Holidays with the Family

My visits to Los Angeles have typically involved spending copious amounts of time with Patrick. However, I try to squeeze in a visit to my parents when I am in town, but I usually do not stay with them, even during the holidays.

This year I spent a prolonged period at home, meaning I have spent more than just one night here at my parents house. For the first time in my life, I finally realized that I really moved out of my parents house, that this place in Monterey Park is no longer home. My life truly was centered around West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. I still sort of feel that way.

This was the first time that Christmas that we did not open presents at midnight, with my sister and Ray, as well as having a Christmas tree. My parents home was flooded with a faulty sprinkler system on my birthday, where I also witnessed a loss to USC at the Rose Bowl. Such is life. I suppose this holiday season felt the most barren in years because of there really was no spirit. This is not to say that it was a bad Christmas, it just didn't feel like it. Maybe next year.

With all that said, Christmas dinner was still delicious, and I got to be with my family. I also got to see my friends this past weekend. So, all in all, it has been good.

Scoops

The holidays have been filled with spending time with my ever so dysfunctional family. This year we had a little rehash of last year's festivities by going out and having Korean BBQ at The Corner Place. Over Christmas dinner my brother-in-law Ray and my sister kept ranting and raving about Marcy's ice cream located in Hawthorne. Of course, curiosity got the best of me, so I typed in "ice cream" in the Yelp search engine, and this place called Scoops came up with over 300 reviews. So the day after Christmas we went out, had our dinner shindig and headed over to Scoops. Now, the actual name of the ice-cream store didn't ring a bell, but the street Heliotrope did. I then realized that I wanted to do this bike ride with the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition about a month and a half ago that ended up at this particular ice-cream shop. Since I reside in the West Side and the ride began in closer to mid-city Los Angeles, I opted not to. How unfortunate that I did not discover this place sooner! I highly doubt I would have stumbled upon the store randomly on my own, since it is essentially tucked away on a little street that is beginning to resemble Silverlake along Sunset. Why yes, it is quite hipster actually (you know, the people who wear tight fitting clothes from used clothing stores, with emo-hair cuts and where you find hipsters, you are bound to find a bike or two tied up to a rack or parking meter near by).

The reviews ranted and raved about how delicious this parlor was (and deceptive on my own accord). They serve Gelato (looking back I don't think they actually serve ice-cream), Vegan ice-cream/gelato, sorbets, and have your yogurt options because of the Pinkberry craze. Not only do they produce their own product in store, but Scoops offers different flavors every day, minus Brown Bread which is the only flavor to be offered consistently. On top of that, they have themed weekends (the guy behind the counter told me that they recently had an alcohol themed weekend). It is a simple shop, with a few tables and a couch, as well as a white-board for flavor suggestions. The selection isn't enormous, but it isn't limited either. The best part of this place is that a scoop is actually two scoops in a cup or a cone! And they the provide "refills" that cost a measly $1.75. The actual "scoop" costs about $2.50. I ended up getting Brown Bread and Maple Butterfinger. The service was genuine as well as the guy behind the counter allowed all six of us to test taste all the flavors since we had never been there before. I really liked the place because it wasn't over-the-top and it seemed that the people running Scoops were sincere about their product and service towards their clientèle. I got into a small conversation with who I presume was either the owner's son or co-owner about Scoops.

The store has been in Los Angeles for three years, and its popularity grew rapidly due to Yelpers. But oddly enough, the store owners wanted the store to expand by word of mouth, not by mass reviews on an internet search engine. Maybe they wanted to keep the whole local store feel, and succeed without the help of the internet -- validity perhaps? Anyway, the owners actually requested that Yelp take Scoops off of Yelp's top ten (like I said, I have not encountered any other place with over 300 review with 4.5 stars). Tucked away on Heliotrope near Los Angeles City College, Scoops is definitely one of the best places to go for a nice cold dessert. I highly recommend trying out Scoops if you are ever in the neighborhood. I don't think you'd regret it.

Next time I will write on my beer exploits (which I am beginning to think that I am an alcoholic) on the pubs, bars, and beer selection in the West Side. Just remember folks, if a place doesn't offer Newcastle on tap, it's not worth going to.