Los Angeles is an awesome place to convene with like‑minded people in small venues to enjoy new music, food, art, comedy, yoga, lectures, and the occasional mind‑bending sermon. After decades of teaching, writing, and wandering through this city’s hidden gems, these are the places I keep returning to — the rooms where something authentic occurs between fellow humans. If you are slightly adventurous and appreciate unforgettable experiences off the beaten path, here is my personal map of the best spots in LA for friend groups, dates, and solo escapades where you feel woven into an ongoing conversation about art, food, music, love, politics, psychology, philosophy, meaning, and how to leave the world a better place than you found it.
1. lafoodshop (Foodshop), Venice
lafoodshop feels like being admitted into a secret society in 19th‑century France organized around pleasure and connection rather than pretense: long tables with a changing cast of guests and a highly curated menu clearly cooked by world‑class flavor aficionados. The air is thick with the smell of herbs, slow‑roasted vegetables, and the finest spices; glassware clinks and you can feel the tables relax as strangers turn into co‑conspirators over the first shared platter. Break homemade bread with filmmakers, musicians, designers, therapists, and writers who aren’t there to peacock but to genuinely connect. Every time I go I leave with the sense that someone just reminded me what loving hospitality is supposed to feel like. When you’re ready to time‑travel to utopia find them on Instagram @lafoodshop or https://www.lafoodshop.com
2. The Baked Potato, Studio City
At The Baked Potato the stage is so close you can feel the drummer’s beats resonating off of your heart. The musicians play with the confident intensity of people who spent all day in studios and came here at night to blow off some steam. The place looks like a time capsule: low ceiling, warm wood, 8×10 black and white signed headshots and album covers from the 70s and 80s, and tiny tables jammed so close together you can’t help but eavesdrop on fellow jazzheads dissecting odd‑meter grooves. The room becomes a warm jumble of touring players, jazz devotees, and first‑timers who end up grinning like kids while demolishing loaded baked potatoes the size of your head — my personal favorite is the broccoli cheddar cheese. If you notice Zane Carney, Tamir Hendelman or Julian Coryell sitting in with anyone or Billy Childs headlining you should rush to buy tickets — the 8pm set always sells out.
Website: https://www.thebakedpotato.com
Address: 3787 Cahuenga Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604
3. Unlikely Collaborators, Main Street, Santa Monica
TED Talks meets Esalen, an evening with Unlikely Collaborators is heart-warming and mind-expanding — like grad school with a tinge of primal magical therapy rolled up in a community of rampant do-gooders. I’ve seen many thoughtful speakers and audiences that actually want to find solutions rather than just nod along. I love how the energy in the room changes from curiosity to intimacy as the evening unfolds, like we’ve all agreed to take our inner lives seriously for a few hours. Events are announced online and hosted in the former general assembly where I gave a talk on authenticity for the Penn Club years ago.
Website: https://www.unlikelycollaborators.com
4. Westside Comedy Theater, Neal Brennan & Friends (Tuesdays)
On Tuesday nights at Westside Comedy in Santa Monica, Neal Brennan and friends workshop their new material that is often cutting-edge. Shuffle down the alley like you’re sneaking to a speakeasy and slip into an intimate cave where the only things that matter are a microphone, thought-provoking ideas, and whether a punchline is brutal enough to kill. Comics take real risks here and are disarmingly honest — even about their own material. Give a call and ask if Dave Chappell, Zach Galifianakis or Mario Joyner is stopping by that evening.
Website: https://westsidecomedy.com
Address: Westside Comedy Theater, 1323‑A 3rd Street Promenade (in the alley), Santa Monica, CA 90401
5. Thomas Mann House, Pacific Palisades
An evening at the Thomas Mann House feels like stepping into an ongoing, decades‑long conversation about democracy, exile, politics systems, and what literature and ideas can still do in the world. The house itself exudes a quiet, old‑world gravity and when a novelist, historian, or policymaker begins speaking in Thomas Mann’s living room, it feels as if the walls remember all of the previous conversations that have taken place there. Afterward, people drift into the garden with wine glasses in hand and commune beneath the trees with an ease that makes big topics feel digestible again.
Website: https://www.vatmh.org
Address: Thomas Mann House, Pacific Palisades, CA
6. Made in LA Party or any evening event at the Hammer Museum
The Made in LA parties at the Hammer Museum attract a very unWestside crowd. This is LA’s hippest people sipping libations and exploring galleries full of boundary‑pushing work. The courtyard shimmers with lights and music and there’s delicious food often prepared by Lulu. The whole museum turns into a roaming salon where you can feel the city’s creative unconscious stretching and flexing; it’s the perfect place to bring a date, a friend, or your own curiosity and simply see who and what you bump into.
