- A local's guide to Venice Beach, California.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining
and in this video I'm gonna be giving you
a local's perspective to Venice, and if you're wondering
which local, it's this local.
- Chris! - Hey Tyrone,
how's it going? - What are you doing here?
- Yeah! Good to see you.
You want to join me for this video today?
- Sure! Why not?
- Alright, well fortuitous timing.
So if Tyrone looks familiar, it's because I first met
Tyrone in the Smorgasbord video that I did
in Smorgasbord L.A, he's also an actor here in Hollywood,
he's an L.A local and this is one of his favorite places
that he's gonna show us around.
So Tyrone, what do you like about Venice?
- Well Chris, aside from the beautiful weather,
the palm trees, the beach and all that,
there's a lot of places you can check out here.
Very eclectic, there's a lot of art,
there's a lot of sports games,
you can go over here and play some handball.
You can do face painting, you can check out
almost everything here in one location, it's really cool.
- Yeah, it's really cool.
I'm totally looking forward to it
and by the way, after I met Tyrone at Smorgasbord
I checked out his channel The Rone Zone.
Saw a lot of fun stuff on it
and this is sure to be a fun video.
So what are you we gonna see today?
- Well we're gonna check out the craziness on the Boardwalk,
we're gonna check out all the high-class shopping
there on Abbot Kinney and then we're gonna
take you to the canals.
- Yeah and the canals are really cool,
I was in Venice maybe five or six times before
I even knew these existed.
And Venice Beach was actually modeled after Venice, Italy.
These are like some Italian canals, they're really cool.
Alright, let's go.
- Yeah! Let's do it.
- So we're gonna start our tour at the end of
West Washington Boulevard at the foot
of the Venice Beach Pier.
Why?
Because this is one of the best places to park,
there's a really big parking lot, you just take the
street all the way to the beach and you're here,
and there's this great pier.
Tyrone, why do you like this pier?
- I lovee this pier because you get
a whole panoramic view of everything.
Over there you've got the Palisades,
you see the mountains over there, Santa Monica,
you head down that way you've got Manhattan Beach
you've got all that beauty and over there you have
the Catalina Islands.
You can see everything from here, it's pretty cool.
- That's cool, where are we heading next?
- I think we're gonna head north, and we're gonna
check out some of the little activities up here
I think we're gonna see the paddle tennis courts.
How about that?
- So as we walk from the pier towards the main crazy
heart of Venice, we walk through Venice's residential area,
these really quaint streets.
Tyrone, how much do houses here cost, do you think?
- Well, I would say on average
around 20-30 million dollars.
- [Tyrone] Cheap!
So this is pretty cheap.
- Yeah, definitely cheap, so save up all your pennies.
- Yeah.
So, this purple house and this house with the lookout tower,
are there a story behind these really interesting houses?
- As a matter of fact, yes, there is Chris.
This house, this purple home you see here,
the residents actually had the house painted purple
so they could see their house on television and film
because they film out here all the time,
and who doesn't want to watch a T.V show and say
Hey look, there's my purple house.
- Right.
What about this house with the lookout tower?
It looks like a lifeguard tower.
- Yes, exactly.
So this house right here was designed
by the famous architect Frank Gehry.
And there's actually a semi-famous director
who lives there and apparently
he just wanted a lookout tower built because he wanted to
just catch all of the views at night, and if you look on the
outside it almost looks like bath tile.
But it's a really cool design, and it's one of the
many cool houses you'll see here on Venice.
- [Chris] And I also want to point out,
that lookout tower has a chandelier in it.
- [Tyrone] Yes it does.
- High class.
So that was the quiet residential zone we were in
and it's now starting to get louder.
Tell me about this building we see here?
- Well guys, right here is sort of the beginning of
all the businesses.
We went from residential to businesses.
This is IT'SUGAR, you can get your candy fix there,
but what I really want to show you
are the paddle tennis courts right over there.
- Okay, we continue to get louder and louder.
Here it kind of sounds like machine guns are shooting
but I think we're not getting shot at.
Tyrone, what's that sound?
- I hope it's not machine guns.
That is the sound of paddle tennis,
as you can see behind us.
Paddle tennis is essentially the same as tennis,
there's a couple rules that are a little different
but of course as you can see these guys are using paddles
not the traditional rackets you see in tennis.
- And if somebody came here and wanted to play,
do they have to pay or how does that work?
- It's absolutely free.
