‘Work in Progress’ Mixes Old and New on Fairfax Avenue

In its heyday, Fairfax Avenue stood at the heart of Jewish life in Los Angeles, a bustling thoroughfare of kosher butchers and delicatessens where the sounds of Yiddish mixed with the smells of sweet pastries and sour pickles.

But the ethnic enclave that once defined an entire community now finds itself in the midst of change as a new crowd roams its main street and fills its storefronts, forging a modern-day hipster district amid the city’s premier Jewish quarter of the past.

Many of the shopkeepers who once sold chickens, breads and books have disappeared over the years as the community’s aging Jewish population has thinned and a younger generation of Orthodox Jewish families has migrated to other pockets, including the nearby Pico-Robertson area and North Hollywood.

In their place have come cafes, clubs and other venues that are creating a growing night life and a world of contrast on Fairfax’s four-block core between Melrose Avenue and Beverly Boulevard.

Three doors up from the Chabad Lubavitch bookstore and shul, cigarette-smoking customers flock to the Nova Express Cafe for its spacey electronic music, its bubbling mood lamps and science fiction novel collection. A few doors away, Max’s Bar and Lounge offers poetry readings and acoustic recitals.

Nearby is the Largo nightclub and the Blitzstein Museum of Art, a brightly colored gallery housed in a former meat market. And across the street, fledgling actors crowd the Bang Improv Studio for nightly workshops.

Even Canter’s famous deli, the landmark synonymous with Jewish Fairfax, has adapted to changing times. The owners have added a stage to the Kibitz Room, turning the once-forgotten bar into a boisterous hangout where night owls munch on matzo ball soup, sip cold beer and listen to ear-thumping bands.

“It’s like the hippies of the ‘90s,” Marc Canter, whose family owns Canter’s, said of the late-night clientele along Fairfax. “It is a young crowd [with] tattoos, wallets with chains. Very Greenpeace.”

Jewish historians say the thoroughfare is no stranger to an eclectic mix and expect it will comfortably accommodate the traditional Jewish businesses that remain and the new trendy arrivals.

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, for example, the district served as a magnet for hippies and underground publications such as the “Free Press,” which denounced American involvement in Vietnam, said Lynn C. Kronzek, author of “Fairfax--A Home, a Community, a Way of Life.”

Added Stephen J. Sass, president of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern California: “Even though we think of Fairfax as a very gray area in terms of its senior population, it has always had an element of counterculture.”

But although its night life thrives, Fairfax by day is struggling with commercial decline.

At its peak in the 1950s, Jewish Fairfax teemed with activity. Residents didn’t have to leave the neighborhood for the basics. Orthodox men in black yarmulkes strode the avenue on their way to nearby synagogues. Families crowded into bakeries on Friday afternoons, rushing to buy their challah breads for the Sabbath.

Today, 11 storefronts sit vacant, more than anyone can remember since the thoroughfare burst into prominence.

“It seems as though the Jewish vibrancy of Fairfax Avenue is in a state of flux,” Sass said.

Merchants lament other ills, including inadequate public parking, aggressive panhandlers and persistent graffiti on storefront awnings.

They say that a shooting last summer scared off shoppers. Grocery owner Yair Samrai killed a man who was allegedly attempting to extort money. Police said that Samrai acted in self-defense when his assailant pulled a gun. The shopkeeper was not arrested.

Police say the incident was an anomaly in the district, but some merchants are having a hard time forgetting it.

“Of course it affected business for a couple of months, but now everybody is trying to get a life back,” one merchant said.

Los Angeles city officials say they are attempting to address the varied troubles. Among other things, the city is planning to spruce up a small park at Rosewood and Fairfax avenues and tear down a wall that hides an adjoining parking lot where homeless people congregate.

The city also has hired a consultant to study whether to launch a business improvement district along Fairfax and nearby Melrose Avenue in which merchants and property owners would pay for extra security and cleanup crews.

“This is a work in progress,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer, whose grandparents lived in the Fairfax area. “I don’t want to claim otherwise.”

Shopkeepers say the growing night life may be part of the solution, as the clubs and cafes occupy otherwise empty storefronts and attract much-needed visitors to a street long celebrated for its close-knit, charming atmosphere.

The cafe operators and club owners who have settled on Fairfax say they were attracted by the street’s intimate mood.

“I like Fairfax because of the mix. You have everything from young hipsters to the old Orthodox Jewish contingent to everything in between,” said Aliza Murrieta, 34, who runs the Bang Improv Studio with her husband, Peter. “It feels like an Eastern city. It’s very vital and there’s a lot of foot traffic.”

Harry Blitzstein said the very presence of Jewish stores provided the perfect, off-beat contrast for his art gallery, which he opened last year in a building that once housed his father’s shoe store and, later, a butcher shop.

The sign on the front window reads: “Blitzstein Museum of Art (Formerly Moe’s Meat Market).”

“What would a museum be doing among the corned beef and bakeries?” Blitzstein, 58, asked. “I thought it was so improbable that it would be an attention-getter. You’re walking along getting your bagels, and all of sudden you see a museum. It was wacky enough for my temperament.”

The night scene has begun to attract a small but devoted following. Regulars say they too are attracted by the comfortable, low-key atmosphere.

“It’s not as uptight as the Sunset Strip,” said Steve MacMillin, 30, as he emerged on a recent night from a show at the Largo nightclub. “It’s laid back and it’s relaxing.”

Visitors can grab a slice of pizza at Damiano’s, across the street from Canter’s, or head to the Nova Express Cafe long after midnight, when parties in Hollywood and elsewhere break up.

“It’s a creative place, a place for artists,” said Jun, a 24-year-old disc jockey who spins albums at the Nova Express Cafe. “People come to Nova religiously.”