Tony's Steakhouse on Sunset: Me eat meat. Me happy.

I'm usually not a big steak person. In fact, at any given time, I'm on a low-fat, low-calorie, low-carb, low-salt, low-sugar "diet." But a gal's gotta splurge sometimes, right?

Tony's Italian Steakhouse is a brand new restaurant that opened officially this past Friday. I generally don't like going to restaurants as soon as they open since they have a lot of kinks that they haven't completely worked out, but the price and location were right so I figured I'd give it a shot.

The Parking Situation
It's situated on the "cool" part of the Sunset strip near Ketchup and Whiskey A Go Go. It can be easy to miss if you're not paying attention, but there's a vertical sign visible from Sunset Bl that says "Tony's" and a small area to receive valet parking ($5).

The Ambiance
Entering, I was pleasantly surprised by the upscale ambiance. It was illuminated with 100s of candles adorning the walls and the tables. The decor was modern with clean lines, but also had that woodsy feel that people expect from a steakhouse. The "bar" area is quite spacious and you don't feel like a second class citizen hanging out there as you can at some restaurants. There's also a baby grand piano near the entryway and a guy was playing lots of soothing covers of The Beatles, Billy Joel, etc. Live music is always a nice touch, especially when it doesn't drown out your conversations. There is a large open kitchen and in front of in front of which was a communal dining area that could easily become a private party space which is surrounded by "open" windows.

The Meal
Their main schtick that was touted in the press was the fact that you can get a 6oz cut of prime steak (filet mignon, ribeye, sirloin, etc) with 1 starch and a choice of 2 sides for $25. Our meal started off with warm crusty bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sea salt for dipping. I liked that it came in those compartmentalized little plate so the oil and vinegar didn't mix (unless you wanted it to).

The cut I selected was flatiron (aka skirt steak) with glazed carrots, broccolini (aka broccoli rabe) and truffled mashed potatoes. Truffle mash.....aaarrrggghhhh......*drool*. FYI - the mushroom polenta and one other side (can't remember name) is an extra $5, so ask if that matters to you. It was a simple steak and simply dressed which is really the best way since you can actually taste what you're eating instead of having it drowned out in butters and sauces. Med rare was perfectly cooked with just the right amount of the pinkish red center and a salty char to the outside. They also offer a small but well thought out pasta section, because how can they call themselves Italian without pasta, right? I didn't get to try this (though very tempting). Definitely something to look forward to for my next visit :d

The Booze
They do have a cocktail list, but nothing particularly inspiring - think snoozers like chocolate martinis - BUT you can get any martini of your choice for only $5! And it was a good sized martini... probably around 3-4oz, not those cheap baby kind. I had mine straight up with a twist, a particularly soothing way to melt away the stress that can easily build up foraging through traffic trying to get to this part of town.

The Dessert
We tried 3 different desserts - a grand marnier souffle, a lemon tart, but the standout for us was definitely the molten chocolate cake with olive oil gelato. The gelato tasted like regular old vanilla on the tongue, but it had the nose and finish of olive oil. I know it sounds weird, but it somehow works, trust me :) They also have a butterscotch pudding that I'd like to try out next time. All the desserts range from $5-7.

The Damage
The damage for this awesome meal of a perfect steak, a strong martini, and several shared desserts was only $40pp(!) after tax and tip. I'm definitely coming back here next time I'm craving a good affordable steak at an upscale spot.

Tony's Italian Steakhouse
8570 Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood CA 90069
(310) 298-1145
Reservations recommended

Mi casa es su casa... almost

One of the great things about living in LA is the easy access to all things Latino. Where else in a western country can you find more Spanish language radio station than English? Well, maybe Miami.... but I digress.

For my dear friend Grace's 30-something-th birthday, I volunteered to take charge since I'm kind of a control freak when it comes to evening activities (I just think my ideas are better :P ) and I had just written a post about places to host birthday parties so I was brimming with ideas.

