Walt Disney Concert Hall

I like to think of myself as a pretty cultured person.  I love all the arts, but symphony orchestra is an area that I don't know much about.  Having grown up playing the piano, and a brief stint of the clarinet, I have an appreciation for classical music, but it's not what I jam to in my car, if you know what I mean.  Plus, tickets to see the LA Philharmonic aren't the cheapest and being the huge sports fan that I am, I'd rather be spending my money watching one of my beloved LA teams duke it out with a rival than go outside of my bubble and listen to Mozart.  Regardless, you can imagine my excitement when I was able to snag $20 tickets for a symphony concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  Our $20 tix got us balcony seats to see the St. Louis Symphony at a mid-week evening performance. 

Since the concert was mid-week, we had to arrange our schedule so we could have enough time after work to grab a quick bite to eat prior to the performance.  In an effort to not get stuck on the parking lots that are LA freeways at rush hour, we headed up to downtown and stopped at La Taquiza for Mulitas to tide us over till we could eat a real meal after the 8pm concert. 

The concert hall, located in the northern part of downtown, is just a block away from the Taper and Ahmanson Theaters.  It was designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry and boasts a 3.6 acre complex with a stainless-steel exterior and state of the art acoustics in the hardwood-paneled main auditorium.

This evening, the St. Louis Orchestra featured pieces from Igor Stravinsky and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  They alternated concertos between the two composers and internationally acclaimed violinist Gil Shaham graced us with a number of impressive solos.  I am no classical music virtuoso, but I can definitely tell you that after sitting in that concert hall and absorbing the notes that, at times, seemed as if they were literally dancing amongst the beams of the ceiling, a profound appreciation for the mastery of a symphony orchestra began to grow in my heart.  I found myself mesmerized by the movements of the musicians and the direction of the conductor.  It was like a choreographed dance, without the use of their legs.  After an hour and a half or so, with a brief intermission, they ended closed the evening with Mozart's Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 245 ("Linz") which in turn received rounds of applause and a standing ovation.

Even if you may have no interest in classical music, the architecture of the Walt Disney Concert Hall alone is reason to visit.  I guarantee you will be in awe of its beauty-- and maybe the music as well. 

At this point, with only one mulita in our stomachs, we were famished.  A late dinner was definitely in need, so we headed to Wurstkuche ("The Purveyor of Exotic Grilled Sausages") off of 3rd street for some late night sausages.  At first glance, Wurstkuche looks like an ordinary order-at-the-counter style hole-in-the-wall.  Totally unassuming from the outside, all you see is a counter and I immediately assumed that we would order and eat in the car.  To my surprise, you order your food and then follow the wall around the corner that opens into a large room with ambient lighting, a large bar, and a number of bench tables for dining.  Techno/trance music played loudly as late-night diners huddled in booths and mingled at bench tables with their beers and fries. 

At, Wusrtkuche there are over 20 sausages to choose from.  From the menu you choose two toppings, pick a sausage, and if you order fries, a dipping sauce.  I ordered the Kielbasa with caramelized onions and sauerkraut, Carla ordered the Buffalo Chipotle with spicy peppers and sauerkraut, and Kelly ordered the Hot Italian with caramelized onions and sweet peppers.  We had two orders of their double-dipped belgian fries with the chipotle ketchup, chipotle aioli, and the curry ketchup; all were delicious!  It may not have been the typical way to cap off an evening at the symphony, but I left quite happy and full.

The Day's Damage: $9 chicken mulitas + $83.90 (3) symphony tickets + $35.12 sausages & fries = $128.02 total.
Item 27 check

Downtown Artwalk & Coles French Dip

Every second Thursday of the month, art galleries and studios stay open late for the Downtown Artwalk. So five of us headed downtown, for a little culture and a little history. First up, CULTURE. The artwalk takes place over a number of blocks along Spring & Main. We ducked into a number of galleries featuring crazy photography, massive graffiti pieces, panoramic cityscapes and kitschy collectables.





The streets were buzzing with a truly dynamic bunch of Angelenos. It’s great to see downtown feel so bustling – I can remember just a few years ago, when nobody dared walk around downtown. But now, patrons hop from gallery to gallery, stopping at one of many foodtrucks parked along the streets, and taking a moment to listen to a reggae band on the corner.



