seven grand and bottega louie

i love going to a new city and exploring the town's shopping and restaurants.  but something we don't do very often is go into our city and see what it has to offer.  l. a. is an exciting town with great restaurants, museums and night life, you just have to fight the traffic to get there.  we made plans with some friends to meet up for drinks and then have dinner at a cool restaurant.

we met susan and lara at seven grand located in the heart of the city.  seven grand is a whiskey bar with a cool hunter's lounge vibe. is that even a thing? it is here.
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not only do we never go to bars, but i never drink whiskey.  i'm a wine, beer and umbrella in my drink kind of girl.  this place has cool beers, an international wall of whiskey, pool tables and cigars.  out of my element but up for the challenge.

we ordered what they were having - an american trilogy.  it was fun watching the bartender work his magic; muddling the brown sugar and bitters together, stirring them with both hands, and then garnishing with the orange peel.  such a cool craft. we hung out at the bar sipping our cocktails and chatting.  this would be fun place to go with lots of people to shoot some pool.

after the drinks we went across the street to bottega louie.  i knew about this place mostly because of the macaroons but loved it the minute i walked in with it's high ceilings, open kitchen and gorgeous dessert display.  the only problem was that there was over an hour wait for a table.

not that we were in a hurry. i parked myself right by the kitchen watching the chefs prep, cook and plate the orders; beautiful salads, toasted sandwiches, and creamy pastas.  it made me hungry for sure.

luckily our friends have been here before and they knew one of the bus boys who quickly got us to the top of the list. that shortened our wait time by an hour - score!

another round of drinks and some bread to get us feeling comfortable.

these were incredible - portobello mushroom fries with a basil aioli.  i'm sure i'll be craving these again.

we ordered a pizza, a club sandwich that had an awesome surprise with a hard boiled egg, a salad - cause you have to, and a porchetta sandwich.  we tasted and shared and talked and laughed.  the place was pretty amazing and the company was spectacular.

for dessert bobby and i had the peanut butter terrine that was lovely.

and an affogato to celebrate susan's birthday.

of course we had to bring home a box of macaroons to share with the kids.

thanks to susan and lara for getting us out of the valley and into the city.  can't wait to do it again.