I did something I'll probably never do again: I flew to LA for dinner and turned around and flew right back home. It was a spontaneous, "I have tons of miles" and haven't seen my friends together for quite some time moment.
While in New York, I used to eat with Elaine and Anzela at least once a week. We went everywhere together. Then, Elaine moved to LA and I moved to Seattle. Well, Anzela was visiting LA week and she and Elaine had made dinner reservations. Elaine told me I should fly down and surprise her. I said 'no' for about a week. Then, two days before their dinner, I changed my mind.
Comme Ca (the second "c" has a weird beard under it that my keyboard can't reproduce... it's pronounced SA) is an LA brasserie that reminds me quite a bit of Keith McNally's NY brasseries Pastis and Balthazar. In fact, our server said it was modeled after them.
As per usual with this group, we ordered a ton of food.
We started with a frisee salad. It was served with warm bacon vinaigrette and a perfectly poached egg. The lettuce was crisp and the little chunks of bacon, oh so good. I don't actually eat eggs that often, but this egg was nicely prepared, it actually turned me back on to eggs, and I've been eating them since this dinner.
Next up was the amazing mushroom risotto. Seriously, amazing may not be a good enough adjective to describe it. The mushrooms were fresh and full of flavor. The rice was rich and creamy with just enough parmesan reggiano to give it a slight kick, I loved this dish.
It was burning hot outside, literally, the surrounding areas were on fire, so we ordered a gazpacho soup. It was beautiful in the bowl. It also tasted very good.
Finally, it was time for our two main courses.
Our first main course was the special steak of the day, New York Strip. The meat was nicely charred on the outside and a beautiful deep pink in the middle. Being New York, though, it was tough. I'll always prefer the fatty tenderness of rib eye. The steak was served with an enormous heaping of french fries. While the fries were very good, I was expecting them to be 'the best ever'... they weren't. Still, they're better than 90% of the fries out there.
Our second main course was the lamb shank served on a bed of ratatouille. I've come to really love lamb. Again, I'm a big fan of tender meat, and lamb always fits the bill. I figure, I'm just practicing with tender meats for the day when I have no teeth. The lamb was wonderful and the ratatouille flavorful.
We also ordered a cheese plate, which we were going to eat between the main courses and dessert, but canceled that order, as, uh, were stuffed. We nearly skipped out on dessert, as well, but went forward with it. We all split the pot de creme de chocolat. Basicaly, a shot glass of chocolate pudding with creme freche. It was very good, but by that time, we were so full, we each took a spoonful and called it a night.
As we were finishing up, the executive chef/owner, David Myers came out and greeted the table. This was kind of a big deal. He's huge in the LA restaurant scene, also owning what's generally regarded as the finest restaurant in Los Angeles, Sona.
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