Hollywood’s ‘mountain palace’ of eats, goods and a view

During peak sunset hours, a shuttle drove up the hills of Hollywood, making it’s way to one of L.A.’s tucked away historical landmarks, Yamashiro, meaning “mountain palace.” What was once a private estate and garden collective of Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer is now an Asian fusion restaurant and event venue that hosts the Hollywood Night Market every Thursday evening.

Hollywood locals, friends and family gathered to eat, drink, listen to live music and shop from over thirty vendors. The options ranged from delightful eats and drinks, to a various range of custom goods. And not to be forgotten, the view that accompanied it all. The night market takes place every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. until Sept. 26.

After making a run through all the food options, the first settled stop was Broad Street Oysters. It certainly provided “The Finest Raw Bar Experience in Los Angeles” with a lot of their fish being fresh and locally sourced from Santa Barbara, oysters from Morro Bay and their live lobsters from Maine. It was their first time participating in the night market but it was apparent that they’ve gained popularity over the summer.

“We’ve done other night markets — those are more like outside the city, in more of a carnival setting,” Kat Strain said. “Being in the heart of LA is a much different environment and we really enjoy being a part of it.”

Their hot lobster roll, prawns and oysters are not to be missed and can be perfectly paired with a nonalcoholic or alcoholic beverage of choice.

The market had two pop up bars to satisfy the alcoholic needs, both on the lower level of the night market and serviced by Yamashiro employees. The more casual booth offered Japanese beer, wine and an experimental sake punch made by Yamashiro bartenders.

“We’ve been working on the sake punch for like, three months now, and every week we do it a little different,” said London Stanton, one of Yamashiro’s barbacks.

He shared that Yamashiro’s night market has been established for about ten years with a two year gap in between. Being an employee, he enjoys the opportunity to interact with people and discover food he wouldn’t have been interested in trying otherwise — like vegan food.

The other bar, known as the Pagoda bar, is in front of their pool area. Here felt like a party with tipsy adults filling up the loungey space and good music playing from the DJ. The entrance of this area is directly across a stairway that leads up to the restaurant itself. It contains a large Buddha right in the center of the stairwell break, making for an obligatory photo op.

Besides the food and drinks, other custom goods such as candles, skincare and skin tools, incense, stones and jewelry were available for purchase. The “Prana by Lana” booth was the easiest to gravitate towards as it was the next booth over from the first pop up bar.

Lana Mahmood greeted every skincare junkie browsing her booth and quickly lured them in with all the benefits her handmade skincare and skin tools provide. She has been doing this for two years with inspiration coming from a more holistic and eco-friendly lifestyle. She began practicing this after studying natural medicine abroad in places like the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ecuador and the Amazon. She earned her degree in indigenous anthropology with an emphasis in medicine.

“I’m just trying to preserve as much of the forest and lands — so that’s what inspired me to start this,” Mahmood said. “I plant a tree for each product I sell.”

She has been attending the night market for about a year now and though her products are handmade here in Los Angeles, her ingredients are sourced from different villages around the world, such as: Morocco, Africa and the Amazon. Her goal is to help their communities and not just make it about money.

There were numerous booths to discover, as well as the people working behind them.

To continue the fun, the Hollywood Night Market will become Winter Bazaar, a holiday winter market, starting Nov. 14 with hours to be determined. Vendors currently remain unknown but the holiday edition will include a gift wrapping station, light festival and holiday caroling, all over the course of five weeks.