LAX
1 World Way, Los Angeles, CA 90045
A weary, mud-spattered Clay arrives home in Los Angeles for the holidays. While Burbank is the city’s far superior airport, unfortunately for Clay, there are no direct flights there from New Hampshire. He is greeted at LAX by his ex-girlfriend, Blair. Though the pair have a tenuous relationship, picking someone up at LAX is a location-specific love language.
These days, LAX is no more pleasant, though the recent addition of an Urth Caffé in Terminal 1 was a welcome one.
Photo: Getty Images
Carney’s
8351 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Clay and Trent arrange to buy drugs from Julian at this Sunset burger joint; a bright yellow decommissioned train car on Sunset Boulevard is an easy landmark, after all. Both Carney’s locations (there is also one in Studio City next to a former Bed Bath & Beyond) are still standing—a testament to the power of a good burger and a novelty venue. (Glen Powell and his dog, Brisket, would agree.)
La Scala
434 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
While this Beverly Hills hotspot is known for its chopped salad, Clay prefers to spend his time there another way. “I sit at the bar at La Scala…bored out of my mind, smoking, drinking red wine,” he narrates early in the book. That doesn’t stop him from heading back later: “Rip calls me and tells me that we should meet at La Scala Boutique, have a little lunch, a little chopped salad, discuss a little business.”
Ma Maison*
8368 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90069
Now a parking lot behind Sweet Lady Jane bakery.
This is the place that made Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Puck. But what was once an epicenter of business and celebrity known for its “drunk lunches” is now a parking lot behind the famed bakery Sweet Lady Jane. It was a buzzy spot—backed by Gene Kelly, hosting a revolving door of celebrity diners—so it’s no wonder that Clay’s father would take him here…after he’s healed from his facelift, of course.
