Project Pico

By Ryan - Wednesday January 24th 2007

Over the last 45 years I’ve slowly been amassing my knowledge of Pico Boulevard. At present I am at a rank of Pico Mage. Believe me when I say that I aspire to one day become Master of Pico. Could you please answer the following brief questionnaire, either via comment section or to project-pico -at- losanjealous.com:

1) What is your favorite establishment on Pico Blvd?
2) How often do you find yourself driving on Pico – Daily? More than once Daily? Weekly? Hourly? Etc (Bus Drivers: Please indicate you are a bus driver in some fashion for follow-ups)
3) What is your favorite time of day to say the word, ‘Pico’ ?
4) Would you like to be contacted and/or quoted regarding topical Pico Blvd information, products and services?

Rae's (2901 Pico Blvd.)

What now?

No Responses to “Project Pico”

don hosek : 1/24/07 at 2:50 pm

Almost every time I drive, I end up on Pico. I say “Pico” many times every day, usually doubling it and saying it in a falsetto, PICOPICO. This frightens dogs and small children.
Cheese and Rice : 1/24/07 at 3:26 pm

Two faves on pico:
1. Benway Records
2. Don Antonio’s
robin : 1/24/07 at 3:38 pm

Feldmar Watch Co. is a great place to get your watch fixed.
Colony Cafe has good pomegranate limeaide.
mike d : 1/24/07 at 3:50 pm

1. so many to choose from, although i love chutney’s at pico and barrington and roscoe’s at la brea. i’m sure there are a bunch of good places in k-town too.

2. daily, although just a very short stretch.

3. late, late at night.

4. sure. joeblow10 at gmail.com
MSG Quixo : 1/24/07 at 3:59 pm

Pico and Sepulveda! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_lvDLeTae8

Faves on pico: McCabes Guitar Shop, Jennifer Joyce Ceramics Studio, anywhere you can get pupusas like El Baron de Centro-America.
commenter : 1/24/07 at 4:22 pm

roscoes!
superspitz : 1/24/07 at 5:17 pm

1. tacos la flama (pico & barrington) great taco dive on the westside. trader joes in SM. rae’s. papa cristos. el sarape (near bestbuy). the arsenal (daytime onlyl). korean pork ribs place at pico & crenshaw. apple pan. and classics that no longer exist: bit o scotland (fish, scallops and shrimp with chips box – mmm good – not technically pico but just up the street on westwood; everything that used to exist where that godawful block of crap know as the westside pavillion now resides (sees candy, picwood bowl and movie theater, old school friendly pharmacist, etc)
sherru : 1/24/07 at 5:23 pm

OOOH, RAE’S, where you can get a real American normal human breakfast sans ‘crepes’ or ‘japapeno poppers’ for like five dollars.

—

1. Gilberto’s Mexican Restaurant tied with the low profile Out of the Closet thrift store on Pico near the Westside Pavillion. Shhh, it’s a secretly good one. Damnit, now I’ve told everyone.

Ooh, also Laser Blazer DVD store (mostly because I used to work there).

2. I might use Pico 2-3 times a month depending on how often I am dying to get to the Wine House or Sawtelle Blvd.

3. Near lunchtime when it naturally becomes a “DAMN I NEED MORE PICO DE GALLO” situation.

4. Yes. Especially if it involves Pico de whatever.
mike d : 1/24/07 at 5:34 pm

oh yeah, i forgot the apple pan. fantastic, although you leave w/ garbage gut.
oliver : 1/24/07 at 7:54 pm

King Taco, 2020 W. Pico.
santos. : 1/24/07 at 9:27 pm

wasn’t it jonathan gold who (successfully?) attempted to eat at every restaurant on pico? he would be a master of pico if he did.

my favourite place was the 99 dollar store, just for the name alone. cool building too (actually, i think jonathan gold may have lived in that building). but olson’s scandinavian delicatessen has got to be the current favourite. go there–he may have been there for 38 years but he’s not planning on being there much longer.

when i’m in town i drive on pico almost daily; more interestingly, i *walk* on pico daily. my favourite time of day to say ‘pico’ is sometime around rush hour, as at that point it becomes a cursed epithet: “PIIIIIIICCCCOOOOOOO!”
(much like “KHAAAAAAN!” only like, relevant).

if i lived in la full time, i would totally join your quest to master the almighty pico.
Ryan : 1/24/07 at 9:31 pm

thanks santos. urban legend does in fact have Jgold threatening to eat at every restaurant on pico. I have no idea the outcome. I’ve compiled over 450 gigs of picodata thus far. This much I do know.

