Green Concierge Seeks Los Angeles Infodump

April 27, 2008 6:00 PM

I'm starting a new job as a telephone concierge at a Brand-new upscale retail/housing establishment in Glendale, CA next week—can you help me get my ear to the ground?

Clients will be both tenants of the property and casual shoppers, and I am expected to provide expert-level concierge service. However, I'm relatively new in town, and the time I've spent here has been confined to a rather narrow corridor between Echo Park and central Hollywood. My boss is even newer to town than I, and I'd like to make a good impression by hitting the ground running for this gig. Please, I'm eager for all types of suggestions:

- Specifics on LA destinations (restaurants, attractions, events, nightlife, etc. with a focus on upscale, hip, guaranteed solid types of establishments)
- Hints/tips on transportation and navigation
- Blogs, websites, mailing lists, and RSS feeds that will keep me up to date on all of this stuff (I've subscribed to some related AskMe tags already; what am I missing? =o)
- Dead tree rags I should be reading regularly
- Any other information you can provide

Glendale is my first priority, but superior knowledge of all of Los Angeles is my ultimate goal. As mentioned above, I'm working my way through pertinent tags here on AskMe, but if you know of any relevant/obscure questions I might like to see please do mention them. Also, as a sub-question, do you have any tips on this type of job? I've worked as a TTY Relay Operator before and am happy to customer-serve, so I'm not completely unaware of what it entails. But if there's any specific advice you're holding I'd appreciate a share. Thanks!
Yes, I run with my ear to the ground; talented like that.

posted by carsonb to grab bag (6 comments total)

Well, there's Tommy's on Colorado in Eagle Rock. :) There's Old Town Pasadena nearby. And down the 2 on Alvarado is Machine Project. Sorry, lived in Glendale for seven years now, not a hipster/nightlife/upscale type of person. Check out la.foodblogging.com, there are good places to eat (so I hear), there's a kabob place on Colorado heading to Eagle Rock that's supposed to be good. I'll be watching this post with anticipation...
posted by zengargoyle at 6:52 PM on April 27

Well, I'm sure you'll get all kinds of great answers, but I'm here to provide you the outsider "really super painfully obvious" links, culled from my "Los Angeles" bookmarks folder circa last spring when I was planning to move there. I've only spent about 4-5 weeks in LA total.

http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/
http://www.notfortourists.com/losangeles.aspx
http://www.laobserved.com/
http://atwater-village.blogspot.com/
http://la.eater.com/
http://metroriderla.com/
http://la.metblogs.com/
http://www.laweekly.com/blogs/
http://la.curbed.com/
http://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/
http://www.bicyclela.org/
http://www.delocator.net/

Also, I have always wanted to go to this bar, but I never really hang out downtown. I've heard it's amazing.

And... the Museum of Jurassic Technology... just sayin'.
posted by loiseau at 7:01 PM on April 27

Oh, also Paco's Tacos, but it's down by the airport (Manchester/Sepulveda).

Hint: take the "visual tour" at the Edison website.
posted by loiseau at 7:09 PM on April 27

Another website that you might find useful: http://flavorpill.com/losangeles.
posted by chicainthecity at 11:19 PM on April 27

Yelp and Chowhound for opinionated restaurant reviews. Yelp's organized in a way that will give you a much quicker overview of how popular/good a place is, and where it's located, Chowhound's an old fashioned message board with a lot of chatter. Also Citysearch, which I write for, strives to stay up to date on boutiques, dining and events with editorial coverage and user reviews.

Subscribe to ExperienceLA's weekly email and check the website.

Karie Bible's FilmRadar mailing list for screening listings.

Best little-known transportation tip: the Flyaway Bus from LAX to Union Station, regular crosstown trips in the carpool lane, cheap.

Best little-known Glendale attractions: the Brand Library, Chartres labyrinth replica and the museum at Forest Lawn.

'scuze the self-link, but my husband and I host offbeat LA bus tours, including The Birth of Noir which stops at Mildred Pierce's house in Glendale. We'd be happy to comp an interested concierge who wanted to see what we do before recommending to their clients.

Good luck with the new gig!
posted by Scram at 8:56 AM on April 28

This is a blog about events in LA, but more importantly all the links on the right side of the blog are Los Angeles-centric.
posted by sharkfu at 9:13 AM on April 28