Sophisticates, Too, Need Sleep

Times staff writer Aaron Curtis pokes fun at Sherman Oaks residents who resent the Insomnia Cafe in our midst (Around the Valley, Times Valley Edition, Oct. 4).

He describes Insomnia’s Saturday night crowd as “Bohemian . . . folks who aspire to epicurean in the purest sense.”

Curtis should have stayed a bit later on his visit to his exalted “Lower Manhattan” style cafe. Because after 10 p.m., the Insomnia metamorphosizes into a teen-age drive-in version of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

They are not, as Curtis puts it, “like teen-agers learning to drive.” Rather, they actually are learning to drive--after midnight, horns honking, stereos blaring, voices shouting.

Curtis is correct in his judgment that Insomnia is alien to Sherman Oaks. Our zeal for “ego homes” and “strip malls” notwithstanding, residents of Sherman Oaks are not unsophisticated. We proudly support a spectrum of unique dining and entertainment establishments: Johnny Rockets, Cafe Fifties, the Moonlight Tango Cafe, Mistral.

But even sophisticated, L.A. scene urbanites like us work for a living and require our sleep.

GARY NUDELL

Sherman Oaks