Plaza La Reina, Los Angeles
October 12, 2019
Plaza La Reina remains an outstanding property. NPS recommended. On our second stay we met one of the owners (Philippe) who of course is friends with a mutual friend. The world is small.
The courtyard (which has net coverage)
Room 202 is a junior suite and is a very nice room. Though its large windows overlook the street, it is quiet.
Bed nook room 202
Not plastic
The site of R2
NPS is in town for R2, about which this posting.
Badmaash serves excellent Indian food in a Bollywood style. Cora’s in Santa Monica is a great place for breakfast.
Greenpoint
The Edison is a very big but very good bar. Pretty empty early on a Friday.
LACMA lamps
A visit to the LACMA is always a good idea.
A rare but consistent five showerheads for Plaza La Reina.
R2 Wine Luncheon Number 5
October 12, 2019
As always, the wine luncheon in LA was excellent. Great food, great company, and great wine. Our host Donnie did it again.
We dined at Lucques, and though we did not have a private room, we were well cared for and had plenty of room.
Donnie and I arrived in time for a cocktail before lunch got rolling.
House made Negroni at Lucques
Negroni components
The house made Negroni was, um, interesting. Infused vodka?! Overly sweet home made Campari. Sweet vermouth that was pretty sweet.
R2 menu
The food was excellent. Sadly, no pictures were snapped. The wine was plentiful as always.
The wine supply
Wine
Wine
As it turned out, a number of small French wineries were in the house looking for US distributors. After lunch, we joined them for a taste.
Vive la France
After an excellent Indian dinner, we decamped to Edison for a night cap. Good times.
Greenpoint
R2 Wine Luncheon Take 4
February 16, 2019
The fourth LA wine luncheon run was excellent and fun as always. This time the highlight of the day was an absolutely top notch menu put together by Bistro 45. (FWIW, Bistrot 45 already held the top dining position for these wine lunch things and knocked themselves right out of first place into first and second place.)
Your gracious host donnie sporting a svelte new look
All hands on deck
The fun end of the table
The menu features all organic ingredients
Carpaccio
Ravioli
Duck and polenta
Did we mention the polenta?
Of course, there was lots of wine, good conversation, and laughter.
The whites
The reds
Note to self that wine tasting is much better without the last vestiges of a chest cold.
After lunch we headed into greater downtown Pasadena for a cocktail or two. The bar at Smitty’s Grill is remarkably good. Excellent standard cocktails and a bartender who is even experimenting with milk punch.
smitty’s grill bar
milk punch
Plaza la Reina Westwood (Los Angeles)
February 16, 2019
Plaza la Reina is a new property originally developed as long term housing for people with family in the nearby UCLA medical center. That plan did not materialize, and the property was transformed into a luxury hotel.
The quaint little courtyard
Room 205 is off the courtyard next to a side entrance to the property featuring some interesting tiled stairs. The room has a quirky layout and in put together well. The furniture is elegant and old school and about as anti-hipster as you can get. Heavy solid chairs, oriental rugs, solid wood cabinets. Very nice indeed.
205
The bed is back in its own nook next to the gorgeous bathroom.
Comfortable sitting area
The bathroom is beautiful, and the shower is excellent.
NPS approves of this shower
A personal note and a very warm welcome on check in was icing on the cake.
Five showerheads for Plaza la Reina. Refined elegance.
R2 Wine Luncheon Take 3
March 12, 2018
There are rumored to be more wine luncheons than those that we can attend, but rumor is just rumor unless there is photographic evidence. The latest incarnation that can be shown to exist happened in LA on March 9th. The target was Little Sister.
As you can see, nobody enjoyed themselves, least of all Donnie.
Also there was not enough wine.
The weather was terrible. Cold and snowy.
Obviously, we drove the waitress completely insane.
The food was delicious, a fusion of Asian and American (kind of like that helicopter sound that immediately brings to mind Vietnam).
Many courses, only one of which included shakey beef.
There was little wine.
Pinot noir from the wine club.
There was big wine.
Pinot noir from the cellar.
There was plenty of wine.
The selection
Then all of a sudden we were on a quest. First to the Athletic Club of LA. Very old school, but willing to learn how to make a Corpse Reviver #2.
Then to Miro (under an Italian eatery), which was very suave but still willing to make a great Sazarac with Willet Family Reserve 12 year old rye. Perfection.
Sazarac (with only ywo dashes of Peychauds)
Then to dinner, where the political state of Virginia became a problem for some of us with an overly sized buzz. No GOP weenie has been elected to state wide office since 2009 in Virginia DAMN IT! And that was before the sheer idiocy of fake president Twump.
Dinner was somewhere near these very tall buildings
Then to Cafe D’oro in Santa Monica to hang with Vincenzo and drink whatever the dealer dealt.
Dealer’s choice (mezcal)
By 1am we were back at the Georgian Hotel, a good thing since our departure was slated at 5am sharp.
Would we do it again? Of course.
Wine Lunch in LA: NPS Edition Two
May 27, 2017
Wine luncheon one was so much fun that even in a month of intense travel (three countries and 7 cities so far this May), NPS just had to attend edition two.
A great time was had by all. Our gracious and knowledgeable host was the owner of Bistro 45. The food was as outstanding as the wine and included Mexican shrimp, dry scallops, organic beets, and waygu beef.
Arrival
The supply grows and pairing planning begins
Wine range
Bistro 45 is highly recommended
The crew
The kitchen crew minus chef
Cigars and cognac spontaneously appeared after lunch.
Someone is having fun!
I know, lets do it again!
The quick answer is: there is no stay short enough to justify a plastic shower.
