Grown Up Fun in San Diego: The Lafayette Hotel
February 28, 2024
What a difference a day makes! First of all, we have to thank Kevin who has his finger on the pulse of San Diego. He has been to the Lafayette before for dinner and knew what a cool place this is. And is it cool? Yes.
The lobby and the main bar are excellent. Quirky and strange and fun.
I was assigned room 226 after only a slight delay. The hotel is “eclectic cluttered” flavor, but somehow the design sensibility works. I guess it is possible to make things hang together by building a collage of most everything.
226 is rectangular, but it doesn’t feel like a hamster cage. About the only thing that needs work is the noise level. 226 faces the street and it is a bit noisy (for non city types anyway). The hotel did manage to get super quiet for about four hours around midnight when the power was taken down for construction. The quiet woke me up.
The hotel did its homework and greeted NPS with personalized stationary, a note about birthday, and a bottle of prosecco.
The difference in level of service between this hotel and the previous destination is like night and day. Thet have the NPS demographic nailed here.
I mean, just look at this bar. Apparently there is one of these in each room.
Home negroni? Why not.
Underberg?!
And the shower? Not at all plastic.
It was time to unwind from the meetings and talks. So down to the bar to await the arrival of my dinner companions
An expert-level Negroni with clear huge ice. Yes please.
Dinner at Quixote was very interesting (and expensive but well worth the price). The restaurant is a restructured church moved up from Mexico. Really interesting. The cocktail program is top notch and willing to play. We started with a CR#2 of course and moved on to a Paloma and some fernet.
Dinner is served tapas style. The lamb belly on mole was delicious.
Stringy cheese fondue.
NPS has never had cactus before.
After a brief stop by Heaven we headed to the game room to play some games. Fooseball!
We made a relatively early night of it, stopping in at the pool bar for a Paper Plane nighcap before crashing.
And then it was morning. Enough time for a leisurely breakfast before heading to the airport and back to Virginia.
All in all, we barely scratched the surface of the Lafayette. (We did learn to avoid the road side.) And we tried out a few of the many options here for fun. Suffice it to say, we will be back. Five showerheads and a dip in the pool next time for this excellent hotel.
Jim and Chloe Babysit a Kitty (Sonoma)
June 28, 2021
Lulu
The extended weekend part of the San Francisco trip was built around kitty sitting for 9 week old LuLu in Guerneville. Jim and Chloe arranged it all.
We started Friday morning in San Francisco and headed directly north. Lunch was in Sabastapol at Handline.
Wut?
Lulu
After dropping off the bags and taking a swim, we headed out to Flowers Winery for a tasting. Frankly, flowers is really nice in a Disney-eque, just a little too too kind of way. Nice people with a script, and wine with a story that’s been focus grouped. I’m sure most people love it.
Magnolia
It seems as if a majority of the wineries on the beaten path in Sonoma stick with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. I prefer when they diverge.
We headed into Healdsburg for a cocktail in a plastic cup at Duke’s Bar. The highly tattooed bartender that originally served us (who just so happened to be a woman) was fantastic. The other hipster guy who looked exactly like one of those bartender guys was not. Not bad, but also not good. Don’t seek it out.
There there was a quick trip to Safeway for Crunchberries. We did manage to hold off to have those for breakfast. Some people had never tried them before.
Breakfast of champions
Photographic evidence
My view from the best seat in the house
Dinner at Bravas Tapas was passable. Nice food. Very touristy. Sadly the best restaurant in town was booked by people who plan ahead.
Saturday morning started with the kitty under the covers, crawling down the length of my body to my toes. Hilarious kitty. Also lots of purring by the head.
After our breakfast of champions, we headed to Flying Goat Coffee to meet a friend who joined us for the day. A hike at the Healdsburg Ridge Preserve was just what the doctor ordered. We brought a delicious picnic and consumed it on a bridge…kind of reverse trolls handing out cherries.
Then it was off to Stuhlmuller Vinyards for another tasting. Great vibe. We brought pastries, had a great chat, and tasted some good wine. The italian varietals mixed in made the wines in my view.
On the way home to swim, we risked death by patchouli hula hoop girl and stopped by Safeway where a Dead cover band has been playing since before the Dead actually started in 1962. The mission was Palomas. So we needed Pomelo San Pelligrino. Here’s how to make a Paloma:
Paloma
Squeeze 1/2 lime into whiskey glass and leave the lime husk in
2 oz reposado tequila
large cube
fill with sparkling San Pellegrino Pomelo
We escaped with our lives, but the music is still with us. The Palomas by the pool were absolutely worth it.
Jim and I headed down to town for dinner at Brot (in greater metropolitan Guerneville). Delicious and fun. Highly recommended.
Then it was nightcap and dessert time. We hit El Barrio (about which expect more in the future) for excellent cocktails and a shot of mezcal. Then the formica-clad bar at Main Street Bistro and Cabaret where we heard some very good local music. The band was playing “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” by Traffic.
Main Street Bistro and Caberet, Guerneville
Live cover of Traffic's "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys," fernet, and dessert https://t.co/dQKr7CcALe pic.twitter.com/9VutvdGMmV
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) June 27, 2021
Up early for a Sunday morning visit to Medlock Ames Bell Mountain location. This was the best winery of the entire California visit. Just fantastic. A great tour by an enthusiastic and very knowledgeable young woman, fantastic grounds (including nice gardens), a look behind the scenes at wine in production. Just very nice indeed.
The generous hosts
I have become a huge fan of this winery.
On the recommendation of our host at Medlock Ames, we hit Davero on the way home. There was no way to arrange a proper tasting at the very last minute, but we had a glass of Rose with a Barbera base in the incredible gardens. We were joined by the very happy dog. There was a pig.
Davero has so much down to earth charm. There are some wineries that could learn a thing or two from these interesting people.
We had a lunch to be forgotten on the way back home…something that remains with me now as I write this. Blerg.
After a last dip in the pool, it was back to the city to get ready to fly.
But first, ramen from Coco’s.
Ramen number 2 @rivco Coco's Ramenhttps://t.co/Hr1XaRpGLA pic.twitter.com/bJtvy7U0wp
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) June 28, 2021
This second “first” trip post pandemic was memorable in all the ways. Excellent friends, great food, wine and cocktails, and interaction with many humans. May we all recover our balance and live life again properly.
One day soon I hope to be back at this very spot
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