Weekly Wrap-Up: Delicious food & Unique LA show!

This was one action packed week!  We celebrated, ate, shopped, and really had a whirlwind of a time.  Let's get to it!


Precap (jump to):

• Eats:  Forage, Brite Spot, Guisado's, Providence, La Tavolata, 85°C Bakery Cafe
• Sights:  Dad's wine birthday, Unique LA, Banksy in L.A., Driving in L.A., Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

This week was my dad's birthday, so he decided to open up a ton of his wines.  This is only 1/3 of the bottles, but I know how much fun they had.  My guy was especially excited to try some of these, since he is becoming an amateur connoisseur, following in my father's footsteps.  :)

I was more interested in the pickles, olives, and corks that my father's chef friends brought.  I always have dibs on the corks and I may have pilfered a jar or two.  :)

The next day, my friend and I went to Unique LA!  I loved the holiday show a few months ago, which I recapped here.  :)  I actually think this one was better!

It was held at the California Market Center on the penthouse floor, with a pretty fantastic view all around the L.A. skyline!  By the way, for any of you street art lovers, my friend pointed out the Banksy at the bottom of the photo.  There was a second one that I was unsure about though on the roof.

This is as close-up as I could get with the zoom on my camera.  The girl on the swing is a confirmed Banksy, but does anyone know about this one on the roof?  I couldn't find pictures or anything disproving that it was.  I assumed it was until I got home to write this post up and couldn't find anything about it.  Just wondering!

Now, back to the show!  I don't want to give away too many of the details because a bunch of these shops will be featured on Shop Small Saturday Showcase soon!  Here are some sneak peeks at Millipy, Rose Avenue Sweets, Massey Honey, and Simply Brigadeiro.

We HAD to say hello to Kheel's and my friend bought his HaFo SaFo pillow!  In fact, later on we drove by the sign, so I took a picture of the inspiration.  And yes, the back of the pillow does have the Sad Foot.  Oh, and when I first spotted the sign, it was on Happy Foot.  Yay!

I took a couple of pictures out of the window while we drove of Echo Park...

...and of the palm trees whizzing by.

And across the street from HaFo SaFo, there are a few walls with interesting murals.  I snapped this one on the go.

Now that our driving tour was over, we stopped at Forage!  All seasonal, fresh, and beautiful dishes that you will definitely want to check out on The Episodic Eater!

Then, we stopped at Brite Spot for a slice of history...and pie.  See what I did there?  Anyways, this salted honey pie was my personal favorite!

It was an unscheduled stop in our food tour, so we actually had a dessert in the middle of our dinner.  Silly us!  To see more pie (like the delicious one below) and more pictures, head over to The Episodic Eater!

Then to our last stop of the night, Guisado's!  We ordered six different tacos with fresh tortillas and fillings that were perfect for our dinner.  To see the rest, check it out on The Episodic Eater!

The next day, I decided to hit Unique LA for Day 2 on my own for a couple of hours.  It was so worth it!  Then, I drove down to Hollywood to meet with my family for my dad's official birthday dinner!  On the way, I stopped to take pictures of some of the L.A. that people don't see when they visit.  I just love the buildings!

Well, we first met up at the bar in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It is incredibly dark there, but I snapped a couple of decent pictures of the inside.

Notice the blackout curtains?  They want the ambiance even early on in the night.  :)

Here is a courtyard just outside the bar.  By the way, this hotel has such a long history intertwined with Hollywood.

Some people say that it is haunted, and as much as I love the architecture, I am just superstitious enough to avoid staying here...  you know... just in case.  :)

After the bar, we went to dinner at Providence for my dad's birthday.  We had a tasting menu with several courses, five different amuse bouche courses, and some amazing desserts!

Here is a sneak peek of one of the photos I sneaked with a cell phone.  Believe me, there are so many food photos that you will want to check out on The Episodic Eater if you are a foodie like me!

And even though that was the end to the weekend, my food adventures didn't stop there!

During the week, we headed to La Tavolata, one of my favorite standbys for Italian food.

I adore fresh pasta, so it is certainly hard to pass this up.  Head over to see the beautiful Trenette al Pesto that I ordered, plus more on The Episodic Eater!

And our last stop of the night?  85°C Bakery Cafe!

It was hard to pick out just a few, but here are some of the ones we chose.  Want to know what they were?  Check them out on The Episodic Eater!

Whew!  It is getting craaaazy around here on the weekends!

How is your spring schedule so far?  Busy like mine or more relaxed?