As I have mentioned before, when I visit a city, I like to park the car and walk around. You see and meet the most interesting people (like Michael Voltaggio’s gal Jamie and her little French Bulldog Kimchi) and you see some great things. Last week’s blog was all about our fine dining experience in LA, but that is NOT the only thing we did. If you listen to the Travel Channel or the travel guides you don’t get the whole picture of the cool places and things there are to do in any place. I found this particular post difficult to write because it started to sound more like a travelogue of what we did instead of evoking how those experiences made me feel. I never do ANY research when we travel, I let the spirit move me, whereas John has to make a complete itinerary. This time we had a partial itinerary, but I found myself wishing I had done some research. I had no idea we’d be so close to Ink. I didn’t know we were literally down the street from Charm City Cakes West.
The cinnamon bun at Charm City Cakes

Since we were staying in West Hollywood, conveniently located near everything we wanted to see and do, we took advantage of fantastic weather and walked EVERYWHERE we could. Part of the appeal of walking is soaking up the atmosphere of the area, interacting with locals and seeing what they see every day. A lot of the time I find that if I only go where the tourists go, I miss out on a great deal of the flavor. I miss out on the little things that make a neighborhood unique. When we walked down Melrose we saw graffiti art and even a Banksy tribute piece (we THOUGHT it was a REAL Banksy – but upon some research I found it was not). When you walk down Melrose you can see the neighborhood change from toney, to edgy and back again simply by looking at the shops and people.

Friends Drew & Dena live (and work) in Studio City, so we took a little trip over to Drew’s workplace and headed to a brewery from there. While the beer was good, I was a little put off by a primarily vegetarian menu. I don’t have anything against vegetarians, but I really think my beer should be alongside an ashtray (as if that would happen in Cali) AND MEAT. To make matters worse, I didn’t ask the right questions about the burger I ordered and they put Thousand Island dressing on it (gross). Totally my fault, so I scraped it (and most of the cheese) off and skipped the bun half the offending condiment had soaked into. We continued our Studio City visit with a stop at Laurel Tavern with the Lucases. The Chorizo Fondue was amazing as was the beer and our fellow diners. At the next table over was Channing Tatum, yes really – Magic Mike. He had his back to the room for the better part of the evening, so clearly he was trying to be unnoticed, so I didn’t bother him for a pic. I love the fact that at a real locals’ spot, a real local, who happens to be a celeb, was there hanging with his buds. It just made the whole experience more “Hollywood” for me.

Beer at Laurel Tavern

At Golden Road Brewing

Saturday morning brought us gorgeous weather and a trip to The Hudson – we had to go because of the name (Moment of Truth – I graduated from Hudson High School). There, we experienced one of the most exquisitely crafted cocktails EVER! It was a cousin to a Rye Manhattan. The secret ingredient is small batch bitters containing candy cap mushrooms. Aromatic and breathtakingly delicious. And the food wasn’t bad either and the bar staff was outstanding.

Midwest Monk – that amazing cocktail

Pulled Pork Tacos

Crab cake Benedict

Of course walking around and taking pics makes for thirsty work, with each bar calling out to us, we had no choice but to stop and visit for a while. At The Village Idiot we met “Johnny Walker Red” – that’s not his real name, that’s just what we called him. He’s a local personality and bar denizen. Always wearing a tux and hat, he is intimately involved in the bar and entertainment scene if we could believe everything he said. Very fun and personable. We did so much and visited with so many people, both from my past (Hudson friends Dave T and Scott H) and from our present (the Lucas Family). There just isn’t enough time to do everything justice in this blog, so enjoy the pics. I drank 2 pink cocktails for heaven’s sake!

I find that I could visit LA every single weekend. There is so much to do and see and 3 days is not enough. Maybe renting a place for a month long walk-about…