By Geo Ong
Last week I mentioned that I was the luckiest person alive. This week I’ve gone to heaven.
Culver City, California, has fast been rising as a place you actually want to be, with handfuls of independently run coffeehouses, restaurants, and bars. Last Saturday I found myself on a short strip of Sepulveda with various points of interest within walking distance, which, as many UM readers should know or be aware of, only occurs once in a blue moon on a clear night with no smog.
First there’s Tanner’s Coffee, a small coffee house on the corner of Sepulveda and Lindblade that has a relaxed atmosphere, good coffee, and free wi-fi. I had time to kill before meeting friends at the Scarlet Lady Saloon, a dive bar on the corner of Sepulveda and Sawtelle. I figured I’d get some dinner so I utilised the coffee house’s wi-fi to look up a restaurant I had passed in my car several times without ever going in, Green Peas.
On the short walk from Tanner’s to Green Peas – longer if you include the fact that I started off the wrong way (I haven’t walked in three years) – I passed a pho restaurant with easily the greatest name in the world. Ready for it? Pho Show. Even if they didn’t offer vegan options (which they do!), I would still like this place on account of its brilliant name.
I continued on in the right direction to the Christmas-light-lit fronterior of Green Peas and walked into my heaven. Where do I start? Well I was greeted warmly at the door by a man wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirt. Before I could engage him in a conversation on which one had the best weapon (Michelangelo, pho show) my eyes found the menu boards. Vegan options galore, from sandwiches to breakfast to quesadillas to pizza. I went right away for the pizza, since the last pizza I had was one I made myself. (‘Made’ is perhaps a misleading term. ‘Assembled’ is more appropriate, I suppose. Also, ‘piled together’ would work.)
Five minutes later I found myself seated comfortably in front of a big screen TV, watching the Lakers with a slight lead over the Dallas Mavericks, with a whole pizza to myself, and another friendly Green Peas employee, this one wearing a purple Lakers t-shirt, discussing our favourite basketball team with me. I had found my heaven. How could it have gotten any better?
The Lakers won by five. That was how.
