Calling Los Angeles one big sprawl belies its true character: It is a multitude of mini metropolises stitched together in a crazy quilt that is by turns glitzy, exotic, and unexpectedly bucolic (who says nobody walks in L.A.?). Stacie Stukin fashions an insider's guide to 30 neighborhoods that will have you seeing stars—and then some.

Eagle Rock/Glendale/Highland Park: Middle America, Music, and an Art Deco Masterpiece

Glendale and Eagle Rock—as simpatico with Middle America as L.A. gets— are being remade by hipsters from Los Feliz and Silver Lake who are packing up their Bauer pottery collections and heading east. However, Glendale's old-school Mayberry mentality remains in landmarks such as the Alex Theatre, a 1925 Art Deco masterpiece that hosts film screenings and musical and theatrical performances (818-243-2539; www.alextheatre.org). Around the corner, on Lexington and North Brand (Glendale's main drag), the 1958 Glendale Federal Savings Building is favored both as a futurist architectural fantasy and as a signature work of W. A. Sarmiento, a protégé of Pritzker Prize-winner Oscar Niemeyer (401 N. Brand Blvd.). There's nothing like a Cuban sandwich and a cortadito (a café cubano with steamed milk and sugar) at Portos Bakery, a hub of L.A.'s Latin community (315 N. Brand Blvd.; 818-956-5996). For a delicious taste of Lebanon, don't miss Carousel—you can't go wrong with the lamb or the lentil soup (818-246-7775; entrées, $12-$17).