However you do need to obviously
bring your own equipment with the exception of a guy
I met the other day named Mitch who sells the equipment,
so you may be able to find that kind of deal.
But for the most part, bring your own stuff
but it is free to play.
- That's cool.
And I think that's one of the coolest parts about Venice,
lots of things in L.A cost you money.
You go to Disneyland and Universal Studios,
that'll cost you $100 a day.
You come down to Venice and there's all this free stuff.
Alright, what are we gonna see next?
- Well I say we go head that way, and check out the
muscle part of the beach.
- Muscle Beach.
He'll be showing you the muscles, not me.
Alright, let's go.
So here we are at Muscle Beach, here in the bleachers,
looking down at all the action.
- I would say that the gun show isn't here
but more like over there.
- [Chris] So can we go in there and lift weights?
Or how does this place work?
- As a matter of fact, Chris, you can.
And it doesn't matter who you are,
you could be the weakest guy on the beach.
For $10 a day, you can work out where Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Danny Trejo, all the greatest actors
and muscle guys have been.
Also, if you guys are interested in a monthly pass,
it's $20.
- [Chris] 20 bucks?
20 bucks for a month?
- [Tyrone] Exactly.
So you know where I'm gonna be this summer.
- Alright, working out.
- Yeah.
- And I guess this wasn't
the original Muscle Beach though, right?
- This was not.
The original Muscle Beach started
just a little north over there, just south of the
Santa Monica Pier where all the top acrobats
and physical specimens started in the 1930s.
This was built in 1952, I believe,
and that's where these guys also were working out.
Working on their tans and muscles.
- [Chris] Yeah I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger
would always say that what he liked about this place
was he could work out and get a tan at the same time.
So you can get both in.
- That's cool. - So Tyrone,
these bleachers also look like a really great place
to check out everything else from a birds eye view.
What are we looking at out here?
- Well, if we look over here obviously we're looking at
the Muscle Beach so you can check out the guys
working out over there.
Over here we have a great place where you've got some rings,
a little workout area if you want to do some pull-ups,
some dips, of course it's free and anyone's allowed in here.
You can see that, you've got the beach over there,
and if you look a little more to the right
you've got some handball courts.
And then if you pull it a little more to the right even more
you've got the basketball courts,
which are called the Venice Ball Courts.
Actually, if you come here on Sundays
at nine o'clock they offer clinics at nine and 12,
where they have some of the top coaches
and basketball players
here to help you play some basketball.
- That's cool.
Can they help me dunk?
- Chris I don't know if there's anyone
that can help you dunk.
- Alright, well maybe they can't help me dunk
but can I just play on these courts?
- Yeah, you can play pretty much on any court,
with the exception of that court over there,
where a lot of times that's where
the ex-college basketball players
and the more skilled guys go.
- The one closest to the Boardwalk?
- The one closest to the Boardwalk.
- That's not for us?
- That is not for us.
We are probably--
- The one closer to the beach?
- Yes.
- The one in the beach?
The one in the sand.
What about this court right here?
There's this one court that's blue.
What's going on here today?
- This is a tournament they're doing right now,
looks like a three-on-three tournament.
They only do this on the weekends, usually during the week
you could actually play basketball here.
But of course today they're doing a specific tournament,
they've got music, they've got all kinds of events going on
and all these people check it out.
It's pretty cool stuff.
- So Tyrone, I noticed that we're not walking
on the Boardwalk where everybody else is.
We're kind of walking a little inland a little more,
why are we not walking over there?
- Well for one, there's a lot of really cool things
that you wouldn't notice from there as you would from here.
For example, over here we've got
little skateboarding demonstrations,
if you go more over there,
almost all the time they have these guys doing
rollerskate tricks, and they've got boomboxes,
and a lot of people are just having little picnics
in the actual grass areas and just checking it out.
It's pretty cool.
- Yeah I feel like as a tourist, it's really easy
to come to Venice and be attracted like a moth to the flame
and just stick on the Boardwalk, but get off the Boardwalk
'cause you notice everywhere Tyrone has shown us
is not on the Boardwalk.
It's the stuff between the Boardwalk and the ocean.
On our way to the skate-park we had to cross
the bicycle path here in Venice Beach.
There's two boardwalks, there's the boardwalk
that you walk on, and there's the boardwalk
that you bike and skateboard on.
But Tyrone, a lot of people say this is a good place
to ride a bike.
What do you say?
- I would say 100% no.
