Last week in LA, your publisher toured a booming Downtown with Jon Regardie, above, who's longtime editor of the LA Downtown News. We coaxed him to rank eight of its submarkets, for those of you following the rapidly changing landscape there (here's the first installment). Of course, this also gives us an excuse to try one of LA's hottest restaurants, Factory Kitchen, where we snapped Jon showing us his paper's recent list of 97 ongoing or planned developments in Downtown LA alone.

Go East, Young Man (and Woman)! We also joined Clarion Partners’ California chief Richard Pink and wife Gloria for a Sunday poolside brunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and besides a Thai salad got an update on their celebrated sideline, Pink’s Hot Dogs. After growing to seven western locations (now including not just LA but Vegas, San Diego, OC, and Ohio), they’ll open their first eastern outpost this May in Bristol, Conn., at Lake Compounce, America’s oldest amusement park (opened in 1846). Only by this standard would the original Pink’s in West Hollywood seem young: This year marks the 75th anniversary since Richard’s dad started it all. (Meaning Gone with the Wind and the Wizard of Oz weren’t the only landmarks of 1939.)