I chose Casa as the spot to host because I thought it was in a good central location in downtown LA with lots of semi-enclosed casitas that looked totally cute in the pictures, a good looking nuevo-latino fusiony menu, and an innovative cocktail menu utilizing highbrow tequila.

The Staff
During the course of this event, I interacted with lots of people who work for this restaurant. I made the reservation a week ahead and the restaurant manager Michael was totally cool and accomodating of all my requests. A marginal corkage fee (which I ended up not needing since no one brought their own liquor), no cake cutting fee, and willing to work with the moving parts of my party. The hostess Arlene called me twice during the week just to confirm my reservation and ask what type of space I would want. I thought that was nice. Courtney, our waitress, was on top of her game and making sure we had everything we needed throughout the night. Shawn, another manager looking guy, was totally helpful and hands on when all my friends were getting lost and couldn't find the restaurant or parking! I even had a brief chat with Chef Morningstar about the menu and some of its highlights.

The Food
Apparently, the much talked about Guac y Mole is no longer offered, but instead a 3 dip appetizer thing is on the menu. The dips are a chipotle salsa tasting thing, a peanut mole, and a roasted tomatillo salsa, the last being my favorite with its smokiness from the roasting process and sour tang of the tomatillo. None of us really cared for the peanut mole which reminded me of Thai satay sauce. We weren't too crazy about the mushroom quesadillas either. Not too much flavor and the seed sauce just wasn't cutting it for us. The tacos that I tried were all very good, but the standouts for me was the shrimp taco with its succulent meat and delicate batter on a bed of crunchy greens, wrapped up in a chewy homemade tortilla.... yum! Mi amigas also raved about the carne asada tacos, but they got eaten up so fast I never got a chance to try them! So I guess that means they were good :P

The ceviche we weren't too crazy about. It was ok, but not a standout dish in my opinion. But the chile relleno was rich and luscious in that slow-cooked sort of way. It was a mix of ground chorizo and dates, stuffed into a poblano chile, then topped with cheese and some mystery sauce that I can't remember.... but who cares when it tastes that good! Let me wipe up my drool while I describe their margaritas...

The Booze
My first cocktail was their Smokey Margarita which was a mix of whiskey and a highbrow tequila whose name I can't remember right now in a house smoked salt rimmed glass. While tequila is something cringe inducing and reminiscent of drunken nights at the sports bar for most people, this drink reminded me of what good tequila can be.... sharp, smokey, with just a subtle bite. Even my tequila averse friend deliciouslife thought it was a good margarita. My party of 12 ended up ordering several pitchers of the house margarita throughout the night, but even those were also quite tasty and not the burning-esophagus stupid-drunk kind of margarita.

The Aftermath
There was a small mixup of the birthday cake situation and a different waitress (not Courtney) started taking it out of the box and putting candles on it while we were still eating. Once I realized what was happening, I quickly walked over and blew out the candles and said "not now, later" and Courtney came over and was like "That's not your cake!" But the waitress in question later pulled me aside and profusely apologized for the mixup. It's cool.... everyone makes mistakes :)

The Parking Situation
The only thing I would really change about this place is the parking situation. They currently do not have valet parking. Apparently they have 2hrs of free validated parking somewhere on Olive St, but the night I was there (Saturday), it was closed. Street parking is also pretty limited since the place is quite near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Some people parked in a $5 pay lot somewhere near the restaurant, but I STILL don't know where it is. Also, the restaurant itself is kind of hard to see from the street since it's signage is about half a flight of stairs below street level. My suggestion to Casa would be to have clearer signage of the restaurant that is readily visible from the street with clear instructions on where to park -OR- offer valet parking!!

All in all, we had a really fantastic time at this wonderfully cute new restaurant. food - good, drinks -good, people - nice, decor - lovely. I can see this place being a very popular happy hour spot for the locals who work nearby. Hopefully they work out some of their parking kinks soon it can be a dinner/drinking destination soon :)

Casa Cocina y Cantina
350 South Grand Avenue
2 California Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90013
213.621.2249

Good places to host birthday parties

For some reason, I feel like everyone has a birthday in January or February. So I've been getting lots of inquiries from friends on what would be a good spot to host a casual yet upscale and FUN birthday party for groups of 6-20. These are some not-so-mainstream restaurants and bars that have little rooms in which you could host events whose prices won't blow a hole through your wallet. Because obviously, a hipster would never dream of hosting anything at Dave n Busters or Buca di Beppo.

