Andy Gavin's Blog, page 54
August 27, 2021
Return to Paul Wools
Restaurant: Teresa Montana [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: Flintridge
Date: May 25, 2018
Cuisine: New American
_Today’s Sauvages lunch is a lunch in honor of late Co-Poobah Steve Levin. It’s graciously hosted by Paul at at his beautiful home in Flintridge. This event is held outdoors in memory of the Zinfandel barbecues that Steve would hold for our group every summer at his home (it being Paul’s idea to maintain this fine tradition). To that end, we always enjoy a few Zinfandels at this lunch in ad...
August 23, 2021
Meating of Champions
Restaurant: Meat on Ocean [1, 2]
Location: 1501 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 773-3366
Date: May 8, 2021
Cuisine: Steakhouse
Rating: Solid fare, good service
_Meat on Ocean replaces the old i. Cugini on Ocean Ave. That storied Italian place was around for 20+ years (I even went on an early date there with my wife). It was (and still is) owned by the Watergrill group but has rebooted as a mid/high-end steakhouse.
Tonight is the first ever “Tournament of Champions” for winners of our D...
August 16, 2021
Reaching New Heights at 71Above
Restaurant: 71Above [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
Location: 633 W 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Date: May 4, 2021
Cuisine: New American
Rating: Awesome in all ways
_71Above is one of my favorite LA restaurants and I’ve been many times. In fact there are 9 previous write ups! Today the location plays host to a special DRC dinner that owner Emil organized with a special menu. Chef Vartan Abgaryan has moved on to his own new place, Yours Truly (which the pandemic has sadly done in), and 71Abov...
August 9, 2021
Upstairs with Sauvages
Restaurant: Upstairs 2 [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 2311 Cotner Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064 Tel. 310-231-0316
Date: April 2021
Cuisine: Modern Tapas
Rating: Bright flavors and a lot of options.
ANY CHARACTER HEREA Sauvages lunch was my “last meal” before the year+ long hiatus from restaurant life and it’s fitting to return in style.
Upstairs 2 is located just above the Wine House on Cotner. The main room serves an eclectic tapas menu, but as this was a special Sauvages du Vin lunch (always a lunch, ...
August 6, 2021
Heroic Bordeaux
Restaurant: Heroic Deli and Wine Bar [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 516 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 490-0202
Date: April 28, 2021
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: 1982 is still going strong
_My friend Jeffrey, owner of Heroic Italian, was trying to set up this 1982 Bordeaux dinner before the pandemic, but it ended up getting “postponed” for over a year!
We situated ourselves in their upstairs private room — where all three light bulbs again function.
a “measly” rose to start things out: ...
July 13, 2021
Rice Yummy
Restaurant: Rice Yummy
Location: 8801 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 872-0491
Date: April 25, 2021
Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese
Rating: Solid Shanghai Cuisine
_Shanghai #1 Seafood Village opened roughly 10 years ago to great fanfare and was for years a solid SGV Shanghai style place. It closed recently with the pandemic but the owners have this smaller more casual Shanghai place.
The facade isn’t too fancy. The menu has most of the Shanghai classics, although at the time we went even the ...
July 7, 2021
Dirty Dozen Crustacean
Restaurant: Crustacean Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3]
Location: 468 N Bedford Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 205-8990
Date: Spring 2021
Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion
Rating: Return after long hiatus
_Two times in rapid sequence to Crustacean, as it’s both fabulous and features a great patio in these “outside is better” days. Tonight’s meal was Dirty Dozen, our blind wine group within a wine group.
We’ve had a couple awesome meals here in the last couple of years.
For extra caution in these uncertai...
June 29, 2021
Sushi Miyagi Apres
Restaurant: Sushi Miyagi [ 1, 2 ]
Location: 150 S Barrington Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (323) 382-5635
Date: Spring 2021
Cuisine: Japanese Sushi
Rating: Top Shelf Omakase Sushi
_Great sushi is always a good excuse to pull out the beloved Champagnes.
I went a bunch of times before lockdowns to this awesome high end place in Brentwood, and ordered takeout a couple times during, now since Erick and I have both passed our “two weeks” we decided to celebrate with that most elusive of creatures at ...
June 21, 2021
Return to Rocco’s
Restaurant: Dinner at the Borgese’s [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: Santa Monica
Date: Spring, 2021
Cuisine: Italian influenced gourmet home cooking
Rating: Awesome
_Dinner at the Borgese’s is a special house dinner in Santa Monica cooked by the stunning pro-level home chef Borgese couple. So it’s very fitting for what’s only my second post lockdown dinner.
The dynamic Borgese team consists of Rocco, his lovely wife (and the main kitchen chef), and his daughter (helping out with service).
Their house ...
June 5, 2021
Crustacean Cru
Restaurant: Crustacean Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3]
Location: 468 N Bedford Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 205-8990
Date: Spring 2021
Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion
Rating: Return after long hiatus
_For one of my first post-lockdown post-vaccination ventures out went to Crustacean, both an LA landmark and owned and operated by our friends the Ans.
We’ve had a couple awesome meals here in the last couple of years.
For extra caution in these uncertain times we ate on one of their fabulous patios.
O...