Unless you have really good health insurance
because there are people darting in and out
of this place and I tell you what, it's like
a really crazy game of frog around here.
Let me tell you.
- So we're here at the skate park, Rone,
you were skating in at the beginning.
Have you skated in here?
- No, I have not because I leave this to the professionals.
Let me tell you, this place has had anyone from Tony Hawk,
Steve Caballero, to some of the new school guys
like Ryan O'Neal and Andy Anderson.
Those guys are top notch and this is where they perfect
some of those skills and become those world-class skaters.
- [Chris] Yeah, these are really impressive skateboarders.
If you like skating and you don't just want to see it on
TV or on YouTube, come here and check it out.
Okay, so we're walking inland now away from the skate park,
what are we gonna check out now, Rone?
- We're gonna check out this really cool mural
on the other side of this building over here.
- This mural?
The mural This is Venice?
- Actually on the other side of that.
- The other side of it.
- On the other side of that mural.
- Okay, see you on the other side.
- Yeah, see you on the other side.
Come on.
Here we have a mural, this mural was done
by a gentleman named Jonas Never.
He actually completed this in 2012, he's a local artist.
He basically replicated this from a film
called Touch of Evil by Orson Wells.
- The most interesting thing I thought about that mural
was I realized standing there that mural
is a mural of this street.
The Venice sign in that mural,
that's that Venice sign right there.
And these buildings, those are like the buildings
that are in there, is that right?
- That is very true, this is actually
replicated to that mural which came from that film itself.
- So that's interesting.
I've never been in a place where I've seen a mural
of the street that I've been standing on.
But 60 years ago, when this was much more like Venice.
Now if you look this way, it's not all Venetian anymore,
now it's become a bunch of cheap restaurants,
bars and bike rentals.
- [Tyrone] Well actually Chris, they're not all
necessarily cheap restaurants, you just kind of have
to know where to look sometimes.
And right here, I sort of have this diamond in the rough,
if you will, a relic,
sort of a staple to Venice since 1915.
It is the oldest bar west of Los Angeles here,
downtown Los Angeles.
It is called the Townhouse Bar,
you can check out some really cool up-scale jazz stuff,
they have really awesome cocktails.
You don't want to just walk in there in shorts.
- [Chris] So this intersection, the intersection of
Windward and Pacific, this is the center of Venice Beach
with the Venice sign.
If you were just to put Venice Beach in Google Maps,
this is where you would come to.
The reason why we didn't tell you to start this tour here,
this brings you in to a huge traffic snarl.
But Rone, if people want to take a picture
with that Venice sign, what's the best way to do that?
- I would say get here early
because as you can see where the sun is,
if you get a photo of the sun it's really backlit,
you don't get a nice clear vision of the sign itself.
So come here in the morning and then get your selfie.
And in the meantime, I think we're gonna go and check out
some more high-end shopping areas,
just a few blocks down that way.
Come along, guys.
- And weren't you telling me you really like the smoothies
from Windward Farms?
- How could I forget?
Windward Farms has the best smoothies,
you would never suspect that some little deli-mart
right there would have the best smoothies,
but they really do.
You guys check it out and go get yourself one today.
- #notsponsored.
His favorite though.
How far is Abbot Kinney from here?
- I would say about six blocks.
- Six blocks?
Hey hold on, I want to pet the puppy.
- Oh, Chris don't!
- It's a stuffed puppy.
- Chris, if you thought that was weird,
take a look at this car.
I think I'm trespassing.
Shh.
You kids get off my lawn!
- Okay so we're here on Abbot Kinney Boulevard,
this is Venice's most high-end set of shops,
and if you thought the Venice Beach Boardwalk
was just about cheap T-shirts and sunglasses
well here you can get things that aren't cheap.
This store Aesop, specializes in this lotion.
This is a tangerine rind lotion.
Rone, how much is this lotion,
if we want to get a bottle of this?
- Really expensive.
But at least it's yellow.
- It's like $60 plus for this lotion.
- Sweet. Can you get the neck?
Chris. - Yeah?
- Hey, guess what?
- What?
- There are some really cool shops here, very eclectic,
and they're so unique.
For example there's a place over here called Toms,
where not only can you buy a really nice pair of sunglasses,
some really cool shoes,
but they also have a coffee shop
where you can sit there and hang out.
- Yeah and what's most interesting,
where do you drink the coffee?
