Abbot Kinney ~ Venice, California

by Liz Dowling

Abbot Kinney is one of my favorite streets in LA.  I discovered it in 1994 when I was pregnant with our daughter.  Avoiding traffic on the highways, I took surface streets to get to my OB from Manhattan Beach.  Culver Blvd to Lincoln Blvd, left on Washington, all the way across Abbot Kinney, a right onto Main Street and into Santa Monica.  Hal’s and Joe’s restaurants were on Abbot Kinney back then (and still are) in addition to some yoga places and a few stores.  Not a lot in those days.  A grittier version of Venice.  But that has changed!

P1030616 P1030622

Indie retailers and a great stretch of home design and gift stores have opened up on Abbot Kinney.

P1030647 P1030652

Chariots on Fire had this adorable dog in the doorway, and Tumbleweed and Dandelion displayed graphic prints and hydrangeas.

P1030631  P1030626

Strange Invisible Perfumes (on left) just renovated their beautiful store and A + K had cool Pantone chairs.

P1030610 P1030645

Flowers are everywhere!  In doorways, window boxes, in stores…

P1030634 P1030665 P1030642

It is a great place to spot celebrities.  Last trip, we ran into Brittany Snow.  This time, we saw Taran Killam from SNL.  Autograph (or selfie) jackpot!

P1030629  P1030608

The whole street is not even a mile long.  It is a feast for the eyes with great people watching and store after store that I want to go into.

P1030614 P1030618

P1030612  P1030654

There are some fabulous restaurants on Abbot Kinney.  Tasting Kitchen, Gjelina, Abbot’s Pizza, Axe and, our old favorite, Joe’s to name a few.

P1030617  P1030623 P1030644

We were visiting LA under the guise of looking at colleges…  But Grace and I found a good two hours to leisurely spend on Abbot Kinney wandering in and out of stores.

P1030636 P1030613

You (meaning me) basically want to buy everything.  It was hard to get me off Abbot Kinney, but the bribe of a delicious snack and a granita at Urth Caffe on Main Street in Santa Monica got me behind the wheel.

  P1030658 P1030659

For any Urth Caffe fans ~ the first Urth was right around the corner from our house in Manhattan Beach.  A tiny, rented storefront in the early 1990’s.  Manhattan Mudd coffee is named after this location.  I was there every morning before my commute to Beverly Hills, giant Manhattan Mudd in hand.  We love visiting them every time we come to LA!  Any other Urth Caffe fans out there?

Urth-Cafe-Cup

the wry home

You may also like

6 comments

Anonymous May 9, 2014 - 10:10 pm

Love urth cafe – Caleigh and I discovered a few years back when we were visiting pals on south rodeo. Caleigh loves la and wants to live there some day but decided too far for college…. Next time putting this street on our list after decades and the melrose flea market!

Elizabeth Dowling May 10, 2014 - 9:08 am

Melrose flea market, now I want to go!

Anonymous May 10, 2014 - 5:01 pm

The Pantone chairs rock!

Elizabeth Dowling May 10, 2014 - 5:02 pm

I know, so cute!

Julie May 10, 2014 - 6:10 pm

Melrose is okay but the ROSE BOWL is the mother of all fleas in SoCal. I think it’s every 2nd Sunday. If you’re in NorCal, it’s the Alameda Flea every 1st Sunday. Dealers (who are worth their salt) tend to go to these 2 big ones and maybe Sacramento once in a while.

Elizabeth Dowling May 11, 2014 - 1:03 am

Thank you! I am not an expert on flea markets, but have heard the Rose Bowl is amazing. Wish I still lived out there…

Comments are closed.