steak with Denny

Night two of eight nights alone with Olive, and I had company.  I hadn't seen Denny since he came to the cocktail party back in May, so we were overdue for catching up.  Over drinks outside

then a nice little steak dinner I cooked up for us,

we chatted about travel and dating and Mexican food and more.  What a nice evening!

Dishes are done, it's time for bed.  I shall post this in the morning.  Happy Thursday, one and all! 

Mírate

A Monday night dinner out for us last night, and not in Pasadena!  Will wonders never cease?!

Because of his work schedule, our friend Denny finds it easier to meet up with us midweek (today is his Saturday) rather than on weekends.  Not impossible on weekends, but he has to be mindful of work the next day if we do get together.  He's in WeHo, we're in Pasadena, so we sometimes try to meet halfway-ish.  Last night that meant heading over to the Los Feliz neighbourhood and dining together at a restaurant Van had suggested for all of us:   Mírate.

The drive was fairly easy, and we all arrived on time.  We had a quieter corner upstairs, which I appreciated for Conrad's sake.  Handsome space as well, I have to say.  And I liked the menu.  It's a simple menu for the most part with only a few large plates (which we didn't order - we stuck to smaller plates).  They take pride in having a bar that is stocked with only Mexican spirits and wines, and while that constrains them in terms of making some classic drinks, that constraint can also lead to some very good things, some creative beverages.  As was the case with my first one, the El Pulquero. 

Made from pulque and featuring some savoury flavours and a pickled onion and cilantro garnish, the drink was meant to spin off from a Gibson.  I liked it, simple as that.  It was not an obvious or sweet drink, and each sip made me pause and think a moment.

That said, the clear winner of the cocktails last night was the one that Van ordered and that Denny and I ordered as our second drinks (he and Conrad each had a Cadillac margarita to start with):  the El Caminante. 

An excellent drink that was modeled on the classic tiki cocktail the Jungle Bird, but served up in a Nick and Nora glass.  Tasty.  I also had a digestif with dessert, the Fernet Vallet.  It was like Fernet Branca but less body.

The food was good, too.  We shared some smashed avocado and queso fundido

and the mole and turon. 

Each were tasty.  Simple, which was fine.  My sense of the food last night was that it put a focus on the ingredients and didn't hide them under lots of sauce or fat or frou-frou.  After the shared plates, we opted for tacos, and I had a shrimp taco and (this will shock some) a mushroom taco. 

I actually preferred the latter.  And yes, I do sometimes eat certain mushrooms, just never those revolting button mushrooms.  My rule of thumb for restaurants is that if they identify the type of mushroom, then it's probably a safe bet, but if they simply say "wild mushrooms", they're using a blend that will include button mushrooms or some disgusting variant thereof.

We did share two desserts. 

The cheesecake was fine, but I didn't get any hint of tamarind from it.  The pan de elote, a blue corn cornbread with banana ice cream, was far better.

All in all a nice evening to catch up with Denny.  He's a great guy, and he likes a good cocktail, so his company is very welcome! 

Denny came to dinner

And that is that!  With last night's dinner, I

have come to the end of several days in a row with some sort of (admittedly fun) obligation.  Tonight will be a basic dinner and a quiet evening.  Oh, I have one more card to write.  Maybe that, too.

But first:  last night.  And a simple check in.  It was a nice dinner for four of us over at Van's.  Denny

came over from WeHo to join us.  We sipped cocktails that Van

whipped up for us - a tasty bourbon and cranberry one

for most of us while Conrad

had martinis.  I made chicken cacciatore and polenta for dinner, and for dessert some red wine poached pears that I served with chunks of toasted chocolate chip panettone. 

It was a nice handful of hours for us all.

There will be no blogging of the basic dinner tonight for you to read tomorrow!  🤣 

dinner with Denny

With Conrad away in NZ, Van and I feel an occasional need for someone to fill in for him at the dinner table.  So last night we drove on over to West Hollywood and met up with Denny for a meal at Saltie Girl.

Denny is a delight.  He travels, he enjoys food and cocktails, he's a fellow homo, and he's got a good, balanced mindset.  Easy conversation with him every time.  We'll hope to have him over some time this fall when things slow down for us.

As for dinner, a success, and worth a return.  The restaurant has an extensive menu of tinned fish served charcuterie style, and I am so eager to try that - I love me some sardines and more!  But not last night.  We sat outside, and the low light meant the food photos were not optimal.  I did capture the tasty salad we shared,

but I did not get either the truly excellent calamari (so light!) and my delicious pasta with clams.  The cocktails were good, but Van's variation on an old fashioned (simply called "orange" on the menu - Denny's was called "honeydew" and mine was called "nectarine") was the best, and Denny and I each opted for it as a second round.

