Venice Beach, CA. Thirty miles north of Long Beach, 15 miles West of LA and the epicenter of all things trendy, artsy, eco friendly, creative, cute and funky! I didn't have a lightning bolt tattoo on my neck, a pierced nose or a hairless dog so I didn't quite fit in, but we had so much fun! The purpose of the trip today (other than to enjoy the sunny 70 degree weather) was to go to
Intelligentsia Coffee. I paid a visit to the Chicago store last summer but only got a coffee to go, so I wanted to go to the Venice store to get a pound of beans to take home. First we stopped at the super trendy
Nom Nom truck for lunch. (See the March 2010 issue of Sunset Magazine to bring yourself up to speed on the food truck craze/revolution if you are not already familiar. See pg. 24 and 36).
Delicious $5 BBQ pork sandwich.
After lunch at the food cart, we headed to Intellegentsia. We listened to the DJ spinning a club mix in the back of shop, drank our Americanos (a suggestion from our hipster, lighting bolt tattooed barista), admired the decor of all natural materials, and eaves dropped on conversations of the Venice social scene and thought....wow, we are squares! Or at least I did.
Cool succulent wall and funky benches in front of the coffee shop.
Every shop was adorable and full of creative inspiration, but
Floral Art was one of my favorite. I asked if I could take a picture inside but the salesperson politely said no, so I snapped one of the outside. Everything was way over my budget but a good place for ideas for arrangements and vases.
Another cute store,
Urbanic Paper. Check out their blog, so cute! I had to limit myself to a few sheets of card stock and matching envelopes, but I really wanted to get the
Wallpaper Projects book. Next time you are in So Cal, plan a day for walking around Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, just make sure to stop at
American Apparel first.
Delicious $5 BBQ pork sandwich.
After lunch at the food cart, we headed to Intellegentsia. We listened to the DJ spinning a club mix in the back of shop, drank our Americanos (a suggestion from our hipster, lighting bolt tattooed barista), admired the decor of all natural materials, and eaves dropped on conversations of the Venice social scene and thought....wow, we are squares! Or at least I did.
Cool succulent wall and funky benches in front of the coffee shop.
Every shop was adorable and full of creative inspiration, but Floral Art was one of my favorite. I asked if I could take a picture inside but the salesperson politely said no, so I snapped one of the outside. Everything was way over my budget but a good place for ideas for arrangements and vases.
Another cute store, Urbanic Paper. Check out their blog, so cute! I had to limit myself to a few sheets of card stock and matching envelopes, but I really wanted to get the Wallpaper Projects book. Next time you are in So Cal, plan a day for walking around Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, just make sure to stop at American Apparel first. 
Love it Love it Love it!!!! This does not look like the Venice from my summer visit to Southern CA as i clearly did not make the right turn to this hip and trnedy party of Venice. I saw the muscle heads on the beach with surfy types offering to do a back flip for a dollar. Yours is so much better. What a pefect day. Will go back and re-read that Sunset issue.
ReplyDeleteTo add: seems there's some great music in Venice too. Last time I was there some really amped-up dudes put a CD in my lady's hand. I mean, just like slammed it in her hand! BAM! How did they know what kind of music she likes? And they only wanted 20 bucks for the CD! Obviously a great deal, no shipping, direct marketing. All good!
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