The Blackburn & Sweetzer Food Marathon

For almost nine years I’ve lived in what I’d biasedly call the best part of Los Angeles. My little sliver of LA (across the street is Beverly Hills, a block north is West Hollywood) is the center of the westside. It’s literally seven miles from the Santa Monica pier and eight miles from Staples Center.

I’ll be the first to say that there’s much more to LA than the westside. Exxon should personally thank me for their record profits last year because I spend so much time driving around the LA basin to eat.

My neighborhood has some fantastic restaurants, shops, bars, hotels and eye candy, as well as a fair share of the douchebags, traffic, noise and tourists that the aforementioned attract. My neighborhood also has a smart, stylish voice in the form of Blackburn and Sweetzer.

In the first blogger combo food marathon I’ve done I met up with Tasha at La Terza. It was a rainy night and the comfort of food and wine was required. I just read her post and instead of competing with her well-lit photos from her professional camera (I refuse to actually be a good blogger and buy one), I’ll just let you read her recap first. My thoughts are:

Every store on 3rd Street is either having a huge sale or going out of business.

La Terza is the best secret bar in the neighborhood. The bar area is spacious, comfortable, warm, well-stocked and ideal for a quiet work/date drink. It smoothly avoids Stone Rose’s scene, St Nicks’ dirt and El Carmen’s darkness. Also, the food is reasonably priced and they can handle large parties very easily for dinner, including their private room.

Tasca is way more popular than I thought it was. For a rainy night it was packed. The food left a lot to be desired but the wine was good and the space is nice. My question is, in this recession where are all the twenty-somethings getting money to afford so many $10 glasses of wine?

The Little Door continues to be exactly what it always has been- one of the most romantic restaurants settings in LA, with a worldly (sometimes read: euro) clientele.

This is the first of what will be many blogger combo food marathons. Stay tuned. And if you haven’t already, go bookmark Blackburn and Sweetzer.