See links for venue details. Listed in order from lowbrow (ain't nothing wrong with lowbrow) to highbrow (you gots some money to burn baby):

Papa Cristos
Boy oh boy, do I freakin love this place!! It's an awesomely authentic Greek restaurant just south of Koreatown serving gyros, lamb, spanikopita (did I spell that right?), and all other things deliciously Greek. It's definitely more on the casual side with the blue and white tablecloths and paper napkins. But that's part of the charm of this place. They have an outdoor patio that's probably good in the warmer months for events, but the indoor restaurant also would be good for a casual sit-down group dinner. Thursday nights offer a prix fixe special and "live entertainment" whatever that means ;) You can always finish off the night with a nightcap at one of the many ktown watering holes...hehe

Location: Koreatown adjacent


Cafe Surfas
Surfas the store claims to be "Chef's Paradise" as it's a chef and restaurant supply store. So judging by that and the constant crowds eating here, you know the food at it's adjoining restaurant is going to be chef-quality good. It's only open during the daytime, so it would have to be a brunch/lunch type party. But on a warm day, surrounded by good food and kitchen stuff is definitely my idea of a fun time :)

Location: Culver City


Royal/T
I've loved this place since my first visit when Caroline on Crack and I decided to pop in on a warm fall afternoon. It's a cross between a casual tea parlor, Giant Robot (the little shop on Sawtelle selling random cutesy Japanese tchotchkes), an anime art gallery, and restaurant. And it was deemed cool enough to host Yelp's 2008 Elite Holiday Party. But what makes it a great spot to host a party is that there's a couple of different rooms. The one in the middle can probably fit 5-10 comfortably and has a projection screen and neato funky furniture to lounge on. The rear area can probably accommodate a lot of people... like 50+. The first time I went, Mercedes Benz was doing some Fashion Week after party there. As an added bonus, the lady who owns this place is super sweet. Not sure how the food is , but the ambiance is pretty awesome.

Location: Culver City


The Abbey
For girls that wanna ogle at hot guys, but feel guilty about doing so because you're married, have a bf, etc, then the Abbey is perfect. It's a West Hollywood gay institution filled with an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life, ethnicity, and ages. I always have a great time here whether I go with my gay friends or not and even had a celeb sighting (Perez Hilton) on one random Sunday night. The atmosphere is non-pretentious and friendly which is a commodity in Hollywood. Food and drinks are both quite yummy and they have lots of little random rooms, so it could easily be turned into a bday party spot.

Location: West Hollywood


Casa Cocina Y Cantina
This is a brand new upscale-ish Mexican-Latin restaurant that opened last week in downtown LA. The thing that really appeals to me are the little "casitas" which look like little pods so you can get some privacy for your group, but also enjoy the larger restaurant should you choose. I haven't been here yet, but if you have, let me know what you think of it :)

Location: Downtown LA


The Edison
Although this place is pretty mainstream and often becomes a B&T destination on weekends, I still do appreciate it because of the beautifully designed interior and innovative drink selections. For people who have never been, it definitely will leave a lasting impression. It's in an old electricity factory so the motif is depression-era industrial chic. There are lots of little rooms of varying sizes that can host events. And if you go a bit earlier (like before midnight I think), they have a kitchen churning out some yummy food as well.

Location: Downtown LA


Cafe Was
Stones throw from the Arclight Cinemas on Sunset and Vine is this little semi-hidden restaurant. Inside is what I can only call "neo-classical-French" with lots of red lighting and ornate furniture and that rotating piano in the center of the restaurant. Upstairs has a little bar that's perfect for hosting a "non-dinner hangout and drink" type party. It'll probably hold 20+ people and when I accidentally stumbled up there once, everyone looked to be having a great time. If you want it to be a dinner thing, this place has some yummy albeit a bit pricey French-European inspired fare.