NPS set out to prove this aphorism at the truly style-free Renaissance hotel at LAX.
Renaissance is a Marriott property, so we of course made great use of our friend Mr. X who is a Lifetime Platinum Elite member. Mr. X books for us and NPS shoves all the points in his direction. This gets us superior rooms and concierge level hoo hah and whatnot at Marriotts. Sadly they are all still Marriotts.
The front lobby is in the middle of a massive renovation at the Renaissance at LAX. So that may be a good thing (but likely it just won’t matter). NPS was assigned a newly renovated suite (number 425) after much furious typing by the front desk staff on our very late arrival around midnight. If 425 is evidence of the style that is driving this renovation then NPS is worried.
You see, 425 looks like this. But looks (even marginal looks like this) can be deceiving. Super cheap, thin, veneer style is what we have on evidence here.
Like this crooked too big TV. WTF?
No. Not how to hang a TV. Why is there even one here?
The bed is comfortable, but the lights are so cheap a light wind would blow them over. Fortunately the windows do not open.
Comfy bed.
But what is this?
The windows overlook a glowing Burger King sign That pretty much says it all.
Yeah, no. This is not really a cool city view.
More sad, thin style evident in the sitting room.
Your mother in law called and she has some design ideas
There was a sad little plant on the desk wishing for some light. Flourescent bulbs should make it happier than they make the humans trapped in here.
And then there is the plastic shower bête noire—an actual plastic shower with an obesity bar.
no
no
no no no
Everything in the bathroom is very new, very clean and completely devoid of any taste.
no sense of style
Well anyway, the trip to LA was fantastic and the time in this hamster cage was short.
There was this wine thing with new friends.
Wine? Wine!
There was an old school whiskey bar.
And there was some sportsing with the boys.
So all told we would do it again in a second but we would get a real hotel without a shuttle bus and shlep to the airport from Santa Monica.
Speaking of the airport, this Virgin America meets Alaska thing is getting chunky. Remote gates? Wolfgang Puck bullshit? Overfull lounges gussied up in the ’70s? Uh oh. Where is my high style airline?
Let the record show that the Renaissance LAX barely rates two showerheads. Not going back ever. Nice people in a beige land devoid of style.
LACMA
January 24, 2017
When in LA, we do try to go to see our old friends at the LACMA.
Like this.
Chris Mac’s ancestor
Blue period Picasso
Frenimy
No pictures of the shadow
Ahead of its time
Burn brightly while you can
Rodin
Blue sky (by me)
Noooooo! Plastic Showers at the Georgian Hotel: Santa Monica
January 24, 2017
Maybe you get a pass on the plastic shower thing if you are an historical property and you have peepholes like this??
Peep hole in 504
Of course, we’ve been here before, so we know which end is up and exactly why this property rocks. This time we made double sure to get the right room with an incredible (yuge?) view of the Pacific—especially after our Kimpton debacle last week). 504 is sweet!
The view on arrival
And it is on the proper side of the building as well.
504 side windows see this
So what to expect? A very spacious suite with reasonable furnishings only slightly dated. Plenty of room to work (and to entertain, as it turns out). A large bathroom with the exact wrong kind of shower. Creaky net. Busted speakers. Buy your own flowers. But the view. And the location. And the view.
Flowers. Buy self.
Of course it does actually rain sometimes. All day. For three days!
Entrance hallway 504
504 sitting room
504 sitting room
View into the bedroom
504 bedroom
This is actually from my brother’s inlaws house, so ignore it
Bathroom
Nooooo! A plastic shower. Eat crow and stay here anyway.
Enough room even for certain travelling companions
Anyway, did we have fun in Santa Monica? Sure. We started off in LA at the wine thing.
Breakfast crepe was delicious.
Then we visited McCabe’s Guitar Shop (owned by our very own peeps). if you are a music person, just visit, play, hang out, learn. There are ghosts.
McCabe’s Guitar Shop
Which made us want stuff like this beauty of a guitar. Hurry up and buy it, or I will.
Want
And we had a delicious dinner up the canyon at the very old school and very very good Saddle Peak Lodge. The highlight of the night was talking to Bob while eating elk. Bob is just bob. Maybe one day we’ll tell you. Or maybe not. Talk to Bob you lucky bastard.
Anyway, fütbol in the room on the rainiest Sunday in maybe 8 years in Santa Monica. Mud slides, rocks that closed roads, leaky roofs that (who knew) are supposed to keep water out?! And all of the fütbol teams that we liked were beat. Kind of like the election. At least there was beer and a smidge of bourbon.
Followed by Bourne on OK glass with super bad speakers. Dear hotels, why is it that home cinema situations even among those who mostly don’t give a shit are 10 years ahead of you? No, really. Why? One decade ahead.
Which catches us on up to Monday. Work and LACMA.
LACMA
LACMA
About which more here.
Then dinner at the very not bad Manchego, where they have yet to discover both Priorat and twitter.
Four showerheads and a wish for glass showers and speakers that are not blown.
Wine Luncheon in LA? Wine not.
January 22, 2017
Wine
New friends, great wine, excellent food, great conversation—donnie, you sure know how to do it!
Lets start things off with a Negroni
We convened slightly off the beaten path on a flooded, rainy day at Officine Brera in LA.
Convocation
Tasting two
Everyone brought a bottle to contribute and describe. Probably the most interesting was a 17 year old bottle from China.
A flyer from Trentino-Alto Altige (Grenache, Syrah, Teroldego)
The food was just as good as the wine.
Cinghiale
The menu
Chaos
Delightful. Lets do it again.
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