thanks to all for your pico submissions thus far. Please, keep it coming.
LA City Nerd : 1/25/07 at 12:23 am

Papa Cristo’s: Pico & Normandie.
Ron : 1/25/07 at 2:01 am

Sky’s, goddammit
Pete : 1/25/07 at 3:05 am

1. I’ll second Tacos La Flama. Are taco trucks eligible? If so, Tacos Don Beto, on the south side of the boulevard between Cochran and Redondo, has to go on the list. Oh, and the Vons at Fairfax gets one of the most eclectic mixes of customers you’ll ever see; easily my favorite Vons in the city. Can’t forget the Mint, just east of Crescent Heights; the food is blah, but it’s a really swank place to see live music.

2. I’m on Pico 3-5 times/week. It’s fun to cruise end-to-end late at night, and equally enjoyable as a diversion from the 10.

3. I actually don’t enjoy saying the word. Dunno why.

4. Somebody’s got to put together a comprehensive list of every taqueria on the boulevard, end-to-end.
Allison : 1/25/07 at 12:16 pm

1. Don Antonios and the record store down the block from it, who’s name escapes me now. Black Dahlia Theater.

2. Not on my commute, although it’s a great way to get across town in a pinch.

3. Twice- picopico.

4. sure
Will Campbell : 1/25/07 at 1:15 pm

1) Oki Dog, fuck yeah!
2) Annually (and last year I was on a bike)
3) The only times I say “Pico” outloud is when the jukebox inside my head loads up the classic “Pico & Sepulveda,” and I sing along or when we need some Pio Pico sauce from Vons (in which case I say the brand name and then “Sepulveda” three times fast; cracks me up everytime… did I just use a semicolon?).
4) OK. But never on Sunday and only twice on Tuesday, baby.
Molly : 1/25/07 at 3:34 pm

1) Jokers – the dive bar next to Rae’s w/ darts and real fights

2) Almost daily

3) Anytime I see the sign Â¡PICO!

4) Why not?!
mau : 1/25/07 at 4:11 pm

1) Air Conditioned Bar, next door to the 99 cents store, the Joker and Rae’s!!! A fabu wine bar without the attitude. It’s my current joint of the week.

2) As an alternative to Ocean Park and the 10.

3) Noon. And Midnight.

4) OK
V : 1/25/07 at 4:26 pm

1) City of Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau.
Hands down, the best. They have this cool set up where right when you walk in, you pull a paper ticket from this dispenser and then you can chill out on these neat wooden benches. There is a LED display on the wall that shows numbers–the same numbers on the tickets–and when they get to yours, you go up to the window for your business. Ask for Wanda in window #3, she’s the best at handling getting boots off your car.

2) Constantly. I am on Pico right now as I type this in fact.

3) Whenever I’m on duty. My partner’s name is Serpico. And I’m always like, “SerPICO, that might be how you guys did it in New York but out here we’re civilized and we do it the RIGHT way.” And so forth.

4) No.
Jeannette : 1/26/07 at 11:48 am

1.) Jan’s Liquor and Adult books (McCabes adjacent). You can also hit up Western Union here at all hours and pick up a reasonably priced prostitute (I’m assuming by the state of cars that are picking them up)in the parking lot. If we’re talking food, then duh… Roscoe’s.

2.) Thankfully not that often. There is secret free parking for the Staples Center on Pico though too.

3.) I like to say Pico late at night when I’m drunk… I sing that Pixies line over and over…. Paco Pico….

4.) Hallz no.
Tron : 1/26/07 at 12:30 pm

1) Was Mo’ Better Meatty Meat Burger on Pico? If so, it was my favorite. I never ate there, but I was fascinated by the name.

2) Once every quarter.

3) In the morning with coffee.

4) I don’t think I would be of any help.
Judy : 1/26/07 at 4:08 pm

1) the seven dollar, cash only manicure place across from the westside pavillion, on the same block as coldstone-$7 in the westside!
2) Everyday, 12-20 mins in the morning and 10 at night, cant avoid it!
3) evenings, when everyone at work has to go home and cross it, we all hate it
4. eh.
Sarah Conner : 1/26/07 at 10:57 pm

Tech Noir, yeah, I know it, it’s on Pico.

-Lt. Traxler
LA Police Department, Terminator 1
Kristy : 1/27/07 at 2:34 pm

#1)The pico/robertson area–Tuk Tuk for great (and cheap) Thai food (weekdays are less crowded). The Jewish candy/ice cream shop Munchies close by for some dessert.

