Santa Monica Postcard

Many good things from Santa Monica, CA, not the least of which was the weather. The pic above was from a video store called Vidiots. But onto the eats. You know, the important stuff. Thanks to nuprinboy for keeping things rolling.

Starting with breakfast at Urth Caffe where I had the best coffee ever. Get the Spanish Latte which is foamed sweetened condensed milk with really strong coffee. They had other cooked breakfast items, but the pastries won out. I had a ham and cheese croissant one day, a brioche the next.

Then onto after-work drinks at The Viceroy. The drinks are drinks, but the interior is well worth the trip. Service was slow and a bit inattentive.

For dinner, Via Veneto for Italian food. Excellent service – which I always appreciate when I travel outside the south. I don't know why it's hard to get good service down here, maybe it's the heat. I had the langostini which I always thought were just big shrimp, but they taste like lobster. Everything was prepared simply, and therefore excellent. Nobody was hiding anything in a heavy sauce. It was small, noisy (in a good way) and people spoke Italian, which are things you want in an Italian restaurant.

Lastly, everyone has asked if I saw any famous people. I saw Carson Kressley of Queer Eye fame shooting a new show for Lifetime, and the kid who played the younger brother on Arrested Development at LAX. However, I think I got trumped by nuprinboy who actually met John Stewart backstage in NYC recently.