Twilight Concerts: Santa Monica Pier

Best Concert Venue in LA

Twilight Concerts: Santa Monica Pier
200 Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Type: Outdoors, Seasonal
Category: Entertainment, Happy Hour, Dinner
Company: Everyone who loves SUMMER, BOOZE, and FOOD on the BEACH!
Cost: Free!
Schedule: July 5th-September 6th. Line-Up. 7pm-10pm. Get there early to secure a spot!

OTC Tip: Contrary to website info, the best spots are *not* on the pier but in the sand on the south side. Choosing to sit *on* the pier will result in bag checks, booze confiscation, and the typical concert crowding that is *so* not Santa Monica. Sit on the beach. Trust me.

Review: 
LA likes to battle out which side is the best side - East of the 405 likes to stock up on destinations like Runyon Canyon, restaurants like Animal, shopping through Beverly Hills and thrills like cupcake ATMs. But the Westside has the beach, and come summer there's truly no contest: The Westside IS the Bestside.

But forget your alliance. Summer is for all, and when the Santa Monica Pier decides to throw Thursday evening concerts from July until September you know where a majority of the LA population will be. And you should join us.

Do:
Bring blankets, folding chairs, dinner (sandwiches from Bay Cities, picnics from Tavern, or assorted feasts to share), beer and/or wine. Yes, if you sit in the sand around the pier this is the only time you can drink on the beach without hiding it. Invite your well-behaved dog: he/she is welcome. Park in the lots around 3rd street or the meters off of Main.

Don't:
Fret about the line-up. It all sounds good when you're eating, drinking, and wiggling your toes in the sand. Bring your dressy clothes, work phones, and salty sailors - this us your chance to have happy hour al fresco so take the 3-hour moment to relax. Ride your bike: sure, they have bike valet but last year I remember being the last to leave the beach and walking past a line of 50 deep waiting to re-claim bikes. Yikes.

Enjoy!

Andrew's Cheese Shop

Andrew’s Cheese Shop 

“This Place Stinks!”

728 Montana Ave

Santa Monica, CA 90403

Type: Restaurant, Shop

Category: Lunch, Dinner, Picnic

Company: Everyone minus those who are on diets or who are lactose intolerant

Cost: Varies

Quickie: A library-esque specialty cheese shop that sells cheese and everything that goes with it (wine, beer, crackers, chocolate, meats, olives, and bread)

Cheese-related accompaniments

Review: Like a hot young single girl/guy in LA, there are very few people who don’t like cheese.  Fittingly, cheese gets around, and it’s probably safe to say we’ve all seen it laced through eggs at breakfast, pressed between bread for lunch, draped over crostini (while simultaneously flirting with wine) during happy hour, melted beneath pasta at dinner, and occasionally lounging nakedly next to fruit for dessert.

With all the options, there are a lot of questions. Luckily, Andrew’s Cheese  Shop has all the answers and more.

OTC Tip: Andrew’s makes daily sandwiches ($9), and is also knows for packing outstanding picnic baskets. For avid enthusiasts, join cheese of the month club!

Every cheese has a story

Initially, I thought a cheese shop cultivated by a man who has been called Fromanger,  Cheesemonger, and Affineur would open up like a ripe cavern teetering with molded rinds and sweating curds. But the feel of Andrew’s cheese shop is quite opposite: warm wood and welcoming smiles present bookshelves of wine and beer, crackers and jams and chocolate, a blackboard that lists the sandwiches of the day - and of course, the cheese case that leaves no cheese unloved and unnamed.

OTC Tip: Love grilled cheese sandwiches and beer? Once a month Andrew pushes out a long communal in to the middle of his store and hosts a 5-course grilled cheese tasting menu paired with beer for $45/per person.

My favorite thing about Andrew’s Cheese Shop is that each cheese is attached with an index card that depicts country of origin, a bit of a bio/history, and a few notes on taste and beer/wine pairing. Anyone who can turn a cheese with a foreign name in to a flavor in English that belongs in my stomach should be exposed and rewarded.