Oh, and Van had a minor celebrity sighting, someone from Pentatonix. 

50 minutes to get there, 35 or so to get home.  I'm not a fan of having to drive all that, but ah well.  Dinner with Denny was worth it! 

dinner with Denny

One of the drawbacks to the LA area is that is not just huge, it's also poorly served by transit.  That means that so many of us are relegated to driving places even when we would rather not.  Like yesterday, for example.  I had dinner plans in West Hollywood.  It's a busy area, I don't know the streets well, and I did not want to be circling, hunting for parking.  I also knew that I would want a couple of drinks, and I abhor driving under the influence.  So it was, then, that I made a mad dash to the Memorial Park station

to catch a train down into LA to Union Station, then had to transfer to what used to be known as the Red Line, then get off in the thick of touristy Hollywood and catch an Uber from a nearby hotel.  That all took an hour and a half.  I splurged to get Uber home at the end of dinner.

No matter, though, because the company was worth it.  Dinner with Denny - yay!!  I hadn't seen him in person in far too long.  I had to miss dinner with him in Phoenix because of food poisoning or whatever bug kept me ill in the hotel room for 48 hours before the conference started.  A shame - we don't see each other at all often enough.  We met at Bottega Louie near where he lives - he had to work late that day, and meeting outside of his neighbourhood would have been later and trickier.  Next time we'll have him up our way for another meal.  Last night, though, it was a shared pizza and salad and a few rounds of Boulevardiers and much great conversation.  A real delight to hang out for an evening. 

Joyce

It's been quite a handful of weeks in terms of dining outside of Pasadena.  I sort of feel like I need a good spell of dining again at local favourites to make up for it!  San Laurel, Otium, Verse, Ladyhawk, and more.  Now let's add Joyce to the list.

This past Monday night was supposed to be an opportunity for us to get together with Denny.  We'd already postponed twice, and when it turned out that Tuesday was going to be an early morning heading to the airport, it looked like another postponement.  Instead, I invited Denny to join me alone in DTLA (not exactly midway between him in WeHo and me here in Pasadena, but equally a nuisance for each of us to get to) and found a promising-looking place on OpenTable:  Joyce Soul and Sea.

First off, it was great to see Denny again.  It's been too long.  We message fairly regularly, but it just goes to show that even though we live in the same metro area, it's not always easy to align schedules and make it to the same parts of the metro without hassle.  It was the same for us with some friends back in Chicago, so I'm used to it, but I regret it.  Ah well.  We made it to dinner, taking seats at the bar/kitchen counter.

I liked Joyce.  I would go back.  I would not take Conrad.  The music was loud, the room was loud, and even leaning in to listen to Denny, I still had some difficulties.  But I would take Van.  Or meet Denny or another friend there.

Drinks?  Great!  Nice bar there,

some good options.  I started with the Florida Highwaymen (a whiskey sour, essentially, and tasty),

then tried the Mother of Pearl Martini (fine, I still insist that a martini should be gin),

then closed with a Hanky Panky (bartender's suggestion, a good after dinner closer). 

Denny had three other cocktails of his own, and all of them hit the spot for him.  No wine for us - I didn't know the ones on the list, and cocktails were more my mood.

Desserts?  Awesome!  We ordered the beignets,

but the server punched in the blueberry cobbler. 

So we were gifted a dessert while they fixed that mix-up, and the server charged us only for the cobbler, the lower price.  I think I liked the beignets slightly more, but I'd happily have that cobbler again.

Oysters? 

Superb!  Very fresh, not too briny.  Neither Denny nor I added any lemon or hot sauces - purists, I guess.  Loved them!

The other items?  Fine!  I liked the pork belly most,

which is funny because I often avoid that on menus.  It's a fatty cut, and if not cooked well, it can be too much fat, too rich.  The few cubes we had were nicely cooked, meaty, but also well balanced with the glaze and the fresh herb.  I liked the duck confit,

but the jerk flavour was a little odd to me.  Not bad, and no unexpected, but something that I didn't immediately love.  The macaroni and cheese

was curiously not cheesy enough for what I was hoping.  I liked it, I ate my share, but I wanted it to be cheesier and saucier.

Service was friendly.  It was easy to get there - a short walk from the 7st St./Metro Center station on the A line.  That makes it a little more likely I'll return.  And for sure, I will get those oysters again!