Sor Tino- Brentwood

BruinLawyer, GameBoy, and I went with two of my friends from high school- N. and M. (interesting moniker forthcoming) up to LA to go to the LA Film Festival. Short Program 2 had little interesting food-wise, and was pretty, well, crappy in general. The last short, about black lesbian teenagers, was a bit, um, graphic, but there was scene at the end where they're eating ice cream, and it made me hungry for some. Luckily, GameBoy felt the same way, and at the next film, which was at the brand-spanking-new Landmark theaters at the Westside Pavillion, he went to the concession stand and returned with some Pinkberry! Ok, it wasn't even ice cream, and, by some standards, not even really frozen yogurt, but it was my first Pinkberry, and it was good. Not so delicious that I would wait in line like some people, but good for movies, definitely. After "The Paper Will Be Blue," which, by the way, was a pretty good Romanian film about the end of the Cold War, we went to Sor Tino in Brentwood.

We parked on the rooftop parking lot, and made our way down to the restaurant, which was crowded with well-dressed middle aged types on the patio celebrating something. BruinLawyer was immediately intrigued by the women in their cleavage-baring outfits, but soon lost interest once he acertained their age. GameBoy spotted the burrata and carpaccio and immediately insisted we order them. BruinLawyer is allergic to cheese (I'm so glad I didn't inherit this Asian gene!), so we also ordered calamari as a final appetizer. Even better, it turned out that N. and M. weren't so hot on the burrata, so GameBoy and I got the lion's share of that. The burrata itself was creamy and yummy as usual. However, since it's not quite tomato season yet, it was atop some rather mediocre slices of tomato, which detracted from the experience. While it was much more buratta than Fraiche, GameBoy and I agreed that we preferred Fraiche's version, since they used better tomatoes and aged balsalmic vinegar, which really made the difference. The carpaccio was good, but GameBoy complained that it was less than he expected. I'm not sure if he gets that it's supposed to be very thinly sliced and that it's supposed to be a small amount. Sigh. I was so busy eating those two dishes that I didn't get a chance to eat any calamari, but judging from the empty plate, BruinLawyer, N., and M. really enjoyed it.

GameBoy got a spinach salad with chicken for dinner, but the rest of us went for the pastas, which are all homemade. M. got the risotto, which must have been good, because he ate it all rather quickly. N. got the penne with tomato sauce, which was okay, but it's really something hard to mess up. BruinLawyer and I got the wild boar ragu, which was yummy, as usual. However, I'm not sure if BruinLawyer liked his quite as much, and he said something about how he didn't see how wild boar tasted that much different than regular pork. GameBoys salad was only so-so, with the chicken all dry. So, in total, an okay meal, but not spectacular. Still, in LA, not a bad meal for $30 each or so.

The real bummer was that I had about half of my pasta left over, which I intended to take for lunch the next day. However, when I opened the container at work, I was sad to see only a tiny scoop of N.'s penne. Somehow the boxes must have gotten mixed up. So sad.

Date of Visit: 6/24/07

Sor Tino
Brentwood, CA

Scardino's- Torrance

Due to my dinner at Basilic, I was late for my friend’s birthday party at Scarindo’s. By the time I got there, it was time for dessert. I ordered a limoncello, which turned out to be some sort of sweet lemon sorbet in a glass. It wasn’t bad, and for $5, it was a steal. Also quite nice was the $10 overall corkage fee, which was generous considering that about six or so bottles were consumed by the birthday party. The service was a bit slow, but it didn’t matter with all the wine. I don’t know how the food was, but I think it’s my friend’s favorite. Not bad if you’re in the area.

Date of Visit: 4/3/07

Scardino’s

4803 Torrance Blvd.

Torrance, CA 90503

Bay Cities Italian Deli- Santa Monica

It was a beautiful and sunny day, so GameBoy and I decided to skip our usual Sunday morning brunch spot, Café Marly in Beverly Hills, in favor of Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica. I first heard about this place from one of GameBoy’s friends, PonytailedGuy, whose tastes sometimes coincide with my own, so I was curious to try this “landmark” eatery down near the beach.

Unfortunately, the rest of LA decided to take advantage of the sunshine, and our ride down Santa Monica Boulevard was slow and frustrating. Bay Cities also turned out to be incredibly crowded, with families and 20-somethings fighting for parking, and then jockeying for a place to stand and wait. The small lot was full, so we found parking about a block down on the street and made our way inside. Pushing past the people milling about, we found the deli counter, took a number, and located a menu to study.

The neon green menus were laminated, and taped thoughtfully to the glass displaying the meats at the counter, at the perfect height for leisurely perusal. With my knowledge of Italian deli meats limited to a few charcuterie plates, I quickly narrowed it down to either GameBoy’s choice, the Godmother sandwich, which was a standard mix of proscuitto and capricola, or a soppressatta sandwich. I decided on a large Godmother, and communicated this to GameBoy. However, it turned out later that he had misunderstood me, and I ended up with the soppressatta. Luckily, we agreed to split our sandwiches, so we could both try the large Godmother ($7.65) and the regular soppressatta ($5.90).

The reason the wait for Bay Cities is so long on weekends is that they make each sandwich to order. Oddly, GameBoy noticed that the option of “The Works” actually wasn’t cheaper than getting each condiment individually. We thus determined that he would order each of our preferred condiments separately.

Having finalized our order, I then wandered around the rest of the market, which had a promising selection of Italian foodstuff, unsurprisingly. I took special note of the burrata, which was cheaper than Bristol Farms’ price, and the fact that they carried Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, a cheesemaker I am eager to try. Unfortunately, our plan at that point was to go the beach afterwards, so I was forced to put any cheese buying off to another day. I also noticed that they have a fax and online order area, which seemed to be much faster at producing sandwiches, and made a note to order before we drive down next time.

After a fairly long wait, especially for me with my cute but somewhat painful brown heels, we got our sandwiches, grabbed some drinks (Jones root beer, $1.29, for him, Le Village sparkling pink lemonade, $1.98, for me), paid for our sandwiches at the register, and headed outside. We found seating at a table on the side of the deli. The seating is a bit unusual there. You sit on narrow concrete ledges that have been placed as benches near the tables. This, I guess, functions to prevent homeless people from sleeping there at night, and to prevent chairs from getting stolen.

Anyway, all that waiting made GameBoy and I pretty hungry, so we eagerly dug in. Unfortunately, the bread, apparently a signature item, was hard, making it diffiuclt to bite into the sandwich. GameBoy and I agreed that the bread’s hardness forced the fillings out along the sides, making it more messy and less enjoyable. The sopressatta was nice and spicy, and the Godmother proved to be fair as well. GameBoy preferred the Godmother, and I the soppressatta, so after a few test bites of each other’s sandwiches, we went back to our initial orders. They were both good sandwiches, but we left thinking that they were a bit over-hyped for what they were. I am curious, however, to try the cheeses and other charcuterie they had available. I think I’d prefer to make my own sandwiches next time, though.

On a side note, GameBoy and I both felt slightly ill a few hours later, and the possibility that Bay Cities may be responsible for my stomach cramps has definitely made a return trip less of a priority.

Date of visit: 3/11/07

Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery

1517 Lincoln Blvd.

Santa Monica, CA 90401

(310) 395-8279

Fax (310) 395-1575

Tues-Sat 9-7, Sun 9-5, closed Mondays

HOURS:
Tues-Sat 9-7 Sunday 9-6 CLOSED MONDAYS