Doing Downtown

With cutting-edge theater, walking tours, magic shows and free dance performances, there are more reasons than ever to go downtown.

Friday Evening

After work, grab dinner at one of the most exciting restaurants to hit the downtown dining scene lately. The recently opened Traxx is inside the 60-year-old Art Deco Union Station. The menu is divided into “small plates” (beet salad, crab cakes and tuna Napoleon to name a few) and “large plates” (pan roasted tenderloin and pork chops). 800 N. Alameda St. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Saturdays. Validated and non-validated parking available. (213) 625-1999.

Don’t clear out of downtown just yet. Grand Performances has assembled a collection of music, dance and theater for its free-to-the-public “Moonlight & Matinees” series beginning this week with the locally based Diavolo Dance Theatre. Led by Jacques Heim, this collaborative ensemble weds techniques from hyper-physical movement theater and New Age circus with social themes. Two new pieces will be premiered. California Plaza Watercourt, 350 S. Grand Ave. Free. (213) 687-2159.

Saturday

Can’t make it to Hawaii for the weekend? Downtown L.A. may be the next best thing. The Japanese American National Museum’s newest exhibition “From Bento to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawai’i” explores the evolution of Japanese American identity in Hawaii through personal artifacts, family photos and first-person video accounts of the “mixed plate” experience. Ends Jan. 3.

The museum is offering visitors a chance to learn how to create their own mixed plates at a cooking demonstration by Chef Mako Segawa-Gonzales of Westwood’s Maui Beach Cafe. Featured dishes are nori-seared scallops, ginger-seared ahi and soba noodles. 1 to 3 p.m. $5 for museum members; $9 for nonmembers. Or learn how to make flower cards in a free origami arts and crafts class, also from 1 to 3 p.m. (213) 625-0414 for class reservations. 369 E. 1st St., Little Tokyo. Museum admission: Adults $4; students and seniors $3; children 5 and under and museum members free.

Nearby, photographic murals by Lewis Baltz art on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art through next Sunday. 250 S. Grand Ave. (213) 626-6222.

Take out French dip sandwiches from Philippe’s (1001 N. Alameda St., [213] 628-3781) because you’re headed to a drive-in drama. Wolfskill’s production of “Mayhem at Mayfield Mall,” Joel Bloom’s lavish parody of ‘50s sci-fi B movies, will be performed on a specially built stage (steeply banked for visibility) in a downtown parking lot. Saturday’s opening performance will be followed by a dance party. Regular schedule: Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 2. 615 S. Imperial, downtown. $40 per car; $30 per 2-door. No SUVs or vans. (213) 613-0986.

Sunday

Dim sum brunch is a tradition in Chinatown, and the Golden Dragon Restaurant serves three courses along with a magic show for the kids. Seatings are at 9, 10 and 11 a.m., noon and 12:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and the magic show starts at 1:30 p.m. Food and the show: $12.50 for adults, $6 for kids under 12. 960 N. Broadway, Chinatown. (213) 721-0763 for reservations.

After the 12:30 p.m. seating, you may want to explore historical and shopping sites in century-old Chinatown on a walking tour sponsored by the Chinatown Tourists Center. $18 includes brunch at Golden Dragon and a guided tour. Children under 12, $9. (213) 721-0774 for reservations.

See an afternoon movie at one of downtown’s old movie palaces. When the State Theatre was built in 1921, 7th Street and Broadway was the busiest downtown intersection. The theater featured movies as well as vaudeville, and Judy Garland appeared on stage in 1929 as one of the Singing Gumm Sisters. The interior (which has room for more than 2,000 people) is a mix of Spanish, classical and Eastern architecture, with a curious seated Buddha perched over the stage. This weekend’s feature is “Armageddon.” 703 Broadway. (213) 239-0962.