Saturday was my last full day in the city. I checked out of the hotel, left my luggage with the bag captain and hitched a cab to the Upper Eastside. I saw on the web that the Met had an interesting sculpture on the roof made of bamboo and that you could line up for tickets to climb up. This was the last weekend before they started taking the sculpture down. When I got to the museum, the place was packed. I asked about where to line up for the roof sculpture and they pointed me to another exit. After wandering around trying to figure out what they were talking about, I found the wheelchair entrance with a bit of a line of people. I was able to get one of the last tickets (yay!) and some time to check out a few other exhibits. The first place I headed was the Khubilai Khan exhibit. They had some beautiful examples of pottery, textiles, paintings and many other decorative objects. I focused mainly on the decorative objects, I didn't have the energy to focus on the paintings. In many of the pieces on exhibit, I learned about how the art during this period brought together artistic styles and techniques from all corners of the Mongol empire. They were also very open to just about any religion, which also influenced the art.
From the Khan exhibit, I headed up to the roof to check out this sculpture that I was going to be walking on. It was stunning and huge! Walking underneath it was like being in a dry bamboo forest (but with climbing rope scattered throughout). A lot of people were up on the roof having a drink, taking pictures of the sculpture, looking at the colourful foliage in Central Park. I would be up on the sculpture in a couple of hours!
I took a brief break in the cafe in the American Wing. This is one of my favourite places in the museum. I just love the light in here and the way it shines on the various sculptures.
The tour of the Big Bambu sculpture met downstairs. While I was waiting for it to start, I noticed a familiar face taking her kids to the museum. Turns out it was Marcia Gay Harden!
In order to walk on the sculpture, they required that we leave our belongings in lockers (so that nothing could accidentally drop on someone below). We got to walk up the bamboo paths, on this amazing structure that was just sitting on the roof, not bolted down, creating this wave-like form, with various sizes of poles tied together with different colours of climbing rope. By the time we were at the top, we were 50 ft above the roof of the Met, looking out over the Park and across at the Penthouses surrounding it. The bamboo underneath our feet flexed as we walked. The rock climbers who worked on the structure created a place for a beer cooler, places for bamboo lounge chairs and a small bamboo wind chime. It was an amazing feeling being up there! The wisteria on the roof's trellis had started growing up the bamboo. It was an incredible feeling to be within and a part of this beautiful artwork, knowing that it was going to be gone within a few weeks!
After I got back to the hotel, picked up my bags and headed to Wilson and Ming's coop, I was pretty tired. Instead of heading to the theatre (to see Cedar Lake at the Joyce) I decided I needed a Shake Shack burger and fries and a frozen custard. Plus, it would give me a chance to reexamine the light sculptures in Madison Square Park. It was a fitting way to end a busy week.
31 October 2010
29 October 2010
Lincoln Center, MAD, and Fela!
On Friday, I had only a few meetings, so I planned a tour of Lincoln Center. The whole place has been renovated by Diller Scofidio+Renfro with a new fountain in the plaza and a new 'grassy knoll' on the 65th Street side. The tour guide was an older gentleman with a very deep and dramatic bass voice. He took us through David Kock theatre, where NYC Opera was doing a rehearsal for Intermezzo by Strauss. There was no music, just people running around a stage with props. In the Met Opera House, the Opera was rehearsing Carmen with full costumes and sets. We were only allowed into the Director's box, but from there we could see and hear everything. That place is huge! The final venue we toured is Avery Fisher Hall, where the Philharmonic performs. This venue was empty so we sat in there as our guide told us a little about the place. Apparently Avery Fisher paid to have the whole thing taken down and rebuilt shortly after it opened because that was the only way to fix the sound problems. They really don't make rich people like they used to, do they?
From Lincoln Center, I headed to MAD, the Museum of Art and Design. I had read about the building that this museum is in in the New York Times. The building now looks like it says 'HI' on the top. The museum was between exhibits and had only a jewelry show and a pottery show, but their open studio housed Ruth Marshall, who knits cat skins. She has some small knitted wild cat skins on display (ocelot, etc) and is working on a tiger. Her knitted skins are based on actual skins in the Natural History Museum collection. The tiger is from a female from a zoo who was donated to the museum upon her death. The knit work is beautiful (colour work, shaping, etc) and it was cool to talk to her in person about her project.