You drink the coffee inside, sitting next to the shoes
and they've almost got a little park back there.
So come to Abbot Kinney
to check out some really unique places.
These are the kinds of shops you won't see anywhere else.
They're definitely like the flagship stores on Abbot Kinney.
Alright so Abbot Kinney Boulevard, the business district
basically ends right about here in Venice Boulevard.
But I think, Rone, it looks like
we're in front of Lemonade,
you were telling me you really like this place.
What do you like about Lemonade?
- Well the first thing I love about it
is it's the same color as your shirt.
- Oh I do love that.
I love that.
- But the other part about it is I love the fact
that you have a lot of fresh options,
the food is actually good for you here.
And you can choose as many options as you like,
but you can get truffle mac 'n cheese.
Where can you get truffle mac 'n cheese anywhere else?
I don't know!
- And the truffle mac 'n cheese, it's really good.
Okay, but where are we going now?
- Well guys, I think we're gonna head down this way
and check out some of these really interesting canals.
- Okay, so we're gonna go down Venice Boulevard
to the canals of Venice.
See you guys at the canals.
So we went about three blocks down Venice,
we hung a left on Ocean Avenue, two blocks on there,
turn right and we're here at the canals.
Rone, tell us about these canals.
- [Tyrone] Yeah, so this is one of the seven canals
from the original.
The rest of them were filled in, in 1927.
- [Chris] So Venice had way more canals
than this originally?
- [Tyrone] Way more than this, yes.
Watch your head.
And they actually, the water comes in
from the Marina Del Rey
which is a little east from here and you could actually see
some of the canals from Washington Street itself,
from where we started.
- And I feel like this, these canals are a world away
from the rest of Venice.
And when you come here, you can really see Abbot Kinney's
original vision of, and I'll call your attention this way,
his original vision of a Venice by the sea here.
People have boats, it's quiet, it's quaint.
Truly an awesome spot.
So Rone, if people are coming to Venice Beach,
how long do you think tourists should spend here?
We started this at noon and it's about five o'clock.
But how long should other people spend?
- Well I guess, I mean we saw quite a bit of stuff
for the few hours we've been out here
but if you really want to participate
in all of the stuff and really get a good feel for it,
I'd say a good solid maybe three, four days
would really kind of cover it I think.
- All in Venice or, for L.A proper?
- I would say just in Venice.
L.A is a little too spread out
to just do in three to four days.
- Yeah, yeah.
Alright.
And if you're coming to Venice
there's some other nearby areas like Santa Monica,
you can check out other things in West Hollywood
that are pretty central to this.
I think one of the things people try to do
when they come to L.A, is they're like,
Ive got three days and I want to see all of L.A.
And that's hard, so take it from a local who says,
spend your time in a little area and really get to know it.
What's interesting about Rone,
is that he's lived all around the world,
in lots of different places,
and he's been in L.A for five years.
So Rone what initially attracted you to L.A?
- Well I think aside from the fact
that I lived in a lot of rainy areas
and snowy areas in my life,
we've kind of got this mono-season thing going on,
which is pretty cool.
Don't get me wrong, every now and then,
I do desire a little rain cloud,
but for the most part I could do away
with the rain and I have the sunshine.
Another thing is, being that L.A is so large and spread out,
it's almost as if you're in a different world,
every city you go to in this place.
You can be in almost different countries,
you could be in the beach, you could be in the mountains.
It's such an eclectic and diverse city
that I think it's pretty self explanatory.
I want to discover all that in that one area
and you just can't get it anywhere else.
- Yeah. That's cool.
And so that's what attracted you here.
Now that you've been here for five years,
what's your favorite part of it?
- My favorite part of it,
I guess depends on what mood I'm in,
if I'm going for a nightlife type of thing,
West Hollywood is really happening, you guys,
it's really where it's at no matter who you are,
West Hollywood is a great spot to hang out.
As far as food and things,
I really love Chinatown, I also love Koreatown
I think they all, I mean I'm a fan of Asian cuisine
so I guess there's a little bias there.
But I would definitely say those are my favorite areas.
- Yeah, very cool.
Well hey, if you want to check out more of Rone,
links in the description below to The Rone Zone channel.
If you want to see more from Los Angeles,
you can click some of these links around here
to my playlist on Los Angeles
or if you want to see the video
where I first met Rone in the Smorgasbord L.A.
that's linked up here and down in the description as well.
Well we won't say goodbye because we'll see you
in one of those videos.