To celebrate Joy passing her first licensing exam Joy and i went to AOC (along with a $25 for $50 open table coupon) for dinner on Saturday. AOC is still probably our favorite fancy restaurant in Los Angeles and since we only go maybe once a year its always a special night. The best thing about eating here is that the menu is always different but has never failed to be delicious, granted there are always a few mainstays like bacon wrapped dates.
For the night’s meal we enjoyed of course the bacon wrapped dates which is the perfect blend of salty/sweet, crunchy/chewy. Joy’s favorite of the night was the lamb skewers with tomato-eggplant jam, and i enjoyed very much the sea bass baby squash, radish, crema.
For dessert we decided to head elsewhere and went for a walk at the Grove to make room for the sweets. While walking around the Farmers Market we actually bumped into the Manichans who were there eating dinner, and of course wanted to join us for ice cream at MILK. We didn’t go for a ice cream sandwich or sundae and just stuck with a Blueberry crunch ice cream cone.
Sunday we also hung out with the Manichans to go watch Crazy Stupid Love in Marina Del Rey, which i actually enjoyed watching. There was a scene in the movie where someone made a cocktail using a sugar cube and bitters and an orange peel and while heading to dinner at City Tavern i figured out it was probably an Old-Fashioned and decided to try it while eating.
City Tavern is an offshoot of Rush Street which is actually just across the street in Culver City, which is another Gastropub serving multiple microbrews available in tasting sizes. Who knew this was going to be the trend for 2011. The food at City Tavern ranges from Cheesy Poofs (fried cheese) to Fried Chicken and Pork Belly. Not too bad, and plenty of grease to make you drink lots of beer.
