more downtown l.a. fun

by the time we left olvera street, we were pretty hungry and ready for some lunch.  the original idea was to head to little tokyo and find some good sushi but when we drove past spring street arcade, we decided it might be fun to stop and check it out.  the hub had been looking at it online just that morning, so it was almost like it was meant to be.

these little yellow signs are a familiar sight to us.  when someone is filming somewhere, they post these signs in the vicinity so that the cast and crew can find them.  there's usually some sort of super duper secret code that tells them they're going to the right place.  i had to assume that this one was for how to get away with murder, right?  i know they regularly film scenes for scandal downtown, so it would make sense.

i love when the bean points stuff like this out to me because it's usually quite a challenge to figure out how to explain it in a way that she can relate to.

spring street arcade was pretty cool.  there's still quite a few spots that are empty or being worked on, so once it's completely done we'll definitely head back.

we found sushi at the opposite end, and the bean was a happy camper.

she loves to pick the tofu out of the miso soup, and her current obsession is salmon sashimi.

i'd opted for a combo of two hand rolls and three skewers, plus a blue crab roll.  super delicious.

and then on our way out we stopped for a drink at the don francisco cuban cafe.

the hub's cafe cubano was small but mighty.  it was super strong and sweet, and i knew it would keep him going for the rest of the day.

i'd opted for the havana coconut latte - coconut milk, espresso, coconut syrup.  i like to try things i can't really get anywhere else.  i didn't love it, but i was glad i tried it.

while we were in search of a parking spot, we'd driven past this little shop that i recognized from the old lady showing me pictures of their instagram-worthy black ice cream cones.  it was just a couple of blocks away, and so we decided to give it a try.

there was a line outside when we'd seen it the first time, but i was happy to see that it was wide open for us.  you know they cater to instagrammers when you see stuff like this painted on the sidewalks outside the front door:

the shop is tiny, but when all you sell is ice cream i suppose you don't need much real estate.

i didn't order a cone for myself, but you know i had to borrow the hub's to take a picture of it.  this is the "black jack," which has charcoal in it and a very light, not too sweet flavor.  i couldn't really pinpoint what it tasted like, but it wasn't bad.  it wasn't something i'd order again, but like the coconut latte, i was glad i'd at least tried it.

the bean went with the "unicorn tears," a vanilla birthday cake flavor that was actually really tasty.

and once the hub got tired of his, i took over.  the waffle cone is really good, so i nibbled on it as much as i could.  my belly was already pretty full of sushi and coffee, so i didn't really get much of it.

and here's what we got from the free photo booth in the back of the shop.

thanks to the express lane, we managed to avoid most of the eastbound traffic and found ourselves pulling into the garage in no time.  it was a fun day, and the hub and i both took note of spots that we wanted to visit when we could head out on a day date.  that may happen soon.  we'll see.