Why Im opting out of LAs luxury trend and its not just about the cost

Los Angeles has apparently decided that everything needs an upgrade: The neighborhood coffee shop is now a coffee concept.The gym is a wellness club.

The apartment building has become a residence.The motel is boutique.

And the taco is artisanal.Somewhere along the way, a perfectly respectable cheeseburger acquired an aioli and became $24.I would like to opt out.

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I have an Oura Ring and recently wrote an entire column about my supplement collection.I am hardly storming the gates of Erewhon.I am, however, becoming increasingly protective of places that are just … places: The coffee shop with chairs designed for sitting rather than photographing.

The dive bar where nobody has considered adding adaptogens to the cocktails.The taco stand whose primary brand identity is tacos.These places are becoming strangely luxurious precisely because they aren’t trying to be.We got a glimpse of just how much Angelenos care about them when plans emerged to turn the landmark Norms on La Cienega into a Raising Cane’s.

The Googie building itself is protected as a historic monument, but the proposal would have replaced the affordable sit-down diner with the national chicken-finger chain when Norms’ lease ended.Angelenos revolted, and Raising Cane’s ultimately backed away from the plan after community outcry.Apparently there are limits to what we will allow to become chicken fingers.

Maybe that’s because preserving a building isn’t necessarily the same thing as preserving a place.A restaurant isn’t beloved because of its roofline alone; it’s the people behind the counter — the regulars, the menu item you’ve been ordering since 2007, the fact that you can afford to go there often enough...