Since I was in Columbus Circle, I decided to have lunch at Bouchon Bakery in Time Warner Center. I had their short rib sliders at the bar and a cookie with ice cream.
After lunch, I strolled down to Times Square to see what was happening at the TKTS booth. It sure has expanded since the 90s when I visited D while he was at Columbia and we saw Metamorphosis with Baryshnikov! The line was quite long, and the booth is now several windows wide and located under the glowing red stairs near the Father Duffy statue. I was able to get a seat for Fela!, a musical based on the life of Fela Kuti. He invented afrobeat music, but I had heard that the dancing, choreographed by Bill T. Jones was phenomenal. I went back to my hotel for room service dinner of french onion soup (and the remainder of the cookie from lunch) and a bit of a rest. I got to the theatre as they were letting the line in. The crowd was heavily African-American and the theatre was plastered all over with hand painted signs to give it some atmosphere. My seat was in the very first row! The cast is all black, and the performer who plays Fela! is pretty much on stage the entire time. He talks to the crowd as if we are all seeing one of his shows in Fela's nightclub in Nigeria. The music is amazing of course, but the dancing was phenomenal and it was so cool to see it so close up. I could have reached out and touched some of the dancer's feet. The show includes a lot of audience participation and the dancers often move into the aisles as they are singing and dancing.
From Lincoln Center, I headed to MAD, the Museum of Art and Design. I had read about the building that this museum is in in the New York Times. The building now looks like it says 'HI' on the top. The museum was between exhibits and had only a jewelry show and a pottery show, but their open studio housed Ruth Marshall, who knits cat skins. She has some small knitted wild cat skins on display (ocelot, etc) and is working on a tiger. Her knitted skins are based on actual skins in the Natural History Museum collection. The tiger is from a female from a zoo who was donated to the museum upon her death. The knit work is beautiful (colour work, shaping, etc) and it was cool to talk to her in person about her project.
Since I was in Columbus Circle, I decided to have lunch at Bouchon Bakery in Time Warner Center. I had their short rib sliders at the bar and a cookie with ice cream.
After lunch, I strolled down to Times Square to see what was happening at the TKTS booth. It sure has expanded since the 90s when I visited D while he was at Columbia and we saw Metamorphosis with Baryshnikov! The line was quite long, and the booth is now several windows wide and located under the glowing red stairs near the Father Duffy statue. I was able to get a seat for Fela!, a musical based on the life of Fela Kuti. He invented afrobeat music, but I had heard that the dancing, choreographed by Bill T. Jones was phenomenal. I went back to my hotel for room service dinner of french onion soup (and the remainder of the cookie from lunch) and a bit of a rest. I got to the theatre as they were letting the line in. The crowd was heavily African-American and the theatre was plastered all over with hand painted signs to give it some atmosphere. My seat was in the very first row! The cast is all black, and the performer who plays Fela! is pretty much on stage the entire time. He talks to the crowd as if we are all seeing one of his shows in Fela's nightclub in Nigeria. The music is amazing of course, but the dancing was phenomenal and it was so cool to see it so close up. I could have reached out and touched some of the dancer's feet. The show includes a lot of audience participation and the dancers often move into the aisles as they are singing and dancing.
28 October 2010
Broadway, Dance and Food
I think the title pretty much covered the evening activities during the week. Our days were packed solid with meetings, and there were a couple of business meetings over dinner, but I made an effort to fill the rest of the evenings with seeing live performance. Our offices here are very well located for access to Broadway and City Center.
One of my evening meals included drinks and dinner at Rue 57 at the bar. The bolognese sauce was delish and I should have take some back to the hotel, because I wasn't very hungry during east coast dinner time, but got hungry later, during west coast dinner time.
A second evening meal was at Mike's Bistro, a kosher restaurant on the Upper West Side for a group dinner that included Warner Bros., our design firms, ADI from NY and BDA from Los Angeles, our contractors, and MEP engineers. The food was excellent, great service, fun company. After dinner, a few of us stopped at a nearby Irish pub, P.D. O'Hurley, for a drink. Pretty authentic too, the bartenders all had real Irish accents. The food being brought out to fellow patrons smelled really good!