Since our stomachs were growling as soon as we got downtown, we stopped at the Nickel Diner to sample the much blogged about Maple Bacon Donuts. Because of the artwalk, the ladies of the diner were selling their baked goods right on the street, which made for a very easy transaction. After tearing the donuts apart, we determined they would have been better if we had sampled a fresh batch, and we were far too hungry to be that critical. However, there was something about them that left us a bit unsatisfied, perhaps if there had been bacon mixed into the donut batter not just sprinkled on top, felt a bit like an after thought to me. But kudos to the Nickel Diner for a novel concept.



Next, we made our way down a fairly shady alley, which led to an arts and crafts fair. Leather jewelry, nauseating incense, Mexican handicrafts, psychedelic mushroom paintings, crazy neon light performers and churros….it was sensory overload, but fantastic!



After some items were purchased, it was time to make our way to part II of the evening, HISTORY.

Founded in 1908, Coles Original French is said to be the home of the French Dip sandwich. Phillipes a few blocks north, also claims to be the originator, but we’ll leave that argument up to them. We snagged a table outside, where we could still keep our eyes on the artsy characters that strolled by. They are a colorful bunch!

Coles menu is simple, French Dips with a choice of meat (beef, lamb, turkey or pastrami) and cheese (cheddar, swiss, goat or bleu), sides include fries, mac & cheese and potatoe salad. Since there were five of us, we ordered beef and pastrami dips, and one of each of the sides.



The dips arrived with a side of au jus & atomic pickles. Personally, I like the jus on the side as I can control the degree of sogginess. Phillipe’s dips the sandwich for you, so by the time you get midway through, the sandwich its pretty much moosh. the atomic pickles, on the other hand, are an acquired taste. Out of all of us dining, I don’t think anyone was really sold on ‘em. The horseradish mustard, however, was deliciously sinus clearing, and we proceeded to douse it on everything. After experiencing our CULTURE for the evening, we hovered down our share of HISTORY and vowed to return soon.



The Days Damage: 2 Maple Bacon Donuts $5.50 + 5 Dips, 3 fries, mac & cheese, and potatoe salad $50 = $55.50

Item 21 & 25: Check

Beverly Hills: Barney Greengrass & Rodeo Drive

Up until this past weekend, my only knowledge of Beverly Hills was based on the episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 that I had to sneak to watch as a child (my parents tried their best to keep me from learning about the promiscuity of teenagers- another story for another day.)

My mental image of BH really consisted of the following things:
- Lots of palm trees
- Snooty, pretentious people
- Pompous shop owners that don't let us commoners peruse the merchandise
- Expensive restaurants & hotels
- Celebrities shopping & dining everywhere
...and you have to have lots and lots of $$$$ to be there

Although, we didn't have any run-ins with some A-list celebrities, a good portion of my basic, television-based Beverly Hills knowledge was pretty spot on, but it all made for a quite pleasant day in Beverly Hills.

Barney Greengrass

We started off the day at Barney Greengrass, a supposed "New York food institution" known for their cured meats and New York deli-style bagels and breakfast.  It's located at the top of the Barney's Beverly Hills building, so Carla had called a couple days before to make a reservation for the patio.  We got there early and took advantage of Barney's 2-hour free parking with validation and headed up to the 5th floor for brunch.

The patio was fairly open so we choose a quaint little table for 2 under the sun.  The view was pretty amazing. You can't see it in this photo, but we could see all the way to the Hollywood sign from our table. Our waiter took our drink orders and promptly returned with our drinks and a quaint little basket of bread items and cream cheese to nibble on.

Then came the menu.  It was a little overwhelming at first, considering it had every breakfast item you could imagine, but we were at the home of "The Sturgeon King".  We were not about to let this experience pass without ordering some fish.   We shared the Sturgeon & Nova Scotia Salmon platter accompanied with an onion bagel for me and pumpernickel toast for Carla.  Centered on the platter, was an array of tomatoes, red onion, pickles, olives, cream cheese, cole slaw, and capers.  Now put a smorgasbord of those items on top of the fish on your choice of bread and you have an explosion of flavor. It was the perfect, not-too-heavy meal to have before our afternoon strolls up and down Rodeo.


