Location Hunt Ended
Casa Del Mar, right on the beach in Santa Monica. In case anyone has to plan an LA wedding and asks me what places I looked into, here they are. Prices are very approximate for what I was quoted for Saturday night. Sundays and Fridays are usually at least $2,000 less, sometimes $5,000. Most of these include the use of the venue for 5-7 hours, food, basic drinks (soda, coffee, tea, water, a few alcoholic drinks per person), and service.
CHEAPEST
Chinese banquet (under $15,000): any number of Chinese restaurants could serve up a great meal for $80-100/person, plus another twenty to forty for drinks. But honestly, all the Chinese people have been to the restaurants in LA and aren't going to be impressed by mass-produced banquet food. Visitors from Taiwan really won't be impressed, and most of our younger friends wouldn't be able to party hearty at a Chinese restaurant.
CHEAP-ISH
La Boheme, West Hollywood ($16,000): a lovely restaurant with solid food. I loved the antique look of this place, with cathedral ceilings, stained-glass windows, and fireplace. It felt like a library in a gothic romance. But my mom really didn't like it (I believe her exact words were "old and stinky"), and it's a moot point because they're tearing out the inside and revamping the menu July-September 2007.
Cicada, Downtown ($15,000): this place gets stellar reviews on its banquet food and service, and a lot of people say the art deco decor is amazing. However, art deco isn't really something I adore, and from photos I thought Cicada risked getting the "old and stinky" comment as well. More than anything, though, I just didn't want to serve Italian pasta at my wedding. I didn't really give it a fair chance, I know.
City Club on Bunker Hill, Downtown ($12,000-15,000?): spanning the top floor of the Wells Fargo Building, City Club has 360 degree night views of Los Angeles. However, the photos of the dining room during the day were really dingy looking, so I can only imagine what they look like in real life. Plus, City Club has a really confusing list of extra charges that scared me. I don't like being nickel and dimed for every little thing. I'd rather the quoted price be high and just include all the incidentals like chair rentals. Their menu didn't look very exciting either, though food is reputed to be among the best for private clubs in LA.
Ayres Hotel, Manhattan Beach ($13,000): wedged between the 405 freeway and a Costco parking lot, Ayres did not inspire romance. Instead, it felt like a Holiday Inn masquerading as The Venetian. The decorations in the hotel were cute, but in a fakey Disneyland sort of way. The ballroom had no windows, low ceilings, cheap dividers, and opened up onto their parking lot.
Pasadena Museum of California Art ($15,000): the rental for the museum's top floor includes a terrace and an indoor reception room. J called this place downright ugly because of the exposed piping (it's artistic!). We both agreed that it was too tiny for 100 people. Plus, I'd have to find my own caterer and decorator, which is where the bulk of the cost would be.
Asian Pacific Heritage Museum ($15,00): This is next door to the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and for some reason a lot of Asians like to get married here. Don't they find it a bit cheesy? I guess not. Again, I'd have to bring in my own decorator and catering, and all weddings are completely outdoors in a courtyard. Very risky for a night time event in January. It's really cute if you want the koi pond, paper lanterns, and Chinese architecture for your wedding photos.
MID-RANGE
Verandas ($21,000): I really wanted to have my wedding at Verandas. I really did. The place is lovely, it's only a few blocks from the beach, the coordinators are incredibly nice, the service is reputed to be stellar, and we have a few friends who have attended or held events there and loved it. But I paid $100 to do a food tasting, and they just fell flat. Overly salty, poorly presented, lukewarm, corporate food. I hemmed and hawed a bit, but decided it just wasn't worth it to hold a wedding there. Another flaw with Verandas is their events only go until 10 p.m., and buying a maximum of one hour costs $1250, and service charge is 21% instead of 20% like almost everywhere else.
La Venta ($21,000): The is Verandas's sister location in Rancho Palos Verdes, and the views are SPECTACULAR. If you're doing a day time wedding, you have to at least drive here and look. It was too far for most of my guests, and a waste for a night time wedding, but wow. You really don't know why people love living there until you look at LA across the curve of the water from the cliffs of Palos Verdes. The building itself was slightly worse for wear on the inside, however, but it's very cute in that there's a groom's room and a bridal cottage for pre-wedding preparations.
