an anniversary dinner downtown

Van's sister Cathy and her husband Bob came to town this weekend, a short trip to California for them to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.  How lovely to see them!  And as a treat to them (and to us), Van bought all of us dinner at 71Above.

I think I've written about the restaurant before.  We took Van for his last birthday, I believe.  It's a handsome space perched on the 71st floor of the US Bank building, which is almost on the highest part of downtown LA.  The food is terrific, the service is great, the views are stunning.  Cathy and Bob were pretty floored by it all.

Our table was at the window, but not facing the rest of downtown and the sunset.  Instead, we were almost atop the Disney Hall and had views up toward Pasadena, which felt right somehow.  We made sure that Cathy and Bob had the window seats, and settled in to enjoy a very good and unrushed dinner.

Cocktails first!  The Buena Park for me, which had rye, rum, Aperol, lemon, and blueberry. 

A nice drink, not too sweet.  However, I also opted for the wine pairings (with the menu, you pay a set price and choose one each from the appetizers, mains, and desserts, so you can also have the wine pairings), and when they poured the first one, I realized that I very much had not needed that cocktail!  The pourings were generous, I was delighted to see.

I didn't get photos to the others' meals.  I never do that.  I did taste a little of Cathy's pork, and I liked it a lot.  Conrad's dumpling appetizer was also outstanding.  For my part, I had the Caledonian shrimp, which were smoky and salty and served with a cabbage foam.  Yum! 

My main was the ribeye, an unusual choice for me, but I felt like red meat.  I liked it. 

My dessert was a sabayon with peaches, and although I wished the peaches were a little more caramelized (as described on the menu), the sabayon itself was a treat.

All in all, an outstanding meal, and I think Cathy and Bob enjoyed it a lot, felt very special because of it.  71Above is a superb choice for a special occasion, after all, but you know, it would also make for a lovely date night in and of itself.

When we got back down to ground level and awaited the car,

I grabbed a few photos of the buildings of DTLA,

including the LA Public Library across the street. 

The night was mild, and we were home in Pasadena by shortly after 10.  Thank you so much to Van for his generous treat.  It was a delight through and through.

Van's birthday dinner

Some months back, the three of us agreed that, as much as we love our regular places to dine in Pasadena, we needed to get to other parts of the metro for meals.  Van's recent birthday presented us with a nice opportunity to do so.  Yesterday evening, Conrad and I drove over to his house, gave Olive a little love, then the three of us hopped in an Uber into downtown LA.  The destination was a restaurant Van had not yet tried but that Conrad and I had had a couple of lovely meals at:  71Above.

As the name suggests, the restaurant occupies space on the 71st floor of a downtown skyscraper, the US Bank Tower.  Two elevators to get there, and then you walk out into the main restaurant space, and oh, the views!  To be fair, the inside is a handsome space as well,

and with the addition of some Christmas decor, it was very inviting.  I think Van was pretty impressed.

We ordered drinks at the bar because we were a little early, but were taken to our table relatively quickly.  And here was a small surprise for me and Conrad:  we'd dined there twice and didn't realize the restaurant pretty much wraps around the floor.  We'd only ever seen the south and west views.  Last night, though, we were seated right at the window with views north and east. 

Were it light out, we might have just made out Pasadena in the distance.

Restaurants with such views are often tourist spots, and the food is not great (though Conrad and I had a memorable tasting menu dinner in the Sky Tower in Auckland a few years ago).  Not the case with 71Above.  The drinks were quite fine (mine was called the Flower District)

although I still don't know what the one bartender was thinking with the version of a Greenpoint I was later served (and I even stopped and asked her, and I still don't know why she essentially made me a whiskey sour with what tasted more like an absinthe wash than anything else - weird!)(and that's a small thing - it was still a tasty drink, and the server took it off the bill even though I made no fuss).  The food was pretty tasty, too.  For my part, I had a nice little bucatini starter, featuring some trout roe. 

Dinner for me was cabbage stuffed with wild rice - no, I haven't gone vegetarian, it just sounded so appealing after a few days of turkey! 

And then the carrot granita for dessert. 

Conrad

and I also had a half bottle of a nice Zinfandel.

It was a leisurely meal, lasting over two hours but never feeling as though it were lagging.  Still, by the time the Uber dropped us off, we were all very ready for bed.

We're thinking that when friends come to visit, or on a future special occasion, we need to get back there.  I am sure it will be a nice meal again.