Friday evening Hubby and I attended a Bordeaux wine tasting, put on by Wally’s Wine and Spirits. The tasting was held in the Petersen Automotive Museum, located on LA’s “Museum Row on the Miracle Mile”. Its address is Wilshire Boulevard, but tonight we entered through the museum’s parking lot, on South Fairfax.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First of all, our tickets to this event were a Christmas gift from our sons. How fun! So we found a lovely B&B, Cinema Suites, just a block down Fairfax from the museum. And, as a bonus, a little farther down Fairfax is Little Ethiopia – think a dozen Ethiopian restaurants in a couple of blocks. There’s even a Vegan Ethiopian place.
We checked into the Cinema Suites, where we’re staying in the “The Small Room”. This is at the back of the house, and has an attached bathroom. The house itself, right on S. Fairfax, is fairly large – living room, dining room, foyer, kitchen, mud room, office, and two bedrooms on the first floor; two bedrooms plus the owners’ private suite on the second floor. The other rooms are all named after iconic film stars – Marilyn Monroe, Carol Lombard for two.
I don’t know how to describe the architecture, but I was impressed by the curving tile stairway with wrought iron railing. The living room, to the left of the foyer, is sunken. The décor is eclectic – lots of antiques and lots of Asian pieces. It’s entertaining and not in the least intimidating. We felt at home right away.
Once settled in, we walked up the street and scouted the museum, then down the street to find a restaurant. We chose Messob for several reasons. First, I was hungry! Second, the restaurant has been open since 1985, surely a recommendation. Thirdly, the middle part of the restaurant has the traditional Ethiopian seating around woven pedestals on which the food is served. This lent a touch of authenticity. And it turns out the other customers already in the restaurant were repeat customers. Aha!
The dish of the night was a finely ground beef with spicy chiles. The dish is traditionally eaten raw. Our server offered half-cooked, half-raw, and we accepted. The raw was much superior – the chiles are delicious! (#4 on the menu) Hubby had lamb stew, and that was good as well.
If you’ve never been to an Ethiopian restaurant, then you should know that there are no forks. You are served sheets of spongy Injera flatbread – tear off a hunk, and use it to pick up a bite of food. It is delicious. Our mains came with tomato couscous, delicious salad, and a homemade cottage cheese – also delicious. All this was served on a large round platter on a large round of Injera. It made a beautiful picture. And, yes, I should have taken that picture. Too hungy.
(Disclosure: I’ve only been to two Ethiopian restaurants, and the other was in Cape Town, South Africa!)
Now fed and happy, we stopped by the Cinema Suites to freshen up, and headed to the Petersen Automotive Museum. The appointed hour for the tasting to begin was 7. We arrived 15 minutes early, and were directed to the second floor. Here we found a whole host of people, and joined the good-natured line … only to find out we were in the wrong line.
The first order of business is to check in and get a wrist band. Once we finally found the right line, all went smoothly. Clearly the other folk in attendance knew what to do – and to get there a bit earlier than we.
At 7 p.m. the “doors” opened, and the crowd whooshed down a ramp and into the tasting room – a very large tent erected on the top deck of the museum parking lot, with a floor of interlocking rubber “tiles”. In this very large tent, there are four long, long rows of tables, covered with white cloths. To the right as you enter is a set of tables where you pick up your glasses. So we do, along with some literature.
One of the pieces of paper is the price list – you can buy futures at Wally’s for all the wines here tonight. But there is nothing to relate the wines on the list to the positions where they are being poured. So … when in doubt, punt.
We walk down a row of tables, reading the placards at each place. There are some people behind the tables to pour the wine; people are helping themselves where there is no one to serve. By the time we turn to walk back up the next row, you can’t get close enough to the tables to read all the placards. We join one of the longer lines, and are rewarded with a taste of a Grand Cru red. At a few tables at the far end, we find a section of Sauternes. And Barsacs. Oh, yum.
The noise level keeps rising, and more and more people arrive. Hosts arrive, find their places behind the tables, and begin pouring tastes. There are tables dotted here and there with bread and cheese, a few grapes. Janitors constantly troll the venue, sweeping up any stray bit of trash and emptying trash cans.
People-watching is the order of the day. There is any number of young men in suits, but there are also those more casually dressed. The costumes of the women are more eclectic, ranging from jeans and jackets to frilly dresses to suits. The astounding thing to me is the number of women in high, high, high stilettos.
I did encounter one gentleman who seemed to be serious about his wine. He had brought his own glass; a Burgundy glass.
Eventually we drift to the row of tables that are pouring wine from St. Emilion. This is the part of Bordeaux that grows a lot of merlot. The Grand Cru on offer is smooth, fruity, and delicious – drink now wine mostly. We go down the row. Then it’s back to the other side, where the wines are definitely more complex, with more Cabernet, and will benefit from several years in the bottle. And finally, back to St. Emilion once again.
The whole thing is pretty chaotic. I’m accustomed to small group tastings where the wines are introduced, described, and savored. This is a free-for-all.
After a couple of hours, we turn in our glasses and wander a bit through the first and second floors of the museum. We see the Batmobile, the Grease car, wonderful racing cars of yesteryear, all bright and shiny. It is a relief to leave the roar of the tasting room behind.
Eventually we walk back to the Cinema Suites, through the cool evening. Tucked into our room, we relax and read for a while. In the night it begins to rain. Somewhere near us there is a tin roof, and the sound of the steady, soaking drops is amplified. Ping! Ping! Soothing.
We rise late, after 7. The weekend breakfast cook is in the kitchen, along with her daughter. There are bowls of wonderful fruit everywhere. She cuts us a cantaloupe and some pineapple. There is coffee, and I make tea for me. We ask if she does poached eggs. There is some confusion about boiling eggs, but nce we get the idea across, she offers to try. So we coach a little bit, and end up with two nicely poached eggs on whole grain toast. Yum. She even poaches an egg for her daughter. New skills!
The rain stops just before we leave. We’ve a morning of shopping ahead, then lunch with our boys. On our way home this afternoon, we chased a rainbow.
