Moving to LA -- fill me in!

I’m moving to LA (Santa Monica/Westside) from Seattle this spring. What are the stores, storage places, restaurants, etc. I should know about as a wine lover? I have a few hundred bottles in storage up here, so I’ll need to find a place to keep them (and figure out the best way to get them safely down there), so any pointers for that would be especially appreciated.

Thanks!

Welcome Sean -

I live on the eastside so I’ll leave the storage recs to others. You may already know this, but LA is huge and there are wine shops all over the place. In your area, the big ones are Wine House, 20/20, Wally’s, Beverage Warehouse and LA Wine Co. Wine Expo has a stylized selection of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese amd grower Champagne. There are other stores on the westside like Moes. Out in the valley is Woodland Hills Wine Co, which you’ll find has a broad selection and if you like Burgs you’ll be in heaven. This should keep you busy.

Welcome. I live one town community south of Santa Monica, in Venice. The West Side/Venice/Santa Monica have a large number of good restaurants. But what makes LA unique food wise is not high end dining, but the large number of ethnic dives. Explore these and have a blast.

Wine shop wise you are near Wine Expo, Wally’s, 20/20 and Winehouse. All are good stores in their own way. (I am biased toward Winehouse it was my regular store and I now work their one day a week for fun.)

Storage wise their is storage near you at LA Fine Art and WIne, at the Winehouse, and another place on a little street called Pontius. (I do not remember the name of that storage place.) Last time i checked a few years ago all were full or close to full. So start calling before you move to try to get some place.

Enjoy LA. Lousy town to visit, great place to live. (If you don’t mind driving.)

Welcome to town.

As the others have said above, you’ll be close to several great stores. Get on their E-mail lists and you’ll get a good feel for it pretty quick.

For storage, I think the cheapest is L.A. Fine wines on Centinela. I used to store there and they were just fine.

Let us know when you’re in town and we’ll keep you in mind next time the Westsiders get together, you’ll get to know folks pretty quick that way.

Add “dez” to the end of your name and buy Lotto tix!

+1 on L.A. Fine Arts & Wine Storage.

Been there for years.

Welcome to L.A.!

Another vote for L.A. Fine Art & Wine Storage on the Westside – they are the cheapest storage option in the area. I have been a satisfied customer there for two years now.

Wine House – that will likely be your go-to store for most of your wine shopping. Large store with fantastic staff and competitive pricing. While 20/20 and Wine Expo are also great, they are specialty stores.

+5 on storing at L.A. Fine Arts & Wine Storage. They raised their rates about a year ago, but it’s still cheaper than anywhere else and there is always a locker available.

Everyone else has steered you in the right direction with respect to area wine stores.

Welcome to LA!

Wine House, Wallys, La Fine Arts and Wine Storage and The Beverly Hills Wine Merchant all offer wine lockers. There is a place in the Marina as well.

K&L – Their store is in Hollywood, but their website is incredibly easy to use, and they’ll hold orders for pick-up. Their pricing and selection make it worthwhile to make the drive every few months to pick-up your stockpile of orders.

Wine House is decent – they have their strengths, but for new releases they are not the best, imo.

L.A. Wine Company has a small, but solid, selection.

Wally’s – they suck. Insulting pricing and a warm store. Don’t waste your time.

20/20 – lots of very hard-to-find wines at hard-to-swallow prices. There’s always a small handful of “good finds” in the store, but on the whole this store is obscenely over-priced.

Finally, Welcome to L.A.! If you like beer, make sure you find your way to Naja’s Place in South Redondo Beach – it is a beer lover’s wet dream. Eat some soft-shell asada tacos at the El Burrito Jr. taco stand about a mile away on Pacific Coast Highway before going – best tacos I’ve ever had – I do not vet any of their other offerings, however, so deviate from the asada tacos at your own risk!

Welcome Sean! Stay in touch with Denis and you will surely be meeting a bunch of Westside winos in the near future!


Cheers!
Marshall

Thanks all, this is very helpful!

I’ve ordered from K&L before, but I forgot that they have a location in LA.

Sean, when are you coming to town? I’d love to host you for a night in our wine bar as a welcome to Santa Monica gesture.

Wow, thanks Roberto! That would be fun We’re not coming until the end of March or early April (we haven’t fully finalized the timeline yet).

Ok, sound like I will be at VinItaly RIGHT when you get here but come in anytime after April 10th or so…

Welcome to SoCal!! In addition to everything you’ve seen so far, I’ll put a plug in for DomaineLA on Melrose. Jill has a really nice selection of less-than-ordinary wines. They hold lots of tastings on Sundays, usually coupled with the presence of a food truck.

Located a few blocks away in a very bland small strip mall is Lou on Vine. Wonderful food/cheese and very eclectic by-the-glass pours. Plus Lou is a lovable curmudgeon!

Big shout out to the Wine Hotel (Terrior) located on 3rd street near La Brea. Tons of “Becky Wasserman Selections” and other wines that shout out to the “anti-flavor elite”.

Venturing further east, big fan of Rosso Wine Shop and Palate Food and Wine, both in Glendale. The back portion of Palate is less formal dining atmosphere with live jazz on Wednesdays and again, not the run of the mill wines.

Enjoy your adventure exploring all that LA has to offer!

I was just in Wine Expo this weekend, and it is the only wine store I’ve ever been in that actually excited me! Seriously…I’ve been in shops with amazing selections of rarified Burgs and classified Bordeaux, but I can’t afford that stuff; Wine Expo had tons of fun stuff that I could afford! That’s killer! For example, I walked out with an Amarone style Calabrese gallioppo…how about that!!!

Plus, Roberto is a mensch.

Why thank you, Chaad. How was Il Forno?

Sean, upstairs from the Wine House, they have a terrific little wine bar / restaurant called Upstairs 2, with great small plates and wines by the glass or in flights. A lovely spot for the wine lover for dinner or for wine tasting before dinner elsewhere.

[LA, like many big cities, is full of wine bars, but as you can imagine, this is quite different from most of them as far as offerings of interest to wine enthusiasts.]

Perfect, actually. The waiter was so nice, I swear he must have mistaken me for someone else! Seriously!

You were dead-on with the recco; kid friendly, good food (pizza was the winner). The only bummer was the wine list, but what options are there late on a Sunday night?

Thanks again for the suggestion, and hopefully I’ll see you in Verona in a few months.