Somerset, Glendale, CA

Somerset in Glendale sits on the east side of the city where East Colorado Street meets South Verdugo Road, a working neighborhood of older homes and apartments with a supermarket and a long run of small restaurants on its doorstep. Housing is mostly modest. Early twentieth century bungalows, some of them Craftsman, sit alongside the apartment buildings that went up from the 1960s onward, and a few side streets keep a mostly single-family feel. It is more residential than the Colorado Street frontage suggests, and quieter than the downtown blocks to the west. Windsor Mini Park on Windsor Road has a playground for quick outings, and it is the kind of small corner park the neighborhood uses daily, and bigger parks mean a short drive, with Brand Park and its Verdugo Mountains trailheads north of the city and the hills of Adams Hill a few minutes south for walking loops. Colorado Street is where the eating happens. Scarantino's Italian Inn serves classic Italian on East Colorado, Kim's Kitchen covers Korean home cooking, and Voskevaz Market is a produce and specialty food stop. Indra on South Verdugo Road cooks Thai, and Bagnet, a Filipino restaurant and bakery, shares a busy center on East Colorado with taco and pizza counters. Daily errands are easy, since Ralphs sits right on East Colorado with a Starbucks nearby. Buses run along Colorado, and the 134 and the 2 are a quick drive for commutes toward Pasadena or downtown. The tradeoff is Colorado Street itself, which is wide and loud with traffic, and parking that gets tight on apartment blocks. What sets Somerset apart is how much everyday food sits within a few blocks. A single strip mall on Colorado can hold Filipino, Mexican, Chinese and pizza counters all at once.