Musso and Frank

Thinking about the state of the city now in comparison to in the twenties.

Everyone seems to think Los Angeles is a shining city of glamor, charm, and opportunity.

That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The city is being run into the ground, torn apart by crime and lane diets. That’s what it’s called when you take a street that’s supposed to have three lanes and get rid of one of them. The amount of homeless tent cities under freeway overpasses is insane. That beautiful city is what it was, back in time, in Musso and Frank’s.

Going back and time reminds you what you are missing. Going back in time shows how things changed. Going back in time shows a better world, the world of the Roaring Twenties. And yes, LA does still have great places uninterrupted by the passage of time. But those places are few and far between.

I really don’t know why I wrote this. Maybe it was to inform people about the present. Maybe it’s called time travel, and it’s amazing. Uh, let me backup a bit.

I spent the summer back where I'm from—Los Angeles, California. I did several incredible things, but my life there is scheduled. Wake up, hang around, have lunch, go to tennis or golf (depending), have dinner, maybe watch a movie, and sleep. I didn’t break that schedule much in my time there. That also meant that I went to fewer places than anyone would expect.

Then one night (okay, two nights) my parents decided to break the schedule and go to a restaurant. The restaurant is called Musso and Frank’s, and it’s like going back to the Roaring Twenties. Well, without the speakeasies and mobsters.

When you walk in, you're greeted by neon signs, phone booths, and red booths and tables. Your waiter has his name on the cuff of his sleeve.

There, you can find old-timey food, like celery sticks with blue cheese, and grilled lamb kidneys with bacon— yum! Chicken al a king and calf sweetbread— give me more. Weirdly, I went with the prime rib.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, during my time inside the building, I kept saying that we should all spend some time in the past. Maybe it was to write about something that truly means something to me. And maybe, it was to say we should look to our past, to teach us about the future. Maybe if we see what was incredible and what was horrible, we can learn about what will make us better in the future. It can be an inspiration and a warning, about how our world works. How we should proceed and how we shouldn’t.

And maybe just maybe, we should beat down on crime in big cities. And stop worrying over nothing. Because all we have is back then and now, and something worked better then. Maybe this article was pointless, but maybe someone learned something from it. And that is all that I can hope for.