Southcoasting: Sunset Boulevard

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Sunset Boulevard

I loved Sunset Boulevard, the length of it, the variation, the tall palm trees. The name holds such romance, from the 1949 Billy Wilder movie starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden and it didn't disappoint. (Read the full film script here.)

Those big houses are down the Beverley Hills end of the road I guess, but the thing about Sunset is the way it changes and grows, but always with the Hollywood Hills as a backdrop and those tall straining palm trees along the side.

It gets kinda grand down the Beverley Hills end, and before then sits the clubs and bars of West Hollywood, but between the Santa Monica Blvd turning and Silverlake it's kinda funky. I stopped there by accident because I was driving west down Sunset for the first time and spotted the Hollywood sign on the hills in the background and had to stop for a photo. You can kinda see it in the second photo below - if you know where to look! I pulled in opposite the Casbah Cafe (3900 West Sunset Blvd), which does excellent coffee, bagels and atmosphere. Then a few days later a gang of us descended on the superb Eat Well breakfast diner just a few doors along (3916 West Sunset Blvd), which must be the best place for breakfast in the world ever, bar none. It was busy, but well worth it.

Map of Eat Well location /Photos of the 3900 stretch below

originally uploaded by Southcoasting

And then there's the sixties, and the stories of Jim Morrison holeing up in some hotel on Sunset, or Love playing in some dive of a club. More on Sunset music later, but for now...