Bodega Wine Bar (Santa Monica)

Not so long ago I was having a high stress day. I was driving home from an important meeting and was sitting at a red light. My foot was on the break for a good 10 seconds. And then out of nowhere, bam!, someone had rear ended me. I screamed in terror. Apparently, the man who hit me was looking for an Altoid. God damn you curiously strong mints. My bumper was bruised with screw driver marks from his Mercedes license plate. The man said he would pay for it and we decided to not involve insurance. I immediately went to my body shop (cars like to hit my car) and got an estimate of six hundred and three dollars. Because the man said he would pay, this wasn’t the problem. The problem was that it would take three days to repair my bumper. I needed a drink. In order to forget about the bad, my roommate and I went to find some good. Good in 5 dollar glasses of wine at Bodega’s Happy Hour. Sadly, the happy hour used to be 4 dollars a glass but had gone up a dollar since we had last gone.

The layout of the bar is relaxing, hip, sexy, and kind of dark. It is bigger than the flagship Bodega in Pasadena. The service is usually always attentive and friendly. They always have a wide variety of wine options with different kinds of reds, whites, and sparkling. They also keep it interesting by rotating the wine list every few weeks. When I arrived at the wine bar, I planned to order wine that I would not normally order (like the episode of Seinfeld where George does everything opposite of how he would normally do it and everything comes up roses). Instead of tuna salad, I ordered a a pinot noir. Sadly, I was too shook up from the accident to think to write down the name of the wine or the pleasant adjectives used to describe it on the menu. What I do know is that the wine is always pretty good and hits the spot, especially when you’re having a bad day. I do consistently find their red wines to be more on the light/thin body side of the spectrum.

We also ordered from their happy hour meal menu. They offer a few items from their menu for happy hour price of 5-6 dollars: margherita pizza, pepperoni & mushroom pizza, hummus and pita, pepperoni and cheese plate, a bruscetta and olive tapenade, and I think a warm goat cheese crostini. We ordered the pepperoni & mushroom pizza because my roommate had hummus at home (and what’s the point of ordering something you can make/have at home?). We are professional happy hour goers and have tried most of their menu and all of their happy hour menu so I can tell you off the bat the the best options for happy hour are the pizza, hummus, the bruscetta, and the crostini. The cheese and pepperoni is not worth your money; It’s like a cracker barrel rectangle of orange cheese (I’m assuming cheddar) and slices of pepperoni that obviously came out of a plastic bag in the kitchen along with little pieces of toast; nothing special and not very healthy! If you have money to spend, I always enjoyed their smoked turkey breast panini ($10 - w/ goat cheese, tomato, arugula & pesto may) and their big chopped salad ($10 or $13 w/ chicken - mixed greens, mozzarella, mushrooms, jicama, chickpeas, zucchini, & tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette).

They also offer beer, cold sake, and soju cocktails. What’s a soju cocktail you ask? Soju is distilled beverage native to Korea commonly made from rice (but sometimes potato, wheat, barley, sweet potato, or tapioca)! Soju is clear in color and typically varies in alcohol content from about 20% to about 45% alcohol by volume (ABV), with 20% ABV being most common. Its taste is comparable to vodka, though often slightly sweeter because of the sugars added in the manufacturing process.The liquor licensing laws in the states of California and New York classify soju in the same category as beer and wine, allowing businesses with a beer/wine license to sell it without requiring the more expensive license required for other distilled spirits. The only stipulation is that the soju must be clearly labeled as such and contain less than 25% alcohol. The cocktails are nice, but I find it’s lower alcohol content less fun than regular hard liquor.

In the end, I recommend Bodega Happy Hour to everyone. When it is not happy hour, wine is 8 dollars a glass (which I probably would not recommend). It is a fun to go with friends and co-workers and will always have a place in my heart. The location is kind of hidden and easy to miss. It is a few stores away from Swingers on Broadway. It always looks dark. Happy Hour is from 5-7pm. Street (metered) parking and valet.

List of weekly events:

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Andrew Jackson Night (any bottle = $20, but that’s not much incentive because any other day the bottle = $21)
Wednesday: Modelo Madness - (Modelo in the can = $2)
Thursday - Saturday: DJ’s play
Sunday: Service Industry Night - Happy hour prices and $1 sake shots all night long

Bodega Wine Bar
814 Broadway
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 394-3504

Paciugo Gelato

A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I were down in Hermosa Beach area and I had remembered that supposedly the best gelato in Los Angeles could be found nearby at Paciugo Gelato. Paciugo was started by the Ginatta family after they moved from Torino, Italy to Dallas, Texas (which is why they are currently predominantly found in TX). They opened up shop in 2000 and after years of perfecting their product and people showing interest they began to franchise in 2004. The gelato is made fresh every moring without preservatives and fructose corn syrup. They even have nutritional information on their website which is surprisingly not too guilt inducing. This is probably because their gelato is made from whole milk and not butterfat which is commonly found in ice cream.

My entrance was warmly welcomed by the friendly and happy people behind the counter. There was quite an array of flavors including the traditional (vanilla and chocolate) to the unique and intriguing (violet, chocolate extra virgin olive oil, sweet potato organic maple syrup). They also let me sample a fair share of them before I made the executive decision: Pumpkin Pie, Pannacotta (Wedding Cake), Mediterranean Sea Salt Caramel, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl. The gelato was thick and creamy. Although I have never tried to eat velvet, if I did this is what I would hope it would taste like. Each flavor had subtle wonderful hints: spicy finish to the pumpkin pie, hint of vanilla in the creamy wedding cake, lovely toffee taste found in the sea salt caramel, and the sweetness of hazelnut in the chocolate swirl in the peanut butter.