La Cachette, Century City ($21,000): La Cachette is one of LA's top five French restaurants. For their asking price, we could have had a multi-course dinner and some lovely wines. However, the restaurant is very small. It can't hold many more than 100 people, with no room to spare for a dance floor. The space is designed to be small and intimate, not appropriate for loud partying. A large bridal shower or pre-wedding luncheon would fit in better here. It's a pity, because the menu looked delicious. It also doesn't help that La Cachette is across an alley from a construction site, and there's a port-o-potty by their front door. Ew.
Pacific Palms, City of Industry ($20,000+): This is my nightmare--a big corporate hotel in suburban Los Angeles. A LOT of Chinese brides get married here. The hotel is huge, it's well known, there's a famous golf course, and it's Chinese owned so there are both Western and Chinese menus available. Basically, if you insist on a Chinese meal but don't want a Chinese restaurant's poor ambiance, you have no choice but Pacific Palms. I rejected it out of hand because the food is terrible and venue completely devoid of personality, but I read some forums on it later and was so happy I didn't bother. The $20,000 is their minimum. Then they try to convince you to buy the $1250/table package and nickel dime you on everything: $30 to plug something into an outlet, an extra charge to use the dance floor, chair rentals, cake slicing fee, exhorbitant wine markup (bottles start at about $50 for what should be $10 wine), hidden charges that aren't verbally discussed and pop up after your wedding, etc. Disgraceful, with Chinese style customer service as well (which is to say, pushy and imperious).
Greystone Mansion ($25,000): I didn't look into it too much, but pricing depends on the caterer you choose. However, the entire event has to be outside, and tenting in case of rain is both tacky and expensive. Ditty for a lot of beautiful Los Angeles locations.
EXPENSIVE:
Melisse, Santa Monica ($30,000): another top LA French restaurant. I never even visited because it sounded like prices start a $30,000 for not very much, and skyrocket if you add things like wine, a dance floor, etc.
Bel Air Hotel ($90,000): Um, I e-mailed the hotel asking for a price quote. I think they smelled my comparative poverty because no one ever got back to me. Some Googling turned up a $90,000 minimum. I think it's that high because it includes a full day's use of the grounds, a suite, a swan lake, unlimited champagne, dinner, etc. But still, $900 a guest for just the venue is ridiculous. My mom asked a photographer where he took a photo once, and he said it was at the Bel Air Hotel and the couple spent $30,000 for flowers just to complete the magic. So if they spent that on flowers, I'm sure the venue was more than that.
Various Ritz Carltons (?): I'm sure it's expensive. I didn't really bother finding out details. It's still a little too chainy and corporate for my taste, albeit opulent. If I lived in SF I might look into a 50 person wedding at The Dining Room, but even then it's a long shot.
Biltmore Downtown ($30,000, probably a lot more): I closed the web page after I saw "Meals starting at $200." When a venue tells you its meal price, you should add at 50-75% to get your out the door price. Meal price just means food. On top of that you have to add alcohol, sometimes you have to add soda (tea and coffee are usually includeD), and you need to add tax and a service charge (covers the servers' salaries as well as tip). So for a meal at $200, we were looking at $300-400 a guest. No way. Meal prices had to be under $100 for me to even consider a venue.
Shutters on the Beach ($25,000+): this is Casa Del Mar's sister hotel, but it's very beachy and outdoorsy (white picket fences, etc.) and I thought people would freeze in January. Too risky.
THE WINNER
Casa Del Mar ($35,000--not really; I'll explain): I had seen CDM mentioned in various places, and its sister hotel Shutters on the Beach is an LA institution. However, I wrote it off as being much too big and much too expensive, since the ballroom seats 300 and the Saturday night minimum is $35,000. If I were having a 300 person wedding, it wouldn't be a bad price. But for 100 people, I didn't think it was feasible.
