Primate, Pizza, Pita, and Post-Run Treats

Chris is back in town, which means the normal weekend runs are back on.

We started at Regal North Hollywood again, which I hadn’t hit in a couple weeks. North Hollywood always feels like this weirdly chill mashup of old LA still hanging on, with the newer stuff bolted right next to it. It’s an interesting mix.

We went to see Primate — a slower-paced horror movie centered around a chimp named Ben that gets adopted into a family, and things go sideways in a very “you’re trapped with the problem” kind of way. The effects were really well done, and it was genuinely relieving to watch creature work that feels physical and real instead of glossy or overly smoothed out in post.

It’s not a fast movie, but it’s tight. It’s around 89 minutes, and that runtime is perfect for something that wants to build tension without sprinting. There were definitely some jump-horror moments, and overall I thought it was solid. I also had that familiar feeling where you can tell there were probably scenes that got cut, because a couple things felt like they should’ve connected a little cleaner. Still, I liked it.

If we’re doing a rating system, I don’t know if a Danny meter already exists in the universe, but on the Dan(-ny)—o-meter, I’m giving Primate a 6.5/10. Practical effects bias included. No shame.

After the movie, we were originally going to head to Santa Monica… then we saw that Santa Monica is an hour away and we’re not trying to turn this run into a commute. So we did the most logical thing possible: we typed “pizza.”

That’s how we ended up at Anna’s Pizza over in North Hollywood. It might be number one or number two on my pizza list already. It’s right up there with Pitfire, and they’re basically tied in a “don’t make me choose” way. Then MidiCi’s after that. Which is funny, because MidiCi was number one for years and over time places have crept up.

The garlic knots were the butteriest, best garlic knots I’ve ever had. Perfectly flaky rolls, loaded with butter, and they came out before the pizza — which almost never happens. Usually rolls show up at the same time, or after, or when you’ve already moved on. These came first. Respect, Anna’s.

It also felt like a brand new spot—they had to of opened in the last couple of months. Anna herself was there, and it’s owned by her sons — and Anna and her daughter were working too. That alone makes it hard not to root for the place, but the food backed it up. If you’re in the North Hollywood area, go try it. If you don’t like it well you probably just have bad tastes.

And then, because we’ve basically hit every donut shop that has even a decent selection (if the selection is weak, we don’t waste the trip and find a new spot), we went back to Dad’s Donuts & Bakery in Burbank. We remembered liking it, and yeah — still solid. In a solid attempt to switch things up, I went with their vanilla cream filled donut and it did not disappoint. Highly recommend Dad’s if you’re in the area.

I capped off the weekly run meeting up with friends at Pita Kitchen right off Ventura and Van Nuys. I grabbed the beef-and-lamb shawarma wrap and it was phenomenal. Then Anne-Marie brought me homemade-from-scratch cinnamon rolls, and that was basically game over — absolutely amazing and freakin’ delicious. I am eating them as I write this — thank you Anne-Marie!

Till next time ghouls!