The location is close to the beach which means on the weekends it is crowded and parking is unfortunately limited and/or costs money. Overall, I think it is almost as good as Scoops in quality, but sadly is even longer of a distance to travel for me.  However! Looking at their website, it shows that Paciugo’s are coming soon to the following Los Angeles areas:

California-Los Angeles / (Coming Soon)
California-San Diego / (Coming Soon)
California-Santa Monica! / (Coming Soon)
California-Thousand Oaks / (Spring 2009)
California-Orange County / (Coming Soon)

Paciugo Gelato
1034 Hermosa Ave
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Scoop-y Snack.

Already on that side of town, I stopped at a place that always cheers me up. Flavors: Black Currant Sherry Wine, Mascarpone, Green Cocoa Tea (Vegan), and Strawberry Triple Sec.

Winner: Black currant sherry wine.

N’Ice Cream Nielsen’s Homemade Gelato & Sorbet

N’Ice Cream officially opened up this weekend on Abbot Kinney. Immediately next door to a Pinkberry, a renovated garage has now become a cute little gelato shop. This place stands out to me because not only are their limited ice cream / gelato places (that aren’t corporate) in the area, but the owner I met was friendly and talkative (not too talkative though, just right talkative). I love when proprietors are social, it makes the experience more enjoyable; it’s good to know that someone cares about their product and their customers. Apparently, the owners are from Denmark (cool!) and are keeping N’Ice Cream a mom&pop place (not selling their souls franchising).

They make their gelato/sorbet fresh everyday (you can even watch them as they make it through a window). The day we went had about 10 standard gelato flavors, which is good for people like my boyfriend, but I love crazy ridiculous flavors. This is not to say I did not enjoy what I ordered. I am sure they will expand on that in the future. I chose a combination of Coffee, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Vanilla. Each one was wonderful in their own way. The chocolate hazelnut had pieces of hazelnut in it, making it my favorite of the cup. The vanilla had little black vanilla bean dots making it the most aesthetically pleasing. I regretfully did not get the white chocolate, but I heard people talk about how amazing it was. This place is great. In the heat, it will become quite popular especially since it is so close to the beach. They also do To Go packs. And they take credit cards. Go check it out.

N’Ice Cream
1410 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291

Diddy Riese

If you are willing to drive and hunt for parking, Westwood is a great place for ice cream/frozen yogurt. Diddy Riese is a popular place for their inexpensive but delicious treats. You wait in line (there is more often than not going to be a line), make your order, quickly receive your order and then pay. It’s fast paced and there is very little seating in the small establishment, but that’s okay because Westwood is the type of place you can wander around. They use Dreyer’s ice cream and have the following flavors: french vanilla, cookie dough, rocky road, mint chocolate chip, strawberry, chocolate, espresso chip, butter pecan, strawberry cheesecake chunk, peanut butter cup, chocolate chip, and cookies & cream. They make fresh homemade cookies everyday: chocolate chip, chocolate chip with walnuts, oatmeal raisin walnut, sugar cinnamon, white chocolate chip, peanut butter, double chocolate with nuts, candy, chocolate with white chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nut. For $1.50, you can purchase an ice cream sandwich. In the picture above is one chocolate chip cookie hugging peanut butter cup ice cream while reaching over for it’s dissimilar friend the chocolate white chocolate chip cookie. Best friends forever. In the picture below is on the left two chocolate chip cookies and espresso chip ice cream and on the right is two chocolate white chocolate chip cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Cash Only.

Diddy Riese
926 Broxton Ave.
Westwood, CA 90024
(310) 208-0448

Scoops

Salty White Chocolate and Black Sesame. I know, I repeated the Salty White Chocolate, but it’s so good! They made a great pair together. The Black Sesame was a soft and subtle toasty-sweet taste. It was the quieter one of the two flavors.

Winner: Salty White Chocolate

Scoops
712 N Heliotrope Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 906-2649

Angelato Café

One would think that by the ocean in a state where there is constant sunshine and warm weather, there would be infinite ice cream / gelato/ frozen yogurt locations. Sadly, this is not the case in Santa Monica. My roommate and I stopped at the one gelato place near the Promenade called Angelato Café. Gelato is the Italian version of ice cream but with significantly less butterfat than ice cream making it less solid and frozen (melts more quickly in your mouth), gelato is of a higher density because it is produced without the addition of air, and it is served slightly warmer (10-15 degrees less) than ice cream. All three differences gives gelato a richer, more full flavored taste than ice cream.

Angeleto offers an array of standard and unique flavors of gelato, sorbetto, tofulati, yogurt, and sugar free products. There is supposedly over 100 flavors but I was not counting. I ordered a strangely amazing combination of Green Tea Gelato and Chocolate Grand Marnier. Although this is not as good as what you would find in Italy, it is still creamy and rich. I especially enjoyed the Green Tea Gelato; it was a treat to taste this flavor in any form other than Soy Dream or Pinkberry. Cash Only.

Angelato Café
301 Arizona Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 656-9999