A Couple of Restaurant Recommendations from the Weekend

First of all, Huckleberry Cafe in Santa Monica (11th and Wilshire) has, I think, the best breakfast in Santa Monica.  While it gets crowded, the staff is efficient and the homemade pastries are so beautiful.  The sweet bread pudding (made with different fruits) is absolutely delicious – sweet and rich – and it comes in a giant bowl perfect for sharing.  Also, the breakfast items include creative combinations and are made with farmer’s market produce.  I had the quinoa with butternut squash, spinach, pine nuts, and sunchokes topped with sunny-side up eggs.  (Also, this is the site of my recent Arnold Schwarzenegger sighting … more on that later.)

I also have to give a shout out to Tony’s Italian Steakhouse on the Sunset Strip (at Sunset and Alta Loma).  I didn’t eat there, but they have a fabulous  happy hour (which I believe ends at 8 PM every night) featuring $5 martinis.  Let me tell you, this was the best martini I have ever had.  I ordered the French Market Lemonade, and it was the perfect combination of sweet & tart.  Others raved about the chocolate martini and the Key Lime Pie martini.  They also offer $5 appetizers.  The ambiance is extremely classy and pretty and the wait staff is really nice and accommodating.  This is a fairly new addition to the Strip, and I will definitely be back.

I wish…

…that I could get back all of the time in my life I have spent driving around looking for parking spots.

Best Pizza in LA (or at least on the West Side)

LA is not known for having delicious pizza.  New York, okay.  New York knows pizza.  That slightly oily, cheesy, foldable, thin crust is difficult to top.

However, good pizza can be found in LA. (Not so much good bagels; I was told recently that this is because bagels are never boiled here as they are in NYC.)  But LA pizza is predictably a little more … well, LA than NY pizza.  Like, I was at my favorite pizza shop today and they actually sell salad pizza, which is basically salad with lettuce and avocados and tomatoes and whatnot on pizza crust.  It actually looks really tasty.

Anyway, the pizza place of which I speak – my personal favorite – is Abbot Kinney Pizza.  The crust is bagel-style and covered with poppyseeds and quite hearty (especially when accompanied by the red roasted pepper or ranch dippins sauces), and the gourmet-style pizzas range from the aforementioned salad pizza to tequila lime chicken to four onion.  Tonight I went with the Greek pie:

 

I know some people think Abbot Kinney Pizza is overrated, but I really love it, precisely because it does have slightly different pizza flavor than I am used to.  It’s kind of earthy-tasting.  I love it.

Hey! I’ve been there!

As shallow as this is, one thing I love about LA is frequently seeing places I’ve been on TV and in the movies.  Like on 90210 last night, we saw The Edison, which is  a bar inside LA’s first power plant.  It has an amazing atmosphere, amazing drinks, and literally makes you feel like you are on a night out in the 1920s.  There are actually women wandering about wearing flapper attire.  I hear it is more douchebag-heavy on a Saturday night, but I’ve been twice (on a Wednesday and a Friday) and both experiences were delightful.

Also, 90210 featured Pink’s Hot Dogs, the landmark hot dog stand that has been around since the Great Depression.  Pink’s is known for their hot dogs named after celebrities.  I have not been there since college, but  I remember thinking that the hot dog itself was not worth the line I stood in to get it.  That often seems to be the case with landmarks, but I think it is a place that Angelenos and LA visitors should hit at least once.

But 90210 … everyone knows that you can’t get that close to the Hollywood sign!  It is actually against the law.  I actually hiked Mt. Hollywood – by myself – a few weeks ago when I was feeling quite overcaffeinated.  I was really overcaffeinated, people.  I actually scaled this incredibly steep hill and practically killed myself.  Luckily, this hike is popular so my carcass  would have been found before mountain lions had finished eating me.  Anyway, there is a great view of Mt. Lee from this hike, which (I think) may be as close as one can get to the Hollywood sign.

This is one of my favorite quites about LA, from LA Story:

“Roland thinks LA is a place for the brain-dead. He says, if you turned off the sprinklers, it would turn into a desert. But I think – I don’t know, it’s not what I expected. It’s a place where they’ve taken a desert and turned it into their dreams. I’ve seen a lot of LA and I think it’s also a place of secrets: secret houses, secret lives, secret pleasures. And no one is looking to the outside for verification that what they’re doing is all right.”