Our waiter was quite talkative, mostly I think because he didn’t have much else to do; it was very quiet in the restaurant (it was a Monday night though, to be fair). He went on and on about how the bartender had won some award for mixology, so despite the fact that I was planning on swearing off alcohol for the night, I ordered the “cool 8”: muddled cucumber and watermelon, vodka, lime juice, and simple syrup ($14). Despite its staggering price tag, I was very glad that I decided to sample this, as it was one of the best, freshest tasting drinks I’ve ever had.
There were so many other yummy sounding drinks, but sadly, my dwindling bank account prohibited me from trying them. One in particular I was eyeing was the cilantro margarita. As I’ve admitted before, I’m a cilantro-a-holic, and I’m still so curious as to what this would’ve tasted like…
Before we even ordered, a large plate of soft, crusty bread, and crispy flat bread arrived, along with some kalamata olive tapenade. Yum. We decided to share the celery root soup with diced bacon garnish:
…also the diced ahi-tuna, which the waiter described as a “deconstructed salad nicoise”—accompanied by an haricot vert salad with hollandaise dressing, and some truffled potato chips.
Our last choice was the heirloom tomato salad with homemade burrata mozzarella and olive oil fried croutons.
They were all so yummy, and with the bread and the drinks, plenty for these ladies.
Afterwards, as a suggestion from our chatty waiter, we headed to hotel hotspot The Delano. Thankfully, he gave us specific instructions on how to find the exact bar within the hotel he had suggested, because otherwise we would never have experienced one of the coolest bars/places I’ve ever visited.
We entered the grand hotel and walked down the long, cavernous, majestic hall, already feeling dwarfed in both its sheer size and its chic-ness. A small table jutted out at a diagonal from a sushi bar. A bar, back-lit by red lighting, tempted us, but we stayed the course, with our directions from our waiter friend. We walked through restaurant “Blue Door at the Delano”, and exited onto its patio, down a large staircase, and out into what looked like a forest from Alice in Wonderland.
Had we gotten lost? Had our waiter failed us? Tall, mushroom-shaped trees loomed over an oversized chess board. A ladder led to nowhere. In the distance, we could see a long, infiniti pool lit in blue with a table and chairs on top, as if walking on water. White cabanas with flat screen TVs were roped off on the opposite side of the pool. We saw a faint light at the end—it must be the bar!
Finally, we made it back to the small, yet stylish pool bar. Though drinks were served in pool-friendly plastic cups, these were not your average daquiris by the pool. For starters, my drink, consisting of Ketel One vodka, mango puree, and a splash of pineapple juice, was $17. And no, that’s not a typo. Legit $17, $19 with tip. YIKES.
But I guess it was a small price to pay for hobnobbing with fabulous people, sitting by a pool, and playing in Alice in Wonderland for a night.
p.s. And sadly, no P. Diddy sighting. But I DID find out from my friend who as at the inauguration that HE saw P. Diddy. So at least someone did this weekend! ;)
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