Introducing Venice

Long ago – after the resort crowd found a comparatively happier place on earth in Anaheim, and oil tycoons drank up fossilized riches for decades – the artists came to Venice, eschewing posher Santa Monica above, Mar Vista aside and affluent Marina Del Rey below.

Their needs were minimal, their possessions few… but their creativity quickly took root in the salty sea breeze. They created the pedestrian-only Ocean Front Walk promenade, equal parts seaside and sideshow. The main drag – Abbot Kinney (named after the city’s co-founder) – became thick with specialty curio shops like Tony’s, cafés like sandwich staple Abbot’s Habit and local watering holes like The Brig.

And then a funny thing happened. Ideas, it turns out, are quite valuable to those who need them. Soon the artists found themselves in demand and their city prosperous, beckoning artists of other trades – designers, chefs, decorators, and mixologists – to organically integrate their own ideas alongside Venice’s historic canals and coffeehouses, embracing new yet preserving old.

Today’s Venice is an eclectic mix, a patchwork playground where vestiges of its counter-culture days proudly neighbour hip new entries, such as city-wide brunch and brick-oven pizza destination Gjelina and Mediterranean-inspired tapas at Primitivo Wine Bistro. While antique shops like Firefly and The Perfect Piece remind us that what’s old can still be new again. And it remains a place for artists, vintage yet modern, serving draft beers alongside handcrafted cocktails, for barefoot hippies and mustachioed hipsters alike.