Dinner and a Play

Cary and I spent Friday night in beautiful downtown Culver City. It really is a hidden gem of a city. If you haven't been yet, make plans to. We had dinner at Ford's Filling Station. The pale ale they make is pretty dern good, I would totally buy a case for home. Kushi Oysters with some sort of a red wine vinaigrette. They're small, but so tasty. I could have slurped the rest of the vinaigrette straight.

Cary got the beef cheeks with a cracked Bulgar wheat risotto, with mushrooms. So freaking good. The wheat risotto was my favorite out of everything we ate there.
I got the scallops with a corn succotash. Really good too. The wines that our waitress paired both dishes with were great. I was too busy enjoying myself to remember what they were. Everything was really good. We didn't have time for dessert because we had to head over to the Kirk Douglas theater to watch our play.
We watched David Mamet's Duck Variations and Keep Your Pantheon. I love live performances. Duck Variations is two old men sitting on a park bench having conversation. I wasn't feeling it and I'll leave it at that. The second show, Keep Your Pantheon, had funny moments, but at this time, the wine had gotten to my head and I was fighting to keep from nodding off. I felt really bad because it was interesting and funny, and both Ed O'Neil (Al bundy) and David Paymer (Ira Shalowitz from City Slickers) were in it along with other familiar faces. But what can I do? I have no stamina and need to limit the amount of continuous activity I attempt to participate in.


Afterwards we walked over to Vinum Populi wine bar. Really cool joint. You get a wine card and put how ever much money on it. Then you choose which wine you want to try, put your card in the wine's station, put your wine glass under the spout, and you get a one ounce pour (about) of that wine. So you can try a taste of a $50 wine for $2, or you can try a taste of an $800 wine for $21. Then after you've tasted a few wines, you can choose to buy a bottle there for a discount. They also serve food and have an outdoor patio. That's the other great thing about Culver City, all the restaurants have ample outdoor patio space. The weather was perfect. If anyone wants to go, give me a call.