On the third evening, Holly and I went to see Billy Elliott on Broadway. We got tickets at the box office in the front row of the mezzanine. We had a little time to kill before the show (but not enough for dinner) so we headed to Times Square. A couple of years ago, the city blocked off a chunk of street for pedestrians and people were hanging out all staring at the side of a building and waving. Turns out one of the stores had a camera mounted pointing to the crowd, and people were waving at themselves, which seems like a pretty universal human response to seeing yourself projected on a large screen. The show itself was great, the Billy I saw (Joseph Harrington) was exceptionally talented (I suspect all of the rotating Billy's are). Apparently there is a special 'camp' for the various Billy candidates because they need to know ballet, tap, singing and acting, plus be able to speak in a Geordie (or northern English) accent. After the show, the audience is let out at the back near the stage doors and there were several pre-teen girls waiting for Billy to come out, which he did and signed autographs and had pictures taken with girls and parents alike! After the show, Holly's brother met up with us (he was at a dinner nearby) and we found a Greek restaurantm, Uncle Nick's, that Holly had been to before and enjoyed. They were clearly getting ready to closed but there were some 15 to 20 staffers milling about. They agreed to serve us so we ordered moussaka, pastitsio, flaming cheese and a tray of dips. The food was excellent, we scarfed it down and Holly's brother had leftovers to take home.
By Thursday, I was exhausted, and I suspect our design team was as well. We wrapped a little earlier, and I spent some time sitting under the Columbus statue at Columbus Circle. We watched high school kids milling about. We had a drinks meeting with our contractor and one of our subtenant contacts at Whiskey Park. After a little bit of chit chat, I headed back to my hotel. The day before Holly's brother told us the Thai restaurant, Topaz Thai, near the hotel was quite good, so I got in line and had myself a delicious plate of pad thai with seafood, plus creamy thai iced tea. The restaurant was tiny and packed, with a line out the door. The service was fast and pleasant and I paid and was out of there in plenty of time to walk down to the next block to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at City Center. I've seen the touring company in LA, but I loved this performance even more. I thought the dancers were superb and I love his choreography. And odd thing happened just as the house lights dimmed though. I was in the rear mezzanine, and there was a major stampede of people up in the rafters heading for empty seats in the front of the mezzanine. They made a major racket and it was really unpleasant.
One of my evening meals included drinks and dinner at Rue 57 at the bar. The bolognese sauce was delish and I should have take some back to the hotel, because I wasn't very hungry during east coast dinner time, but got hungry later, during west coast dinner time.
A second evening meal was at Mike's Bistro, a kosher restaurant on the Upper West Side for a group dinner that included Warner Bros., our design firms, ADI from NY and BDA from Los Angeles, our contractors, and MEP engineers. The food was excellent, great service, fun company. After dinner, a few of us stopped at a nearby Irish pub, P.D. O'Hurley, for a drink. Pretty authentic too, the bartenders all had real Irish accents. The food being brought out to fellow patrons smelled really good!
On the third evening, Holly and I went to see Billy Elliott on Broadway. We got tickets at the box office in the front row of the mezzanine. We had a little time to kill before the show (but not enough for dinner) so we headed to Times Square. A couple of years ago, the city blocked off a chunk of street for pedestrians and people were hanging out all staring at the side of a building and waving. Turns out one of the stores had a camera mounted pointing to the crowd, and people were waving at themselves, which seems like a pretty universal human response to seeing yourself projected on a large screen. The show itself was great, the Billy I saw (Joseph Harrington) was exceptionally talented (I suspect all of the rotating Billy's are). Apparently there is a special 'camp' for the various Billy candidates because they need to know ballet, tap, singing and acting, plus be able to speak in a Geordie (or northern English) accent. After the show, the audience is let out at the back near the stage doors and there were several pre-teen girls waiting for Billy to come out, which he did and signed autographs and had pictures taken with girls and parents alike! After the show, Holly's brother met up with us (he was at a dinner nearby) and we found a Greek restaurantm, Uncle Nick's, that Holly had been to before and enjoyed. They were clearly getting ready to closed but there were some 15 to 20 staffers milling about. They agreed to serve us so we ordered moussaka, pastitsio, flaming cheese and a tray of dips. The food was excellent, we scarfed it down and Holly's brother had leftovers to take home.
