The fauxLAhipster's First February

Can you believe it's already February? And when did it become 2009 anyways? Jan 1, yeah I know... it was a rhetorical question! Sheesh. Anyhoo, now that the post-holiday slump is pretty much over, things finally seem to be picking up again. And aren't you glad we live in sunny california where it's 75F in the winter so we can enjoy these cool sounding events all year long, unlike our chilly counterparts in the East? We could be that guy inside that truck! Yeah, I WANT you to be jealous!!

Friday
First Fridays at the Natural History Museum
I write about this event every month, and each month I never make it out. My friend is having a bday gathering here this time around, so maybe that'll be enough motivation to get me to trek out there....maybe. Live music and alcohol surrounded by a bunch of dino-bones is cool. The Bird and The Bee will be performing live as well... and they've got quite the local following so you know they don't suck :) These events fill up fast, so I would recommending getting there as close to 7pm as possible. Believe me, it's not fun when you show up at 8pm and get rejected at the door. I would know!!

Friday, 5:30p - 7pm Lectures and discussions
7pm-10pm Music
Cost: $9 for museum entry
900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90007
(in that ghetto ass part of LA near USC) go bruins!!


Saturday
Enjoy Human Launch Party
Since this thing got written up as the headliner on myopenbar.com, you know it's gonna be filled with starving hipsters who are either too cheap or too poor to buy their own booze, but I love them anyways! Enjoy Human calls themself a "content creation foundation" whatever that means. But who cares, it's FREE BOOZE!! There will be a couple of live bands that you've never heard of there too, but I always think live music is a nice little treat :)

Saturday, 7pm - 2am, 21+
Cost: FREE
2136 Porter Street
Downtown Los Angeles

Metromix's Art Safari
Metromix also published a cool writeup of a bunch of gallery openings going on this weekend so you can hop and traipse your way across the city in genuine faux hipster style!

Saturday, 5pm-10pm varies by gallery
Cost: FREE
Santa Monica, West/Central/East Hollywood, Downtown LA


Sunday
Grammy Afterparty by Giant
Thanks to my buddy Pierre for this tip. I actually don't know too much about this event, but it's being promoted by Giant as a Grammy Afterparty. Giant events generally have an over-the-top mix of hipsters, underaged wannabes, and professional partiers. It will be held at Elevate Lounge in downtown LA which is a popular and elegant spot (and who doesn't like lounging on rooftops?!) that I've never been to, so I may have to make the trek to DTLA on a Sunday for this one :)

Sunday, 9pm - 3am, 21+
Cost: FREE but you must RSVP
811 Wilshire Blvd.
21st Floor
Downtown Los Angeles

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