FANCIES: Nancy Silverton told Goop about where she actually eats and shops, including her clothing go-to (Noodle Stories in Beverly Grove), favorite takeout for a big group (Carnival in Sherman Oaks) and the burrito joint that catered her daughter’s wedding (Burritos La Palma).

DODGER DOG FEUD: In case you missed it, our own Pablo Goldstein unpacked the wild saga of a war between two of L.A. baseball’s most famous canine fans.

SATURDAY ALL DAY: There will be free admission, live music and all-ages art activities Saturday at LACMA’s block party, with an art parade marching down Wilshire Boulevard at 6 p.m. 

SATURDAY MID-DAY: The Autry Museum is hosting a matinee screening of baseball classic “The Sandlot,” with free popcorn and Cracker Jacks. 

SATURDAY NIGHT: Pay homage to Sun Ra at a free, Grand Performances concert in downtown L.A. with Jimetta Rose’s MettaSun ensemble.

SUNDAY MID-DAY: Take your dad to Father’s Day lunch at Smorgasburg L.A.’s 10 year anniversary celebration, where all-star alumni from the early days of the food event will be returning for one day only. 

ALL WEEKEND: 626 Night Market will be at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Personal Poem” by Frank O’Hara.

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