confession: i TOTALLY cheated

on my fabulous hairstylist, rochelle. i'm so ashamed.

the monkey went for a haircut at a fairly new salon in downtown l.a. called salon eleven. if you're a regular reader of her blog, you'll recall that she was quite pleased with her experience and with her stylist, molly (love that name!). and the salon is currently offering a special for new clients - 50% off of all services if you book on a wednesday.

the original offer was actually a little different, being available on tuesday and wednesday, and since i had plans to meet up with the monkey and amber for dinner anyway, i decided to take the plunge and scheduled an appointment for a color and cut.

well, it turned out that the monkey had concert tickets and completely forgot about them (totally unlike her!), so amber and i decided to meet up for dinner anyway, and chose the old-school pacific dining car, not far from the salon. it was kind of a boo./yay!, you know?

MIL came over to hang out with the bean until the hub got home, and i headed off happily to my appointment, excited for a little "me" time and dinner with a good friend. i managed to find the salon fairly easily, and found parking on the street pretty quickly. and i had time to run into the starbucks on the corner and grab a drink. sweet!

i went inside, where molly was already waiting, and we got down to business. she was really cute with her rocker 'do, awesome boots, and fun, anti-southern belle personality (she's a recent transplant from savannah). i loved listening to her slight accent and smiled every time she said "y'all." she asked me all the basic questions that any good stylist does (what kind of product(s) do you use? what's your daily hair routine? and so on), and pretty soon she was mixing up color and applying it to my nugget.

please forgive me for the stupid faces i made in all of my pictures.

of course, i didn't leave without buying at least one new hair product (straightening balm by sebastian that seemed to work wonders), and then i was out the door and on my way to the restaurant.

there was a kings game at staples center, as evidenced by the many, many jersey wearing fans i passed, and a bit of traffic as i drove the 1.7 miles to dinner. i was really hungry, and so late - i was supposed to meet amber at 6:30, and it was closer to 7. crap. i'd sent her a quick text message before i left the salon, and tried to call her a couple of times, but she didn't answer. i was hoping that didn't mean she got tired of waiting and went home.

but her car was the first one i saw when i pulled into the parking lot, so at least i wasn't going to end up eating alone. heh. and poor thing - when i finally found her sitting in a booth, she jokingly (i think) remarked "i was starting to think i'd gotten stood up!" sorry, friend. i hate being late more than anything - i usually find myself arriving early for meetings and GTGs! ugh.

we had a blast as always, perusing the menu, choosing starters and sides to share, trading stories and updating each other on goings-on (you know, the more personal stuff that just can't or shouldn't be blogged). we laughed till we cried, and just had a great time.

we were seated in the "wine room," which featured some...interesting decor.

we swore we'd come back one day to have afternoon tea, which i love.

starters - shrimp 'scargot (so delicious) and heirloom tomato salad (also yummy).

i love when restaurants do decorative shit with the butter.

my entree - filet oscar. filet topped with roasted asparagus, fresh dungeness crab, and bearnaise sauce. everything good in the world, all on one plate. so delicious. yes, yes, i know it lacks the goodness of bacon, but i was pretty happy with it.

amber went with the filet and crab cakes combo. one of the many funny moments came when we were served as another party was walking past to be seated. one of the women stopped, came back, and said "ooooh, is that like a hash brown or something?"

a HASH BROWN? for serial? as amber said, did she think we were at denny's? how about a little moons over my hammy while you're at it? sheesh.

we decided to split a chocolate souffle, served with a bowl of freshly whipped cream. i really wanted to love it, but i thought it was a bit on the dry side, like they waited a little too long to take it out of the oven.

lastly, i was amused at this sign, which hung in the ladies' room.

good times! good food, good friend, just all good. monkey, we missed you, but we'll just have to schedule another GTG. soon!