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2025/made-la-2025
Address: Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024
7. Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
The Norton Simon is the finest collection of art on the West Coast. If you appreciate the Frick in New York, the Barnes Exhibit in Philadelphia, and the Rodin Museum in Paris, then you will gaze in astonishment at the the most spectacular Degas, Monet, Picasso, Brancusi and Van Gogh artworks you have ever seen. The galleries are quietly luminous and the sculpture garden, with its ponds and trees, becomes an unofficial outdoor salon where people sit on benches, talk about what iconic images are now ingrained in their minds while they drift between discussions of technique, meditation, travel, and the strange comfort of seeing that humans have been wrestling with the same themes for centuries.
Website: https://www.nortonsimon.org
Address: 411 W Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91105
8. BroadStage (The Broad Stage), Santa Monica
BroadStage offers the rare pleasure of hearing world‑class musicians and performers in a room small enough that you can read their body language and feel the energy arcs passing between them. I’ve seen Hiromi, The Takács Quartet, and local symphonies command earth-shattering standing ovations at the Broad Stage. Every time I walk out I feel astonished and expanded.
Website: https://broadstage.org
Address: 1310 11th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401
9. The Hollywood Improv
Get on their mailing list and you’ll be invited to see Nikki Glaser, Chelsea Handler, Jen Kirkman, and Anthony Jeselnik trying out new material like they’re at a friend’s kitchen table. You might come for a headliner who bombs and end up clutching your guts laughing over Max Jobrani and Charles Fleischer’s brilliant observations.
Website: https://improv.com/hollywood
Address: 8162 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046
10. Jazz at LACMA, Fridays 6–8 p.m. (Spring–Fall)
Jazz at LACMA turns the museum plaza into a weekly gathering where blankets, picnic baskets, and kids dancing in the aisles coexist with serious listening and wide‑open skies. Sit up close for Joshua White or Danny Janklow as they bring out LA’s finest musicians to astonish the friendliest audience in Los Angeles. Galleries are free after 3pm for LA denizens so get there early for a magnificent afternoon.
Website: https://www.lacma.org/programs/music
Address: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
11. Gustavo Dudamel & the LA Phil at Walt Disney Concert Hall
I saw Gustavo Dudamel conduct the LA Phil as a guest conductor in 2002 and thought that entire terrace of Venezuelan girls was going to throw their panties on the stage. It was like seeing Hendrix at Monterey, the Beatles in Hamburg. And now after 20 years Maestro Dudamel is leaving so it’s uncertain what the LA Phil will be like next year. If you call on Tuesday after 12 o’clock you can often get orchestra view (facing the conductor) seats for $20. I feel privileged to have watched Maestro Dudamel conduct over 100 times from this vantage point — sometimes I think that even without the music watching him would be tantamout to viewing the most expressive ballet you’ve ever seen.
Website: https://www.laphil.com
Address: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012
12. Agape Sunday Service with Reverend Michael Beckwith
Sunday meditation and service with Reverend Michael Beckwith at Agape feels like plugging your nervous system directly into a field of music, love, silence, and spoken word all aimed at one question: how awake do you actually want to be? And don’t be surprised if Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, or Oprah happen to be sitting next to you before they join Reverend Michael on stage. I’ve bumped into Reverend Michael a few times in the wild and was honored to learn that he read my book. He’s the real deal and Agape is one of the few weekly rituals that reliably reorients me toward what matters.
Website: https://agapelive.com
Address: Saban Theatre, 8484 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
13. Jerome Mercier’s Class at Power Yoga East, Santa Monica
Jerome Mercier’s class at Power Yoga East feels like practicing yoga with the Buddha. I’ve been practicing with Jerome for more than 15 years and I learn something new every day. His sequences are intelligent and challenging without being performative — this is not about acrobatics, it’s about sincerity — and the room takes on that rare quality of shared peace as we quietly countenance our own minds and the afflictions brought on my overstimulation. You return to the hustle of contemporary life lighter, clearer, calmer and somehow more available for authentic connection with whoever you meet next.
Website: https://www.poweryogaeast.com
Address: 522 Santa Monica Blvd (upstairs), Santa Monica, CA 90401
14. Sara Niemietz at Vibrato Grill Jazz
Catching Sara Niemietz at Herb Alpert’s Vibrato Grill Jazz feels like walking into a film scene where the band is locked in, the room glows soft gold, and every eclectic arrangement was written just for you. Whenever I’m at Vibrato I feel like I’m time-traveling to see Duke Ellington or Glen Miller in one of those iconic New York ballrooms that my parents and grandparents spoke about when I was a kid. Stellar food and a friendly staff make for an amazing evening.
Website: https://www.vibratogrilljazz.com
Address: Vibrato Grill Jazz, 2930 N Beverly Glen Cir, Los Angeles, CA 90077
15. Milo & Olive via Too Good To Go
Snagging a Too Good To Go bag from Milo & Olive is my guilty pleasure: a surprise box of the most exquisite croissants, tarts, and cakes that were too beautiful to toss, now yours for the price of an Americano. Swing by one of LA’s best restaurants at 9:30pm and walk out with an eco‑friendly treasure chest of leftover desserts that taste anything but leftover. It’s an easy, joyful ritual that reduces waste, supports a neighborhood spot, and fills your belly with love.
Website: https://www.miloandolive.com
Address: 2723 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90403