North Hollywood

Mesquite-grilled Tijuana-style tacos off a sidewalk setup on Victory Boulevard, with the adobada off a trompo and a salsa bar you help yourself to. Angel Hernandez built this from one stand into a dozen across Southern California and the original Vineland pitch has since shut, but the Victory operation runs Tuesday to Sunday from about 4:30pm to 11pm. You eat standing up.

Tue to Sun, about 4:30pm to 11pm. Closed Mon

A family-run Mexican restaurant on lower Lankershim that dates itself to 1946, which makes it older than almost anything else left on the street. Combination plates, a bar, vinyl booths and a dining area that has not been restyled to chase anyone. It sits south of the NoHo Arts District near Toluca Lake, on the stretch of Lankershim people drive rather than walk.

Mon and Tue, 11am to 9pm. Wed to Fri, 11am to 10pm. Sat, 10am to 10pm. Sun, 10am to 9pm

A bar built in 1941 in the shape of a whiskey barrel, put up by a Universal film technician named Michael Connolly and left to rot for decades before the 1933 Group restored it and reopened it in 2015. The barrel holds the bar itself, with a patio behind it and a bulldog-shaped structure out back that came off the old Bulldog Cafe. Food is burgers and a pretzel, the drinks list is long, and nobody is dressed up. It is one of the last pieces of programmatic architecture in Los Angeles still doing the job it was built for.

Mon to Fri, 4pm to 1:30am. Sat, 1pm to 1:30am. Sun, 11am to 1:30am

A 1956 pizzeria on Lankershim with a dark bar at the front, red booths, a thin crispy crust and a neon sign the Valley Relics Museum keeps old menus from. It opens at four in the afternoon and runs to midnight, which is an unusual shape and makes it one of the few places on this street still serving food when a show lets out. Nothing about the interior has been updated to look older than it is, because it does not have to.

Daily, 4pm to midnight

A taco counter next to Circus Liquor on Vineland that cooks Mexican and Peruvian at the same time. The lomo saltado taco on a handmade tortilla with a Peruvian green salsa is the one L.A. Taco singled out. There are also burgers, pizzas, wings and chiles rellenos, because the kitchen does not believe in narrowing down. Opens at 5pm, runs to 1am on Friday and Saturday.

Sun to Thu, 5pm to midnight. Fri and Sat, 5pm to 1am

A plain Thai restaurant in a strip on Victory Boulevard with a long menu, low prices and a big vegetarian section. It opens at 11am and runs to 9:30pm, which in this stretch of the Valley is a wider window than almost anything else. Closed Wednesday. Service is quick and the dining area is small.

Mon, Tue, Thu and Sun, 11am to 9:30pm. Fri and Sat, 11am to 10pm. Closed Wed

One of the largest and oldest used bookstores in Southern California, on the Cahuenga and Chandler corner, with more than 150,000 books and a leaning toward literature and the arts. Everything is secondhand. There is free parking, air conditioning that matters in August, and two cats who will sit on whatever you are reading. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Tue to Sat, 11am to 7pm. Closed Sun and Mon

A saloon-fronted barbecue place on Vanowen running a double-barrel smoker in the back alley, which is why the block smells the way it does. Brisket, ribs and sausage sold by weight, served on trays with white bread and pickles. It is the closest real food to the Mayflower Club and the only thing within walking distance of it worth crossing the road for.

Closed Mon. Tue to Thu, 11am to 8:30pm. Fri, 11am to 9pm. Sat, noon to 9pm. Sun, noon to 8pm

The oldest tiki bar still standing in Los Angeles, opened on Victory Boulevard in 1958 by brothers Edwin and Ace Libby, who had worked at a Polynesian restaurant on Sepulveda and wanted their own. Dark, low, carved wood, a rock waterfall behind the bar and a rum list that takes itself more seriously than the decor suggests. It stayed open through the decades when nobody cared about tiki rather than reopening in the revival.

Mon to Thu, 4pm to 1am. Fri, 4pm to 2am. Sat, 2pm to 2am. Sun, 2pm to 1am

An Italian restaurant that has been on this corner of Victory Boulevard since 1964, doing pizza, pasta and veal in a dining area with red sauce on the table and booths along the wall. It opens at 11:30am six days a week and runs to 10pm, later on Friday and Saturday. Sunday it does not open until 4pm. The place also does catering, which is how it has stayed alive.

Mon to Thu, 11:30am to 10pm. Fri and Sat, 11:30am to 11pm. Sun, 4pm to 10pm