Music and Lyrics’ Drew Barrymore has one of the most famous family trees in Los Angeles. Now she’s putting down her own roots in the city. . Photograph by Kenneth Willardt.
“Bette Davis had a great quote,” says Drew Barrymore, talking about where to go and what to do in her hometown of Los Angeles. “When somebody asked, ‘Ms. Davis, can you give any advice?’ she said, ‘Always take Fountain,’?” referring to the avenue that stretches across the great breadth of Los Angeles. “And she is absolutely right. Always take Fountain.” That’s just one of the many insights you are about to receive from Barrymore, the granddaughter of early-Hollywood legend John Barrymore who is now a star in her own right. Barrymore appeared in TV commercials before she was a year old and became a child sensation beginning with her appearance as Gertie, the sweet little sister of Henry Thomas’s Elliott, in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 hit, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She’s come a long way from her Little Girl Lost days, the title of her best-selling 1990 autobiography, which detailed her struggles with teenage addictions. Today, she’s not only a star but also a producer who heads her own company, Flower Films, whose credits include Charlie’s Angels, Fever Pitch, 50 First Dates, and Barrymore’s latest, this month’s Music and Lyrics. In the film, she shares the screen with Hugh Grant, who plays a faded ’80s pop star who desperately needs to write a hit song in a matter of days. Barrymore’s character, a quirky plant lady, surprisingly supplies the lyrics. But it should come as no surprise that Barrymore can provide the inside scoop on her hometown of Los Angeles.
What places from your childhood do you still love? Most of my favorite places from my childhood are gone. That’s what makes me really sad about Los Angeles. It’s beautiful because it’s ever changing, but [a lot of it] is just gone. We have to hold on to our heritage more. It just scares me that everything is becoming a strip mall or a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Don’t get me wrong; those places are great. One thing I do love about Los Angeles is that it’s a melting pot of architecture. If you drive through a particular neighborhood, you are bound to hit a Spanish home, a colonial home, a modern home, and a country house — all on one street. I still go to the same drugstore, on Wilshire between Fairfax and La Brea, which is now a Rite Aid, but it used to be a Thrifty, where you could get ice cream for five cents. I think you can still get ice cream, but it’s probably like $1.50 now. Another thing that’s still there that I love is the oldest tree in Beverly Hills. I think it’s on the corner of Rodeo and Little Santa Monica Boulevard. It’s one of the most beautiful trees you have ever seen, and it’s a historical landmark. I’m not sure what kind of tree it is, but I have a Polaroid of it on my refrigerator. It’s giant, with beautiful green leaves and thick brown branches. I didn’t grow up anywhere near Beverly Hills, but I always did love that tree because of its ancientness.
What hotel would you recommend in L.A.? The Chateau Marmont I think is the greatest hotel in the whole world. I have lived there on and off since I was 16. It just has great vibes; it’s like a clubhouse. I really like when each room in a hotel is unique unto itself, like the configuration is different. Even if the decor themes are similar. I think people respond to different shapes and light direction. Sometimes you want a smaller room because it flows better than a junior suite. That place still has the good old kitchens with tile — no marble, just old, groovy ’70s tile. They also let me raise my dogs there, which is really cool. The lobby is just this weird old Spanish-style haven for Angelenos. Things like the Chateau are still there, and, you know, you just hold on to them for dear life, because everything is changing. Sometimes you just want things to stay the same.
What are some regular parts of your L.A. routine? Sunset Boulevard is definitely something I travel up and down all the time. I like it because you can go on the east side and go to a little coffeehouse named Millie’s that’s really delicious. I love Los Feliz. It has a great vibe. Sort of like the East Village of New York, but for California. I go to the Rose Bowl Flea Market a lot. That’s a great thing to do in L.A., because you almost can’t do it in one day. I’ve gone there with the thought of, Oh, I need this for a certain room, and I’ve gone there with the thought of, I just want to go and see what I find, and if I come home with two little paintings and a shelf or something like that and a book, then I’m happy. You walk away with a ceramic vase, and you put flowers in it, and it just makes you happy. I love flea markets. Also, there is the Melrose Trading Post on Fairfax and Melrose. That’s always running every Sunday. Oh, and the Pasadena City College Flea Market is awesome. That’s, funnily enough, where I rescued my two puppies 11 years ago.
