BGG Weekender

This is the time of year when people you know start vacationing in faraway places with exotic names you can't pronounce.  To make matters worse, you’re usually stuck reading their exuberant online updates from your cubicle, because the only other activity you've come up with to distract yourself from work is the vending machine. To help ease the pain for those left behind in LA this weekend, we've put together a weekend itinerary with a few foreign flourishes. Feel free to Instagram spam your stream till the cows (read: smug, passport-toting friends) come home.

FRIDAY
5 p.m.  Start off your weekend with the Pico & Robertson June Block Party.  After all, as far as LA goes, anything South of Wilshire counts as ‘exotic.’  Sneak out of work early for a chance to taste test goodies from the newly unveiled Truffle Parlor Dessert Bar for free.  Truffles are French, oui?

6:30 p.m.  Afterward, swing over to the Steingarten gastropub. Nothing says not-in-LA better than a girl drinking beer.  If you make it in time for the beer and sausage happy hour between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., all the better.

SATURDAY
11 a.m. -7 p.m.  We know food trucks are very LA, but when assembled together in one place they can take on an international tone, no?  Not so much like going to Europe as going to Epcot, but still.  For this reason, we’re sending you to another food truck fiesta Saturday -- the NoHo Food Truck Fest .  This time, proceeds benefit "Hope for Paws" animal rescue, so you can feel good about stuffing your face with Sweet E's unreal cupcakes or a ginormous hot dog from the Greasy Weiner. 

2:30-5 p.m.  Whenever we go on vacation, we gain ten pounds.  To get this effect, we are following up your food truck coma with a Little Tokyo Foodie Tour.  Tix are $30.

If you really can’t stuff anything else in for a few hours, head instead to the Native LA Flea Market. What trip to somewhere fabulous is complete without a stop at the local flea market?

8 p.m.-2 a.m.  Afterward, saunter over to The Pancakes & Booze Art Show, featuring emerging artists, live music and, yes, pancakes, all for an entry fee of just $5.  It may not keep you out until 6 a.m., but the pancake sugar high will at least get you to 2 a.m.

SUNDAY
11 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.  Once you've slept off the booze and pancakes, grab brunch at Sauce, which is 'Amsterdam-inspired', and then check out the bands and sidewalk sale at Main Street's 11th Annual Summer SOULstice Festival.  If you get ambitious, grab a flotation device of some sort and take a ride down the Venice canals. It’s almost like Venice, Italy and, yes...we’ve done it before (more than once).

9:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.  We can’t think of any way around a cross-town drive at this point as we need to get you to the opening of Camerata at Hemingway’s, but for a foreign feel you could always pop in some language lessons on CD while you commute.  Entry is free and there’s an open whiskey bar from 9:30-10:30 p.m. Those who show up later will have to pay $10 and buy their own drinks, but the jazz goes all night long.  Jazz (and whiskey) may be American, but hey...we all have to come home sometime. 

photo by Heather Tanji