The Pentagons are in Town

Saturday July 28, and Tuesday July 31, 2012
YAY! I know it's only been a few weeks since I last got to see them but I treasure any time I get to spend with my out of town peeps. The Pentagons have been in town since Saturday and Mr Mine and I got to have dinner with them that night. I know that it was a great time, especially for him since he hasn't been getting out much due to his work schedule. The video game industry is a beast at best. The 12+ hour days that he is working are only going to get worse as they get closer to his deadline so we are trying to enjoy what little free time he can muster now.

So Saturday we met Mr & Mrs Pentagon at True Food Daily. I know, I know I went there for lunch as well, but the place seems to have become a staple in my diet the last month or so. You've probably guessed that I ordered the Edamame Dumplings for the table. I can't help it, they're delicious. Sadly none of the pictures I took of our meal together came out. But we enjoyed catching up and hearing about the latest pregnancy shenanigans.

I made plans as we were departing to have dinner with them again Monday or Tuesday night. Plans which we would solidify once I had spoken to Mrs Bokeh about her schedule as well. I called Mrs Bokeh the next day and we ended up scheduling dinner for Tuesday night. Monday I had a flurry of text msgs from Mrs Bokeh about possible places we could go to eat and it fell to me to do the coordination for the evening. Fortunately Mrs Pentagon was also sending me txt msgs about the evening and both of them suggested the same restaurant. Tar and Roses in downtown Santa Monica was their destination of choice. Figuring that since it was a brand new restaurant that we should probably make reservations I turned to Opentable.com. I love this website, it's generally a stress free way of making reservations at a good percentage of the restaurants in LA. Unfortunately I was only seeing reservations open for 9pm or later and that was a bit late for Mrs Pentagon to be eating. So I opted to call the restaurant to see if there were other possibilities. They managed to squeeze us in between when their doors opened for the evening and one of the first reservations. This was earlier than we hoped but was much better than eating at 10pm.

We met at Tar and Roses and it definitely did not disappoint.

Our Appetizers - Bruschetta, Ricotta Gnocchi, Balsamic Glazed Ribs, Braised Lamb's Belly

Mr Pentagon's Shellfish Pot

Top: Our Whole Fried Snapper for Two   |   Bottom : Our delicious desserts which I unfortunately didn't write down the name of!

The Gnocchi, Bruschetta and the Braised Lamb were by far my favorites. I don't think that Mrs Bokeh and I would do the Fried Snapper again. I think it actually frightened her a bit. For me it was just a bit on the dry side. For the desserts I have to say that the Strawberry pastry was much better than my chocolate cake thing. Both Mrs Pentagon and Mrs Bokeh got the Strawberry and after one bite of theirs  I was drooling. It came with a side of salted caramel ice cream. Which if that had actually been written in the description I would of course have been all over in a second!

Having had such an early dinner we decided to stroll around Santa Monica for a while getting in a bit more fun and some added exercise.

Me, Mrs Bokeh, Mrs Pentagon, Mr Pentagon

We were enjoying the sites, watching a listening to the random artists who are always performing on the third street promenade. When I got called upon to participate.

"Hey you! Ms White, Come on over here!"

Ok, I'll participate so I go over and the gentleman playing the bucket drum hands me a overturned pot and asks me to hold it for him. So I walk over, and then he continues to motion that he needs me to get down on my knees. And I told him "honey, not only am I in a back-brace, but I am in pure white linen pants, that is so not going to happen." Fortunately Mrs Bokeh who was all in black came to my rescue. Although when he told her she had to use two hands she decided she didn't want to play either. Oh well. She ended up buying a cd from one of the performers further down.

It was a nice night for a walk and the evening ended too soon. I wish we lived closer together Mrs Pentagon! I miss you!

I love Santa Monica at Night