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L.A.’s coastal and canyon communities are resilient and rebuilding since the Palisades fire destroyed nearly 7,000 structures, including some of the city’s most locally beloved and iconic restaurants. Those that survived the blaze have become even more vital as communal linchpins and gathering places of Palisades, Topanga and Malibu residents.

In the Palisades, Sunset Boulevard snakes past swaths of burned-out lots, some punctuated by scaffolding and excavators beginning the rebuilding process. It winds past signs for road closures, park closures, business closures, and past signs that declare “REBUILDING TOGETHER” and “THEY LET US BURN.”

Neighboring Topanga Canyon saw fewer destroyed structures than the Palisades but faces its own extended rebuilding. Powerline repairs and landslides blocked the canyon’s PCH entry for much of 2025, and this access point, when open, is often whittled down to a single lane. Restaurants, the weekly farmers market and other businesses regularly post to social media to raise awareness that “Topanga is open.”

Farther north along PCH, Malibu restaurants are just beginning to recover. The scenic highway closed to nonresidents for the first five months of 2025. In the time since, business has gradually returned — but chefs, restaurateurs and staff say it still feels far more depleted than before the fire. Even toward the northern edge of the city, where Lily Castro sells burritos far from the Palisades fire’s reach, the popular restaurateur says business fell as much as 50% last year.

Some online listings and maps still mark destroyed restaurants as currently open, misrepresenting how affected many of these businesses remain.

A few restaurants managed to relocate and reopen, such as Flour Pizzeria in Brentwood and Cinque Terre West in Venice, both previously in the Palisades. Others already had additional locations, such as Cholada Thai’s Long Beach outpost or Cafe Vida’s in Culver City and El Segundo. Some are gradually rebuilding and readying to reopen, such as Duke’s, which survived the fire but suffered more than a year of closure due to the ensuing mudslides and flooding. Some, like the Reel Inn, are navigating an arduous rebuilding process rife with red tape and mixed messages.

You can help by visiting and supporting local dining spots. Here’s how to eat your way through some of the best restaurants of the coast and Topanga Canyon, including new Malibu destinations for sake, sushi and oysters; one of L.A.’s most scenic farmers markets; some of the city’s best burritos; and the sibling restaurant to the iconic Moonshadows.

Actor Quinton Aaron, who shared the screen with Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side,” is reportedly showing signs of improvement after he was hospitalized for a blood infection last week.

Margarita Aaron, the actor’s wife, told Fox News and TMZ on Monday that her husband is “making significant progress” in his recovery, making minor body movements including opening his eyes and giving a thumbs-up. Though the actor is partially breathing on his own, Margarita Aaron said her husband remains on breathing assistance and antibiotics, according to Fox News.

A representative for Aaron did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday

“He’s a fighter; he’s a very strong fighter, and you know, he is making progress day by day,” she told Fox News, “and I believe God’s got him, and he believes God’s got him.”

The 41-year-old actor was hospitalized last week in Atlanta after he collapsed while walking up the stairs in his apartment, TMZ reported. He reportedly experienced pain in his neck and back days before his collapse and lost feeling in his legs before he fell. Aaron’s wife said she called 911 and her husband was slipping in and out of consciousness en route to the hospital, where he has since undergone several tests, according to TMZ. The outlet reported on Tuesday that doctors found a “rare cyst” on the actor’s spine.

Nonprofit organization Veterans Aid Network organized a GoFundMe page in support of Aaron, who the organization described as “part of a veteran family himself.” The organization said it has a “longstanding relationship” with the actor and seeks to raise $35,000 to help his loved ones pay for medical expenses and other recovery-related costs. Donors have raised more than $40,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.

“Quinton has spent his life inspiring others, reminding us that compassion and humanity still matter in this world,” reads the GoFundMe description. “Now, as he faces one of the hardest battles of his life, let’s surround him and his loved ones with that same compassion, strength, and care.”

In an update shared to the fundraiser on Monday, Veterans Aid Network said that Aaron “opened his eyes and has some feeling in his foot!” The update also said he remains on life support and will need a wheelchair upon his release.

Aaron has acted in scores of films, according to his IMDb page, but is best known for his turn in “The Blind Side.” The 2009 drama was based on Michael Lewis’ 2006 book of the same name, which tracked the story of football star Michael Oher, who was plucked from homelessness and poverty when taken in by wealthy couple Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy. The family is credited with Oher’s football success. Oher was an All-American player at Mississippi and a first-round draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens in 2009.

Aaron starred as Oher and Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and earned Bullock a prize in the actress in a leading role category.

“The Blind Side” was in the news again in 2023 when Oher sued his self-proclaimed adoptive parents, alleging the pair never officially adopted him and tricked him in 2004 into signing a legal document that deemed them his conservators. The pair denied the allegations and said the athlete’s lawsuit was a “shakedown.”

In September 2023, a Tennessee judge ordered the end of the conservatorship.

Al-Maliki has been nominated by the largest Shia bloc in parliament as its candidate for PM.

President Donald Trump has threatened that the United States will end support for Iraq if Nouri al-Maliki, a former prime minister with ties to the US’s longstanding foe Iran, is reinstated to the post.

Trump, in his latest intervention in another country’s politics, said on Tuesday that Iraq would be making a “very bad choice” with al-Maliki, who just days previously was nominated by the Coordination Framework, the largest Shia bloc in parliament, as its candidate.

“Last time Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Because of his insane policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq,” he said.

“If we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom. MAKE IRAQ GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump’s comments are the starkest example yet of the Republican president’s campaign to curb Iran-linked groups’ influence in Iraq, which has long walked a tightrope between its two closest allies, Washington and Tehran.

In a letter, US representatives said that while the selection of the prime minister is an Iraqi decision, “the United States will make its own sovereign decisions regarding the next government in line with American interests”.

As part of Trump’s pressure campaign, Washington has also threatened senior Iraqi politicians with sanctions on the country should armed groups backed by Iran be included in the next government, the Reuters news agency reported last week.

Al-Maliki, 75, is a senior figure in the Shia Islamist Dawa Party. His tenure as prime minister from 2006 to 2014 was a period marked by a power struggle with Sunni and Kurdish rivals and growing tensions with the US.

He stepped down after ISIL (ISIS) seized large parts of the country in 2014, but has remained an influential political player, leading the State of Law coalition and maintaining close ties with Iran-backed factions.

The US wields key leverage over Iraq, as the country’s oil export revenue is largely held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York in an arrangement reached after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.