Tuesday, March 7th - Cocktails, Tapas, and "Night Watch"

Stubborn (and I say this in the most loving way possible of course) Gourmet T and I want to check out Pinot's new eat. on sunset where Pinot Hollywood used to be. We choose the lounge over the restaurant for the cheap tapas menu. Joining us are Foreign Correspondent D, Silver Lake Beer Expert L, Chick Magnet "Andy Lau," USC Prof P, and his high school friend whose name I have forgotten how to spell. Mr. Spago will be joining us later at the Arclight.

The drink menu is extensive and "interesting" but the tapas menu is a little small but it suits us fine in the beginning. We start off with the rock shrimp fritters with aioli, the fried olives with pesto aioli, bbq salmon, and a simple green salad. We then order a grilled cheese sammie with carmelized shallots. Still hungry we move onto the appetizer menu from the restaurant and order the toad in the hole and the chestnut ravoli. (Now I mistakenly thought that the toad in the hole was this beautiful concoction that is pictured on their website [a slice of thick toast with prosciutto and fried eggs]: that item is on their lunch menu and what we got was more like an upscale Egg McMuffin - quite good actually but more something I would prefer to eat at breakie than at cocktail hour.) We finally yell "basta!" and then we see another table get a big batch of pommes frites with a big scoop of that wonderful aioli - we must go back!

SOME people at the table think I'm kidding about how my new medication turns me into a raging lunatic until Stubborn Gourmet T and I almost get into fisticuffs about the movie "Crash." But we hear the words "half price drinks" and "macaroni and cheese" and we look at each other and say at the same time, "we have to go there!" See dear Reader how food and drink bring people together?

Off to the Arclight to see "Night Watch." I had actually seen this movie before - well, kinda, sorta. I went to a midnight screening which started an hour late (1 am) and then I fell asleep at 2 am. While watching it again I realized that I must have been half asleep the first time around since I missed the most important plot points in the first half of the movie.

Drink of the day: Wild Cherry Mojito

Affirmation of the day: I now write a really bad screenplay that gets made into a worse piece of crap film that wins several Academy Awards.