By Thursday, I was exhausted, and I suspect our design team was as well. We wrapped a little earlier, and I spent some time sitting under the Columbus statue at Columbus Circle. We watched high school kids milling about. We had a drinks meeting with our contractor and one of our subtenant contacts at Whiskey Park. After a little bit of chit chat, I headed back to my hotel. The day before Holly's brother told us the Thai restaurant, Topaz Thai, near the hotel was quite good, so I got in line and had myself a delicious plate of pad thai with seafood, plus creamy thai iced tea. The restaurant was tiny and packed, with a line out the door. The service was fast and pleasant and I paid and was out of there in plenty of time to walk down to the next block to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at City Center. I've seen the touring company in LA, but I loved this performance even more. I thought the dancers were superb and I love his choreography. And odd thing happened just as the house lights dimmed though. I was in the rear mezzanine, and there was a major stampede of people up in the rafters heading for empty seats in the front of the mezzanine. They made a major racket and it was really unpleasant.
25 October 2010
Sunday in New York
Today I took it easy in the morning as my knee was bothering me (probably a consequence of too much walking and my calf muscle still being weak from the injury in June). Wilson and Ming were heading home to Long Island, so I hung out while they got themselves packed up. I then headed to the Parker Meridien where I would be staying during the week. After a quick burger at the Parker's burger joint (a weird little shack like corner of the hotel serving only burgers and fries and taking cash only), I headed to MOMA. They have a show of Abstract Expressionism in New York. Turns out MOMA was kind of the epicenter of this art movement. This is not one of my favourite kinds of modern art, but there were some amazing pieces by Jackson Pollack, Philip Guston, Barnet Newman, and many others. The audio tour is free at MOMA and that always adds something to the experience, especially when viewing less familiar pieces. The sculpture garden had some new pieces, including a wishing tree by Yoko Ono which drew a lot of attention as participants could write a wish on a tag and add it to the tree. The second floor atrium featured a Kara Walker piece ("Gone...") which I've seen before. Another show that drew my attention was one called Small Scale, Big Change which showed several projects by architects designing to improve impoverished urban environments. Many of the projects were residences (either houses or apartments or rehabilitation of existing buildings) but there were also schools and community centers. Not only was the story of each project interesting, but the displays of models, drawings and other documents really added to the understanding of each project. This was one of those wonderful surprises that I love stumbling on when I visit New York museums.
Before heading back to the hotel, I took a quick stroll through the permanent painting collection and spent some time with Monet's Waterlilies. The audio tour talked about how these paintings were viewed with very little appreciation at the time they were created, but that a curator at MOMA discovered them in the 50s during the time when Abstract Expressionism was in full bloom in NY and felt a connection between Monet's works and the current art. Who knew that the Waterlilies were pre-Abstract Expressionist! I loved that the museum made that connection for me!
After MOMA, I headed back to the hotel and rested (including a quick nap). I waited for Lalida, who is our main contact at DCE in Burbank, to arrive from the airport so we could go out for dinner. The hotel recommended Trattoria dell'Arte which is right around the corner. As we walked there, I realized that we are literally next to Carnegie Hall! The restaurant was wonderful. Warm and friendly service, delicious food, and amazing desserts. We started with burratas (huge pieces!), tried two different pasta dishes (bolognese and a cacio e pepe) and cannoli and tiramisu. Everything tasted good and the cannoli really was the best I've ever had.
Tomorrow is the start of a busy week of work.
Before heading back to the hotel, I took a quick stroll through the permanent painting collection and spent some time with Monet's Waterlilies. The audio tour talked about how these paintings were viewed with very little appreciation at the time they were created, but that a curator at MOMA discovered them in the 50s during the time when Abstract Expressionism was in full bloom in NY and felt a connection between Monet's works and the current art. Who knew that the Waterlilies were pre-Abstract Expressionist! I loved that the museum made that connection for me!
