Welcome to 2015! I hope you started the new year with a bang. I had a stellar week in Los Angeles, catching up on so many places I hadn’t eaten at yet (Bestia, Squirl, Rustic Canyon, Sycamore Kitchen, Bäco Mercat), revisiting old favorites (Pizzeria Mozza, Zankou), impromptu stops (Connie and Ted’s for oysters and bubbles, Fonuts, and Harris Ranch on the I-5 on the way down, my new favorite pit stop), and catching up with old friends and making new ones.
Drinks at the Dresden (Marty and Elayne!) and Harvard & Stone happened, plus checking out local beers at the Glendale Tap, saying hi to all the ladies at Jumbo’s Clown Room, and some quirky New Year’s Eve parties, including Carole King’s daughter’s birthday party at a warehouse and singing karaoke at 2am at a guy’s house named Scoonie Gee. Good times.
We were staying in my friend’s charming West Hollywood apartment in The Colonial House, a 1930s building that’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places (Bette Davis lived there, as well as Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Clark Gable, and Carole Lombard). I know, my life is crazy, and I pinch myself often. Oh, LA. It was alllll there, plus some killer vintage clothes shopping and flea marketing, of course. Am already plotting my return, I was having too much fun, even though we were freezing our heinies. Fortunately San Franciscans are prepared and tend to have lots of coats and sweaters, amIright? And I’m pleased I brought my party mink, as I like to call my vintage stole from the ’50s.
We’re still catching up on everything over here, so this week is running a little bit short—which is fine by me because I still need to finish unpacking my bags and get my 2015 files all set up. Fresh start.
We’ll see you on Friday, and in the meantime, have fun with all your gym/cleanse/no-booze resolutions. I like to make resolutions I’m going to keep, like reading more books. But first, I gotta catch up on this first episode of this season’s Downton Abbey, yay.
My favorite dish of the trip: veal tartare crostino slathered with tonnato sauce at Bestia. Photo: © tablehopper.com.View tablehopper Newsletter from Tuesday, Jan 6 2015
