downtown date night

i'd seen a link for dtownla.com's "taste of dtownla" somewhere - probably on yelp. it featured a pretty nice-looking list of participating restaurants, and at $20 per ticket (with a sweet ass yelp member discount), i decided to ask the hub out for date night.

lucky for me, he accepted. ha!

we headed out after leaving the bean with MIL, and hopped onto the freeway. we were chatting as we drove along in the carpool lane, until i noticed something weird - what looked like SMOKE pouring out of the a/c vents. holy shit!

the hub swung [illegally] out of the carpool lane and off at the next exit, while i scrambled for the owner's manual, shut the a/c off, and flipped through the pages frantically.

"i don't think you're going to find a section for smoke coming out of the vents," the hub remarked dryly. and he was right, of course. but i had to try, right? it was so weird - there were no indicators to tell us that anything was wrong, and there was no discernible odor in the air. we pulled into an empty parking lot for a shuttered car dealership, i continued to pore through the manual, and the hub checked under the hood for any abnormalities.

after a few minutes of looking around and finding nothing, i turned the a/c back on and...nothing. no more smoke. so, fuck it - we got back on the freeway and kept on going.

following the trusty google maps app on my iPhone, we found our way to brunswick studio easily. it's an old factory building for the bowling alley company, and was renovated into this cool space for events and photography and artsy-fartsy stuff like that.

after we checked in and got our wristbands, we walked in to find this creepy flight of janky ass stairs to climb up.

the first thing we saw was this table of dtownla tees for sale.

there were also fundraising efforts for this:

and then we got further inside and checked it out. it's a really cool space - i think it'd be fun to throw a private party here, although it was warm in there. they had to bring in portable a/c - those big yellow tubes that were poking out the window that i'd seen from outside.

and you know me - i ain't shy about food. as i started snapping away, the hub and i started picking up the offerings from the various restaurants.

the spicy tuna wontons from takami were my FAVORITE. i think i must've eaten about 20 of these things in the span of about an hour. i came back so often, the girl at the table started giving me the side eye. whatever.

next was magnolia, which was funny since i'd just had this very same mac & cheese the night before. i said so to the girl handing these cups out, and she thought it was funny. or, at least, she gave the courtesy laugh. she was probably thinking "loo-hoo-zer!" but i don't care.

provecho was next. i'd never been nor heard of them, but i can vouch for their red velvet cupcakes - delish! they also had spicy tuna bites, but theirs were on little tortilla rounds. good, but takami was better. and there were cups of ceviche, which i didn't get to try, but one of the girls who shared our table let me take a picture of hers. ha!

you're going to smack me upside the head, but i was kind of "meh" about the plethora of desserts that were displayed. i was really hoping for more substantial eats (which partially explains the vast quantities of spicy tuna bites i inhaled), but of course, that didn't stop me from trying everything i could get my hands on. behold, urth caffe:

they were also serving a nice variety of beverages. i'd had a vodka pom cocktail from the bar, but you know i'm not much of a drinker. i happily accepted a chai tea with boba from the girl standing at the table.

see? here's my drink, and i captured the bowl of giant decorative ice balls that were on the bar, too. they were pretty.

maria's italian kitchen's offering was kind of weak. some eggplanty thing (i can't stand eggplant, so there you go) and cheese ravioli. zzzzzzzzzzz.

wokcano served up a variety of finger foods, and the hub braved the long lines to get some while i guarded our spot at a table.

other than those spicy tuna wontons, my other favorite nibble was from rock 'n fish. they served up some fantastic crab cakes with a spicy asian slaw. i think i would come here just for these. mmmmm.

daily grill also brought dessert. booooooring.

coca-cola was a sponsor of the event.

they handed out cool aluminum bottles of soda.

in between bites brought over by the hub, i sashayed over to the mirror and took a picture of...me.

the peoplewatching was pretty phenomenal, too, between the attendees and the event staff. there were some interesting outfits, and i gotta say - i've never seen so many girls with louis vuitton speedy bags on their arm all under one roof, and that includes the LV store. you'll notice, though, that i was one of them. muahahahaha. hey, at least mine was unique. there wasn't a single speedy bag there that was the same print as mine. yay for me.

this lady was carrying the most ginormous handbag i've ever seen. it was almost bigger than she was. too bad she busted me trying to take a picture of it and skedaddled outta my line of vision.

this chick had the tannest legs i've ever seen.

i don't know who the camera crew was shooting for, but i took a picture anyway.

this poor soul was quite possibly the most awkward individual under the brunswick roof.

after about an hour and a half of cruising the smallish room and grazing on the grub at each table, we'd had it. even the peoplewatching was getting old - it's not fun when you keep seeing the same folks over and over again. and it was getting crowded and hot in there. time to bounce. i grabbed a bottle of smart water and carried my fun soda in the other hand - only to be stopped at the exit.

"you can't take any of the product out," snarled the guy who'd been so nice upon our entrance. and sure enough, there was a nice pile of unopened and half-full containers of various beverages on the table he stood near. bitch ass. how lame. i wanted to duck back in and stuff 'em in my bag, but i just put the bottles down and followed the hub out the door. whatever.

we thought we'd go and see a movie, but our timing was all off - it was 7:30 and right in between typical movie showings. so we stopped at the grocery store, picked up some dessert, and scooped up a couple of movies from the redbox.

date night ended with the bean asleep and MIL hanging out with us to watch "know1ng." if you haven't already seen it, let me tell you:

don't waste your $1. good gracious, that was a dumb ass movie.

aren't you glad you have me to be your guinea pig?