Commerce on the Boulevard and beyond.
The restoration of a 1920s Hollywood hotel is proceeding one story at a time, employing plasterers, tile setters and other trades that modern construction rarely calls for.
The old Vine Street coffee shop reopened this spring as a ghost kitchen running five delivery-only brands from one stove. The block gained the jobs and lost the counter.
A fifty-seat company off the Boulevard reaches its tenth season proud of the work and unsure of the lease, in a year when nobody in the business has money to spare.
After eight years wholesaling beans and running one small counter, a local roaster is opening a second cafe in a former camera store — a modest expansion its owner has done the arithmetic on twice.
New owners have revived a neighborhood florist that went dark last year, timing the relaunch to the run of proms, weddings and Mother's Day that makes or breaks the trade.
Repair racks are full and first-time buyers keep arriving, but the shop's owner has learned not to count on street improvements until the paint has dried.
Watch parties, after-parties and industry dinners hand the neighborhood's independent kitchens six frantic weeks of work, a bright stretch against a production year that has been anything but.
Boulevard merchants who leaned on three good December weeks are bracing for the January and February stretch that has grown leaner every year.
Independent retailers are betting on gift trade and awards-season visitors to rescue a soft year, even as they order less and watch the weather.
A small Hollywood tavern that leaned for years on crews and editors between jobs is finding the between-jobs stretch has grown longer, and quieter.
