Let me ask you this, what part of drinking obnoxious cocktails out of giant souvenir glasses in the shape of California at a revolving lounge overlooking the city doesn’t sound like a good time to you? Can’t think of anything…..neither could we, so off we went to the Bona Vista Lounge located on top of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel downtown. If you don’t know which one the Bonaventure is, it’s the shiny space-aged building with five cylindrical glass towers located on Figueroa.
Capsule shaped elevators zip up and down the exterior of the building, making for a trippy decent down, post-cocktail. Located on the 34th and 35thfloors of the hotel, we embraced the 80’s “cool” design of the bar – candy apple red walls and booths, abstract aluminum light fixtures and Hollywood inspired artwork.
Taking a seat at a table next to the window, we only noticed the room was revolving as a column slowly passed us by, while pondering which ridiculous beverage to enjoy. The options were far to amazing to begin to decide…..frothy strawberry concoctions served in glass cowboy boots, the “record breaker’ a pineapple rum drink in a ceramic record, the coconut cranberry “cloud buster” in the replica of the hotel. So we did a spin the bottle tactic using the menu and landed on the Banana Dream – a banana, rum, whipped cream monstrosity poured into a ceramic film camera.
Cloyingly sweet and a touch warm, the cocktail lived up to its kitsch packaging. We sipped away while gazing out the window at the revolving views of downtown – it takes a little over an hour to do a full 360 rotation, that’s enough time to consume two boots and a state of California!
Now it was on to dinner, but not without a quick stop in at a neighboring restaurant to try to persuade the hostess to comp our parking for the bar. Success! We arrived at the restaurant right on time and for what would be a dinner to remember.
Let me start by saying, there is nothing more simplistically satisfying or evokes more feelings of nostalgia than the grilled cheese sandwich – or as we called it in South Africa, the “Toasted Cheese.” Gooey, oozing scald the roof of your mouth delicious – classic comfort food at its best and at Campanile every Thursday night is Grilled Cheese Night. Good god – why didn’t we do this sooner?!
Quick history, Campanile is housed in a building built for Charlie Chaplin; it was to be his office. Unfortunately, he lost it to his wife in their divorce settlement where the building lay dormant and neglected until, years later, Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton converted the structure and courtyard into a bakery and restaurant. And for the past 21 years, La Brea bakery and Campanile have maintained their culinary point-of-views as what can only be described as the epitome of Los Angeles.
We settled into our table in the main room, FYI –that’s where you want to be, with a view of the open kitchen and within earshot of the babbling courtyard fountain. While we waited for the rest of our party, we sipped sparkling Pinot Noir and noshed on La Brea Bread, delicious roasted garlic and orange scented olives and Marcona almonds. Next up, beer battered squash blossoms with parsley pesto and nectarines, remarkable light and crispy, this was fried done right.
Our attentive waiter and all-knowing sommelier then paired our next glass of wine and app., cucumber, melon, prosciutto and mint with the first grilled cheese of the night. Nicely divided into three portions, we eagerly devoured the Sevillian ham & fig served open face scattered with arugula, curls of shaved Manchego cheese and a honey drizzle.
Our next two grilled cheeses also paired with wine were soon to follow the last, the Autostrada and the Croquet Madame. With the waiter’s suggestion, we had the Madame topped with not one but three fried eggs so we each had out own just-set yoke to break into and deliciously coat the ham and gruyere sandwich. I was also partial to dipping perfectly crispy pomme frites into my yoke. The ever popular Autostrada, we were informed as we were seated that they were quickly running low, comes filled with cured meats, provolone, and snappy cherry peppers. Lastly, a little cast iron skillet was plopped on the table nestled inside were mussels, cheery tomatoes and fingerling potatoes all topped with crunchy breadcrumbs.
As we were sopping up the last of the yokey goodness off our plates, we noticed Mark Peel strolling through the restaurant – a twinge of excitement come over us at the sight of the celebrity chef as he began to make his way toward us. He inquired about our meal and then divulged his secret to making the perfect fried egg. And I will share it with you now, start with a hot cast iron skillet with a good half-inch of olive oil. Crack in your eggs and continually baste them in the hot oil, this will produced a silky yoke, just set white and crispy, crunchy edges. We giddily continued our meal topped off with yet another glass of wine.
I’m not going to pretend like I know that much about wine, because I don’t – my knowledge definitely skews more towards food than bev. All I do know it that Taylor, our sommelier, kept it flowing all night long and was kind enough to write down everything he poured for us, so here it is:
- NV Cremant de Bourgogne, Dom des Roches
- 2008 Jareninèan, Crnko, Maribor, Slovenia
- 2007 Bourgogne Passetootgram, H. Lignier
- 2008 Cheverny Rouge, Christian Venier
- 2002 Temperillo Gran Reserva, Parador, Napa Valley
We finished off our deliciously decadent meal with the chocolate soufflé cake, butter brickle and black pepper ice-cream with a crunchy pretzel streusel. Delightfully content, a bit star struck and way more than three sheets to the wind, we left Campanile and skipped down La Brea towards the general vicinity of home.
The Days Damage = Banana Dream Cocktail $20 + Appetizers, Grilled Cheeses, Dessert and wine for three $200 + tax/tip/parking = $240
Items 13 & 30: Check