After Verandas fell through, I desparately started looking again and someone suggested CDM for 100 guests. I decided to look into it, and now I'm so glad 'I did. The place is so beautiful that even if the food were as bad as at Verandas, I would lean towards using it just because most people would be so impressed by the venue. However, the restaurant in the hotel is actually pretty darned good, and the director of catering assured me the catering food is just as good.
The ballroom does fit 300, but instead of cheap airwalls it has real walls that slide closed so a smaller ballroom can be created for 100. The ceilings are really high with recessed lighting in even higher domes, so the room feels large. The French doors in back lead right onto the beach and make the room feel open and airy, and the Italian blown glass chandeliers are downright gorgeous. The catering menu looks fabulous, and they're willing to incorporate items we like from the restaurant menu. Wine is reasonable, and a few of our friends have been for cocktails and enjoyed it. It's all very reassuring.
Event minimums include use of the space for 6 hours, dance floor installation, service, food, non-alcoholic drinks, alcoholic drinks, and a cake. They also throw in a hotel room for the night, which is nice since their rooms start at $500/night. Add-ons include service charge, tax, valet parking, and any drinks we consume beyond the minimum. Their Saturday night minimum is $35,000 and their Sunday night minimum is $25,000, but I asked for a winter rate and the hotel was willing to give us a minimum that's high for us but within grasp. At least at CDM I feel like my money's being put to good use.
Like I always say, there's a difference between being expensive and being over-priced. CDM is expensive, more expensive than I would have liked to pay for a wedding, but it's not over-priced. It really is the best location we looked at, and I don't think we'll regret it in the long run. For lack of a better location we had to do what usually works--throw more money at the problem and make it go away forever.
posted by Pei at
10:42 AM
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We started with a hearty breakfast at home. Porridge, vegetables stir fried with sesame oil and soy sauce, part of a BBQ duck we got yesterday, and fresh-squeezed orange juice because we bought a huge sack of oranges for $6.
After a morning of lazing about the apartment, I convinced J to take me to 
We then decided to go to the fashion district and wander around, but got distracted by the 
We decided the only treat we were going to be able to afford was another trip to Taco Baja Ensenada. I got another fish taco, this time with better photograph.
But the prettiest photos are of the cocktails. J got a large clam cocktail and I got a medium mixed seafood. Delicious! And no one had to go broke paying for them.
My favorite was the fish taco, which is on the far side of this photo. A nice big piece of crispy deep-fried fish with salsa, crema, and cabbage. The closer taco is a barbacoa taco (BBQ beef, I assume). The meat was juicy and well-seasoned. 
The second place flavor winner was the clam cocktail. The sopes, a thick dough (kind of like a pupusa) was topped with carnitas, beans, salsa, lettuce, and crema. Very good, but not as good as everything else. 
We got the smallest clam cocktail just to try, but the bigger versions were served in fun glass goblets. This is one of the biggest clams. J missed the stinky black insides, but I was glad the restaurant guts the clams. Talk about a labor intensive $5 dish. There are also shrimp, octopus, scallop, and mixed seafood cocktails. The cocktail ingredients were visible from the kitchen window, and it's rare to smell all those sweet seafood smells so far inland.
J had a fish burrito. It was ENORMOUS. Okay, I don't know if it's enormous by East LA standards, but compared to what we're used to it really was huge for $5. 
It was good, but I'm just not a huge burrito fan. I'd rather have three or four tacos than all that rice and beans. I can't eat enough to make a burrito the smart budget decision, so unless there's someone who's going to share with me, I always get tacos. 
I really liked the roasted peppers at Tacos Baja Ensenada. They look deadly, but are actually on the sweet side. If you avoid all the seeds, there's actually barely any more heat than is in a bell pepper, and a lot more sweet pepper flavor. But if you do want heat, the seeds are on par with a jalepeno without that offputting grassy flavor.