After MOMA, I headed back to the hotel and rested (including a quick nap). I waited for Lalida, who is our main contact at DCE in Burbank, to arrive from the airport so we could go out for dinner. The hotel recommended Trattoria dell'Arte which is right around the corner. As we walked there, I realized that we are literally next to Carnegie Hall! The restaurant was wonderful. Warm and friendly service, delicious food, and amazing desserts. We started with burratas (huge pieces!), tried two different pasta dishes (bolognese and a cacio e pepe) and cannoli and tiramisu. Everything tasted good and the cannoli really was the best I've ever had.
Tomorrow is the start of a busy week of work.
New York City
As part of a large project to relocate part of DC Entertainment to Burbank, a group of us are travelling to DC's offices in New York to conduct programming interviews. I wasn't about to let a trip to NY pass without some personal time, so I tagged on a weekend before and a Saturday after the official business.
I arrived on Friday, coincidentally around the same time that Wilson and Ming were returning from a trip to China to show off their 5 month old daughter Penelope to Ming's family. I had a set of keys to their coop in Chelsea so I was waiting for them when they got in. We ordered in Chinese take out and I got to meet Penelope who is just adorable, and catch up with Wilson and Ming.
On Saturday, I headed to the West Village to a restaurant called 'ino that was recommended to me by a friend who had just been to the city. I had a delicious sausage, egg and fontina panino washed down with capuccino.
After brunch, I walked east towards Washington Square Park, which was packed with people since it was a beautiful warm fall day. There were all kinds of performers in the park including an a capella quartet, a violinist standing in the middle of the dry fountain, a piano player with her instrument on rolling carts and with the case open to show the hammers and strings, and a trumpet player among the trees. An artist was painting with coloured sand poured onto the pavement with his hand.
From the park, I headed north to the Morgan Library. Although the permanent collection was closed for renovation, they had a couple of wonderful shows. The first was a small show of Degas drawings and sketches, including several studies made for paintings. The subjects included dancers, horses and people, and several of the drawings included water colour. The second show was of black and white Lichtensteins. I'd only ever seen his full colour works, which look like they are machine printed. The black and whites are mostly using graphite, pencil and other similar materials. They also show how he tried various methods to create the look of the Benday dots that are his trademark. Not all the techniques worked, but you can see smudges and other mistakes. The cartoonish quality of the drawings are somehow transformed by the lack of colour. These two shows made me appreciate the way that drawings and use of pencil and graphite really can reveal an artist at work. The third show at the Morgan was of Mark Twain documents, which were interesting historically, but although the writings are there for you to read, I ended up mostly reading the captions, which somehow made me feel like I was reading a history book.
From the Morgan I headed back to 5th Avenue and up to Rockefeller Center. The skating rink was in operation, and the area was packed with people. A newly married couple were getting their picture taken in front of the sign. After hanging out with the crowds for a bit, I walked over to 6th Ave. for the long walk back to Chelsea.
For dinner, Wilson suggested checking out Eataly, which is a new Italian marketplace and restaurant complex by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. The place was packed with lines everywhere. It's divided into sections like meats, fish, pastas, cheeses, and each section has its own restaurant. The seafood restaurant seemed to have the most reasonable wait time, so we put our names in. Half hour later, we got our table. We started with the crudo plate, which is basically Italian sashimi. The fish being offered were fluke, skipjack and sea trout and I thought the skipjack was incredibly tasty. I'm not a huge raw fish fan but these pieces were so fresh you could practically taste the ocean in them. My entree was a roasted bronzino. The fish came whole with the skin just opened up in the middle. Again, unbelievably fresh and delicious for a very simply prepared dish. Dessert for me was pistachio and hazelnut gelato, again amazingly good, strong nut flavours and wonderfully creamy. The lines here would be daunting for a regular visit (and the market prices are very high) but this was a wonderfully delicious and unique dining experience.
