Even though my birthday was months away I always use it as an excuse to eat some great food. This year was a milestone I wasn't quite ready to admit to, so it required something extra special, and Willows Inn seemed like the perfect choice to satisfy my criteria.
Before I could even peel an onion he put me in the basement offices and made me read Italo Calvino, study the art of Caravaggio, and architecture of Borromini and Bernini. He took me to the opera, convinced that before I could learn how to cook the traditional foods of Italy I had to understand the culture from whence they came.
As I was researching restaurants for our weekend in Los Angeles, I found I was as overwhelmed as I was when researching dining options in San Francisco. There seemed to be no shortage of intriguing dining experiences.
Traveling down the west coast to follow Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on tour this summer provided the perfect excuse to try out some of the most noted and notorious restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. After all, a girl's got to eat and I figured I might as well do it up right.
On our first night in Los Angeles we found ourselves standing in a line that wound around the block at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater to pick-up will call tickets for a special screening of the new pseudo-documentary about Nick Cave, 20,000 Days on Earth.
Finally, Nick made his appearance. In a change of clothes and looking refreshed he was corralled into the barricaded area with his fans. He proceeded to take photos and chat for a minute with every single person there. While he was taking photos with another fan, we locked eyes and I got a special "hello."
At 9pm on the dot the pulsating opening bass lines of "We Real Cool" started to rumble from the speakers. The riff lengthened well beyond what you hear on record, rhythmically building up the excitement of the crowd until the band finally appeared on stage in a dramatic haze of blue light.
Recently I had two lunch dates in one week: a farewell lunch was with a former colleague who was heading off to Tanzania, and the second an outing with a landscape architect friend freshly transplanted from Portland.
On my birthday I can typically go one of two ways: either I want to spend it being completely low key with takeout from my favorite local gyro joint, or I want to use the occasion to try a reportedly fabulous and new (at least to me) restaurant.
"As a child, I would spin my globe with my eyes shut, then I'd touch it to stop the spinning, open my eyes and wherever my finger landed I said to myself that I would go there." -Barb Hautanen
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