A Day In The Life

A lot has been going on in my life in the last 7 days....a birthday (my son's 27th), a wedding, a party, a funeral and an earthquake and yes I'm tired, but not too tired to write about jewelry...because that is what I do.

So what did I wear to the memorial service, a straightforward little black dress with pearls, of course. Out of respect for the seriousness of the occasion, and the fact that the service was held in a church, I added a black jacket to cover my arms and an Hermes scarf tucked inside the jacket to cover the decollete.

Here's the detail shot (yikes!) with a South Sea pearl strand paired with South Sea pearl "orbit" earrings with yellow sapphires .  I also wore a vintage Piaget diamond watch and a South Sea pearl and diamond rings. (I'm laughing at myself in this photo because it is just so difficult to take a picture of myself from this angle)

Since the memorial for my step-daughter's son was at the same church where the memorial service was held for my husband 16 years ago...the whole experience was more than just a little surreal.  It was also the church where I was married, a lifetime ago, when I was a mere child bride.  I might add that my step-daughter is only about  4 years younger than I am, so yeah, it's one of those kind of families.
But I digress,
As expected it was a very touching service with some poignant eulogies and music. The church was packed with well heeled white shoe types from the investment business, and families from John Thomas Dye and the Brentwood School,  including the wife of the Governor and her children.  You can't see from this photo but there were so many people who attended that some people had to stand on the sides and at the back of the church. There were even kids sitting on the floor of the middle aisle. 

After the service I skipped the reception at the beach club and went back to my office to wait for my tech guy to make my computer user friendly again...and to feel a rolling 5.4 earthquake.  After my computer finally showed me the love again I walked over to Thomas Keller's Bouchon restaurant at the Montage Hotel for and early dinner with my brother.

We sat on the terrace with the view which was pleasant because it was heated...god knows that there is no heat wave in Southern California.  This could be the coldest July on record.  But with the warmth from the heat lamp behind my chair I was very happy to wind down the day with simple bistro style food.

and Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Now today, plenty to do at the office and another event to attend tonight.  I can't wait for the weekend.

Around Town - Bouchon Bistro in Beverly Hills

One of the things that I had been looking forward to in the upcoming week after Christmas, when I will get a little break from the 10-9 schedule
would have been dinner at Thomas Keller's new Beverly Hills Restaurant
Bouchon Bistro
After all Keller is the real "top chef" in the US
and I really like bistro food
and the restaurant is conveniently located about a block and a half away from my office

and food blogger Kevin has written a glowing review about it here

Then...in an email from a friend

I received this very un-glowing review

First the 30 day reservation policy

When we heard through the grapevine that Thomas Keller was coming to town,we agreed that Bouchon would be the location for my birthday dinner in December. As it turned out, the food was good but not memorable and the attitude was bad and quite memorable. It began inauspiciously with the reservation attempt. My first call was deflected because I had called more than 30 days out. The brasserie is following a strict 30-day advance booking rule. So, exactly 30 days out I called at 10:02 am, two minutes past the posted time that reservations line opens and, of course, our desired time – 7:30 on a Monday night – was no longer available. But 7:45was available. This sort of thing is usually not a good sign, because it suggests that the restaurant and the patron will have to jockey for who is serving whom. Nonetheless, the 15-minute difference was certainly no big deal to us and requested a very nice table since this was a birthday dinner. A day out, I received a pleasant reminder call to reconfirm, did so and reiterated the birthday occasion. There was no mistaking not only that we wanted a nice table but why.

then the table wars

Sadly, it took three levels of well-coiffed but inflexible personnel and four tours of the cavernous dining room before table negotiations finally ended, with the restaurant clearly winning the “who serves whom” issue. The first table was a cramped banquette table near the large serving station that takes up the middle of the acoustically-challenged room. The second table was adjacent to the ear-splitting bar area, an unpopular part of the dining room that was empty save for the hustler and his mark, who were stuck up against a pillar under the palm tree and able to eye the action and be eyed as the action. The third table – another banquette - was in restaurant purgatory, which here seems to begin about 2/3 of the way back past the side pillars. There are about four prime four-top tables well spaced against the broad half-curtained windows that look onto the illuminated courtyard. But despite the fact that two of these tables were occupied by couples, this couple was not to be offered the remaining table along the windows despite repeated efforts as we worked our way up the chain of command to the maitre d’. He was polite but firm – we were not getting that table. But a previously unseen window-side table just inside purgatory was finally made available when my wife pulled out her cell phone in front of the maitre d’, called a nearby legendary restaurant and secured a prime table on no notice. Faced with this upping of the ante – our ability to score on the away team’s turf - we were persuaded to stay and took the window – the privacy – and purgatory.

then the good but not earth shattering cuisine

For our inconvenience, we were offered two coupes of champagne and the“best server I have”, who introduced himself and then disappeared for ten minutes. With the pecking order now re-established by management, we were finally able to turn to the meal itself. To begin, we share a nice thick slice of flavorful pate de campagne, with appropriate garnishments. My wife’s main dish was flavorful off-the-bone beef short ribs and I had the crispy skin sea bass, which was an evening special. Both dishes were solid and enjoyable, although my fish dish was perhaps slightly overcooked and yet warm rather than hot. Even though it did not go with either main course, we ordered a side of obligatory pommes frites. Oh, how we miss Benita’s on Third Street Promenade - those were pommes frites. These were tepid – and uninspired - French fries. The eponymous side dish can definitely be skipped without missing anything. On the other hand, both the Vouvray with the fish and the Burgundy with the short ribs paired well. Desert (also shared) was a return to the obvious at Bouchon –bouchons. Again, good but not great, but presented in a portion that was sufficient for us to share.

then does the hype justify the hassle

This is a meal that one can get in any number of brasseries in Paris –Bofinger, Brasserie Flo and Brasserie Lipp come immediately to mind – to say nothing of countless other undiscovered local gems in out lying arrondisements and throughout Alsace. But alas, on a wet and cold early winter night, we were in Beverly Hills and not Paris. The prices here are at least comparable to France – with the aperitifs (had we paid for them), and had we had bigger appetites for two appetizers and two deserts, what is supposed to be a casual dinner would have soared well past $200 a couple. But the memory of those authentic brasserie experiences in their natural settings – the good, the bad and the indifferent – was triggered at Bouchon and, for us, that was enough to make this a pleasant birthday dinner. But next time, we'll wait until we are in France and go for the real thing.

This is what happens when chefs become superstars. Maybe after the restaurant has been around for a year or so and the novelty has worn off, I will venture over to test the snappy wait staff and good but not great food.