Maybe this word is a bit ridiculous but the concept is downright Cozy! For this 4th of July Marc and I decided to take a staycation. This meant escaping the horrific firework bombardment that goes on in our neighborhood and renting a comfy hotel room 10 minutes from our house in downtown LA!
We got a deal at the Marriot on Figueroa – ok, not the most fabulous hotel on earth, but we got a great weekend deal of $99 plus parking $30 – a very fluffy king bed – sans felines – a long bathtub and blackout curtains and we were happy!
The best part was being downtown and seeing all the new places that have opened. Funny thing was that on that day there happened to be a convention of what we found out to be “Random Animae”. The streets were crawling with every creature you could imagine, words can hardly describe what we saw ranging from Star Trek-ish, to ghoulish to punk school girl etc. Finally stopped this girl in a head to toe patent jumpsuit with elevator shoes and she said she was from a punk band in Japan and told us about the Random Animae. We thought this was a riot and went around saying this new phrase all night…!
We wanted to have drink at Chaya and check out the super-groovy chandelier but they were closed. Probably just as well as we made it to our dinner reservation at Rivera just in time!. We did a lot of research on all the new restaurants downtown and this one’s reviews blew us away. We were not disappointed!
INCREDIBLY CREATIVE LATIN CUSINE! The guys sitting next to us were 2 food bloggers/ engineers and photographed their entire meal (which was about 10 courses!). A stuffed pepper appetizer…
THE MOST AMAZING $2 SOUP EVER! Not sure why they only charge $2 for this amazing double layered shot glass soup – on the top layer a rich delicious hot lobster bisque and below, a cool fennel green apple. Genius!
MY MAIN COURSE; A “simple” roasted chicken breast…!
Marc’s halibut came with artwork delivered through the use of vegetables. Delicious!
Crema Catalan and strong!!!! coffee afterwards…(nice touch of sugared almonds on top, yum!)
is this why Marc didn’t sleep very well???
Part of the building next door
Don’t forget to look up!
A cruise through the Nokia Center plaza…
On the side of a building, getting ready for Tuesday….
Breakfast the next day at Bottega Louie, more coffee please!!!
Marc’s ham and gruyure frittata
Like on the streets of Paris!
Fantastic market too!
I’ll have one of each!
And for something a little sweet
Or a box of something to go, who can resist!
A little walk around downtown and then the temp began to climb. Time to go home – wow, it would take us all of 10 minutes!
What a great little weekend away, we’ll have to do it again!