So if you are looking for a bite to eat, a cheese for dinner, a fragrant gift, or even just an education, leave the nose plug at home and visit Andrew’s Cheese Shop (recommended: go hungry).

Santa Monica Food Truck Tuesdays

Gal pal Priscilla shows off a dessert truck!

Food Truck Tuesdays
The Victorian
2612 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Truck Calendar

Type: Food truck gathering
Category: Dinner, Late-Night
Company: Everyone!
Cost: Typical truck rates
Quickie: For those of you who need a food truck meal at least once a week, calm the hankering every Tuesday in Santa Monica from 5-10pm

Pros:
1. Fewer trucks (around 10) means a smaller crowd. This isn't a pesky street fair - think more a neighborly gathering
2. Situated in the parking lot next to the Victorian means there's more general parking for all and no battle royale along the hipster-thin streets of Abbot Kinney
3. Something different every week which means 4x per month you can dine al fresco for about $10
4. If you get too full to move, grab a beer or a digestif from the Basement Tavern (a dark bar in the bowel of The Victorian)

Cons:
...There are none. Maybe your ascending cholesterol level, and the fact that a smaller group means a higher likelihood you'll run in to friends/exes/awkward acquaintances...

California Monster Salads

California Monster Salads
411 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Type: Cafe
Category: Lunch, Picnic, Dinner
Company: Anyone craving a huge salad. And/or your vegetarian friends/pet rabbit
Cost: $8.95+

Quickie: Think Subway meets Whole Foods salad bar - basically, a "watch your salad get made" counter with the quality and price of a gourmet food store.

OTC Tip: Don't be shy. Ask questions, taste every dressing, and speak up if they try to over charge you.

Review:
In typical fashion, I dragged my entire office to this place for one reason: I wanted to test the rumors that you can get your salad "in a cone." However, once I got there I was so distracted by trying out every dressing and crafting my custom salad without holding up the lunch line that I forgot about the cone. I apologize. Luckily, I think I redeemed myself by snapping a picture of the MENU - something I have yet to find anywhere else aside from in-store.
This place is great. You can choose a salad that's been tried and posted on the menu on the wall, or you can create your own. The pro about this is that you can swap toppings - they are all priced evenly - so if you want bacon bits instead of corn, sure. However, you must pay for protein, so the salads that are priced at just under $9 tend to come out closer to $12.

I like that you get two huge dressings per salad (without asking) which is more than you will need. I found it curious that there weren't any croutons - but no matter, the salads are HUGE (aka enough lettuce, etc, to fill my boss who is 6'3'' and 220) and served as lunch and dinner for me which was fantastic.

The containers are big and serve as a "salad shaker," which made me think that this would be a great place to stop en route to the Hollywood Bowl or the beach or maybe one of the concerts on the pier...

Cinespia Hollywood Forever Screenings

Cinespia Hollywood Forever Screenings

6000 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Follow Cinespia on Facebook

Type: Outdoors
Category: Entertainment
Company: Dates, Friends
Cost: $10 donation at the gate; $5 parking on-site

Quickie: Monthly screenings of classic Hollywood films projected onto the side of a building at Hollywood Forever cemetery. Outside food and beverages are allowed.

OTC Tip: Bring a blanket or two at the least, although small folding chairs would be ideal. And if you bring wine, don’t forget an opener.

Review: Take a drive-in movie, replace the parking lot with an old cemetery, and trade sitting in cars for picnicking on the grass. What do you get? (No, not the premise to a bad horror film.) Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, a monthly event from May to October. Located at the corner of Santa Monica and Gower, Cinespia is the perfect alternative to the usual cookie-cutter romantic comedy date at the local multiplex.