Location: Hollywood proper

I actually have more ideas that I didn't include on this list. So if you're still at a loss, just hit me up and let me know :)

Restaurant reivew: Whist at The Viceroy in Santa Monica

Let me preface this post by first saying that I'm glad I didn't have to pay for this dinner.

At my company, we get one really good dinner a year. And by a series of events beyond my control, Whist was selected (my first choice was Providence on Melrose. I will eat there, someday...).

Valet parking was easy, but it costs $8 with validation. Again, if I was paying, I would say try to find parking on the nearby streets. It's definitely doable. But since I wouldn't be paying for this, heck why not.

Entering the lounge portion, it's really dark. So dark that I barely found my compadres as they were waving at me from their little corner spot. Upon sitting on the white leather-ish wingback chairs, I surveyed the room and found it to be upscale retro elegant. It's like a thrift store gone highbrow, on acid.

Service in the lounge area was quick. I ordered a.... shoot, can't remember the name. But it was made from Skyy vodka, and muddled blackberries and St Germain (elderflower liquer) for $15. It was really fragrant without being overly sweet. My coworker said the taste kinda reminded him of a lychee martini. I think I have to agree with him. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Fortunately, the dining room was illumated a bit better. Not by a whole lot, but enough. It's a pretty enough space. Not like breathtaking, but good enough. I'm here to eat, not to be in a pretty room anyways. Surveying the menu, I started to get excited..... salads with black truffle, grilled sweetbreads, a charcuterie selection. Maybe my misgivings were unfounded.

The middle charcuterie section is $15 for 3 items. As we had a big group, we ordered everything down that middle column. It was hit or miss, especially with the cheeses. While some were soft and pungent while others were dry and rubbery. Hard cheeses should not be rubbery. But I did enjoy the portuguese sausage and the candied nuts. Those were good.

For my entree, I decided to order 2 apps instead so I won't get overly stuffed. First up was a salad of brussel sprout leaves, grilled brioche, topped with a poached egg with black truffle shavings ($15). The toast and egg were very yummy, but I could barely make out the truffle flavor. I mean, I could see its shavings on my plate, but I couldn't taste it. My coworkers also tried it and agreed that they couldn't taste the truffle - boo :( Truffles are one of my favorite things to eat and usually a little goes a long way, but I guess not here....



My 2nd app was the grilled sweetbreads ($15). It was served on a bed of braised red cabbage. This was pretty good, but not like "omg, i'm going to be thinking about this all week" good. But no complaints with that one.

The other folks got the steak with duck fat fries (steak was too cold, duck fat fries didn't taste duck fatty enough $25), loup de mer (whole fish was not scaled properly and was really difficult and messy to eat $25). The people who ordered the lobster pasta entree said they liked theirs.

We had serveral bottles of wine which were also hit and miss.

I did enjoy my dessert though. It was a pear cake with malt ice cream. Some people that it was too sweet, but I liked the balance of the warm sweet cake with the cool creamy ice cream. I do wish they skinned the pears though, because the skins got a bit chewy dry when baked.

Service was friendly enough, but I thought the pacing was a bit too slow. Towards the end, I kept following our waiter guy with my eyes hoping and praying that he'd ask if we needed anything else so that bossman could ask for the check.

Yeah, so the food was pretty good, but not great. I think this place does have potential due to their awesome location and interesting food offerings. But there are definitely some kinks that need to be worked out before they can compete with places like Osteria Mozza or Providence or even a Comme Ca. Bossman declared that we're eating at Providence next time. I hope he keeps his word.

Whist Restaurant
1819 Ocean Ave
Inside the Vicery Hotel
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 260-7511

the holy trifecta of free parties

Last night Sarah and I went to the Daily Candy Holiday Fete at decadestwo on Melrose, sponsored by Disaronno. This party had what I affectionately call the "holy trifecta" of free parties.