Where do you head to on a Friday night? I love Fred 62. It’s my favorite place to eat, and it’s open 24 hours, which — especially in L.A., a town that shuts down too early — I love. They have a delicious menu. That’s in Los Feliz. I still like to go to all the old movie houses, not multiplexes. There is a great one next door to Fred 62, called the Vista, and it always shows good movies. If people like quality multiplexes, there is one called the ArcLight that is the most incredible theater, and it has special shows where directors will come and talk about their movies. Of course, there is the Egyptian, and that is a great movie theater. My favorite thing to do is go to independent movie theaters and revival houses in Los Angeles. To me, that is a great Friday night. Go to Musso & Frank Grill for a martini and food, and walk across the street to the Egyptian.
Musso & Frank is, of course, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. Did you go there as a kid? I did, actually. It was kind of the same way it is now. My grandfather John Barrymore has pictures in there and stuff, so I always give him a kiss when I walk in. His star is right outside Musso & Frank. And Dolores [Costello Barrymore], my grandmother, is nearby, on Vine. I like walking around there, because I know that’s where my family walked around and ate and had a drink. Musso & Frank makes the best Caesar salad. They make it right in front of you, and there is this one gentleman who makes a whole production out of it, and it’s fun to watch. But it’s great to sit at the counter there. I’m a big counter person, because I eat alone a lot, preferably so. Fred 62 has a counter, and Musso & Frank has a counter. Five nights a week, I go to dinner with friends, but I like to carve out time for myself, when I can just sit and read and be sort of quiet and have a bite to eat. The Frolic Room is also a great bar right around there. It’s very groovy, very, like, sort of ’60s in a sort of decorative kind of way. If you are at Musso & Frank, do the Egyptian, and then go to the Frolic Room for a cocktail afterward. That, to me, is a perfect evening.
Okay, what are your favorite lunch places? I love Hugo’s on Santa Monica Boulevard. It’s phenomenal. It’s a teahouse and a place with delicious, delicious food. It has a very hearty menu, and it’s very health conscious, but it doesn’t taste health conscious. Between Hugo’s and Fred 62, you can’t go wrong. If anyone likes macrobiotics — M Café de Chaya on Melrose and La Brea is my favorite. For lunch in Beverly Hills, there is this place called the Grill on the Alley, and it’s delicious. That’s a very Hollywood scene, because all the agencies are right around there. So that’s power-lunch city. But, you know what’s a phenomenal place to have lunch and is also really fun to hang out at afterward? A place called Barney Greengrass at the top of Barneys New York. I sit outside, but I actually prefer the inside room. You can get the yummiest chicken noodle soup, salad — and they always have really good fresh specials, like fish. You make your way down the stairs and get some moisturizer and makeup and maybe score a Marc Jacobs T-shirt along the way, or a scarf or something. That’s one of the things my girlfriends and I do a lot.
Whom do you see at Barney Greengrass? Oh God, you will see everybody. Someone famous was in there, and they had so many paparazzi camped outside — I’d say about 20 to 25 — and you could see them from the restaurant windows if you looked down. They weren’t after me, that’s for sure. They didn’t even know I was in there, because I always park underground. They had all ordered pizzas because they were there for so long. All these paparazzi had open boxes of pizza on the hoods of the customers’ cars, just hanging out and eating with their cameras around their necks. I have to say it was quite a sight. I always have my camera, but I didn’t that day, and I wanted to take their picture so badly. I take a lot of photographs of them, too, actually. I’ve sort of been trying to make a book of my photographs of them.
What do you like to do outside? I like to hike Runyon Canyon. It’s all people from Los Angeles walking their dogs. The incline is really great, and there are lots of different trails, and it’s sort of right in the center of Hollywood. There is this kind of funny nature relief where you can just walk around all these different terrains and take your dogs and see other dogs. There’s a view on top of Runyon Canyon that’s my favorite. You know why it’s so great? Because you’ve got to earn it. You’ve got to hike up a mountain to get there. There is one peak where there is a perfect 360-degree view. You can see Beverly Hills and the ocean and Santa Monica. You can see right down the center of Hollywood. You can see the Griffith Observatory and all of Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Echo Park. Then, when you turn around, behind you, you can see Burbank, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, and even Pasadena. Another great thing to do is to ride the bike paths at Santa Monica. You could start in Malibu and ride all the way down to Palos Verdes and Orange County. That’s a really great thing to do, because you always have the ocean on the side of you.
