Gjelina

I’ve started to see this look a lot, but I still love it.  It’s a sort of an industrial meets apothecary-chic look, with chairs with wood seats and metal bases, Edison bulbs, grain sack cloth, raw wood planking, etc. The most recent example of it here….

Today, a friend in LA took me to this super cool restaurant Gjelina in Abbot Kinney in LA.  Gjelina aside for a minute, Abbot Kinney is such a cool neighborhood!!  I seriously loved it.  As soon as we entered the neighborhood, I saw a Steven Alan store, and I knew I was home.

Ok, back to Gjelina.  LOVED: the wood planking on the ceiling, the brick floor inside, the big light fixture with all different shapes and sizes of Edison bulbs, the paint color (dark grey but with brown in it, and very matte, like a chalkbooard), the light mint green industrial stools, and the different sized glass-front cabinets that make up the bar-back.

This isn’t visible at all in the photos, but possibly my favorite detail was about an 18″ tall border around the top of the wall of antique mirror set on top of a cornice that wrapped all the way around the room.  It totally kept the very tall walls from becoming vast and boring, because your eye was drawn straight up to it, and then to the pretty ceiling.

Also you can’t see this in the photo either, but the big high tables have handles (like cabinet hardware handles) on the ends, and for some reason that detail totally delighted me.

And, as if the decor weren’t pleasing enough, the food was soo good.. not any one particular style of cuisine, just good ingredients turned into wonderful things.  We had roasted beets with burrata that tasted like ice cream, roasted sunchokes with parsely pesto, and a gruyere, caramelized onion, and arugula pizza.

I hiighly recommend it!!!
Restaurant website here.

Barbershop Revival

#1:  Old-school barbershops for men.

I don’t know why, since I’m not a man, but I really love the idea of old-fashioned barbershops for men.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I have an unexplained nostalgia for an era I didn’t live through when routine daily activities were glorified.  Like shaving.  Here, a barbershop in London called Murdock that is along the lines of Freeman‘s (below) in New York.

And for me, this begs a question.  I would say the female equivalent to getting a shave at a barbershop is getting a manicure– it could easily be done at home, but it’s nice to have someone else do it for you.  So why aren’t there classy manicure joints like there are men’s barbershops?  They’re all tacky!  Even the new trend in nail salons is the ultra-girly look (not feminine, girly, there’s a difference) where everything is pink and sparkly.  Ick.

This reminds me of the J. Crew Men’s store vs Women’s store issue… to me the men’s version is just so much cooler.  Why can no one get a grip on what classic, old-fashioned (but updated) femininity looks like?

Trend I Love #2:  Anything apothecary-looking.