Los Angeles – Day Two
Walking up and smelling the Pacific ocean is really a treat. I walked down to the restaurant for some coffee and watched the ferris wheel on the Venice rotate as the lights sparkled. Seeing the locals exercise up and down the boardwalk was great entertainment. I finally made my way out to the beach and took a run myself.
After everyone was exercised, we took a drive down to Venice, Abbot Kinney and hit up the stores. Just a note, some of the stores are not open on Mondays but about 80% are. Venice is a city of two worlds. Abbot Kinney is the up and coming hipsters and the boardwalk area is old locals. Like a variety of urban cities around the country, the landscape is changing.
We ate lunch at 3 Squares Cafe which is really good. They serve food starting at breakfast and go all day long through dinner. There is a small bakery to go next door which is part of the restaurant. The menu is eclectic. Goulash and spaetzle to hamburgers to 3 tiny sandwich sliders to salad. To begin we all split the deep fried avocado slices. Dipped in panko and flash fried and served with a spicy tomato sauce. Really good. The crunch of the outside and the smooth of the avocado inside is very clever and works. Admittedly, I went with the salad which is really good but others had the burger which I tasted and was excellent and someone else had the triple sandwich treat. The best being the meatloaf. Really spicy and interesting. I have been there before and would go again and again.
Once we had hit up every place on Abbot Kinney we drove over to Fred Segal which is a must stop if you are in Los Angeles. Nothing else quite like it. There are 3 locations. Two in Santa Monica across the street from each other and one near Melrose downtown. The building has a variety of stores inside that are not related so there is everything from high end clothes to handbags to mens to shoes to jeans. Can’t be beat.
After we gathered our purchases, we made our way back to the hotel. Dinner that evening was at 8pm. We went to the top of the Huntley Hotel to the restaurant called The Penthouse. Top of the hotel, windows all around, all white lacquer with some seating covered in sheer fabrics. Very LA. The service was great and we split basically everything which was the way to go, for us. We tried everything from tuna tartare to calamari to salads. We split a main course which was a rib eye steak with mushrooms on the side. The steak was excellent which the waiter recommended. I can’t remember everything we ate and there isn’t a menu on line but it was fun and even if you don’t want to eat there, definitely worth going up to the top, having a drink and checking out the skyline.