Back from Pasadena

I'm back from The Pasadena Bead and Design Show and still recovering from cross country jet lag (I don't travel well).

The town of Pasadena was nice but sleepy. I took walks in the morning, before the show, but not much was open then. In the evenings, after the show, we did find some great little restuarants. I was disappointed by the shops though. I thought there would be more interesting boutiques, but all I saw were brand name chains. It felt like being in an open air mall.

The first night, after set up, we walked to the Yardhouse. It's a huge sports bar type restuarant. At that point, neither Jessie nor I had slept more than 2 hours in the last 48, so we were incoherent and the next day were amazed we had actually made it through dinner and getting back to the hotel. I remember the burgers were good though.

On Thursday, we went to Madres, a restaurant owned by the actress Jennifer Lopez and run by her family. It was a treat to see authentic Shabby Chic decor as Rachel Ashwell had decorated it herself. The food was wonderful and reasonably priced. It didn't really strike me as Old Havana, as it's portrayed, but rather Grandmother's Living Room with the old rose sofa. The fried plantains were the BEST ever!

On another night, we looked in Old Town for a good meal. There were long waits at the most interesting spots and then we stumbled into Barney's Beanery. It's an amazing Route 66 type place. The menu is a newspaper and has just about everything you might want, including low prices. The decor is really funky. Imagine 100's of license plates, nailed to the ceiling, choppers and bikes in the window, a gutted out school bus, with tables inside, pool tables everywhere, three levels, hundreds of tvs, including one at every table, playing old mtv videos. Plus the food was good!

By the last night, we were so over Pasadena and homesick for some East Coast food. Jessie found Mi Piace that promised to be a New York style Italian restaurant, bakery and lounge. I had a good feeling as soon as I saw most people were dressed in black. It turned out to be the best meal we had the whole trip.

Next post I'll cover more about the actual show. Now for another cup of coffee!