Are there shops that you like that are off the beaten path? Yes, there’s a great street called Yucca that has an incredible series of four stores called Lost & Found. At one of them, they have furniture and sandals and homemade jewelry and sort of hippie clothes upstairs, but it’s all new and all made by local artists. They also feature painters, and they have a gallery next door, and the stores are connected. They will feature artists like Matthew Heller and Sage Vaughn, and it’s a great place to be turned on to new artists. And it is relatively reasonably priced. I mean, it’s expensive, but it’s not like when you walk into some galleries and you are like, “Okay, thanks; I’ll be back in another lifetime.” At this place, you can actually find art within the hundreds-of-dollars range rather than in the thousands, which I appreciate. One of my favorite things to do is start at the beginning of Abbot Kinney Boulevard and just park my car and walk up and down those streets. Abbot Kinney is a great art crawl. You’ll hit galleries, bookstores, clothing stores; it is really an eclectic mix. Then, in West Hollywood, Book Soup is one of the best bookstores in L.A., because it is small and intimate, but they have an incredible selection, great-quality bound paperbacks and photography books and art books.
Where would you go for dinner? I love Il Sole. It is my favorite Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. It is just delicious and very, very pretty but not pretentiously so. I tend to stay away from pretentious places. My favorite place for sushi is a place called Katsu-ya, but it’s the original one on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. There is one in Encino, but not that one. And there is a new one in Brentwood, which is super trendy. But the original one looks like sort of a pine-colored sushi bar that you would go to in the ’80s, and the food is impeccable. There’s always like a 45-minute wait, and they don’t care who you are. You put your name down like everybody else. They have a sushi bar and a counter, so I love that. I go there by myself and with friends, and that is just a great place for dinner. It’s just extremely low profile and yummy. And oh my God — the best Mexican restaurant in L.A. is El Compadre. They are open late — again, in Los Angeles, that’s important. It looks like your quintessential Mexican restaurant, with Christmas lights and parrot art and red vinyl booths. The food is just überyummy and casual and funky. They serve your margaritas on fire. There’s always a great little band playing. I recommend the crispy tacos. Just a great little place right in the heart of Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard. If you are going to go to one fancy restaurant in Los Angeles, you have to go to Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi. It’s where we really go to celebrate and to order a great bottle of wine. It’s very expensive. You always walk away kind of shocked at the bill. It is where you should spend anniversaries. Or if you have a film coming out or you’ve just finished a record or a novel, that’s the place to go. It’s not snotty. I hate the snotty places.
Where to for a drink afterward? Well, if you want to go to the hipster, scenester spot, go to Hyde Lounge. That’s a fun lounge, and my friend Brent owns it. It’s very hard to get in, but if you go early enough, you’ll get in. And then it gets packed after you’ve got your seat, and you are good to go. You’ll get a little bit of everything there — sometimes too much of everything. It is where to go if you feel like acting lively. Other than that, we go to the Chateau, and we go to the Frolic Room. I like a classic dive bar, I really do. The Frolic Room is a throwback. It’s got a great jukebox. Trader Vic’s is great. I don’t tend to go to Beverly Hills very much, but if you are around that neighborhood, Trader Vic’s is a landmark that’s classic. You can get this thing called the Scorpion Bowl, and your drinks come with floating gardenias in them. But I’d say be careful, because they are strong. The Formosa Cafe — [L.A. Confidential director] Curtis Hanson fought for the preservation of that — is still there, and that’s a great place to go have an after-dinner drink. It’s a classic. A great 24-hour place in L.A. is the Standard Hotel. There is a restaurant there, right in front. It’s a great diner, but it’s like a haute-cuisine diner, where the food is really healthy and delicious. Also, there is a great bowling alley on Hollywood and Highland called Lucky Strike, and it’s open until two a.m. seven nights a week.
What is the quintessential Hollywood landmark in the city? Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I love it; I have a personal affinity for it because of my grandfather. They showed all the old Hollywood movies there, and the stars put their hands and feet in [the cement out front] for Sid Grauman. But my grandfather, because he was known as the Great Profile, he actually put his profile in the cement. Then, when I got my star on the Walk of Fame and they unveiled it — you never know where you are going to be put — they had put it right outside of the Chinese Theatre. So I’m right next to my grandfather. It makes me so happy, because if I could carry out their legacy and make them proud and keep their name alive and well and healthy in the art that we all chose and have running through our veins and love, that would be the thing I’d feel the most proud of. That, to me, is accomplishment, the definition of success — just sort of keeping our family tree trimmed and pruned and watered and healthy. Just like the old tree in Beverly Hills.
She Said … What draws Drew Barrymore to L.A.
