Waking up the morning after a wedding is always difficult, especially when you had a pants splitting, both literally and figuratively, good time the night before. The wedding was held at the Calamigos ranch, which was one of the most beautiful wedding venues I have ever seen. I had the fish for dinner which was a California Halibut and it was hands down the best wedding dinner I ever had, the texture and tempature were perfect. Congrats to my friends Erica and Tim and I wish you many happy years together.

When I finally was able to shake the cobwebs from my head, I realized I still had two full days left in Los Angeles and all I had left in my tank were fumes. Luckily for me though, as my brother said, my fumes are like a full tank for some others. My brothers, friends and I headed over to the Farmshop in Santa Monica for brunch. The restaurant had a very rustic feel meets Rich Kids Of Beverly Hills style to it and was actually a very lovely atmosphere. After about an hour wait, unfortunately all the smaller stores attached in the market were closed while we were waiting so were unable to look around too much, we were finally seated. I started off with the mimosa, gruet rose and organic orange juice, this drink just seemed so high society LA that I had to get it. The berry flavor that came from the rose overpowered the taste of the OJ which was fine with me, because it was delicious. To start off for the table we ordered the stracciatella cheese with saba, rosemary, toasted pine nuts and larder sourdough, the fried weiser farm potatoes with wild herbs, house made ketchup and aioli and the deviled eggs topped with smoke trout caviar and caraway. The cheese was mouth watering worthy, every time I see burrata or stracciatella on a menu these days I force myself to order it, the toasted pine nuts and larder sourdough complimented this dish seamlessly. While the potatoes were perfectly cooked, the star of this dish was the smooth and tart house made ketchup.  The best of all three dishes though was the deviled eggs with smoked trout caviar and caraway, the creamy eggs with the earthy caraway flavor was a great beginning but the crisp burst of salty fresh ocean flavor that shot out of the caviar and into your mouth was the ultimate treat. for breakfast I ordered the pastrami and poached eggs, the dish was delectable to say the least as I was not expecting to have such a great pastrami in Brentwood. After brunch we drove back to the hotel through the San Vicente Mountain range and took another well needed rest.

We gathered down in the hotel lobby and decided to take a Lyft to Fathers Office in Santa Monica for Happy Hour. Fathers Office was the exact opposite of every other place I visited, it reminded me of something you would find in Philly, the atmosphere was fun, very casual and no nonsense. If I were to move to LA, I would easily become a regular. By the way don’t order ketchup on your burger or ask for no buns, just take the buns off yourself this is not a gluten accommodating establishment, so please don’t bother asking. They have a huge rotating seasonal beer selection and a changing menu. One of the mainstays of the menu is the Fathers Office burger which some say started the gourmet burger trend in the United States. We ordered beers and the burger medium rare and split it three ways, the burger comes on a French roll with carmelized onions, Gruyere, blue cheese, smoky bacon arugula and a tomato compote. The burger reminds you of exactly what the Chef wants it to remind you of, a crock of French onion soup. The burger is juicy as can be, while the carmelized onions are as sweet as syrup and the bite of the cheeses makes this an overall fantastic representation of a gourmet burger.

After Happy Hour we met up with another brother of mine, a friend and Raouf Boudjakdji at the Tavern Restaurant. I like to joke that I am the most interesting man in the world but to tell you the truth Raouf may actually own that title. He was married to William Randolph Hearst’s granddaughter Millicent before she passed away in 2002 and he was the former Algerian ambassador to the United Nations in Genieva and to the Vatican where he became good friends with Pope John Paul II, so you can only imagine the interesting stories he has to tell. I ordered a glass of red wine and the table ordered the Spanish fried chicken to share as an appetizer. The Spanish fried chicken was delicious, the seasoning tasted exactly like chorizo and combined with the fried chicken was a great way to start the meal. For dinner I ordered the Norwegian Cod with coconut rice, carrot broth, kumquat sambal and peanuts. The coconut rice, carrot broth and kumquat sambal combined perfectly to make a spicy, sweet, citrusy flavor, that was truly appetizing, unfortunately for my tastes it overpowered the fish flavor way too much for me.

  
In the morning we headed over to Malibu and went to breakfast at the Malibu Farm Pier Cafe. This farm to table cafe had beautiful views overlooking the ocean, we had surfers to our right and dolphins straight ahead of us, behind us on the hills and all along the coast line you could see beautiful mansions that were one earthquake or tsunami away from being destroyed, but they were a gorgeous sight. I ordered the breakfast burrito which was filled with delicious fresh eggs, chorizo, rice, beans and tasty guacamole with a side of scrumptious right out of the ground earthy salty potatoes. I also tasted the Swedish mini pancakes with whipped cream and berries which reminded me of one of my favorite desserts as a kid, strawberry short cake, it was so light and fresh. After breakfast we did a little sight seeing around Venice beach were my sister-in-law as almost run over by a burglar on the boardwalk and some window shopping downtown in Venice. from there we headed to beautiful Hermosa beach and relaxed with a friend until it was time to head to the airport to get on the red eye and fly home.

  
 
   

Overall these final two days were a much needed relaxing  4 Tizzle experience. 

Calamigos  Ranch 10 Tizzle experience – atmosphere, weather, food, drink and music were all top 5 for wedding experiences

Farmshop 4 Tizzle experience – Must try the deviled eggs with smoke trout caviar

Farmers Office 4.5 Tizzle experience – Great beer, burger and people what else can you ask for

Tavern Restaurant 3.5 Tizzle experience – Food was good but the best part was the company I was sitting with

Malibu Farm Pier Cafe 4.5 Tizzle experience – Would eat breakfast on the deck here the rest of my life because of the view

LA was amazing and I hit up more locations in this trilogy than most people that live in the area, if you have the chance I would definitely suggest you spend time there.

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Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!!!!