Thai was the order of the day for dinner, but we had to pick up some special guests from their hotel to join us.
We cruised along Sunset Boulevard and picked up half the boys from Melbourne band Goodbye Motel before making our way to Thailand Plaza in Hollywood for some food. If you are in the mood for Thai food, this little strip is THE place to go for a mind-boggling number of Thai restaurants backed up wall-to-wall. Only in Thailand could you find this many Thai restaurants in dodgy-curry run-to-the-dunny distance.
The food was not dodgy, so please don’t think that. Rather it was a bar-gain at $21 a pop for a mix of Thai favourites. I wish I’d paid attention to the ordering because my favourite dish was a chicken one and unfortunately I can never really remember what Thai dishes I’ve ordered before unless they are a basic green curry or Pad Thai. The portions weren’t as huge as I have come to expect in America, with not a lot of leftovers, so that made me feel good that not a lot went to waste.
We followed this up with a drink at the Dresden, a bar famous for two things, the ancient couple (Marty and Elayne) banging out the jazz tunes and for being a location in the 1996 movie Swingers. Now I haven’t seen Swingers before but it stars Vince Vaughn and Heather Graham. I’m not really sure I need to see it now after the guys were repeating vast slabs of dialogue from the film, but I’ll put it on the list anyway.
The Dresden in Los Feliz is this gorgeous old-school bar with round, low backed booths, soft-lighted chandeliers, small club tables with red vinyl chairs on office wheels and a wall of frosted glass with line drawings in them. There was such a wide range of people in this rather small lounge; old people in their 80’s, young people, hipsters, hippies, jocks and every combination in between.
Not long after we’d arrived they asked for patrons to come up to them with song requests written on a napkin. Motel Tom took up the challenge and wrote a song name on a napkin and took it up to them. Watching from the other side of the bar, we saw Marty’s response – he took the napkin, folded it in half and wiped his mouth with it. What a ruse!
So the Dresden was pretty sweet. I’d go there again, and this time hope for a little curved booth.
Dating update:
Well, no dates requested yet, but it’s early days. Being out on the town with 4 guys isn’t really conducive to looking single. Luckily the girls arrive tomorrow to even up the sexes.
Surprise:
It’s not hard to open a bank account. Thank you Bank of America for being so nice and helpful. Thank you Bank of America for giving my buddy Ricky $25 for the referral and me $25 for taking up the referral.
a little cameo 