You’re scrolling Instagram and a white guy wearing Ray-Bans pops up on your screen. He’s telling you about the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles; or dishing out little-known facts about In-N-Out; or how “the world’s largest religious painting is right here in Glendale.” Regardless of the topic, once he provides the context, he’ll lift his head and say, “Let’s get into it.” That cool white dude is Evan Lovett, better known by his stage name (well, social media handle) L.A. in a Minute.
Lovett, who’s also the host of the In a Minute with Evan Lovett podcast, covers news and history from all over Los Angeles. But he’s not shy about repping the San Fernando Valley, since that’s where he was born and raised. “I grew up in Sepulveda, which is now North Hills, so I’m definitely partial to Valley episodes,” Lovett tells me, sipping on a margarita at the iconic Casa Vega in Sherman Oaks.
“My best friend from elementary school lived in Sylmar, so I definitely worked hard on that video specifically,” Lovett adds. “I wanted to do a piece on Sylmar because without water, there is no LA. And guess where that aqueduct comes in? Sylmar, thank you very much.”
“Without water, there is no LA. And guess where that aqueduct comes in? Sylmar, thank you very much.”
Evan Lovett, creator of L.A. in a Minute
Lovett is a straight-up Valley kid if there ever was one—and that’s coming from me, the biggest Vally girl there will ever be. In fact, he’s done Valley-related TikToks and Instagram Reels, like comparing Van Nuys to DTLA and about the North Hollywood shootout. He even wrote a piece for Viva the Valley tackling an age-old question: Is Glendale part of the San Fernando Valley?
We sat down with Lovett to chat about his childhood in North Hills, his real come-up story, and his favorite Valley spots. Read more below.
The guy behind L.A. in a Minute talks growing up in the Valley
It sometimes seems that downtown, the west side, and Hollywood get all the LA glory, but Lovett is proving that all the neighborhoods in LA deserve equal respect. Up first on the batting order? His hometown of the San Fernando Valley.
“The Valley has been disparaged. We grew up hearing, ‘Oh, it’s in the Valley. Why would I need to go to the Valley?’ All that kind of stuff,” Lovett says. “The Valley would be the fifth largest city in the United States, if it were its own city. The Valley is LA’s first true, not even suburb, but real melting pot. You could go to any neighborhood in the Valley and get so many different types of people.”
In my experience, the Valley’s one of the only places in LA where white people are truly the minority. Lovett was (and continues to be) well aware of this — and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. “In my junior high classes, I had an Egyptian person, a Kenyan person, an Armenian person, a Mexican person. And as a kid, I didn’t put it together,” he says. “But in retrospect, I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m f*cking lucky that I had that exposure.’”
How Lovett came to be LA’s favorite content creator
He wouldn’t (and didn’t) phrase it like this, but Lovett knew he was destined to be on camera. “I always wanted to be a sports broadcaster,” he told me during lunch. But sports had nothing to do with his success as a content creator.
“L.A. in a Minute was originally me holding up an LA Times newspaper and talking about the two or three biggest stories of the day,” says Lovett. “I was just trying to instill LA pride and awareness in my eight-year-old son.” Then, at one family reunion, Lovett’s younger cousin brought up TikTok.
“I was just trying to instill LA pride and awareness in my eight-year-old son.”
Evan Lovett, creator of L.A. in a Minute
“I was like, ‘Dude, I saw what Facebook did to news.’ And all I knew about TikTok at that point was these stupid dances. It was nothing I wanted to be associated with it,” Lovett recalls. “I was like, ‘That sounds terrible. I’m never gonna download TikTok.’”
As of this writing, L.A. in a Minute has more than 133,000 followers on that platform — and an additional 129,000 on Instagram.
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“I was like, ‘You know what, I’d rather have young people getting news than not getting news. So even if it’s TikTok, that’s cool.” He decided he would consolidate headlines in Los Angeles and deliver them to his followers in (you guessed it) a minute or less.
“I had 1,000 followers in two weeks,” Lovett remembers. “Then I started talking about stuff like Rick Caruso entering the mayoral race, how bad the drought was.” Then, almost out of nowhere, he hit 7,000 followers. From there, Lovett let his curiosity spearhead his content creation.
“I start reading L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants: Celebrating the Legendary Locations Where Angelenos Have Dined for Generations by George Geary,” he says. “I find out that McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Del Taco, Wienerschnitzel, In-N-Out, Fatburger, and Panda Express all started in LA.”
He kept creating content based on what was fascinating for him, and is still at it today, eventually becoming one of the most trusted contemporary sources for LA news.
L.A. in a Minute shares his favorite San Fernando Valley spots
When I emailed Lovett to set up this interview, I asked him to pick his favorite spot in the Valley. As you might have guessed from the imagery, he picked Casa Vega — but that’s actually not his pick for the best food.
Best for food: taco trucks on Van Nuys and Burbank
“I’m gonna give you a real answer for my favorite food in the Valley,” says Lovett. “If I could go anywhere, I actually skip the good restaurants because I like taco trucks. If you want me to eat my favorite food, I’m gonna go to one of the taco trucks on Van Nuys and Burbank.”
Best for a drink: Casa Vega
“Give me Casa Vega for drinks,” Lovett says proudly. “I want to give it a shout out because it is a Valley institution. Casa Vega is super important to the valley.”
Best for the family: Sherman Oaks Little League
“This is kind of a weird answer because it’s not open to the public, but this is where we’re the most comfortable with our family: Sherman Oaks Little League,” he says. “I love it there because it’s such a community. Once you step inside that facility, it’s like going back in time. The kids run wild but they’re protected.”
