Rancho Park, Los Angeles, CA

Rancho Park took its name after World War II, when boosters in this pocket of Los Angeles wanted an identity apart from Westwood across Olympic Boulevard. The neighborhood today covers the flat grid between Olympic and National, from the 405 east toward Cheviot Hills, and its best-known landmark is a burger counter on Pico. Homes here started as 1920s Spanish Colonial bungalows, followed by ranch houses on regular city lots. Many have been expanded or replaced with larger modern houses, so a single block can pair an original stucco cottage with a new two-story build. The streets are quiet and mostly residential once you leave the main boulevards. It is one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in the city. For breakfast, John O'Groats is a few blocks east on Pico in Cheviot Hills and is known for its biscuits, and the Persian restaurants of Westwood Boulevard start just north of Olympic. Rancho Park Golf Course, the public course that shares the name, sits just past the eastern edge in Cheviot Hills and has a lighted driving range. The Cheviot Hills Recreation Center, with its courts and seasonal pool, is close as well. Daily errands run along Westwood Boulevard and Pico, where a small strip of shops and cafes sits near Pico. The former Westside Pavilion mall at Pico and Westwood, since bought by UCLA, anchors the west side of the neighborhood. The E Line's Westwood/Rancho Park station is close by for trips by rail. The 405 runs along the western edge, so freeway noise reaches the nearest blocks, and Pico and Olympic both carry heavy crosstown traffic. The interior streets stay calm by comparison, and in fall some of the older street trees in Rancho Park turn color and drop leaves on the sidewalks, which is uncommon in Los Angeles.