UNDERRATED

TINY’S K-O

With seemingly every new drinking establishment in Hollywood going upscale (see S Bar, Vice, Green Door), it’s refreshing to find at least one spot in the neighborhood that’s still dirty. Tiny’s is a virtual punk rock heaven: the Germs on the jukebox and cheap PBR in a can behind the bar. Help save your local dive bar; visit Tiny’s before it, too, is turned into an “ultra-lounge.”

--

HARRIS SAVIDES

The enigmatic cinematographer behind “American Gangster” and “Zodiac” gets respect from film criticism’s elite, kids (he’s won MTV awards for Madonna’s “Rain” video, among others) and Gus Van Sant (who used him on “Gerry,” “Elephant” and “Last Days”), but barely a mention from the mainstream media. Not that cinematographers ever get their due. Still, as his painterly work on the ’04 thriller “Birth” demonstrates, Savides is often the best reason to see a film.

--

JUST DOWNLOADING ‘IN RAINBOWS’

Because nothing beats the look on an Amoeba clerk’s face when you ask him, “Hey, did you hear the ‘90s grunge band that made ‘Creep’ has a comeback album?”

--

PEET’S COFFEE & TEA

Finding coffee in L.A., no problem. Finding a decent cup? Good luck. And the only chain that consistently delivers: Peet’s. If the overrated Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is the Lindsay Lohan of L.A.’s chains, Peet’s is the Joan Allen: Classy and serious about its craft.

OVERRATED

JOACHIM SPLICHAL

The founder and head chef of downtown’s celebrated Patina Restaurant is indeed a great cook, but where does he get off inviting “the public” to a $425 per-person prix fixe dinner (Nov. 5 at Patina)? What’s he serving? Stem cells cooked in a cash-burning oven? Somewhere in France, Marie Antoinette’s head just exploded.

--

BURBANK AIRPORT

It’s not the travel haven it used to be. It’s like the stress of LAX packed into a sardine can. Consider instead Long Beach Airport, where the curbside drop-off is no longer than a fast-food drive-through, the security lines are negligible and you board your plane on the tarmac, waving Beatles-style at whoever looks your way.

--

ROCK SOUNDTRACKS

Not in movies -- at restaurants. And not at the restaurants you might think, but at otherwise superlative, top-of-the-line establishments like Cut and Mozza, where U2 and the Rolling Stones cranked to 11 make you want to wolf down your $35 entrees and flee. Even Kenny G. would be preferable. (Oh lord, here come the Kenny G. fans. . . . )

--

HALLOWEEN

Now that we’ve devoted most of this issue to the treats, may we briefly vent? We miss the quaint holiday of our childhoods, when kids were the stars, adults just passed out candy, and a trick meant festooning your neighbor’s tree with toilet paper -- not what you turn in those fishnets and platforms.