We leave a little after ten for the drive towards downtown Los Angeles and the museum district. Ed has obtained tickets to the Broad Museum for a 12:30 entry. Eli Broad, pronounced b-r-long O-d, a mega real estate developer, together with his wife Edythe, has amassed one of the largest collections of modern art, emphasizing American artists. They then donated this museum, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary, to the City of Los Angeles. It is located across from the LA Museum of contemporary Art and next door to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Frank Gehry designed home of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra among other groups.
The Broad building alone is an architectural masterpiece designed by the firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and, as we will soon learn the collection is astounding. We arrive downtown around 11:00 and secure parking. We then find a lovely restaurant Vespaio next door to the Broad and order lunch consisting of an arugula-roast beet-goat cheese salad topped with some slices of chicken breast, a roast beef panini on a baguette and a pastrami-cheese-coleslaw panini, also on a baguette. All accompanied by a glass of Tuscany red wine. Most satisfying. Then on to the Broad.
There is no way to satisfyingly describe this collection, only about a third of it currently on display. Artists include Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Basquiat, Mark Bradford, Ellen Gallagher, Mark Tansey, and many, many others. We spent over two hours here and could have spent more time. A mandatory stop at the gift shop completed, we recovered the car from the car park and headed to our next stop. We drove to the Hollywood Street of Stars to find the newly installed star of our favorite - Susan Stamberg of NPR fame,
Our brush with the stars over, we then went out to recover the Honda. As I looked in the garage noting all the Porches, BMWs and an antique Morgan right by the entry, I wondered out loud how they could allow a dirty Honda in the garage. Well the answer is they didn’t. It was parked out on the drive next to a service truck! No discount from the valet charge, though.
Next we headed on an amazing 45 minute drive up Laurel Canyon, through the Mt. Olympus subdivision, seeing these wonderful hillside homes and mansions tucked along the winding roads. We arrive back in North Hollywood and rest up for the evenings activities. Meg returned at 6:55 and we changed and hopped into our Lyft ride share for the trip back up into the hills to the famous Castaway-Burbank Restaurant, dubbed the best date night restaurant in the world. The venue sits atop a mountain in Burbank, overlooking the entire San Fernando valley.
Absolutely stunning view. We dined on wedge salads, braised short ribs, wagyu beef tenders, and wild mushroom pappardelle pasta. The food was excellent, the cocktails generous and the wine very tasty. But the real attraction was the San Fernando Valley, laid out like shining stars thrown down to cover the valley floor. Unforgettable.
We secured another Uber ride back to North Hollywood, and tumbled into bed around 11:30, totally immersed as we were in the Southern California mystique for the day.
