Barbeque in South Central Los Angeles

One of the nice things about not doing the job thing is that you get invited to more social gatherings. The surge of invitations is due mostly to the brazen assumption that you are always available.

And guess what? You are. I've gone to more parties in the past three months than in the entire year preceding them.

Tonight I found myself gnawing at a pile of baby back ribs in the parking lot of Phillip's BBQ in south central Los Angeles, as a group of folks gathered underneath the tailgate of someone's Mercedes SUV.

Phillip's BBQ is such an exceptional (for LA) joint that they can completely omit any seating space - the restaurant consists of two windows: ordering and pick up. There's a sign next to the ordering window that reads: "Yes, the hot sauce is really hot." You can get the obligatory ribs and pulled pork with said hot sauce, or opt for a mild one or a mixture. And they have an intriguing array of uniquely Southern desserts on offer as well, including 7up Cake and Sock It To Me Cake. You know the place is authentic when you can smell the place before you can see it - heck, you can even see the place before you can see it, due to the thick plumes of smoke rising from the smokestack.

In south central, everyone seems to know each other, or at least act as if they do. Everyone greets everyone else with a surprising degree of familiarity - the security guard for the parking lot, the homeless guy, the lady in line in front of us, the random customer pulling up in a Cadillac. Despite what you see on the evening news, it's a friendlier place than the rest of Los Angeles. At least in the vicinity of Phillip's, anyway.