I arrived on Friday, coincidentally around the same time that Wilson and Ming were returning from a trip to China to show off their 5 month old daughter Penelope to Ming's family. I had a set of keys to their coop in Chelsea so I was waiting for them when they got in. We ordered in Chinese take out and I got to meet Penelope who is just adorable, and catch up with Wilson and Ming.
On Saturday, I headed to the West Village to a restaurant called 'ino that was recommended to me by a friend who had just been to the city. I had a delicious sausage, egg and fontina panino washed down with capuccino.
After brunch, I walked east towards Washington Square Park, which was packed with people since it was a beautiful warm fall day. There were all kinds of performers in the park including an a capella quartet, a violinist standing in the middle of the dry fountain, a piano player with her instrument on rolling carts and with the case open to show the hammers and strings, and a trumpet player among the trees. An artist was painting with coloured sand poured onto the pavement with his hand.
From the park, I headed north to the Morgan Library. Although the permanent collection was closed for renovation, they had a couple of wonderful shows. The first was a small show of Degas drawings and sketches, including several studies made for paintings. The subjects included dancers, horses and people, and several of the drawings included water colour. The second show was of black and white Lichtensteins. I'd only ever seen his full colour works, which look like they are machine printed. The black and whites are mostly using graphite, pencil and other similar materials. They also show how he tried various methods to create the look of the Benday dots that are his trademark. Not all the techniques worked, but you can see smudges and other mistakes. The cartoonish quality of the drawings are somehow transformed by the lack of colour. These two shows made me appreciate the way that drawings and use of pencil and graphite really can reveal an artist at work. The third show at the Morgan was of Mark Twain documents, which were interesting historically, but although the writings are there for you to read, I ended up mostly reading the captions, which somehow made me feel like I was reading a history book.
From the Morgan I headed back to 5th Avenue and up to Rockefeller Center. The skating rink was in operation, and the area was packed with people. A newly married couple were getting their picture taken in front of the sign. After hanging out with the crowds for a bit, I walked over to 6th Ave. for the long walk back to Chelsea.
For dinner, Wilson suggested checking out Eataly, which is a new Italian marketplace and restaurant complex by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. The place was packed with lines everywhere. It's divided into sections like meats, fish, pastas, cheeses, and each section has its own restaurant. The seafood restaurant seemed to have the most reasonable wait time, so we put our names in. Half hour later, we got our table. We started with the crudo plate, which is basically Italian sashimi. The fish being offered were fluke, skipjack and sea trout and I thought the skipjack was incredibly tasty. I'm not a huge raw fish fan but these pieces were so fresh you could practically taste the ocean in them. My entree was a roasted bronzino. The fish came whole with the skin just opened up in the middle. Again, unbelievably fresh and delicious for a very simply prepared dish. Dessert for me was pistachio and hazelnut gelato, again amazingly good, strong nut flavours and wonderfully creamy. The lines here would be daunting for a regular visit (and the market prices are very high) but this was a wonderfully delicious and unique dining experience.
17 October 2010
dineLA October 2010
We had a 2 week long dineLA this fall and I was able to try 3 new restaurants and return to a fourth that I had enjoyed before. The first place I went was Culina at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. This was a restauarant suggested by my friend Robert. It was a wonderful dinner. The room is beautiful with a lovely outdoor patio area for warm weather. The service was perfect, as you would expect from a Four Seasons. The food was fresh, delicious and perfectly portioned. The restaurant is Italian and the main menu appears very authentic. For dineLA, they had the freshest burrata with grape tomatoes, figs with ricotta, a beautiful piece of steak perfectly cooked to medium rare, and a delicious chocolate dessert, with 3 different textures, mousse, crisp cookie and creamy gelato.
The second place was Susan Feniger's Street. This is a very casual place serving interesting twists on international comfort food. The food was quite unusual and the service friendly. I found some challenges in the menu because of my peculiar taste preferences. However, I'm not sure this is a place I would go out of my way to visit. I can see this being a nice neighbourhood place if you lived close.