Heat up one flour tortilla in a skillet until it's just warm, then set aside. Meanwhile, beat two eggs. Chop up a handful of Chinese leeks (or spinach, chives, green onions--whatever you've got) and toss it into the skillet and cook a little. Pour in the beaten eggs and scramble until about a third of it is still runny. Flatten into a pancake and press the tortilla onto the top. The uncooked parts of the egg will help the tortilla to stick to the omelet. Flip carefully (I can toss and turn an omelet pretty well, you should try it!), brown the bottom of the tortilla, and roll up.
Meanwhile, I'm really starting to like Casa Del Mar. First and foremost, the food is fantastic. I had a lobster sandwich today. The bread was toasty, buttery, and eggy--a very respectable sandwich brioche. There were huge chunks of ripe avocado, decent tomatoes for this time of year, and a generous amount of sweet fresh lobster tail. There weren't weird lobster bits like they were leftover from making something else, and the quality was fantastic. I also appreciated the use of butter lettuce instead of slightly more bitter Romaine or super boring iceberg.
Second, you can't beat that view. For once I regretted not having a camera with a panoramic option.
Third, the place is adorable and the service is top notch. I sat around the lounge reading a book for half an hour. A few servers stopped by to ask me if I wanted a drink, other people sat around using the WiFi and reading newspapers mounted on those wooden racks (anyone much younger than I am probably doesn't even remember those). It's a very nice, quiet, civilized place to spend a sunny afternoon.
We've been having a lot of noodles and clear soup lately, so the pictures aren't pretty. But last night I also marinated some short ribs, pan grilled them, and then added some snap peas to the pan so we'd have some meat and vegetables as well.
Last week I baked 
Starting from the pier, I ran across the bridge, 
down the overpass over PCH,
across the pier, 
across the original site of Muscle Beach, 
admired this middle-aged man who was swinging back and forth across the rings like it was no big deal, 
across the back of the hotel (see how close it is to the beach? The doors below the arches lead into the ballroom), 
kept going for about another half mile, 
and turned back around to admire the view. I could barely make out the ferris wheel from a mile away (on the left between the two clusters of palm trees), but from the hotel (red brick roof on the right) it's plainly visible from behind the hotel.
We're getting better at this! I know there are bullets all over this target, but we clustered each round of shots on a different area of the body to make the shots distinguishable from each other. It's not like we're completely disgraceful.
Hungry from all the target practice, we went to 
J got the jambalaya platter and half a chicken. Needless to say, we had a ton of leftovers. Yet another LA restaurant that I would like even more if they would decrease both their portion size and prices. I think living in SF shrank my expectation of restaurant portions.
Too full to go straight to bed, I stayed up and finished the whale quilt I've been working on for the last few days. It's so cute, I'm keeping it for myself as a summer blanket. I love the colors. The border is green and yellow, and the squares are alternating green and blue whales and fish and white with green polka dots. 
Boil a quart of water, putting in half a sliced onion and any harder vegetables you are using (carrots, rehydrated dried mushrooms, or the white parts of napa cabbage, for example). Let summer until everything is cooked through. Meanwhile, add three heaping tablespoons of miso and one heaping tablespoon of unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter to the water. Taste for saltiness and adjust.
I decided on striped fabric for the backing. T suggested a solid dark purple, but the store didn't have one that matched my front. I found a matching basked for a dollar, too.
N asked what the pattern was on the lavendar squares: sheep!
Casa del Mar is a gorgeous boutique hotel right on the ocean (as gorgeous as a Tattinger rose). Most of the decor is Old World--cozy and warm. I did notice that when you enter the hotel it's quite dark and grand, what with the double staircases and overstuffed armchairs scattered in the dim lounge. As you walk toward the back of the lobby where the floor to ceiling windows overlook the beach, however, the furniture becomes gradually more casual as the room lightens up to let in the California sun, swapping out leather and mahogany for canvas and wicker. It's a subtle transition but one that saves the hotel from being cheesy.
For lunch I had skate wing. I wanted one of the beautiful salads that everyone else was having, but I thought it was more important to see what the kitchen could do with a piece of fish than a leaf of lettuce.
