Week in Review: Kitchen 24, Laurel Hardware Restaurants Approved and 'Carmageddon'

"" officially came to a close at 3 p.m. on Sunday, 16 hours ahead of schedule. West Hollywood residents seemed of the 405 freeway.

A standing-room-only crowd packed the conference room in City Hall Wednesday afternoon to hear the cases before Development Director Anne McIntosh for the new Laurel Hardware Restaurant in center city and a Kitchen 24 restaurant in Boystown.

July 14 also marked French Independence or —a celebration of the end of an absolute monarchy and a reason to stuff our faces with croissants, steak frites and macarons. We rounded up a list of where to feed your inner Francophile around town.

In crime news, two reported cases of graffiti, one residential burglary, and battery assault outside a bus stop made this week.

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for West Hollywood after minor conditional use permits were approved by the city's community development director Wednesday afternoon. Laurel Hardware Restaurant will be an upscale burger and salad restaurant with a vintage hardware store theme and decor at 7984 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Laurel). Kitchen 24, a branch of the trendy 3-year-old restaurant on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood, would offer diner fare at reasonable prices at 8575 Santa Monica Blvd.

Throughout the weekend, Patch posted updates on the closure of the 405 Freeway for the demolition of part of the Mulholland Drive Bridge in the Sepulveda Pass in the form of a . Officials expected traffic conditions on local streets and freeways within L.A. County and beyond to be severe, but car traffic remained very light all weekend, with ridership on bus and subway lines doubling in some places, said Aram Sahakian, an engineer with the Department of Transportation and a member of the emergency response team. 

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Cars were whizzing by the  on Sunset Boulevard at Hammond Street on day one of what many feared would be the Carmageddon of all traffic jams. Patch spoke with locals and visiting Angelenos from the Westside about their thoughts on the freeway closure. 

At a just hours before the first on-ramps were shut down for work on the 405 Freeway, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city would benefit from the 53-hour closure. Watch the video .

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Indie rock band Friend Slash Lover was this week's . With a stream of nearly sold-out shows around town and a new album on the way, the band continues to pick up momentum, reports Nicole Pajer.

There was a palpable sense of excitement in the air at the Greenway Court Theater this week with the arrival of inkSlam 2011. columnit Joel Sinensky reviews the four-day celebration of poetry and spoken word.

Mark Your Calendar:

City Council is having a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in West Hollywood Park Auditorium on Monday. Public hearings will be held on the General Plan, 1350 N. Hayworth Ave., 8335 Sunset Blvd., 8535 Sunset Blvd., 8462 Sunset Blvd. and 9039 Sunset Blvd.

A Planning Commission meeting is set for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in West Hollywood Park Auditorium, with public hearings on 1264 N. Harper Ave. and Zone Text Amendment: Parking Credits Program. View the agenda here.

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