Good morning: it’s Friday, May 15. Expect warm, cloudy days and humid nights all weekend. Sunday afternoon looks like nice beach weather, but maybe don’t go in the water — there’s a rip current warning in effect.
L.A. restaurants are loud. But how loud? And why?
A screaming martini order at a packed Los Feliz hotspot sent writer and humorist Dave Schilling down a surprisingly revealing rabbit hole: Why are Los Angeles bars and restaurants so unbearably loud?
Through conversations with chefs and restaurateurs, actual decibel readings taken in some of the city's buzziest watering holes, and an onerous number of drinks sampled around town, Schilling explores why "silence is death" in hospitality — and whether the quest for immaculate vibes comes at the expense of conversation, comfort and hearing health.
To learn why restaurants and bars turn up the sound, and where you can actually have a vibe-y meal and still hear yourself think, check out Schilling’s illuminating bar crawl.
READING MATERIAL
HMS COUNT-Y: LAist reports that Hollywood 4WRD, a coalition of businesses and nonprofit organizations, plans on conducting its own count of the homeless population in the neighborhood because of a lack of confidence in L.A. County’s official annual Homeless Count results.
ORSA & WINDSTORM: The odds that an El Niño will affect Southern California this winter have risen to 96%, according to the National Weather Service — though it’s still not clear exactly how powerful the weather pattern will be. For more clarification on what El Niño actually is, climate scientist Daniel Swain has a 60-second version.
FATHER’S (SHARED) OFFICE: With more than 350 sites and 8 million square feet of inventory, the L.A. metro area leads the United States in coworking offices, reports L.A. Business First. Five operators control about 35% of the available space.
XAV’S BIG BOY: Robert Greene at Golden State Report takes stock of an unlikely dynamic: a governor’s race where Xavier Becerra is running far ahead of Antonio Villaraigosa, after Villaraigosa previously dominated Becerra in the 2001 L.A. mayoral race.
WEEKEND MATERIAL
TAM O’PAINTER: The Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction, formerly known as the Venice Art Walk, wraps up this weekend with 228 pieces still up for auction to benefit the 56-year-old neighborhood clinic. Artists with work on display include John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, and signature artist Alison Saar.
BISTRO NOSH: Food outlet Infatuation is hosting EEEEEATSCON ‘26 on Saturday and Sunday at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica — a convening of 25 restaurants from L.A. and around the country including El Moro, Bistro Na’s, and Brooklyn Pizzeria L’Industrie.
FIL-IPPE THE ORIGINAL: This Saturday is Baryo HiFi, a street festival on Beverly in Historic Filipinotown featuring Filipino food, local vendors, and music — including a DJ set from Toro y Moi.
GOOSE-O & FRANK: The third Saturday of every month at 9 a.m. in Torrance, Friends of Madrona Marsh is conducting a walk of the Henrietta Basin, a stormwater retention area that also hosts a variety of birds and other wildlife. (The link says the event has passed, but we confirmed that there’s a walk this Saturday).
RAW MATERIAL
For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, @ianblue tells a story from his first L.A. apartment in the #welcome channel:
"First LA living situation: tiny studio in a Brentwood dingbat. The day after I moved out I came back to collect a few last items and found a bullet hole in the wall where my headboard had been. Called LAPD. They found a body next door."
AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams.
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