Walking through the buzzy lobby of the Double Tree you’ll pass tourists sprawled out on loungers and business people frantically finishing up emails as you confidently make your way to the bar. The barman is your friendly hospitality type who hands mixes your concoction with a jovial smile. Drink in hand you sneakily walk up the stairs to the elevator taking you to the third floor garden level. Exiting into the plush surroundings you're surrounded by shrubbery and smooth jazz calmly playing from “stone” speakers. Make your rounds past the waterfall and sip your cocktail on the lawn. A calm serenity falls over the landscape while the towering steel behemoths rise in the distance. For a moment you feel at peace…then your stomach growls.

Stop 2

SWISH SWISH GOES THE SHABU SHABU

• after sunset •

📷: @dottie1277

The tunnel light show perfectly welcomes you to the beautiful Weller Court. A glorious Little Tokyo institution feeding and supplying everything from Hello Kitty fans to tea drinking grandparents. Climbing to the third floor you enter the wooden confines of Kushi Shabu. Making your way to your snug booth an electric hot pot awaits your cooking skills. When you’ve finally been supplied with thinly sliced beef and all the fixings the fun begins. It’s a beautiful thing as you slowly compile your concoction, sip on a beer and fade into the evening. Saving room for dessert isn’t in your stomach's plans as you slurp up your final noodle but then again it's never had tofu cheesecake.

Stop 3

Wait, thats a real thing?

• post shabu shabu •

Descending to level two of Weller Court opens a whole new world of delicious. The pleasant storefront of Curry House dons plastic plates of curry that honestly looks good. Focus though, you’re only here for one thing, tofu cheesecake. The waitress completely understands all you’re going to order after taking your seat and barely looking at the menu. Within moments the fluffy goodness and its berry drizzle is staring you in the face…the only wish you have is that you had your own. Indulging on this surprising treat may feel like a slow respectful situation but most likely it’s more of an animalistic takedown. After happily paying your $5 head out for another sight you didn’t expect, jazz.

Stop 4

SOAK IN SOME TUNES

• after 9pm •

📷 : @bluewhalemusic

Hidden in the far corner of Weller Court, behind a B rated Korean BBQ joint, through a metal gate is the minimalistic bluewhale. A jazz spot meant for musicians starts grooving after 9pm. After paying the doorman decide if you’ve come to seriously digest the notes by pulling up stool in the front row or casually soak it in at a table in the back. A cocktail or two accompany the mellow tunes as you listlessly chill out like a regular. As the soloist takes her bass for a ride you contemplate how it’s been an interesting little Court to wander in, full of surprises at every level much like the notes being sprung on you at that exact moment.

THE MAP