View from the Getty Center. Photo courtesy of jeff_soffer, Flickr (Most people associate Brentwood more with “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” than “Hometown U.S.A.,” but visitors who know where to look can casually enjoy the Westside enclave without putting on airs or blowing a wad of cash. Yes, the median home price is $2 million, and, yes, there are more German cars there than on most autobahns. But like a six-bedroom house tucked deep behind an ivy-covered brick wall, Brentwood is low-key in its high life.
Conceived in the mid-1900s, the community, which used to be called Westgate, was annexed to the city of Los Angles in 1916. Brentwood has about 35,000 people and covers about 15 square miles, much of them in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The Brentwood Country Mart is as good a place as any to get a handle on the local vibe. Built in 1948, the Country Mart combines the “aw-shucks” charm of its red-barn exterior with sophistication that’s long attracted local celebs to its more than two-dozen stores and stalls at the community’s western border. Establishments like Broken English jewelry store and Sugar Paper stationary store may cater to the well-healed, but if you want to go old-school Mart, get a rotisserie chicken basket at the mighty Reddi Chick, hang out by the firepit and take it all in. Foodies can also rejoice knowing that Jeffrey Cerciello, formerly of the Thomas Keller restaurant empire (French Laundry, Bouchon), is opening up restaurant-market Farm Shop at the Mart’s old City Bakery space. And if the kids are with you, Toy Crazy and the adjoining patio, complete with a couple mechanical animal rides, will fit the bill.
If you’re looking for a little more activity, though, head about a mile east to the five block stretch along San Vicente Blvd. between Bundy Dr. and Darlington Ave. Amid a hodgepodge of shops and services are some of the higher-end clothing-chain types such as Theodore and Ron Herman. As restaurants go, expect to go from midscale to upscale with local longtime Italian favorites such as Toscana and Vincenti Ristorante being more recently joined by Tavern, from Susan Goin and Caroline Styne of Lucques/AOC fame, Sushi Nozawa spinoff Sugarfish and Katsuya’s Brentwood outpost.
For a happy medium between the Country Mart and San Vicente, Brentwood Village, near the intersection of Barrington Ave. and Sunset Blvd., provides a relatively low-key, walkable shopping district with about 60 stores, most of which are independently owned boutiques, salons, cafes and other services.
Brentwood Park is worth a drive-through to check out the hundreds of large, stately homes that date back to the 1920s, but some of Brentwood’s real architectural treats are in Crestwood Hills at the top of Kenter Canyon, a few miles north of Sunset Blvd. There, dotting many of the hillsides, are the remains of a mid-Century modern community designed in part by noted architect A. Quincy Jones. While most of the 30 remaining post-and-beam houses are small – most between 1,200 and 1,400 square feet – their profiles of glass, stone and slanted roofs are as stunning as the views out to Santa Monica Bay. Most of the homes are on Rochedale Lane, Hanley Avenue, Stonehill Lane, Deerbrook Lane, Tigertail Road and Bluegrass Lane.
Speaking of canyons, Brentwood’s provide dozens of access points into the Santa Monica Mountains, where fire roads and other trails offer hikes with views stretching from the Pacific to the South Bay to Downtown and beyond. Kenter Canyon’s Crestwood Park, Mandeville Canyon’s Westridge Rd. and Mount St. Mary’s College are all good places to start your exploration.
Brentwood visitors have their choice of two hotels in the immediate area. The Luxe Sunset Boulevard offers 160 rooms as well as a world-class day spa, pool and tennis courts. Hotel Angeleno, housed in what used to be the iconic, cylindrical Holiday Inn building off Sunset Boulevard, offers 209 very cool rooms as well as the 17th floor West Restaurant and Lounge, which gives guests panoramic views of Los Angeles.As for community’s most expansive view, however, the Getty Center can’t be beat. The museum, which took almost a decade and cost more than $1 billion to built, offers an extensive collection of antiquities, paintings, drawings, sculpture, 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs. Visitors can also enjoy a fantastic lunch or dinner at The Restaurant, which offers a menu that changes with the seasons. The Getty’s most stunning image, however, may be of the city below.
Danny King is a freelance reporter whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Daily Variety. King, who has been a staff reporter for Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Business Journal, currently writes about subjects ranging from the travel industry to alternative-fueled vehicles. A native Angeleno, King lives with his family in either Los Feliz or Silver Lake – he’s still not sure which.