Element 1 - free booze. Lots of parties have this. This one was no exception. The disaronno was definitely flowing

Element 2 - free food, ideally in the form of something created by a fancy catering company. This is a bit rarer than free booze and sometimes isn't even announced, but if it happens and you can get to it without competing with ravenous vultures and shameless old people, it's pretty awesome.

This place had passed hors d'oeuvres of: steak on potato cakes, tomato/mozzarella/basil on skewers, chicken salad sandwich on almond bread, whipped blue cheese on frisee with fig jelly, salmon with creme fraiche with fennel on lavosh, and an amazing cheesecake thingie for dessert :d

Element 3 - the goodie bag. A really good party will have elements 1 and 2, and as you leave, one of the workers should hand you a goodie bag. It's contents can often be dubious or even lame, but it's always nice to walk out of a party carrying a little paper bag and feeling cooler than all the plebians walking around empty handed.

The contents of this goodie bag last night were: book of Daily Candy Lexicon (MSRP ~$15), a set of disaronno refrigerator magnets made of little tiles with cocktail recipes printed on them (tres chic!), lip plumper gloss, a sample of pantene blonde expressions shampoo/conditioner, and some marketing materials (aka throw away cards). Not bad! :D

Decasdes two is a cute little store with super expensivo second hand stuff by all the big names: Prada, LV, Chanel, Christian Louboutain (sp?) discounted from their retail price of $1000+ to around $200-500. It was like being in a fancy clothes/shoes/bag museum.

But after about an hour of all this eating/boozing/shopping, we were ready to bounce out. Ambling along a rather dead Melrose ave at around 8pm, we saw a neat looking store/event space. Turned out that it was the highbrow lingerie/sex toy store Kiki de Montparnasse. We were greeted by a super friendly awesome gal who worked there (wish I got her name) and she was showing us all kinds of neat fancy lingerie and "classy" sex toys. I liked how these toys had a multi-functional element to them. Jewelry/art by day, naught toys by night... haha.

We made a quick pitstop at Winchells Donuts on Melrose. This place is ghetto fabulous! A dingy little donut shop sandwiched between hoity toity stores and restaurants. As Sarah and I walked out, the creepy old guy eating at the table waved at us to say "hi". What are creepy old guys thinking when they wave to hot girls like us? Do they expect us to stop and say hi and flirt with them at Winchells? I don't get people sometimes....


Our next stop was to meet up with Caroline at Cafe Wa s. I normally don't like places with gimmicky names like this, but that's another story.... I always thought this place would be a dingy little diner next to the Arclight, but turned out to be a beautiful French Renaissance-style restaurant with a rotating piano platform at its center. There were lots of cute little rooms to eat, hang, or have a little party. Considering how nice this place looked on the inside, I thought the food prices were pretty reasonable. Oh, and the staff here (mostly male) are all so cute and nice, both gay and straight! I was majorly crushing on our waiter. Oh what's his name.... carlos? He was just so friendly and adorable. ;)

Finally, we hopped over to the Hungry Cat next door. I love how this place does such a great job at incorporating seasonal ingredients into both their food and cocktail menu. I had a persimmon margarita (reposado tequila, persimmon juice, lime with a cinnamon sugar rim $13). I loved that rimmer!! Cinnamon on the nose, salt on the tongue, my senses were in a state of confused bliss.

All that activity and I was still home before 1am. Not bad :) I hope some more crazy adventures unfold this weekend! :D

Just what this world needs - another blog

Last night, myself, Caroline and Dre hit up Rush Street where I was served mediocre tuna tartare "nachos" by a waiter that my companions considered a royal douchebag. I really didn't think he was so bad. At times, there was a line to get upstairs to the bar area with the stripper pole. WTF?

This was followed up by a visit to Backstage Bar whose existence I just found out about, and so close to my hood! A rather neighborhoody dive bar replete with a karaoke stage. Good place to have deep conversations on a date though, cuz the other patrons are not too pretty, so your date won't be distracted by the eye candy. And they have my favorite - Newcastle Brown Ale - on tap! woohoo!!