Although, it wasn't the cheapest brunch, take Barney's fresh smoked fish (flown in from New York, I might add) with the gorgeous view of  Los Angeles, and the experience is well worth the splurge. 

With a little time left before we broke our 2-hour free parking limit, we had a little time to peruse the accessories & jewelry floor of Barneys.  Peruse, is the optimal word here because we weren't about to walk out with a $3,000 jade necklace purchase, although the idea of doing that was very intriguing.

Rodeo Drive

Post-brunch, we made our way to Rodeo for our afternoon adventure.   What many people may not know is that the Two Rodeo center provides 2 hours of free valet parking in its underground parking garage.  We gladly took advantage of this, then made our way up the elevator that spit us right onto Via Rodeo.  The shops and cobblestone streets of Via Rodeo resemble the streets of Europe and New Orleans square at Disneyland. On both sides of the street are upscale designer brands with their glass cases displaying pristinely decorated products. Names such as Prada, Ralph Lauren, Coco Chanel, Gucci, and Valentino all have botiques on Rodeo.

One of the most eye-catching stores was Prada's art installation featuring sparkling-lucite skinned mannequins posed on luggage cases and next to handbags that made their way up the Prada store staircase.  Mannequins were even positioned in underground, glass-covered oval cases.

We made our way up Rodeo stopping to gawk and gaze at various store windows such as Juicy Couture, Harry Winston, Roberto Cavalli, and Yves St. Laurent.  We took a right on Santa Monica Blvd and made a quick stop at Crumbs bakery to drool over the delicious goodies, but kept going to head back down Beverly.  Two days later, Carla and I realized that we should have snagged one or two of those cupcakes for the road.  What were we thinking?  Next time we're buying up the joint.

Down Beverly were some "purchase-attainable" stores and restaurants such as Gap, VictoriasSecret, The Farm, and L'Occitanne.  We stopped in a couple shops and tried on shoes at Nine West where Carla bought a cute pair of black sandals. 

Carla and I are amateurs des fromages, or "lovers of cheese," so we couldn't pass up a drop by The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills to take a gander at all the cheeses and preserves on display.  Stacks of cheese wheels and even an enormous chunk of brie almost dripping over the side of a wooden board were prominently displayed across the cheese counter.  The tall shelves housed everything from speciality wines to jarred honeycomb.  As much as we considered ourselves to be cheese connoisseurs, we lasted about 5 minutes (enough time to sneak a photo) till the pungent aged cheese smell started making our sinuses hurt and we left and moved on.

Alas, a true Beverly Hills experience would not be complete without a pretentious store encounter.  As we made our way back to Via Rodeo we decided to pop-in at Jimmy Choo.  I've heard all the talk about Jimmy Choo heels and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.  It didn't serve us well that Carla was walking in with her Nine West bag, but we were quickly given the once-over by the five store attendants, who immediately stopped conversing upon our entrance.  Dressed in her combat boots and me in my white flats and jeans, Carla and I turned a blind eye and began browsing.  The only female store attendant rolled her eyes at us and gave us the "as if you can afford this" look.  Pshh.... we paid no attention to her and continued on perusing the shelves.  One of the store attendants even followed us from section to section as if we were going to steal something.  Please. Not like we could've run out with just a left shoe-- although that would've been a fun souvenir. We probably spent a good 10 minutes in the store and I made sure to touch as many items as possible (just to get under their skin) till we stepped out and bid Jimmy Choo a "good-riddance" goodbye. 

By this time we were ready for an afternoon snack so we waved to Rodeo and headed down Robertson for some gelato at Al Gelato.  Carla ordered the pear sorbet and I had the creme brule gelato (both highly recommended for a nice summery day like this).  As Carla was paying, we turned to have our one and only celebrity sighting of the day.  In the corner of the small shop, sitting at a tiny table for one was Dennis Farina having lunch.  Now, being the film stud that I am, obviously only referred to him as the "Snatch guy" until I was able to IMDB him for his real name.  We smiled at him and ended our day in Beverly Hills while snacking on our cold desserts.

Overall, not an overly expensive outing, but with the California sunshine and a nice stroll up and down Rodeo and beverly, it made for a great day to do brunch and window shopping in Beverly Hills.

The Day's Damage: $7.50 coffee/tea + $41 sturgeon/lox combo platter + $8 gelato = $56.50 Total
Item 1 & 2: check