The area of La Cienega Boulevard, from Beverly Boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard, and its satellite streets is known as the La Cienega Design Quarter. Its shops and galleries house many antiques, furniture, rugs, accessories and art. Art dealer Felix Landau operated his trend-setting gallery there in the 1960s.
Restaurant Row
Sign at the corner of Wilshire and La CienegaLooking south down La Cienega from the intersection with Sunset BlvdThe big Randy's Donuts shop is at the corner of La Cienega and Manchester Blvd in Inglewood
La Cienega in Beverly Hills, north of Wilshire Boulevard, is known as Restaurant Row because it features many upscale restaurants. From Wilshire in Beverly Hills traveling north the best known establishments include Benihana, The Stinking Rose, Darioush, the original Lawry's the Prime Rib, Hakobe, Tokyo Table - Tokyo City Cuisine, Matsuhisa, Fogo de Chão, Gyu-Kaku, Woo Lae Oak, The Bazaar by José Andrés, and Morton's.[1]
Etymology
Ballona Road, now Washington Blvd., passes through the marshland, creeks and ponds of La Cienega in 1874
La Cienega Boulevard is named after Rancho Las Cienegas Mexican land grant roughly in the region now called "West Los Angeles." The Spanish phrase la ciénaga translates into English as "the swamp" and the area named "Las Ciénegas" was a continual marshland due to the course of the Los Angeles River through that area prior to a massive southerly shift in 1825 to roughly its present course. The difference in spelling in Los Angeles between the Castilian Spanish word ciénaga and the name of the thoroughfare, which is common in other Iberian languages like Extremaduran,[2] originated with the name of the ranch.
