Los Angeles - August 04, 2004

Reality Bites

Tula Tea Room

Joe Schmo. Britney’s weddings. Hard-to-find WMDs.

Seems we could all use a break from “reality.”

Anyone who’s been to the Museum of Jurassic Technology knows that its credibility-straining curiosities are the perfect alternative.

But the real news is the Tula Tea Room. With its monastic vaulted ceiling, hanging votives, and gurgling baptismal font, the spot is a cross between the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and a hushed library. Hostess Nana pours coal-heated Russian black tea from an enormous brass samovar into an authentic octagonal glass mug, while you ponder the weirdness of what you’ve just seen downstairs. It’s a little like stepping into a different world.

Which, these days, could very well be just what you’re looking for.

Tula Tea Room, Museum of Jurassic Technology, 9341 Venice Boulevard, between Canfield and Bagley Avenues, second floor (310-836-6131).

  Artsy