Itinerary: Let’s Go NoHo

If Hollywood has the reputation of being where movies are made, North Hollywood is where much of the actual works gets done. Prop houses, set shops and post-production houses fill industrial blocks that sit, often, side by side with postwar suburbs.

The neighborhood has a softer side--or at least the tender bud of a growing arts district. Dubbed NoHo several years ago, the area has faced more than its share of setbacks, including the 1994 Northridge earthquake and MTA Red Line construction. Even the nickname fell under criticism from locals. (“Too negative.”)

Don’t expect Melrose. But if Starbucks can be viewed as any judge of hip neighborhoods, well, a store just moved in on the corner of Magnolia and Lankershim boulevards.

Friday

Though it’s about a mile outside NoHo proper, Interact Theatre Company (11855 Hart St., North Hollywood, [818] 773-7862) is one of the troupes that lent the theater scene in North Hollywood some critical heft. The collective of professional working actors sometimes goes months between shows. But the shows are almost always worth waiting for.

Get an inexpensive taste of the company tonight at 8, when it stages a workshop production of Devon O’Brien’s “American Portraits.” Tickets for the play, which examines the lives of author Clyde Fitch and painter John Singer, are only $8, about half the going rate for shows in NoHo’s small theaters.

Saturday

Start with a good brunch at Ned’s on Magnolia (11108 Magnolia Blvd., [818] 760-4787) and then go for coffee afterward. You can head to Starbucks if you want, but we recommend Eagle’s Coffee (5231 Lankershim Blvd., [818] 760-4212), the hangout that brought cool to NoHo. Get your favorite newspaper (ahem!) outside, or check the magazine rack inside for periodicals for every taste from motorcycles to politics.

Stroll south to the Lankershim Arts Center (5108 Lankershim Blvd.), a refurbished 1939 Art Deco building once owned by the Department of Water and Power. Now it holds two theater companies upstairs, and the lower level functions as a gallery for the Los Angeles Printmaking Society and a music and dance venue. Currently on display: “Off the Press,” a show of the society’s student members.

Saturday Evening

Start with dinner at Salomi (5225 Lankershim Blvd., [818] 506-0130), an Indian restaurant with spices that burn. The ornate decor is a world away from the street scene outside. All your favorite Indian dishes are available. And if you think you like hot food--the kind that makes you sweat without exerting yourself--we dare you to try the chicken vindaloo.

If you prefer a venue that provides as much adventure as the food, head to Tokyo Delve’s Sushi Bar (5239 Lankershim Blvd., [818] 766-3868). Be prepared to dance on the same table you’re going to eat off of.

Then catch a closing-weekend performance of “Tainted Blood” at the Road Theatre Company (Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Holywood, [818] 377-2002. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. $15), a comic-gothic tale that has Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fighting vampires. Move over, Buffy.

Sunday

Pay homage to the Great Wall of Los Angeles, a mural that earns the name. Lining the Tujunga Wash flood control channel for half a mile (along Coldwater Canyon Boulevard, between Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Street), the mural traces the history of California from the arrival of the Spanish to the development of suburbia.

- ROBIN RAUZI