Saturday, February 12, 2011

Sonoma Wine Garden and Santa Monica Place

Today the weather was beautiful so we decided to go this morning to Santa Monica for two reasons: I wanted to see where the library auditorium is because I am going to a seminar there on Wednesday night; and we wanted to get a Santa Monica library card so there would be more places to get library books for the Nook. Off we went, over the hill to enjoy a beautiful day. I found a parking spot right near the gorgeous library, went in and happily found out that anyone who lives in California can get a Santa Monica card. The same holds true for Burbank and I wonder how many other places on California. Maybe someone who reads this can tell me.

The library is on 6th and Santa Monica. In my quest to get 150 minutes of aerobic exercise a week, we decided to walk to the Promenade and to the new Santa Monica Place. The sun was shining and the walk did give me some much needed aerobic steps. By the time we got to the outdoor mall, we were hungry. We perused the area and decided to go to the Sonoma Wine Garden which is in Santa Monica Place. Since the weather was beautiful, we chose to sit outside. The restaurant and most of the other restaurants and the Food Court in Santa Monica Place are on the third floor. I saw some booths and noticed that you could sort of see the ocean from there. I was very surprised to see that our seat looked at the construction of some building. I asked the very nice waiter what one has to do to sit there where one could see the ocean. The answer is to go to the Food Court and eat outside. That part is not part of the restaurant.

Even though this restaurant specializes in wines, we chose not to have any. I ordered the passion fruit ice tea and B had decaf. The excellent waiter came back to tell me that the green tea was almost gone and he would suggest I have their passion fruit black tea which I took. My tea did not taste like passion fruit but was very good. On the recommendation of the waiter, I ordered Eggs Benedict and B ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. She also ordered a cinnamon roll, which is new on their menu. Our waiter didn’t let us down as our meals were superb.

The grilled cheese sandwich consisted of béchamel, gruyere, cheddar and garden herbs. There was a salad on the side made up of various greens and if it there was any dressing on it, it was extremely light. My Eggs Benedict was perfect. There were two poached eggs atop an English muffin with avocado, fantastic sauce, fresh crumbled bacon and fresh basil. The cinnamon roll was gigantic and nothing like the sickly sweet Cinnabon. Of course I had to taste it and then I had to have some and then I had to have some more. The cinnamon roll was full of cinnamon, small raisins which could have been currents and small bits of pecans. It was sweet but no overly so. That was quite a treat.

On the weekend they have a brunch which includes all the champagne you can drink for $25. They also have a weekday brunch, lunch and dinner. I chose to have my food ala carte so the price without the champagne was $12. B’s sandwich was $10 and the cinnamon roll was $6. We loved it and will certainly return again. The web page is http://www.sonomawinegarden.com/ .

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