Lodging
Chateau Marmont, very expensive, (323) 656-1010, www.chateaumarmont.com
Dining
Barney Greengrass, deli, moderate, (310) 777-5877
El Compadre, Mexican, moderate, (323) 874-7924
Fred 62, American, inexpensive to moderate, (323) 667-0062, www.fred62.com
The Grill on the Alley, Beverly Hills, steak house, expensive to very expensive,
(310) 276-0615, www.thegrill.com
Hugo’s Restaurant, breakfast, inexpensive to moderate, (323) 654-3993,
www.hugosrestaurant.com
Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi, Italian, expensive to very expensive, (310) 573-1660, www.giorgiobaldi.com
Il Sole, Italian, expensive to very expensive, (323) 657-1182
Katsu-ya Studio City, Japanese, expensive, (818) 985-6976
M Café de Chaya, macrobiotic, moderate, (323) 525-0588, www.mcafedechaya.com
Millie’s, coffee shop, inexpensive, (323) 664-0404
Musso & Frank Grill, steak house, moderate, (323) 467-7788
The Standard Hotel restaurant, diner, inexpensive to moderate, (323) 650-9090, www.standardhotel.com
Shopping
Book Soup, (310) 659-3110, www.booksoup.com
Lost and Found, (323) 856-5872
Melrose Trading Post, www.greenwayarts.org/tradingpost.htm
Pasadena City College Flea Market, (626) 585-7906, www.pasadena.edu/fleamarket
Rite Aid, 5575 Wilshire Blvd., (323) 954-7193, www.riteaid.com
Rose Bowl Flea Market, (323) 560-7469, www.rgcshows.com
Movie Theaters
ArcLight Hollywood, (323) 464-4226, www.arclightcinemas.com
Egyptian Theatre, (323) 466-3456, www.americancinematheque.com
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, (323) 464-6266, www.manntheatres.com/chinese
The New Beverly Cinema, (323) 938-4038, www.michaelwilliams.com/beverlycinema
Vista Theater, (323) 660-6639
Nightlife
The Formosa Cafe, (323) 850-9050, www.formosacafe.com
The Frolic Room, (323) 462-5890
Hyde Lounge, (323) 656-4933
Lucky Strike Lanes, bowling, (323) 467-7776, www.bowlluckystrike.com
Trader Vic’s, (310) 276-6345, www.tradervics.com
Elsewhere
Hollywood Walk of Fame, (323) 469-8311, www.hollywoodchamber.net
Runyon Canyon, (323) 666-5046, www.runyon-canyon.com
Santa Monica bike paths, www.labikepaths.com/santamon.html
We Said … What draws us to L.A.
Lodging
The Orlando, expensive to very expensive, (323) 658-6600, www.theorlando.com. The name may reek of Florida, but the Orlando’s locale, near Rodeo Drive shops, Sunset Boulevard, and major movie studios, makes a stay here a decidedly L.A. experience. There are European touches thrown in for good measure, too, like the 400-thread-count Egyptian-cotton sheets and the rooftop saltwater swimming pool to promote good health.
Dining
Pink’s, inexpensive, (323) 931-4223, www.pinkshollywood.com. Eating at some of our favorite L.A. restaurants, like Sushi Roku and the Little Door, can take a bite out of a traveler’s bankroll, so we save a few bucks one meal by plunking down a paltry $4.75 for one of Pink’s famous chili-cheese dogs and a Dr. Brown’s Root Beer. Onion rings, turkey burgers, burritos, and the like round out the menu.
Attractions
Descanso Gardens, (818) 949-4200, www.descansogardens.org. Twenty minutes from downtown L.A. is this horticultural oasis spanning 160 acres. In addition to the rosarium, sundial garden, koi-filled stream, camellia forest, and other natural beauties, you’ll find concerts and classes on everything from cooking to watercolor painting are available.
Silent Movie Theatre, (323) 655-2520, www.silentmovietheatre.com. A classic movie house just like the ones Barrymore enjoys so much, this art-deco palace is devoted solely to silent movies. (Where else but Hollywood, right?) The roster includes cinematic favorites — accompanied by live piano/organ music — starring pre-talkie celebs like Clara Bow and Felix the Cat.
Events
Skin + Bones, the Museum of Contemporary Art, (213) 626-6222, www.moca.org. We hope Barrymore has heard about this exciting new exhibit, given her penchant for shopping and architecture. Subtitled Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture, it combines and compares the work of some 40 fashion designers and architects, from Hussein Chalayan’s crazy Convertible Skirt/Table from the Afterwords collection to Toyo Ito’s fantastic Mikimoto Ginza 2. But hurry, Drew; it’s showing only through March 5.