L.A. Is My Beat: Birthdays at Akasha

Akasha Restaurant in the historic Hull Building, Culver City

I love Akasha Restaurant in Culver City. The menu is varied enough that you can order almost anything you like, from sandwiches to brunch items and full course meals. An added plus, they have an awesome drink menu!

Side note on this building, from the Culver City Historical Society:

The Hull Building, which we know as Akasha Restaurant today, was constructed as the first hospital in Culver City. Dr. Foster Hull, a physician/surgeon who served the city as its second health officer, built the structure in 1925. The Culver City Historical Society marked it as Historic Site #2 in the early 1980s. When Historic Preservation was added to the municipal code in 1991, the building earned city “Landmark” status.

The wedge-shaped Neo-classical-style building was purchased by Louis Freeman during the Great Depression. The tan and rose-colored brick structure has remained in the ownership of the Freeman family, for three generations.

Over the years, the first floor housed many businesses, including Sunset Drugs (with a soda fountain), Al Simon’s Sada’s Flowers (1930s), Ed Tinger’s Culver City Flowers(1940s), Kamin’s Shoes, and in 1978, the Bank of Orange County, which gutted the building and brought it up to earthquake standards.

More recently, it was reconfigured to become a restaurant, (Riccardo’s, Bella Pasta, San Gennaro, and now Akasha). The upstairs housed offices and a boarding house at one time.

On Saturday we were celebrating Natalie's belated birthday and Brit's pre-birthday. Sadly, MaryJo came down with a cold and sore throat, so she could not join us. It would be legendary if all five of us could be together at one time!

B-Day Girl, Brit and Darcy

Ellen and B-Day Girl, Natalie

We ordered Spicy Bloody Marys and other libations while deciding on what to order for our meal. Darcy and Natalie both had the Chilaquiles with eggs. Brit had Huevos Rancheros and I ordered Polenta Cake Benedict. Everything was yummy!

Chilaquiles

Polenta Cake Benedict

Since we missed Brit at our Boxing Day Christmas celebration, we festooned her with holiday gifties as well as b-day gifts. Brit then gave us our holiday gifts. After that, we gifted Natalie with her b-day gifts! We like presents.

I'd asked the girls to bring their holiday beards to Akasha so we could get a few group shots. We cloned MaryJo for the afternoon.