I’ll be the first to admit that the premise sounds weird (and it involved the convincing of a cute girl to get me to go), but the execution is flawless. Once a month on Saturdays, classic movies from days past are screened outdoors in front of a large grass field – devoid of gravestones, don’t worry. Our screening was the 1967 film “Bedazzled” starring Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, and Raquel Welch. Admission is cheaper than a standard movie theater, and it comes with one very good perk – BYOE. That’s right, it’s Bring Your Own Everything, more or less. Food and beverage, including booze, are allowed, along with chairs (nothing so tall that it will hinder others’ views), blankets, pillows, etc. The effect is a cozy picnic vibe that makes it perfect for both a large group of friends as well as a date. Note that “date” and “food” don’t include dogs and BBQs, so leave Fido and Weber at home. And yes, there are restrooms available nearby (in the form of Porta-Potties).

While you can park on-site for $10, I suggest looking for street parking. Not only will you save money, but you’ll avoid the gaggle of cars and pedestrians leaving the cemetery. As with everything in life, early arrivers will have a better choice of seats. We arrived about 30 minutes before the figurative lights dropped, and were regulated to a spot near the back. However, the “screen” (technically a wall, but whatever) was large enough and the speakers placed perfectly that I didn’t have to strain to enjoy the movie. For those that want to arrive an hour or two early, a DJ spins music before the movie, so you’ll be entertained. (I guess you’ll have your friends to entertain you too, but you never know...) And despite the large crowds, everyone is extremely friendly and polite, a rarity in LA.

Overall, this is a great way to spend a Saturday night in Hollywood. It combines everything that’s great about LA – Classic Movies, Hollywood, and drinking in a cemetery. Or something.

Next screening: June 9th, A Nightmare On Elm Street
Gates open at 7:00, Movie starts at 8:30

First Fridays

Dessert, next to the Grilled Cheese Truck

First Fridays
Abbot Kinney
Venice, CA 90291
Follow First Fridays on Facebook
 
Type: Food Truck Festival, Seasonal (Monthly) Category: Dinner, Late-Night  
Company: Date, Friends, Visitors, Family, anyone who likes to eat at places other than a table 

Cost: The right to roam Abbot Kinney is free. Food runs at general food-truck pricing - but I spent close to $30 getting a gyro, a drink, a few small desserts - (and a 4th meal at 11pm after hanging out for a while).

Quick-Rec: Bring cash and a high tolerance for delightfully awkward confrontation. 

OTC Tip: You will run in to people you know: The pals you haven't seen for a while, the randoms you hide from, and probably one or two more you can't even begin to intuit. When my friend and I went we ran in to a few friends from our college (years ago) lives, a guy she met (days prior) at a mixer, and our beach bootcamp trainer, Todd. 

Review:
Here's the thing: LA is wise to what draws a crowd. Take a narrow street notorious for being hipstamatic, open it to a drone of 50+ food trucks (ranging from those prodigy to famous restaurants such as Border Grill and Sprinkles to ones that don't own a store front like DumplingStation and Dogzillahotdogs), claim the start is right during rush hour, make parking stereotypical-LA, and there you have it - exclusivity, at it's most alluring.

In sum, First Fridays is the celebrated attempt by LA's gluttonous yuppies of all ages, shapes, and sizes to rival Berkeley's term "gourmet-ghetto" by putting it all on wheels and insisting with no other option that you eat locavorian items on paper plates while sitting on the curb and wiping your hands on your $300 pants.

As timing is everything, FF only happens once a month - on, as implied, the first Friday. In conjunction with the usual "open late" cast of restaurants and bars on Abbot Kinney, this is the one night the neighboring shops selling non-edibles keep the lights on until 10pm as well (not that anybody cares - people are at FF for the food, so such lit doorstops are used for truly nothing other than well-lit picnics) and, of utmost importance, provide enough light so that you don't have to strain your eyes to read the menus on the backs of the trains of parked food trucks.

My (first) First Friday was in April. After putting in the allotted hour to get there during peak traffic hours from Santa Monica, we snagged a parking spot about five minutes from Abbot Kinney (half the battle) and scuttled on over to see what it was all about. Starting at Abbot Kinney and S. Venice Blvd, we decided to walk down AK on one side of the street and back on the other, glance through the parking lot conglomerate, then decide what to eat.

