Let's Go, Friends, to Sherman Oaks! (Patch to Paradise #1)

Dear All, You are Invited to Meet your City —

WELCOME TO SHERMAN OAKS (#1) — INTRODUCTION TO THE MAP

SHERMAN OAKS, CA — Speak those words, and you might simply think of the city in which you live, the street, or perhaps simply as "that place over in The Valley"—for me, though, those simple words bespeak magic. And a bold, boisterous, brave new world of opportunity.

Nestled at the crossroads of the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley, where the Sepulveda Pass winds down from the Santa Monicas and comes rushing toward Ventura, the place where these two great roads meet is like a treasure map's "X marks the spot." Having wound past Whole Foods Market, a little Blue Dog Beer Tavern, a Crazy Chicken (El Pollo Loco—your time will come for a little beginner's Spanish), Sepulveda finally bottoms out at the base of the Sherman Oaks Galleria. This former home of Tower Records and ArcLight Theatres now houses a diverse promenade of restaurants and businesses—of course, a slice of cheesecake, or drippy cone from Ben & Jerry's, is what is most likely to contribute to your immediate happiness.

From here, you have a few options. Continue your journey north up Sepulveda, eventually reaching Van Nuys, or head west to the equally-magical Encino—but I suppose we'll save those chapters for later. (Look for the hyperlinks later!) From here, let's head east along "The Boulevard."

Those simple words are equally magical.

If you took it all the way west, you'd be heading toward Ventura and the Pacific Ocean. If you head east along it (as we're now heading), you eventually reach the real heart of Sherman Oaks—"The Village."

Here you'll find all kinds of boutique shops and restaurants. On the way here you passed Mel's and Anajak Thai (watch for the line out the door on Thai Taco Tuesday nights), and once you reached The Village, you may have been surprised by how very much like a postcard-perfect village it really is. There are bouquets of flowers hanging from the lamp-posts, S.O.-indigenous coffee shops, ice creams, bars, and noodles (in no particular order), smoothies that look like rainbows, comics, banks, and plant shops, and, behind them, apartments that seem humble to those living in them, but would be enough to make any visiting Brooklynite jealous.

Past Van Nuys Boulevard, we, of course, have In'N'Out.

I don't even have to say anything "magical" about In'N'Out. (Ya know, it kind of speaks for itself.)

Moving on, we head east along The Boulevard toward Woodman. There's another Whole Foods, Ralphs, the local library, and altogether (I've counted, on an epic walk from west to east you'll soon be hearing about) hundreds more shops and restaurants.

From Woodman to Coldwater, there are hundreds more.

Heading up Coldwater, we then head back west.

Riverside Drive will, for the most part, take you along Sherman Oaks's northern borders. (For the most part, because the land actually stretches as far as Oxnard.) Here in our perfect hamlet we have a river that matches our village—small, shy, but enchanting, if you know where to look for it.

If you walk along The River in the right hours, the mist blows in. You can actually hear the water burble. There are ducks, geese, frogs, people who walk, run, or ride their bikes on the elevated riverbank. This path follows the curve of Valleyheart toward the sunset, and will eventually lead you past Fashion Square, the pirate-ship bazaar of Trader Joe's, and back to Sepulveda Boulevard.

Taking it back to where our story began, you'd encounter the green hills and mini-chateaux that mark our enchanted city's borders. Standing on one, you'd look out onto the Valley. Far off would be the mountains. Behind you would be The City—decidedly not Sherman Oaks, but the one that deserves a capital C. THE City.

Next time we'll start diving deeper into Sherman Oaks—re-tracing the lines of the map—perhaps even letting you in on a little unknown history.

- Have any local news or fresh takes to report?

Email ME, Austin Diamond, @

austinmdiamond@gmail.com