Los Angeles Day 1: WeHoooo (Or Just West Hollywood)

Preface: I’ve decided to cut down the content of my Los Angeles posts for the sake of conciseness, save for a few restaurants that warrant an in-depth discussion. I was able to visit about half the places on my “map of happy tummies,” and also visit a couple other places that weren’t on the map, but still delicious, nevertheless.

I landed Friday night around 8:30, and waited for my buddy from high school, Ryan, to pick me up from the airport. The contrast between Nashville and Los Angeles is beyond description. The multitude of people and cars and buses circling the airport arrivals level made my head spin after spending months in little ol’ Nashville. After almost 30 minutes of waiting, I was starting to become enraged purely by osmosis of the abrasiveness around me. I couldn’t stand anymore honking from every other car. And then Ryan showed up, and we were off!

We went to West Hollywood because that’s where Ryan’s girlfriend lives. Along the way, we stopped at a random Thai place, Sammy’s Thai BBQ, to pick up some food. I ordered a panang with chicken. I don’t want to bore you with details and crappy photos of the food, so I’ll just say this: it was meh. I guess Thai places in LA are either a hit or miss.

I lied. Here’s a picture of my food. Where is the substance?

Following dinner, we went out to some gay bar in WeHo, where we partook in 2 for 1 margaritas. It was $7 for two Patron margaritas. I can’t complain. I also saw an old college friend on the way out, who is currently on his third year surgery rotation at Keck. Hm. Interesting.

Walking back, we dropped into Barney’s Beanery, Los Angeles’ version of a dive bar: it’s kinda like all the bars around Nashville, except the crowd seemed more fake (but more diverse!), and it didn’t feel as authentic. At this point in the night, fried food = drunk food = GOOD FOOD. I really liked the fried mushrooms–you don’t see too many of those these days.

Afterwards, we trekked home along the streets of West Hollywood. The walk home involved spotting a stand called LA Buns and Ryan urinating in public. This walk isn’t that interesting now that I soberly recall. After we got home, stuff became more blurry. And that was the end of my first night in Los Angeles. I swear day 2 will be much more interesting and delicious UMAMI-licious.

Sammy’s Thai BBQ, Barney’s Beanery, and LA Buns are all on Santa Monica Blvd.