Due to the lines, the large numbers of people on dates, parents with kids, gaggles of friends and hoards of teenagers, the walk that normally would have taken us twenty minutes took close to 45. While FF is definitely not a "quick-eat" and a poor place to go if you are already starving, I promise you will be blindingly drooling after a few minutes of breathing in grease-saturated air and checking out everyone else eating kabob, tacos, potato tornadoes, mini cupcakes, ice cream sandwiches, and every other type of food fusion that fits in the palm of your hand or can be carried on a stick.

The great thing is that everyone is nice. People don't cut in line, take your food, or bitch at you as you try to jostle by. I think if you go to FF you know what you are getting in to, and if you put in the commitment to a) get there and b) find parking, a short wait or constantly wading through crowds for food is a mere side-conversation to...

...What should you eat? Be careful - after a while, every menu starts to look like a list of x-y-z food stuffed/wrapped/fried in or in to the shape of a taco, burrito, quesadilla, or gyro. No complaints, but if you want to a clear winner I recommend eating from the Vizzi Truck (Wagyu Beef Sliders with Truffled Popcorn) since every other person has already told you about the Kogi Truck and the Grilled Cheese truck and I don't want to tread on redundancy.

Yep, they still remember me at Diddy Riese...

Being the sugar fiend and a devout lover of everything cookies and ice cream, when I saw Coolhaus (ice cream sandwich truck) my feet stopped. Also having an unparalleled love for bacon, I went for the special of salty-and-sweet and got the Candied Bacon ice cream between Maple Waffle cookies. Much to the devastation of such adult fantasies, bacon does not make everything better - and I was aptly punished. Sadly, the ice cream was a bit flabby and the cookies a margin too thin.

Then again, Coolhaus MAY just be in an up-hill battle: to this day I'm unconvinced that any sandwich will ever be a fair rival to my college love, Diddy Riese.

Now, I'd be lying if I told you that FF is all PG-13. Most people "of age" grab a bite, linger at a bar on AK (or down by the beach at such establishments as James' Beach) which are but a $5 cab ride away. Here's the key: Make sure to get back to AK around midnight, right before the last of the late-coming food trucks are about to leave (but aren't really, because they are making a killing feeding the post-bar feeding frenzies) and grab a "snack" (I had a Korean bbq quesadilla).

If at this point you are pouting because you live too far away or work too late to make a First Friday, don't cry - you can always find one of the prized food trucks by following your choice on twitter - most tweet their daily locations so you can have your very own foodfest from wheels any day, time, and place of the week.

Everyone else, you are in luck: First Fridays (May) is this Friday (5/6)! See you there.

California Chicken Cafe

California Chicken Cafe
2401 Wilshire Blvd (6 other locations)
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Follow CCC on Facebook

Type: Cafe
Category: Lunch, Dinner, To-go
Company: Date, Friends, Visitors, Family, Co-Workers, Solo
Cost: Under $10/meal unless you eat more than the average bear (or enjoy a lot of side dressings, like moi)

Quick-Rec: Follow CCC on Facebook for occasional free sides, or promotions. The salad dressings are made from the stuff that google searches for restaurant recipes thrive on - so, order extra - I promise you will use it (even if you end up drinking it).

OTC Tip: Order ahead to avoid lines. Always double-check your bag with your phone order-  they get busy during peek meal hours!

Review:
Here's the thing. When I have several conversations in one week that go one of two ways: "Yes, I LOVE the CCC and the salad dressing must be laced with CRACK" or "California Chicken Cafe? Nope, I haven't heard of it..." I feel absolutely obligated to spread the word because - yep, you guessed it - I go there so often, they know my name.

Which is fine by me - and truly, they should (and will) know yours.

Ok, so the California Chicken Cafe Menu. Per the name, the only meat here is chicken - roasted, on the bone (white and/or dark meat), cut up in salad, wraps, or mixed with pasta and dressing.

