‘Santa Monica’
Situated somewhere in the middle of 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica is a place called Monsieur Marcel. It’s easy to miss if you aren’t looking, and in the countless times I have been there I had never seen it myself, at least until I was looking out specifically for it. Based on the name, you would expect Monsieur Marcel to be French, and you would be right. The menu is populated with unpronounceable dishes, but fortunately they also come with English descriptions.
I’ve never understood the point of expensive sushi. When you get down to it, they’re all pretty much using the same ingredients with similar results. So when I ended up grabbing dinner at Hara Sushi in Santa Monica, I was a bit excited. Why? Because their sushi is always half-priced. And, they have a happy hour until 9:30 pm with some pretty cheap beers. So for once in my life, sushi sounded like a good time.
On a one-night bender, I found myself facing down three strange taco trucks on Main Street in Santa Monica. None looked familiar and none looked particularly amazing. But it was 2 am in Los Angeles, when food options are usually limited to subpar diners and…well…taco trucks. The trucks here seemed to be some sort of missing link between gourmet and roach coaches and so after much circling we wound up at TnB BBQ.
In Santa Monica, there is a little Italian restaurant called Fritto Misto. It’s way to small to handle the people that want to eat there and there are always people wanting to eat there. Why? First off, they only charge 2 bucks corkage fee if you bring your own wine. But more important than that is their actual food.
With a night of partying in Santa Monica looming and a dire need of dinner, we turned to a place on Santa Monica’s Main Street called World Cafe. I really didn’t know what to expect from the place except that I had a feeling it would involve food from around the world. When we took our seats and then took a gander into the menu, it became apparent that World Cafe was not at all a cafe of the world.
I had expected to see food from all over the world, like Sri Lankan curry, Icelandic swan, The Falklands penguin and Uzbekistani rock. Instead, I found myself gazing into menu full of Italian food. Okay, I guess there were a few random appetizers. Real worldly. This obviously wasn’t the place to get any new and exciting food, but at least I would make the best of it.
For a while now I have been trying to make my way to Hole in the Wall Burger Joint. Hidden behind Winchell’s Donuts in West LA, it is certainly not an easy place to find, which I suppose is how it got its name, but also likely contributed to my taking so long to get there. Hole in the Wall is essentially the same style as The Counter, where you make your own burger. Upon entering the restaurants, there is a small table with slips of your options, along with a stand showing their specialty burger of the day. There are also a ton of signs telling you that the place doesn’t take credit card. They have an ATM if you need one, but it’s best to pick up money beforehand to avoid paying those extra charges.
It’s hard to believe that in the year-plus of writing for my meat blog, I have managed to not step foot in Hooters. Yet, somehow, I have avoided that magical land of orange booty shorts and ummm owls. But fear not, because after a little birthday reminder attached to a free entree coupon, I went back to visit my old friend. I took with me one of my only friends who actually appreciates Hooters for what it has to offer.
When we walked into the Santa Monica location, we were greeted by friendly faces. Now to be honest, I didn’t actually find the women working there that impressive. They were definitely friendly and cute, but there are just so many beautiful women in LA that these just didn’t impress too much. This only helped me concentrate on the food to make sure my review was unbiased.
Finding a happy hour around town on a Sunday afternoon isn’t the easiest thing to do. You would think bars would be itching to get customers to come in for a post-Mass drink, but we had a to call a good four or five bars to find ourselves a nice happy hour with a combination of food and drinks. The bar we finally landed on was Q’s Billiard Club in West LA. Their happy hour involved $10 pitchers (of any beer) and half-off appetizers. It all sounded perfect for a fun little hockey-watching Sunday.
With some family in town, I headed to Santa Monica to eat breakfast at the Omelette Parlor. When we arrived, the line was out the door, but we were told there was only a 20-minute wait. Since it was so nice out, we took a walk up Main Street and came back just in time to be seated.
Now the usual thought would be that if you go to a place with omelette in the name, you order an omelette, but on this day, I was glad I didn’t follow that rule. Instead, I decided to order their Huevos Rancheros because they looked so good. It was a delicious mix of rice, beans, egg, cheese, tortilla and sauce. There wasn’t any meat involved, but there also weren’t any vegetables there to ruin the party.
We headed over to Santa Monica to grab some pizza. Unfortunately, once we had parked and filled the meter, we realized that the pizza place we wanted no longer existed. Unwilling to let a few quarters go to waste, we decided to take a little walk and see if any other restaurant might be able to tickle our fancy. What we found was Spumoni. Though not a pizza place, at least it was Italian.