Here's something fun for you to do on one of those random weekend nights where you're not sure what to do or where to eat: get in your car and pick a random direction to drive in. Set a time limit of say one hour. In that hour, you have to find some place to eat that you've never been before that isn't a chain restaurant or a fast food place. If you're driving with a significant other, they can't have been there before either. You never know where you might wind up.
Last night my g.f. and I employed just such an approach and wound up at a place called The Matterhorn, a Swiss-German themed restaurant in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. I had never eaten at a Swiss restaurant before and I had no idea what to expect. It was like stepping into a time machine and setting the dial for 1958...the age of most of the patrons was somewhere north of 60 and they were dressed up for dinner. The decor was like that of a German pub, with lots of Swiss flags and German emblems everywhere (no Nazi paraphenalia, thank God). The menu was surprisingly diverse, with a smattering of Italian (pasta dishes), American ( mainly grilled fish and a porterhouse steak) but primairly Swiss and German food, which apparently consists of every kind of sausage imaginable, plus pork loins, steak and lamb. My plate was ham, a beef sausage, a bratwurst, smoked bacon, grilled onions, sauerkraut, carrots and green beans. Yum!
It was all very delicious, but I can't remember the last time I had so much meat. Meat, sauerkraut and a delicious slice of plum cake for dessert. I recommend it, but one has to bring a hearty appetite and a thick wallet. Also, don't bring an ironic or hipper-than-thou attitude. The Matterhorn is the very epitome of what they mean when they say old school. The primary Chef and part-owner, Chef Oleg, is very congenial and stops to visit at all the tables when he has a chance. Many of the customers are frequent, long time patrons of The Matterhorn and he knows them by name. Then, on Saturday nights, the Chef is liable to get up on the bandstand with the accordian player and sing some old standards (in German of course). My favorite was "Blame it on the Bossa Nova." He took requests, and I wanted to suggest they play "Hate or Love It," by 50 Cent, but my g.f. assured me that Chef Oleg and crew probably wouldn't know it.
There's a lot of interesting places to eat out there if you just know where to find them. Or sometimes not knowing where to find them, in a manner of speaking, can be the key to a memorable evening.
Peace...
Semi-daily Diary Notes
(From Saturday, August 6th, 2005) Sweets consumed: with breakfast, two pieces of toast with strawberry jelly and a slice of plum cake for dessert.
Celebrities seen around town: None, although a screening recruiter at the Sherman Oaks Galleria thought I was somebody on TV or in the movies and that I should definitely send him some head shots because he was a "manager." Oh boy...
Movies seen: HUSTLE AND FLOW. Definitely one of the best movies of the summer and that's not faint praise. The Academy bettah recognize my boy Terence D. Howard with a Best Actor nomination or I'm going to blow the roof off of that mutha. Or maybe not. Still, he was mesmerizing.
Number of U.S. soldiers killed today in Iraq/Afghanistan: none that I heard about, but there have been over 50 casualties in the last three weeks.
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