The Watermark on Main

The Foodies descended on the Watermark on Main last November 23rd for an evening of seriously good food and wine. JC DeMoss arranged the outing. His sister works at the restaurant and we were given the royal treatment by the restaurant staff. The building was goregeous!
The Watermark is housed inside a building that dates back to the 1920s on property dating back to the 1900s that has been transformed into a modern masterpiece. Throughout the restaurant and rooftop lounge one can easily find a synthesis of old and new. Priceless murals depicting the Camino Real from the 1920s stare down at tables reserved through an online reservation system. Top shelf liquor and wine is housed in the original bank vault from when the building housed Ventura Guarantee Building and Loan Association in late Twenties and early Thirties.

Here's what we ordered:

ARTICHOKE RAVIOLI
Tender fresh pasta sheets stuffed with artichokes and Muenster cheese in a black truffle butter sauce


BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS
Slow roasted for over 8 hours. Served on a bed of garbanzo beans, peppers and onions then smothered in our natural pan sauce




LOBSTER POT PIE
Tender chunks of Maine lobster and vegetables surrounded in a portobello and black truffle brandy sauce. Served in a clay pot topped by a buttery puff pastry crust


FILET MIGNON
Tender 8-ounce Filet Mignon broiled to perfection. Accompanied by a cracked pepper demi glace, Parmesan risotto cakes and fresh local vegetables


After the meal, the restaurant provided us an exquisite array of desserts, all on the house!

• Tahitian Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee
• Dark Chocolate Truffle Cake with Mango Passionfruit Sauce
• Strawberry Panna Cotta with Fresh Strawberry Puree
• Strawberry Empanada Dusted with Vanilla Sugar
• Cheesecake-Stuffed Strawberry Dipped in Belgian Dark Chocolate

Many thanks to the Watermark for their hospitality!

Matteo's Is Vintage, Hollywood Charm.

Matteo's has a charming magic to it's decor and ambiance. Once you step through the doors you are almost transported back in time where you can imagine Dean Martin, Sammy Davis and Frank Sinatra smoking cigars and sipping cocktails. A painted portrait of Sinatra hangs above the corner booth he held court at many Sunday nights. Matteo's has been around since 1963 and has maintained a place for Hollywood luminaries to still frequent. Aside from the appeal of the establishment itself the food is fabulous, serving upscale Southern Italian dishes. On our particular foodie night we enjoyed a Porcini Mushroom Ravioli, Lobster Pasta (AKA Millionaire’s Pasta), Chicken Parmigianino, and Chicken Scaparella. My Mushroom Ravioli was fantastic. The raviolis were cooked perfectly al dente. Having previously been to Matteo's I can tell you that both the Millionaire’s Pasta and the Chicken Scaparella are delicious!

Matteo's prices are on the higher end, but still within a reasonable range, making it a perfect impress a date place. Wednesday evenings they have Meatball Madness serving 3 different types of meatballs on a tasting menu for $12. It's a great deal and a future Wednesday night meal for at least two of us in the group. In addition to Matteo's restaurant they also have a Martini bar up stairs serving drinks late into the night. Matteo's bar has happy hour from 9-11 nightly. Check it out for yourself. You won't be disappointed!

My personal Rating for this location: 1-5 (5 being best)
Ambiance: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4

Make your choice.

I wanted to suggest some more great places to eat for Club Foodie and I'd like the next outting to be September 12th. It's falls on payday so that's the plus.

I've been to Lucques and can say that it was one of the best meals I've had. Matteo's is great Italian food with a bit of old charm. Frank Sinatra used to frequent there back in the day. JC and I stumbled across Anisette just last night. We didn't eat there, but instead sat at the bar and drank Absythe. The vibe of the place was chill and the food looked and smelled wonderful. I never tried Craft, but it's Tom Colicchio's (Top Chef host) restaurant and the menus certainly looks worthy of a foodie outting. So vote and let's do it!

Let them eat cake.

March 14, 2008

"Squint and you'd think you were in France. Now open a little wider, Provencal tablecloths cover the tables in the narrow little Bistro de l'Hermitage; bottles of wine line one side of the bar; specials are scawled on the chalkboard. Likely as not, the waiter will address you in French."
- LA Times.

Bistro de l'Hermitage did not disappoint us. Wine and cheese was abundant and fragrant! The cheese plate was particularly popular and included Tomme de Savoie, Epoisse, Saint Andre, Roquefort, and Brie. The big surprise was the Tomme de Savoie, which is a variety of Tomme cheese from Savoie in the French Alps. It is a mild, semi-firm cow's milk cheese that is actually low in fat... delicious!

Also among our selections were:

- Rack of Lamb
- Ravioli
- French Pork Loin Chop
- Roast Half Duck
- Shrimp Moqueca

Be sure to order the chocolate souffle if you go - pricey, but worth it!