In a word, fantastic. The fish was crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, and the portion was enormous. The chard was wilted until it lost its bitterness but not its color, and the giant white beans were cooked slowly so they would become soft on the inside without popping their delicate skins.
I mulled over my thoughts about my lunch while starting a baby quilt. Who's baby will get this? Still deciding...
Close up. Not all the squares are perfectly lined up, but who needs perfect when it's oh so cute? The outside is gingham, the white squares have lavendar polka dots on them, and the lavendar squares have fluffy sheep on them. And no, I'm not a lavendar freak, but one of the girls I'm thinking of giving this to really likes lavendar so I thought it'd be safe. Tomorrow: batting and backing.
Another day of hot pot. I wasn't kidding when I said we'll be eating this all week. No fresh shellfish today, but I did find some tiger prawns in the freezer.
But let's talk sauces today, since hot pot is nothing without a few great sauces. The first is a simple ponzu dip. A Japanese restaurant would have plenty of grated daikon in this, but I didn't have any. I also cut the ponzu with about half as much water and a splash of sugar syrup.
The second was sesame sauce. This brand is pretty watery, I'm not sure I'd recommend it at all. I mixed about an eighth of a cup of it with a tablespoon of Trader Joe's unsalted, unsweetened peanut butter and two tablespoons of sesame seeds. The peanut/sesame combination is especially good with pork.
On the non-food front, the sweater is progressing swiftly. This is definitely not a cursed project.
The beef roll is a thing of beauty, and it's practically a meal for two at a measly $6. I think every person who is considering opening a restaurant needs to have a dish like this up his sleeve. It's innovative in that I've never seen this exact dish in all of the San Gabriel Valley, but the flavors are all familiar and comforting. This dish won't drive anyone away with bizarre flavors--it'll only leave you wanting more with no alternative restaurant at which to procure it. Brilliant! Read Jonathon Gold's review 
101 Noodle Express has a respectable display case of traditional northern cold dishes. Since there were only two of us, we had to forego the sampler platter and settle for some sliced firm tofu. This dish is a favorite among Chinese children because it's noodley and sesame flavored.
We tried what they call their "all lamb" soup, which actually had some pork lungs and tripe in it. Oh well, we love all those funky body parts. The soup itself was very nice--slow-cooked lamb bones, a few chunks of lamb shoulder, and a generous amount of white pepper. This is the kind of soup that feeds the soul.
I started preparing two days before the party by making a red velvet cake. My other sister and our ten year old cousin had a field day decorating it with chocolate mint balls and crazy candles. Check out my mom's gorgeous Venetian glass. She's jokingly said that each daughter and son-in-law will get one goblet upon marriage (there are indeed six) and she'll keep the decanter, but I plan to steal the entire thing. Muahahaha...
The night before, I braised some short ribs in red wine and port. 
I had planned on mussels for appetizers, but 99 Ranch was out! Ever clever, J suggested we get a $31 case of Pacific oysters. We arrived home with a giant box filled with six dozen giant oysters, ready to get down to business. 
Isn't that oyster frightening in its sheer enormity? J was the hero of the day, shucking dozens of enormous oysters with no oyster shucker. The best we could find for him was a flat head screwdriver!
Meanwhile, I chopped up some spinach, onions, and parsley and sauteed them in plenty of Plugra butter to make oysters Rockefeller.
I was so glad I brought the cake and ribs prepared. All I had to do was cook up a pot of polenta, blanch some vegetables, and bake up the oysters. I'm definitely a fan of doing a lot in advance so I can enjoy the party. Plus, my mom and I have very different cooking styles so she often doesn't have the ingredients and tools I always have on hand. It's easier to transport a pot of ribe than to bring over all the boxes and bottles of ingedients that go into it!
My favorite, savory soy milk. Think of it more as a tofu soup.
No, wait, the daikon pastry might be my favorite. It's a pastry filled with soft hot shredded daikon and white pepper.
Sao bing filled with beef and pickled vegetables. Four Sea really does do this dish better than anyone I've found in LA. It's always fresh and hot, probably because they get a high turnover on it.
