Showing posts with label brentwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brentwood. Show all posts

Monday, May 25, 2009

Around Town - Holiday Hiking - Sun and Snakes





Another thing to love about LA
This lovely trail...only a few miles from where I live
Cool and quiet, it seems like a million miles away.....not part of bustling Brentwood only minutes from the beach.
Summer has definitely arrived...Today I saw my first snake of the season which appeared to be a small rattlesnake sunning itself in the middle of the fire road.
Note to self: keep a couple of small rocks in my pocket to throw near snakes to gently encourage them to slither into the brush.
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Around Town - The Brentwood Tavern


The long awaited new restaurant, The Tavern, by uber chef Suzanne Goin of Lucques and AOC
has finally opened. OK, so maybe there was a serious problem with the service last Sunday night when it took the kitchen over an hour to serve steak tartare and pomme frites....But I'm still psyched to have a restaurant of this quality with reasonable prices in the hood, within walking distance.
Unlike Jill, I have to actually go out and forage to get good food, professional chefs aren't just showing up and cooking awesome meals for me at home.....
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Around Town - Brentwood in Bloom

California Poppies In Bloom

Lupine In Bloom

View From Trail


Maybe spring really is here. The wildflowers are finally blooming.
OK....wildflowers in bloom or not....I take the whole spring thing back.
Today it feels like November in New England.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

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.

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