Around Town - Where To Take The Euro Boys

Your friends from the frosty northern German city of Hamburg stop in LA to see you on their way to skiing in Colorado and you are suffering from the worst cold you have had in 5 years. So where do you take them that is attractive and interesting enough to give them a flavor of LA and low key enough that you can survive in your sad snivelling condition.

The place to go is the Casa Del Mar Veranda in Santa Monica with its great view of the ocean and full of the stereotypical beautiful people. OK, so there isn't a great choice of non domestic beer, your friends are just going to have to settle with Bud Light, but they won't mind as view is so pretty, particularly the tall leggy blondes that keep walking by.

Then dinner, and the explanation of the fact that here in LA it's pretty much either sushi or Italian...so off to Sushi Roku. Crowded and crazy yes, but that's what Santa Monica is. I'm pretty sure that they had no idea of what was on the menu, or the difference between sushi and sashimi and when I ordered my usual salmon sashimi, they weren't too enthusiastic about sharing it.

A trip to LA isn't complete without a stroll around my hood, Beverly Hills. Yes the magical land of Prada and Zegna where the streets are always clean, the flowers are always in bloom and the Bentley's always roll.

No stop in Beverly Hills is complete without lunch at E Baldi. Italian food, of course on Canon Drive, which is like the Beverly Hills equivalent of a mall food court. From the Italians, Cafe Roma, Il Pastaio and Enoteca Drago, to Spago, Maestro and The Montage, there's a restaurant about every 20 feet up and down the street.

The best is E Baldi with their carpaccio of tuna and arugula salad, which let's face it, is as close as you can get to sashimi in Italian cuisine.

Then a quiet dinner at a local neighborhood haunt, The Brentwood. More like a private club for the Brentwood elite than anything else, the fare is great American food...but at a price. Roast chicken, pork chops, fish and chips, and some seriously good french fries and creamed spinach. It was a big hit with the Germans, who were looking for something to eat besides raw fish!

Next time it's going to be my trip to Hamburg, where a sunny 70 degree day is considered a heat wave. Oh well, whatever the weather, there will be plenty of beer and wienerschnitzel.