Wa gue (literally "bowl cake" in Taiwanese). This is a close cousin to a pan-fried daikon/turnip cake that you'd find at most dim sum restaurants. It's usually more dense, is topped with a soy sauce egg and ground pork, and comes in a garlic soy sauce.
We made the mistake of ordering a northern Chinese dish, leek pastries. Bleh. Not good at all. J said the versions I've tried my hand at are better, which dissuaded me from even taking a bite. I'm not really a fan of this in the first place, and I'm not very good at making anything northern Chinese, so the fact that this was worse than my attempts was pretty sad.
The restaurant is set up around a large central bar, with a few tables for four scattered in the corners. Each person has his/her own pot of water on a hot plate, ponzu sauce, sesame/peanut sauce, a saucer, and a utensil set that includes a strainer and a ladle. 
Mizu 212° gets very good reviews about its vegetables, and I can see why. Everything was fresh and tasty, and there was a nice variety of greens. I love kabocha squash, so I was happy to see it here. The fish dumpling was also a nice surprise, and very tasty. I will order a few more of these next time.
I ordered black pork, and J ordered beef (not pictured). His beef was fine, but I contend that pork does better in shabu shabu because the meat stays more tender. And I am a beef-loving gal, so for me to say that really means it's great. We both agreed the pork went better with the sesame sauce.
Of course, people don't grasp the concept of the "keep clear" sign. I was driving west, and I slowed down because I saw a car barreling down the road like it had no intention of stopping behind the "keep clear" sign. Predictably, it didn't. So I gave the driver my best "Can penetrate two layers of glass and the fifteen feet in between" glare. It must have worked, because she looked over and stopped talking on her cell phone long enough to mouth some curse words at me and wave her hands. She then refused to pull forward and let me get around her in any way, even when a car in front her her merged and there was plenty of space. She just sat there and gave me this "oh well, too bad for you" look.
Fine, I confess, it's the equivalent of a leftover casserole. I mashed together a carrot, some spinach, a portabello mushroom, some wood ear mushrooms, a pound of ground pork, three eggs, some matzoh meal (!), and a lot of nuoc cham (fish sauce with garlic, chili, and lime juice). Then I poured it into a loaf pan and baked at 375 for an hour, cooled it a little, sliced it up, and called it dinner. Surprigingly good, and Mr. I Love Meatballs enjoyed it.
Lunch was Kraft American cheese and chopped ham on buttered potato bread. Who says I'm a yuppity eater? Today was strictly blue collar eats.
Don't get me wrong, tiramisu is good. But I don't think it deserves a place in the pantheon of great desserts. It's not really a cake, it's not a cookie, it's not a mousse. In fact, it's no more than a boozed up trifle, an English concoction of shortcake, fruit, and whipped cream that no one really loves.
I'm hoping to finish this scarf tomorrow. This is my first ball of soy yarn. That's right, soy yarn! The fiber is created out of residue from tofu making. It's environmentally friendly, doesn't stretch or wrinkle with washing, and can be as soft as cashmere depending on the manufacturer. This brand felt a little more like wool, but the dye job was one of the best I've seen. I couldn't catch it in artificial light, but the gold part of it really glows in the sunlight like the whole thing had been sprayed with fine gold dust. I was so mesmerized when I saw it in the store window I had to get a ball.
I can't wait to take a bite, but for now it needs to mellow in the fridge. I bought imported Italian mascarpone for the first time last week, and I'll never go back. It's not more expensive than domestic, and the difference is astounding. Import has a creamy, almost yogurt-like consistency and a natural sweetness that had me eating the stuff out of the container. Domestic is usually hard like cream cheese and bland. 
Steam a whole chicken for 34 minutes to an hour. Try to find at least a free range chicken, or a "yellow fur" chicken from a Chinese market. I used a pasta pot to keep the chicken out of the liquid. The bottom layer has water, a knob's worth of sliced ginger, two scallions, and a splash of shao shing wine. The chicken has the fat trimmed off, some holes poked all over to let fat drip out, and a knob's worth of sliced ginger and two torn up scallions stuffed inside.