They Shoulda Called it City Eat

Everybody knows that the worst thing about amusement parks is standing in line to get on the rides. At L.A.’s newest amusement park, they’ve figured out an easy way to get rid of the lines: They simply got rid of the rides. What you’re left with is the new Universal CityWalk, an oversized shopping mall where people amuse themselves by eating and drinking.

“The big deal here,” says the architect in the press materials, “is to create a communal place for Los Angeles where people can come together, be safe, be on the street and do multiple things.”

Most of those multiple things, of course, involve spending money.

You can shop--in stores with names like the Current Wave, which features a wave splashing merrily by the door every minute or so--or the Nature Company, which boasts an indoor rain forest. You can exercise at Lighthouse Beach (lots of sand, no ocean).

And you can eat. You’ll have to wait a while to eat at Wolfgang Puck’s California Cafe (it won’t open until sometime in June), but in the meantime you can console yourself at Gladstone’s, surrounded by tanks filled with fish (“fresh is excellent but live is better”). You can eat more fish next door at Morisawa sushi. You can munch on Tony Roma’s ribs, go to KWGB for what is touted as the World’s Greatest Burger, drink cold stuff at L.A. Juice Company or hot stuff at Caffe Puccino.

For my money, though, the best thing at CityWalk is Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom. On opening night Jody himself was there, talking sausage and explaining art. The theme at his place is sort of the sausage meets the Sistine Chapel.

Only in L.A.

* Universal CityWalk, Universal Center Drive, Universal City. Open daily, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Free validated parking.