By Chrissy Iley
Gradually slowly but surely shopping and eating became the inextricably linked. Builders of shopping malls seem to think when done with a hard day of shopping you find all these reasonably high end restaurants to lure you. And then you might throw in a movie as well. Or at least that is what they want you to do.
I have always thought you have to have a really really good restaurant in a shopping mall. Nobody wants to eat and try on clothes that are too tight. Although much has been said about women – the primary visitors to the shopping mall – being multitaskers, no one is. We all like to eat and we all like to shop. BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME. So for a restaurant to be a focus point in a shopping mall it must really know what it is doing.
I loved the Grove in West Hollywood. It has a fantastic Nordstrom’s, the best Anthropologie, a Splendid and a MAC store – where I am constantly waiting for things to be done to my various decrepit devices.
I spend time at the Grove, not by desire but I always seem to end up there. Apart from Cheesecake Factory, which is a chain that really knows what it is doing – great happy hour, skinny menu with number of cals attached and high standard of food – there have been a constantly changing array of restaurants.
The restaurant next to the cinema complex used to be part of a chain called The Farm. Nondescript salads and Californian cuisine. It went away and was replaced by Gordon Ramsey’s Fat Cow, which disappeared overnight after only months. Like one of his own kitchen nightmares, it was all wrong, wrong, wrong.
When Blue Ribbon Sushi arrived I could not have been more surprised and excited because they have got it right, right, right. They have taken everything upmarket but still affordable; you can snack or eat big. Blue Ribbon is an upmarket chain owned by the Bromberg brothers, famous for their fried chicken with wasabi honey. But it is not just about the food.
I am on one of my ‘I am waiting for my MAC’ expeditions; I thought I would wait there. It serves indoor and outdoor, hardwood furniture in cherrywood that could not have been more inviting.
Staff, who know their menu and know how to be warm and supportive without being in your face. Staff, who are used to delivering food on time and making sure it is the right food for what the person needs and desires. I had been sipping my cucumber and ginger cocktail for a few seconds only when I realized that this was a perfect example of a restaurant that is more than the sum of its parts I loved being there and I don’t even love sushi.
I like the way I was made to feel at home. I sat on the patio and watched the blue Californian sky and the Grove’s Christmas tree and Santa and his reindeers in the same blue sky. I had a ginger pudding, which was destination ginger. A soft creamy bread and butter affair with ginger ice cream, crystallized ginger and salted caramel. It was comfort food and uplifting food.
Of course I had to go back. A few days later I found myself waiting for my friend to see the movie Creed. I stepped in for some hot tea and California roll with fake crab and it was the most perfect snack. Fresh, made with love. I sat at the sushi bar and saw all kinds of fancy rolls being made with uni, lobster and caviar.
We saw the movie, loved it and went back to the Blue Ribbon as my friend wanted to try the togarashi spiced fried chicken as all that being on the edge of our seats, had made her hungry and it made me need a cocktail. We sat at the back bar, extremely cosy.
I had a message that said I had been nominated for an award for my Barbara Streisand interview, the barman congratulated me like he was my old friend, and everyone in the bar toasted me. A perfect night. Thank you Blue Ribbon sushi.
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