The third place I went was Ortolan. This is a french restaurant, and the room is absolutely beautiful. They only served the dineLA menu, we had to ask to see the regular menu. When we did we realized what a bargain the prix fixe price was. Typically they serve a $75 prix fixe or a $95 tasting menu. A la carte entrees are between mid $30s and high $40s! We got our three courses for $44. The food was exceptional. Every dish was beautiful from top to bottom. I had a braised short rib, which was dependably well done, but the polenta that it sat on was some of the most delicious corn I've ever had. The desserts were equally exceptional. My one disappointment was that the level of the service was lacking for a restaurant of this calibre. The hostess was a little spacey, and the main server was a bit brusque for my taste. The secondary service people were terrific though-the man who brought us the delicious bread and the man who brought out and explained each dish (which was a nice touch, I sometimes forget the details of what I've ordered). This is a special occasion restaurant, or one to go to on an expense account. They do have a $55 4 course prix fixe during the week.
The final restaurant was chosen due to convenient location but I'd been there before for a pre-theatre dinner and enjoyed it. Magnolia is only a couple of blocks away from the Pantages. The dineLA menu is special for the week, there aren't any dishes pulled from the main menu, which is nice. The room is dark and modern and the food is quite good, but at this price range, it's also more common. The service is friendly but our table is positioned a little too closely to an adjacent couple (who's conversation was not at all interesting to eavesdrop on!).
This was a particularly successful dineLA now that I've discovered a couple of great new restaurants.
The second place was Susan Feniger's Street. This is a very casual place serving interesting twists on international comfort food. The food was quite unusual and the service friendly. I found some challenges in the menu because of my peculiar taste preferences. However, I'm not sure this is a place I would go out of my way to visit. I can see this being a nice neighbourhood place if you lived close.
The third place I went was Ortolan. This is a french restaurant, and the room is absolutely beautiful. They only served the dineLA menu, we had to ask to see the regular menu. When we did we realized what a bargain the prix fixe price was. Typically they serve a $75 prix fixe or a $95 tasting menu. A la carte entrees are between mid $30s and high $40s! We got our three courses for $44. The food was exceptional. Every dish was beautiful from top to bottom. I had a braised short rib, which was dependably well done, but the polenta that it sat on was some of the most delicious corn I've ever had. The desserts were equally exceptional. My one disappointment was that the level of the service was lacking for a restaurant of this calibre. The hostess was a little spacey, and the main server was a bit brusque for my taste. The secondary service people were terrific though-the man who brought us the delicious bread and the man who brought out and explained each dish (which was a nice touch, I sometimes forget the details of what I've ordered). This is a special occasion restaurant, or one to go to on an expense account. They do have a $55 4 course prix fixe during the week.
The final restaurant was chosen due to convenient location but I'd been there before for a pre-theatre dinner and enjoyed it. Magnolia is only a couple of blocks away from the Pantages. The dineLA menu is special for the week, there aren't any dishes pulled from the main menu, which is nice. The room is dark and modern and the food is quite good, but at this price range, it's also more common. The service is friendly but our table is positioned a little too closely to an adjacent couple (who's conversation was not at all interesting to eavesdrop on!).
This was a particularly successful dineLA now that I've discovered a couple of great new restaurants.
11 October 2010
"Never Let Me Go", the movie
My book group read this novel back in 2006 and many of us loved it, plus it generated a great discussion, so I went with a couple of fellow 'book groupies' to see the movie. Since we'd read the book so long ago, our memories of the story are fuzzy, however the basic and central plot point is one that no one could forget. I won't reveal any spoilers, although there are plenty of places to read reviews that will tell all.
We all enjoyed the movie. It's beautifully filmed and captures the slightly unsettled, even creepy feeling of the book, but in such a subtle way that it sneaks up on you. I'm always fascinated when watching a good movie adaptation of a good book, how the conversion to a visual medium completely changes the emotions of the story for me. The editing down of the story into a movie felt quite seamless and I really enjoyed the performances by Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly and Andrew Garfield.
We all enjoyed the movie. It's beautifully filmed and captures the slightly unsettled, even creepy feeling of the book, but in such a subtle way that it sneaks up on you. I'm always fascinated when watching a good movie adaptation of a good book, how the conversion to a visual medium completely changes the emotions of the story for me. The editing down of the story into a movie felt quite seamless and I really enjoyed the performances by Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly and Andrew Garfield.
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