The CCC offers meals where you can pick your pieces of roasted-on-an-indoor-spit (try the crispy skin at least once - oh god it's good) with options for a side (or more) of fruit, salad, soup, savory potatoes, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, or slaw.

You can also go by way of a wrap, an entree salad, or even a full meal made up of entirely all sides...basically, the combinations and permutations are endless. And you can customize it - feel like adding green onions or omitting the sprouts? No worries, the CCC will cater to your stomach's every whim.

Below is a list of my FAVORITE things at the CCC: 

Lunch @ Work!

1. California Chicken Salad - I get mine sans pasta and with green onion. I get several dressings on the side, because I'm hooked.

2. Combo or Primavera Wrap - I get extra dressing on the side. I know, clearly the food is just a vehicle to get the dressing in to my mouth.

3. Broccoli Soup - It's creamy and healthy (but there isn't any cream, haha).

4. Chicken or Broccoli Pasta Salad - Eat as-is OR tucked in a piece of delicious pita.

5. Mashed Potatoes and Gravy - Soft, pillowy, and just how mashed potatoes should be. I always add butter (because food is just a vehicle to get butter on my lips, as some of you might know).

6. Roasted Chicken, any piece (well, I would order JUST the skin, if I could, but...somehow I think the health inspectors would find me and cage me if I tried).

7. Chinese Cabbage Salad - Great when topped with the Ranch dressing and wrapped in pita.
 
8. Balsamic Dressing, Ranch Dressing, Chinese Dressing - I know, you say "Dressing?" But to be quite frank, it's whatever is in these dressings that cements the CCC as a frequent contributor to my list of weekly staples. It's been debated, but I'm pretty sure every one of them is laced with negligible amounts of something tantalizingly addictive.

The beloved CCC Salad (w. extra dressings)

Now, no matter WHO you are: a local, a native, a transplant, a visitor, an athlete, a child, a foodie, or a even picky-eater - you now know that the CCC is a place where you can get full, eat well, and not break the bank.

Make it a habit (it's not like you'll really have a choice once you've been, so you might as well own it!) and I'll see you there.

Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery

Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery
1517 Lincoln Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Bay Cities Deli on Facebook


Type: Italian Deli
Category: Picnic, Lunch, Dinner
Company: Date, Friends, Visitors, Family
Cost: $6+/sandwich (depends on size and additions)
Quick-Rec: Always get the "Italian roll" and an extra loaf of fresh-baked bread (it won't last the trip home). Delicious sandwiches, soups, hot-case items like pastas and meats. Great place to pick up any item you might ever need for an Italian snack or meal.

OTC Tip: Order online and pick up in the back- even though it takes 45 minutes, it saves you the pretty-much guaranteed 45 minute standing wait/line at the deli. Get to know the guys who make the to-go orders. Get "the works" (mayo, mustard, onions, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, italian dressing, pepper salad) on your sandwich. Never go on Monday - it's the one day BC is closed.

Review:
There are 1,483 reviews for Bay Cities on Yelp, hundreds of discussions on Chowhound, and even a feature on the Food Network's show The Best Thing I Ever Ate - so clearly, I'm not breaking news here.

Since my goal is to filter through the clutter and just shine light on the best, I'll spare you any specific suggestions/reviews/comments on "what to get" - aside from insisting that you get a sandwich of one of the million varieties (the infamous is the Godmother, but I'll let you know that most people opt to customize their own) my only insist is that you do some of your own research and go order whatever sounds delicious to you (because it will be).

In addition, considering Bay Cities is located on Lincoln Blvd (about seven blocks from the beach), opens at 9am, and sells everything you might want for a picnic - this is a great place to stop before embarking upon any Los Angeles activity where you need to bring-your-own-meal such as visiting the beach, going hiking, or attending an event at the Hollywood Bowl, etc etc.

Great for brunch, lunch, dinner, a hangover, a picnic - Bay Cities will not disappoint so you may as well bookmark the online ordering page as a favorite and call yourself a fan.