I was scheduled to attend a meeting in LA last week, and my spouse was scheduled to attend a meeting in Ventura, so we long ago planned to meet in Santa Monica in the intervening weekend to help recover from the New England winter. My meeting got cancled (NSF) but the meeting my spouse was attending was on. We decided to burn some frequent flier points and keep the weekend date in Santa Monica.
Friday we had a late lunch at Elephante. The place was completely packed at 3pm! The food was fabulous, whipped ricotta served with a poofy bread, sopraseta pizza, and linguini with clams. My spouse is a stickler for pasta - it has to be al dente, and it was.
Saturday we had late lunch at Cobi’s, a southest Asian place. Really fabulous flavors. The highlight may have been a pomelo salad with shreds of Thai chili. Chicken salad also had a Thai flair.
We had thought about a return to Chinois on Main, with memories of a fabulous meal decades ago. But recent reviews seem to indicate it has not maintained a standard of excellence that it once held. Cobi’s as the alternative was a bit more funky setting but the food was outstanding.
We splurged (points!) with a stay at Casa del Mar, and their restaurants Terrazza and Coast (in the affiliated Shutters hotel next door) were much better than they need to be. Saturday evening the restaurant and lobby lounge at Casa del Mar were packed, so much so that we ordered a plate of Spanish ham sent to our room where we could watch the sunset in relative quiet.
Now I just need to spend a couple of years accumulating enough points do do it again
Noted, however one requirement for this trip was less than 20 minute walking distance from Casa del Mar. A weekend without getting in a car was a rare treat.
On one of my visits to Santa Monica, a day after being frustrated with the parking situation in Beverly Hills, we parked the car and relied on the Santa Monica bus to travel into Los Angeles. That was a slow bus ride. LOL
Your trip sounds like just the antidote to New England late winter. I bet mini-Entropy was envious. Hell, I’m envious!
This concerned me, however. National Science Foundation? Can’t imagine it would be easy to cancel a sizable conference and I wonder why it was canceled. Oh well.
Yeah, an annual NSF infrastructure workshop hosted by the Large Facility Office, the outfit that oversees things like synchrotrons, radio telescopes, and ocean-going research vessels. It was in the midst of a travel ban, that may still be in effect for NSF staff. Rumor has it the administration is planning to shrink the NSF budget from $9B to $3B. That will make America Great Again.
Traffic, yeah. I took the red-eye back to BOS Sunday night. After dropping off my rental car, I got stuck on the shuttle bus. My flight departed from Terminal 7. After 30 minutes, we got as far as Terminal 1. It was clear I would miss my flight if I stayed on the bus until it reached Terminal 7. I got out at 1 and hiked over to 7. Made it just as the last group was boarding.
I can understand that but you were quite close (some even within 20 minutes walk) or a very short Uber drive (<10 minutes) which would have given you much better food - Gjelina (perhaps one of the best restaurants for anything with vegetables anywhere) and Pasjoli are very close by