I second the Vons near Fairfax–friendliest Von’s around.
Pico Deconstructed: The Naked People Store District : 1/27/07 at 3:31 pm

[...] part of the great lead-up to Project Pico (thanks for your feedback — keep it coming), we now present an oft-overlooked section of the Boulevard of Pico [...]
don hosek : 1/27/07 at 5:14 pm

Yes, Mo Better Meaty Meat Burgers was on Pico. I never ate there either, one my big regrets in life.

Vons at Fairfax is a friendly Vons? Yikes! Or maybe I only say that because I only go there late at night.

I second the rec on Sky Tacos (south side of Pico, between Chicken and Waffle (how come no one mentioned that yet?) and La Brea.

PICOPICO PICOPICO

Sorry, there were some small children I needed to scare off.
Bruin : 1/27/07 at 9:37 pm

McCabe’s Guitar Shop definitely
babibi : 1/29/07 at 12:50 am

AWASH!! Hole in the wall, homecooked Ethiopian food, on Pico off the main drag of “little Ethiopia” and all the better for it…
Scott Mercer : 1/29/07 at 6:02 pm

Rae’s is probably one of the best real life old diner (not faux-retro) type joints in the whole city.

But, I’ve definitely spent the most time at Record Surplus. Close second was Igby’s Comedy Club, on the same block. Also Kelbo’s, I wish I had gone there more before it vanished around 1992.
sherru : 1/30/07 at 5:00 pm

I heard Jonathan Gold DID try to eat his way down the Pico and got the GOUT from it! I don’t know if this is for real or some sort of foodie legend designed to make us trust him entirely.
sayshuh : 1/31/07 at 12:29 pm

John O’Groats for Breakfast (get there early!). The Arsenal has good appetizers and drinks. Yes, Tacos la Flama is good – AND has a mexican deli inside. Torafuku, an expensive but delicious japanese place, is located next to the rebuilding Westside Pavilion on the westernmost side. Hop Li’s at Pico + Veteran has amazing crab in a black bean sauce.
allison : 2/13/07 at 4:03 am

papa christo’s, nick’s, and most definitely sky’s tacos
tannaz : 6/11/07 at 10:23 am

how has no one mentioned CJ’s? bomb huevos rancheros.
Stallone Slated To Slay Selective Seating of Sumatra Swillers, Scone Swallowers : 7/9/07 at 6:38 pm

[...] partner to the one and-only pudding-slinging thespian) will rock the UnUrban Coffee shop on Pico Boulevard tomorrow evening, July 10, with full Frank Stallone Band™ in [...]
Craptastic Cell Phone Photo of the Week: Stallone, Tonsil Goo, Pepsi Sandwiches : 7/13/07 at 7:40 am

[...] on a second…Does Rae’s even have a stage!? After the jump, photo submission instructions and disgusting(ly mediocre) [...]
Project Pico Revisited : 10/9/07 at 11:25 am

[...] which the project that has plagued these office walls all the long year resurfaces and adroitly introduces itself to [...]
Keep The Bills Dry, Please : 10/18/07 at 3:13 pm

[...] followed by a lush, lavish Jeff Lynne-penned exercise in arpeggios. To be sure, from Grasshopper to Joker and all points in between, Damp $ Will Fuck Up The Jukebox. What now? • See More In [...]
Eater : 10/22/07 at 11:48 am

This American Life has Jonathan Gold talking about his Pico experiment on their 10/19/2007 show
In Which Ryan Waxes Dons Giovanni, Caballero, Music Theatre, Other Topicks To His Television : 11/27/07 at 10:58 pm

[...] and loops galore. Don the appropriate attire, take the date to Don Antonio’s out west on Pico and choose the Don of your liking for the main event. Can’t decide which Don you should see? [...]
Adam : 2/18/08 at 12:44 pm

WHEN THE MAYOR TOOK ILLEGAL POWER OVER THE CITY COUNCIL, HE CHOSE TO TAKE AWAY ALL PARKING ON PICO BLVD,BY YOUR FAVORITE SHOPS.

CALL THE MAYOR TO COMPLAIN AT 213/978-0600 (Phone)
213/978-0750 (Fax)
Jen : 6/19/08 at 10:28 am

The Pico Improvement Organization, which represents all the Pico Blvd businesses in Santa Monica, just relaunched their website: http://www.picopassport.com and are busy working on the 3rd annual Pico Art Walk & Classic Auto Show (Sat, Sept 27th 2008 from 10am-5pm). Watch this space!….

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Project Pico

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