Los Angeles has no single MENA neighborhood, and that's the point: the region is folded through the whole city, one strip mall, gallery and bakery at a time. This guide is how the house sees its hometown- not a directory, but a way of moving through LA with the diaspora's eyes. Consider it a running list; the Journal will keep adding to it.
Westwood, in Farsi
The stretch of Westwood Boulevard known as Tehrangeles is the densest Iranian corridor outside Iran; bookstores where the poetry section outnumbers fiction, ice cream flavored with rosewater and saffron threads, grocery aisles that smell like someone's grandmother is nearby and disapproves of your knife skills. Go hungry, leave with pistachios.
Anaheim's Little Arabia
A freeway ride south, Little Arabia runs on Brookhurst Street- Levantine bakeries pulling manakish out of ovens all morning, halal butchers, sweet shops stacked with kunafa and warbat. It earned its official designation in 2022 after decades of community organizing, which makes it both a food destination and a civics lesson.
The region is folded through the whole city, one strip mall, gallery and bakery at a time.
The galleries and the archives
Keep an eye on the city's institutions: LACMA's Art of the Middle East holdings are among the most serious in the country, and the university galleries regularly stage the region's contemporary artists. The house plays its part at street level — art and print from MENA makers hang in the boutique, and designer takeovers turn the rail into a rotating exhibition.
And then come home
End at 1194 S La Brea. The café pours till 9 on weeknights and midnight on weekends; the boutique keeps 10 to 7 every day. Bring what you found across the city — we want to hear about it. The guide grows by conversation.
