restaurants

Last Sunday we had lunch with the Tobers at Six Feet Under in Atlanta. I had a terrific fried catfish po’ boy and about six gallons of sweet tea. You just cannot get sweet tea in Los Angeles anywhere, so it was a treat.

Then on Tuesday, before the presidential debate, we had dinner at No Mas! Cantina, right around the corner from Ryan’s place. (They had amazing salsa but mediocre margaritas.) It was really cool to get to visit with my old buddy for a little while.

Every day a new city, a new IHOP. And yet every night the dreams get worse. I ply the highways, a nervous eye on the rear-view mirror, the back seat piled with stolen menus.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how annoying it is to get an “affirmation cookie” instead of one with an actual fortune. Well at lunch today one of my co-workers got what we thought was a horribly rude fortune cookie. Instead of the usual mindless drivel, instead of even a useless affirmation, the “directive” cookie he received at California Wok read, “Work on improving your exercise routine.” Ouch.

My friends Bob and Gretchen were in town last night for the X-Files premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. I met them afterwards and we went to Citizen Smith for a late dinner. (It took me just under an hour to get to the restaurant from my house, even though it’s only about eight miles away, because a single block of Hollywood Boulevard was closed for the movie.) Just like every time I’ve been there, the food was delicious and the service was atrocious. We had a great time, though.

For lunch today a few of us walked next door to the new Brazilian restaurant that opened this week. It is literally in the building next to my office, so the bar at The Sampa Grill was the absolute closest place we could go to watch the second round of the Masters. The style is Churrasco, which basically means a tremendous amount of fire-cooked meat. I had pork, chicken, some sausage, and three different flavors of beer beef (typo!). I also had a salad and a bowl of soup. Even though the food was fantastic and all-you-can-eat, at $22 (including a Coke and the tip) it’s a bit pricey to become a lunch-hour standard for us. But it was definitely a nice Friday afternoon treat. Too bad Tiger didn’t seem to be doing so well.

On Sunday night we had dinner at The Lodge Steakhouse on La Cienega in Beverly Hills. The place was almost empty and for the better part of the night we had the entire large dining room to ourselves. For some strange reason this dark, rustic, wood-grained, hunting-outpost-themed restaurant was blasting hair-band hits of the late 70s and early 80s from a speaker inconveniently situated directly above our table. Aside from that oddity, though, the meal was delicious and the service was good. I’ll assume that there were so few other diners because of the holiday, because the steaks were perfect, it wasn’t that expensive, and it’s in a great location. Give it a shot if you’re looking for a nice New York strip.

Note: Just before chocolate desserts arrived in the nearly-deserted room, the hostess sat a party at the table right next to us. It was — coincidentally — the former neighbors of my fiancée’s parents: Hilary and Haylie Duff, along with Kevin Connolly (”E” from Entourage).

Last night on my way home from work I stopped at La Bruschetta to pick up some of their excellent vegetable soup for my sick girlfriend fiancée. We’ve eaten at La Bruschetta a few dozen times over the years. It’s on Westwood Blvd, just on the other side of Santa Monica from my house. When I attempted to pay, the waiter — who is the owner’s son — wouldn’t let me. He said he could tell that Tricia was sick when she called to order and it was on the house. How great is that?

Unfortunately the chef accidentally gave me a bowl of some other soup. I didn’t realize it until I got home and she told me it was the wrong one. We called them and they apologized profusely. I jumped in the truck and returned to grab the correct soup. Since I was already there, I asked if they could make me some penne arrabiata, too. I forgot that the arrabiata is no longer on the menu there. Not only did he have the chef make me an order and add some breadsticks, but he also refused to let me pay and insisted that I take home two great bottles of wine. Now that is how you earn a good reputation.

Friday Five: My Last Five Dinners

• 03/11 - Wolfgang Puck’s Spago - LA
• 03/12 - Koi - LA
• 03/13 - Wolfgang Puck’s Cut - LA
• 03/14 - Maloney & Porcelli - NYC
• 03/15 - Sparks Steak House - NYC

Last week my girlfriend and I had dinner at Cucina Paradiso. It’s a great little Italian restaurant that shares a building with The Palmer Room on Motor Ave. The Palmer Room is a bar / club with a tiny stage for live music; Their website is fairly bland, but the bar itself is quite cozy and a perfect spot to catch a show. We were there to see Landon Band perform. We got to the bar a bit late and only managed to catch the last three or four songs, but I liked what I heard. The lead singer has definitely got some pipes and she put on a helluva good show even though there were only maybe a dozen other people in the audience. It’s tricky because the whole thing is done in Flash, but if you work at it you can download three of the seven songs from their debut album from the official band website.

We found yet another fabulous restaurant last night: Memphis. (map). This “Southern Style Dining” establishment is located in Hollywood in “the last remaining residential house … left on this highly commercialized street.” It’s quirky and fun to eat in a restaurant that used to be a house. The lighting is very romantic and the food was excellent. I had the jambalaya appetizer and the fried chicken and ribs combo and — I have to tell you — it was the best piece of chicken I’ve ever had. Dinner for four, including appetizers, plenty of libations, and a nice gratuity, came to about $300, which is really not that bad for a good place in LA. The service was only so-so, but I think the place was a bit understaffed; it was a slow Wednesday night. If you have a hankering for a taste of N’awlins and you’re stuck in SoCal, I highly recommend it.

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Last night my girlfriend and her stepmother went to a wine-tasting class at The Wine House in Westwood. They recruited me as a designated driver and after I picked them up we went to Pastina Trattoria for a late dinner. Pastina has quickly become my favorite Italian place in Los Angeles. It is almost sacrilegiously inexpensive for this city and the food is fabulous. I had the Penne Arrabiata for the third time in a row and couldn’t have asked for a better meal. If you’re ever near UCLA and dying for a delicious pasta dish, this is the place to go.

To celebrate straight As on her report card, I took my girlfriend to Robert De Niro’s Ago Restaurant Friday night. This lovely little Italian eatery is on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. We didn’t have reservations, but after a few glasses of wine at the very crowded bar, the maître d’ managed to squeeze us into a table near the back. The food was absolutely fabulous and the atmosphere in the place was just terrific. The service was fast and friendly and my only regret is that we were both too stuffed to sample any of the tremendous desserts on display. If you’re looking for a good place to eat in Los Angeles, I highly recommend it.

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We had brunch at the 17th Street Cafe on Montana in Santa Monica on Sunday. It’s a great little place to have breakfast. The service was excellent and the food was delicious. It was a smidge expensive, but that might have just been because of the mimosas.

Went to see the Fab Four at the Canyon Club tonight. They were pretty awesome (as far as cover bands go). They changed costumes a few times and played probably two dozen Beatles songs. They weren’t the Red Elvises or anything, but it was a good show and a lot of fun.

The place was packed, but I got the feeling that there wasn’t much else to do in Agoura Hills on a Friday night. If you go to a show at the Canyon Club, eat first. The very few items on the menu all started over $20. I went for the rib-eye and was severely disappointed. I don’t cry about spending $30+ for a good steak, and the one I got was huge, but it was mostly gristle and fat.

I should add something about the fact that Budweiser Select is actually a very good beer and not a new-fangled low-carb diet beer, but since I didn’t try it for two months because that’s what I assumed it was, I’ll keep my mouth shut until their marketing department gets a clue.