Small Town Life In Big L.A.

Join Me On A Whirlwind Buying Trip For The Stores

January is a very intense month for us. No sooner the Christmas season is over, which is full of church, retail,  wrapping, and parties, we hop on a plane and head for the major Gift & Ready To Wear Shows. Here is a scene we see everyday on our way to the Atlanta shows. We always happen to be there during Martin Luther King's birthday celebration. It's hard to see, but the sign on the left is a portrait of him.

First stop upon arriving is dinner at LaTivola. It's a cozy Italian restaurant in Virginia Highlands. This is their Warmed Olives appetizer.

Dessert at LaTivola is not to be missed. The special of the night was this delicious Apple Tart with Rosemary Cream. We also ordered a side of house made Vanilla Semi-Freddo.

Here's the view from one of the several highrise buildings that comprises the Atlanta Gift Mart. This was a snowless trip. It was cold but not bone chilling.

A fun showroom stop. It is rare to find sofas to lounge on. Generally you are on your feet...ALL DAY!!!

Every year has a different twist. This year several vendors had craftsmen outside in the halls demonstrating how things are made.

 

The Mart stays open until 8pm on the weekend. We shop, enjoy a nice dinner, and then drop. Atlanta has so many unique restaurants and they believe in dessert. One of my favorite stops, "Wisteria", lets you choose 3 of their homemade desserts for $10. We chose the Coconut Meringue Pie, Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream (Yes, it had a kick!), and Bread Pudding. I wish restaurants here in L.A. would pick up on this.

Being a "foodie" I look forward to the Gourmet Food section of the show where you get to sample everything.

Atlanta is a city that I enjoy. Here, popular "South City Kitchen" (You better have a reservation) is in a remodeled Southern home surrounded by spectacular high rises. Fascinating!

I think the Mussels here were among the best we have ever had. Considering we are from the Chesapeake Bay that is saying something.

As soon as we land in L.A. it's off to our local shows. This was taken as I was enjoying a break in the lobby of the California Market Center, my "home away from home" for the last 3 decades.

With all the lofts being built downtown their are new restaurants cropping up. We enjoyed people watching from our window table at PatternBar.com. You can see the California Mart from the window.

Here is a nice night shot of the L.A. Mart, home to many gift and decor showrooms. We have been shopping into the night on both coasts and had a very successful trip. You will find the fruit of our shopping in Mountain Rose Gifts and Revelation Tops.

The Atlanta Restaurant Scene

When we go on buying trips to Atlanta we shop all day and into the night. At the end of the day we enjoy going out to eat. Atlanta has lots of special, independantly owned restaurants. This is a pic of one of our faves in Virginia Highlands called LA TIVOLA. It's a well run, cozy Italian Bistro with low lighting, excellent service, and "right on" food. This is the view from our booth across the room. It reminds me of those French cafe paintings.

We started with Warmed Olives, simple and delicious. What a variety!

Then we shared this healthy Beet Salad with pistachios and shaved Parmesan. Another winner!

These Roasted Brussel Sprouts were so good. You won't find this at the chains.

Now on to another fave, SOUTH CITY KITCHEN. This is a contemporary restaurant that serves Southern classics with a gourmet twist. Make sure you have a reservation or you won't get in, even in a snow storm. I LOVE starting with their breads: Homemade Bisquits and Corn Bread.

The Fried Chicken is one of their signature dishes. It's piled on top of their impossibly good Mashed Potatoes, covered in gravy, and served with collard greens. YUM!

WISTERIA is another place we don't miss. It's only five minutes from our B&B. How I wish we had this bistro close to our house. I would go every week.

This is one of my all time favorite dinners... anywhere... ever. Believe it or not it's their Vegetable Plate. It has samplings of all the gourmet veggies on the menu that night: mashed potatoes, corn pudding, amazing stone ground grits, purees, and roasted veggies. Who needs meat?

But then again, how can you pass this up?

At Wisteria you must save room for dessert. They are all house made and you can pick 3 for $10 and share. We had the Coconut Cream Pie, Watermelon Gelato, and Apple Crisp with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Why don't more restaurants do this??? Maybe if they did they would be PACKED, late, on a weeknight, during an ice storm like Wisteria was.

Each trip we like to try someplace new. MISO just opened in "the hood" where we stay. I took this pic so you can see what we observed during many of our dining excursions. All the restaurants are trendy, low lights, playing "restaurant style" retro music from decades gone by. There are some serious foodies in this city. Another trend we saw was how young everybody seemed to be everywhere we went. Look at who is sitting here. Where were all the people our age? Where were all the people from the Gift Show?... Actually we finally did see some, but now I'm watching this trend. Maybe they are all in the suburbs?

MISO was great. We started with lightly battered Tofu.

These Fried Oysters were so good we ordered a 2nd batch.

And then on to the good stuff! Hope you enjoyed this blog. I have wanted to write about this for a long time. Can you imagine getting PAID to review restaurants??? Sign me up!