ERIK'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND IN LA
We recently took a road trip to LA for Erik’s birthday and to attend his cousin’s wedding, which was STUNNING (see below). It’s always nice to get back to the city and this trip we spent all of our time in downtown…exploring, drinking and eating all the things.
Thank you to The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Los Angeles for hosting us! The mid-century vibes of the hotel were a perfect backdrop for the weekend. We loved it’s central location, making it easy for us to walk to everything…all our meals and even the wedding. The service at this property is spectacular, in league with some of the nicest properties I’ve stayed in. If you want to be left alone, no problem, if you want to make it a magical birthday weekend like we did…they don’t mess around. They even set up a surprise birthday spread for Erik in the morning before we woke up! When we came downstairs in our suite everything was right there in the dining room: fresh fruits, a beautiful custom chocolate cake, champagne and tons of goodies!
I LOVE a spacious hotel room…and this room was almost as big as our house!! The two story suite, facing the hills, allowed us to have people over on the main floor without having to worry about straightening up our bedroom and hiding all of our suitcases. Our nosey friends raided the second floor anyways…but regardless it was perfect for us! We even had a second bedroom with two beds so our friends who drank too much had a comfortable place to crash.
But can we talk about food? GREAT. We started our adventure with an over the top steak and lobster dinner at LA Prime. This fabulous steakhouse is conveniently located on the 35th floor of the hotel. It’s high position and glass walls deliver panoramic city views from virtually every table in the dining room. I could have eaten an entire batch of the delicious amuse-bouche. The crab cake is one of the best I’ve ever had and the filet mignon steak paired with a lobster tail was extraordinary. I wish we hadn’t eaten so much so we could try desert, but fortunately Erik’s sister brought in an incredible birthday cake that we enjoyed with friends in our hotel room.
Two other notable meals we had were at Cento Pasta Bar and Nick & Stef’s LA! Cento is MIND BLOWING, life changing…magical carb goodness. I eat pasta everywhere I go and this was TOP 5 for sure. This gem serves five items that change weekly; one appetizer and four pasta dishes. You sit at an actual bar, where you’re immediately aware of the chill vibe which is curated by the owner’s/chef’s WICKED playlist; yes I heard DJ Shadow and Portishead….THANK YOU! We ordered three pasta dishes (uni pasta, pumpkin tortellini, gnocchi with lamb ragù)…I’m legit drooling thinking about it. See a shot of the tortellini above.
Nick & Stef’s is an entirely different creature. Fine dining perfected. Seriously, I had the best caesar salad (shown above) of my life prepared table-side; note that I eat this salad almost daily. In fact, we had such a magical experience that we dedicated a full blog to it! Check it out here!!
On our way home we stopped for some quick shots out in the middle of nowhere…best part of a road trip! Be back soon!!