In Burbank's Magnolia Park, retro cool thrives

ANTIQUE STORES and thrift shops rule Magnolia Boulevard -- the main artery of Burbank's Magnolia Park neighborhood -- but that doesn't mean the area is stuck in a dusty past. Founded in 1923, the quarter roughly bounded by Hollywood Way on the west and Buena Vista Street on the east still has Eisenhower-era storefronts, ranch-style homes dating to the 1940s and a small-town feel unblemished by chains and big-box stores. Yet Magnolia Park has found a way to parlay this into retro cool without sacrificing its independent spirit. Idiosyncratic boutiques and restaurants with a focus on nostalgic Americana are making the old new again. It might not be the next Silver Lake, but a new outpost of that area's trendy Vietnamese eatery, Gingergrass, is coming soon, another step toward making Magnolia Park a gathering spot for the iPhone-and-Dwell-magazine crowd.

By Rachel Levin

August 26, 2008