Foodie/Anime club mashup!

http://www.royal-t.org/cafe/

Maids! No, wait. American maids! That's right, instead of reading about maids, you Americans can go visit them in America. Previously, a maid opened in Canada. Then it closed! And now, another maid cafe is giving North America a go. This month, Royal/T Cafe is having its grand opening in Culver City, Southern California. Though, here's the pickler. The website describes the cafe as a "playful collision of spaces — café/shop/art space — presented in stunning fusion. An eclectic mix of retail and contemporary art reimaged in the surrounds of LA's first Japanese-style cosplay café." That's LA-talk for "Since this café is based on places where Japanese nerds go sip milk tea and play paper-rock-scissors, we've decided to add pretentious artsy-fartsy shit to appeal to American hipsters."

Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris, Las Vegas

What started as a joke on the HI Club Foodie mailing list became a full blown journey through the desert sands to the blazing streets of Las Vegas! The foodies spent a wild weekend in sin city and all met for the official club meal at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris, Las Vegas, described below:

"The Eiffel Tower Restaurant offers the city's premier French cuisine, breathtaking views of the Las Vegas strip and is regarded as the crown jewel in Paris Las Vegas' collection of restaurants. Guests are whisked to the restaurant in a glass elevator that opens to the electric activity of one of the city’s top kitchens before being escorted to the dining room, where panoramic views and exquisite cuisine take center stage. The glittering lights of the Las Vegas Strip appear even more dramatic in the dining room’s intimate lighting, and guests are treated to spectacular views of the glorious Bellagio water fountain show. Metal framework from the Eiffel Tower dramatically breaks through the restaurant walls and creates a modernized art deco style. “No matter what you call it, it’s smashing,” says Muriel Stevens of the Las Vegas Sun. Tours of Eiffel Tower Restaurant are available throughout the day."

The evening's choices consisted of:

Wine

Belleruche Cotes du Rhone 2005

Bread

Baguette, Rustic Bread

Entree

Beef Wellington (Mark)

Duck 2 Ways (JC)

Veal Medallions (Geoffrey)

Filet Mignon (Eric)

Sides

Asparagus with Brown Butter, Potato Gratin, Braised Brussel Sprouts, Mashed Potatoes

Desert
Chocolate Souffle (Mark, Geoffrey, Eric), Grand Marnier Souffle (JC)

Petit Fours

Madelines, Chocolates, Fruit Jelly, Caramel, Chocolate Dipped Cookies

The Greens

The Greens is one of my favorite restaurants I've ever been to. I'm probably biased it is all vegetarian, but if you want to try fine vegetarian cuisine this is the best place you could go to. For one, they vegetables are grown by Buddhist monks and all their cooking is seasonal. So whatever vegetable and fruit is in season, that's going to be what's on the menu- which is always changing.

I've only been there on the weekend when it's a fixed price menu, you have the choice of choosing from 2 variants of appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert (4 course meal for $80). Make reservations ahead of time because it gets booked up really fast. Enjoy!

click here for more info

PS: could someone post this in the left tab "Restaurants beyond LA?" i couldn't do it.

Baby Blues Bar-B-Q

In one word… De-fucking-licious.

The service was fast and friendly, prices reasonable, and the ambiance was southern garage with a hint of redneck.

You can easily get there for lunch, I did…

The drive was 10 minutes, food took ten minutes, drive back 10 minutes… leaving 30 minutes to eat and enjoy good company. (Though this is from the studio, driving times may vary dependent on traffic and starting location)

I recommend "The Jack" a beer braised hot link sandwich with cotya cheese and hot peppers. Very tasty, and not a messy dish, unlike the baby back ribs or beef brisket, adding to the ease of eating it over a lunch period, without worrying about dry cleaning. The hot link itself is served split and on the bunover a bed of cotya and peppers. The sandwich has no barbeque sauce, but that is generously served on the side, allowing the diner to add as much or as little as desired. Diana Wu recommends the Baked Beans, which, I must admit; are full of win and awesome. They have a very subtle baked bean flavor. The sweetness of the brown sugar is subdued by the roasted tomatoes. That's right, the baked beans have tomatoes. I believe here I should add that though they are in fact baked beans they have the consistency of a kidney bean chili.

I give it a five stars (out of five)

http://www.babybluesbarbq.com/

Welcome!

Do you daydream of really cool places to find great food? Do like exploring LA with your Heavy Iron Cohorts? Do you actually own a food blog (you know who you are)? You might be a Foodie.

Foodie (n., epicurial): a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink).

Announcing HI Club Foodie!

- Every last Thursday of the month at 7:00pm, we'll descend en masse upon the restaurant occupying the highest position of our ladder.
- Once visited, restaurants will move to the "Been there, done that" folder which anyone can access for lunch fodder.
- Subscribers can share new places and reviews with each other to seed the ladder. Any food topic is welcome!

Buon appetito!

Saint