My Favorite Weekend: John Long
The ocean is never far from John Long’s mind, or from his body, for that matter. The new vice president for acquisitions and research at L.A. County’s Natural History Museum spent most of his life in coastal Australia but currently lives with wife Heather shore side in Santa Monica, and oceanic creatures are often tied to both his work and leisure activities.
Long has spent his first months here getting the lay of the land, and here’s how he stays busy on the weekends.
Work becomes play
One of the coolest things I’ve discovered in L.A. is also a plug for the museum. It’s called First Fridays, and it runs on the first Friday of each of the first six months of the year. Our last one for this year is June 4. The whole museum comes alive with bands and bars and DJs and really exciting interactive talks with scientists. So at 5 p.m., I’ll switch off my computer, take off my tie and go downstairs and grab a beer at one of the bars we have set up around the museum and then listen to some really cool music. It attracts a completely different crowd to the museum. We also sometimes host dinners in the board room with really exciting speakers.
Getting a natural start
On Saturday morning we like going out to breakfast to a place in Santa Monica called Kreation Kafe, which does wonderful organic food. American food is much-maligned overseas, but once you get here, you discover that it’s some of the best around. I like to order the Cancun eggs, which mixes in things like avocado, black beans and salsa. After that we’d take a walk along the beach and end up doing a bit of shopping at the farmers market, or just getting a cup of coffee there and look around.
After that, we’ll either take a drive into the mountains or spend some time over at Malibu Lagoon State Beach. It’s one of the most amazing biodiversity spots in this whole area. Just full of all kinds of birds, and there’s a nice beach as well.
Nighttime appetites
In the evening, a great place for dinner is Josie Restaurant. It’s kind of a French-Californian crossover — good European cooking with really fresh, locally grown organic ingredients. It’s casually elegant, with nice low lighting to create a mood. I took my wife for our anniversary just after we arrived in Southern California and it was the coolest place. I like the trout, because I’m an aficionado of fish. I’ve worked all my life with fish. Last year, I discovered the origin of sex in vertebrates through studying fossil fish. It’s actually in “The Guinness Book of World Records.”
We also love Duke’s in Malibu, and it’s right on the beach. You can get tables with the water virtually lapping up against it. The first time we came to L.A. we went there and I was blown away —- there were dolphins and people surfing and the sun was setting. Just amazing. They have seafood and salads, really healthy stuff.
If we’re going out to the movies, we like the Monica 4-Plex, which often has art-house films. We’ve seen some great ones there that weren’t your usual mainstream commercial releases, like “Bright Star,” the story of Keats.
A cultured cool
On a Sunday morning we love walking down to Le Pain Quotidien, which serves coffee French-style in big bowls, and they have the most fabulous breads and pastries. After that, we might meet up with some friends and head for the Getty Center or Huntington Library. Either one would be a phenomenal cultural afternoon, and fun too.
In the evening, we might finish up the weekend by going to Santa Monica Seafood Market, which in addition to selling fish to take home and cook has a nice cafe and also an oyster bar where you can grab a couple of oysters and a glass of wine. It’s a cool little place to just chill out.