There is a conspiracy theory in the Palisades. I know this because I personally made it up. I tell everyone I see about it and they believe me. Truly. They look me right in the eye after I explain it to them and say, “oh my God, you’re right!”.
Here it is in a nutshell.
Pacific Palisades, California is a magical community. It has attracted the famous and wealthy for years. Even Henry Miller lived here along with Neutra the architect. In more recent years, it has attracted the rich and famous.
There are restaurants here in the Palisades but not one is really good. Not one.
When you live here, you hate driving and you like to walk to places and not leave the hood. So, you go to the same bad restaurants year after year. We, not me, but others have now even lowered their standards and have come to believe that some of the food is actually good. So not true. Get real.
This should not be the case and it’s a plot run by three main players in the community, I am adding a fourth now. It’s Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. They got together and said, “we hate the food here in our hood, but we like our privacy so lets keep it that way”. Larry David is now in on the conspiracy and he knows it.
Every once in awhile there will be rumblings about a new restaurant and that it- in fact might be the one . It’s always an urban legend. Trust me.
There was a deli here for decades. People in the community liked it because it was a mainstay. It also wasn’t good but it was a regular place and something about that made it better, if you know what I mean. Morts Deli rent went sky high and they had to leave so Mayor Richard Riordan bought it and turned it into yet another truly awful restaurant. It’s called, oh who cares what it’s called, something with Pantry in the title. When it opened, I opened my mind and heart and went to try it a few times. So bad, he should arrest himself….can you do that? I was so mad with the service, the food and everything in the first weeks that I was just screwing around on it’s website and wrote a really nasty review and I never signed my name to it but somehow it was on the world wide web for all to see with my name attached and everything. Oh well. I just looked and somehow it’s now not on there and only one good review is in it’s place, a lie.
The people responsible for the plot and I all do eat at the same amazing restaurant but it is just a touch outside our zip code. We head down into Santa Monica canyon and eat at Giorgio’s on West Channel. I will review Giorgio’s one of the best restaurants in Los Angeles at a later date so stay tuned.
Tags: conspiracy, pacific palisades, palisades, restaurant reviews
I had a really nice dinner at the Pantry the other night. It wasn’t FANTASTIC but it was good and the servers seem to be trying really hard to change an earlier impression made by the restaurant in the beginning. So give it another try… Giorgio’s is great (yet terribly expensive) but sometimes they make you wait and will give your table away to a celebrity! I mean it is Hollywood, and they have a reputation to live up to!
Giorgios, huh, and the person above me, Kim, says it’s expensive. That’s pretty much a deal breaker. Well, maybe not if I get lucky and find a really nice date. Excepting Musso Franks, this blog deals with places far too good for the likes of me, a retired cop living here in pacific Palisades who spent 30 years working my cases in los Angeles. Incidentally, I always liked opportunities to say, “Far too good for the likes of me.” I think Fagin said something like that to Oliver.
If Kim was talking about the original Pantry on Figueroa, I too like it even though the food usually seems greasy after the bill has been paid.
I like bar-b-q-in-the-table Korean restaurants. I only know the locations of my three favorites, not the names. The drawback to Korean is that you have to eat on Friiday afternoon then go directly home to let the smell leach from your body. You will usually be ok by Saturday morning.
How about Mexican? La Parrilla on Ceasar Chavez is great. The queso fundito with chipolte and shrimp is very bad for you, but then you can top it off with about five pounds of frahitas. My doggy bag is always full when I leave that place. And hey, the local Gilbert’s El Indio on Pico and 26th isn’t shabby. I go there every weekend and eat menudo.
This all makes me wish there was a blog like this for the likes of us single guys who can’t cook, and who eat out just to survive.
Hey Freddie, please clean the spelling and typos up for me. Thanks, Ed.
Alain Giraud is opening his new place in the Sades. Get ready. It will be fantastic.
Looks like finally someone gets it! I hope Rick Caruso gets busy building that Grove 2 and that there is a great gourmet comfort food diner there named Fredde’s Place. Loved your description of the area which is now even bleaker if that is possible than when I lived there in the 80’s!
Hoyti sp toyti sp 1965 dog house across from the Bay hot dog ff and coke under a buck and you serve yourself. Walk up the street and 31 flavor for a triple treat and you were set. The life of a surf/ski bum. Love aloha hoov