When Life Hands You Lemons...

      Whoopie Pie and Pizza Pie, courtesy of Susie Cakes and Stone Fire Pizza

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade? Bullshit, friends. My juicer is broken. Life has handed me a bunch of lemons and, as much as I want to, I just can't make a pitcher of juicy, sweet lemonade. I truly believe that things happen for a reason and the speed bumps you hit along the way will only make you appreciate the good things that are just around the bend. Despite my optimistic outlook for the long haul, I get very wrapped up in the here and now. So when life gets me down, I surround myself with good people and hand my sour lemons to a bartender who squeezes them into a stiff round of Lemon Drops.

So Friday night, my boys and I end up going to Crown Bar, this shi shi place that only lets you in if you are a douche bag, on a list, or a douche bag on a list. I don't understand the hype of this place and they violated me (not in a good way) at $12/drink. Harsh. Due to the fact that I met some nice new people, danced to good music (a plus for Crown), and kept the company of three of my faves, I'd chalk the experience up to a 7.5 out of 10. Crown is just west of La Brea on Santa Monica Blvd., walking distance from Jones, Formosa, Lubitsch, and Astro Burger. Valet parking only, which runs about $6-7. Makes much more sense to pre-party and then take a cab. Save yo' dolla dolla bills, y'all. Oh, obvi, we went to Astro after.

Miraculously, the next morning, I rolled my ass out of bed and made it to the 11 a.m. yoga class at the WeHo 24 Hour Fitness. Even though this whole yoga thing is somewhat new to us, my brother and I still gave it a try. The Saturday instructor is Fusako, and she bends in ways I never thought possible. At one point, she balanced her whole body on her arms, and instead of trying to maneuver myself, I found more pleasure in watching the people in front of me fall right on down. Although you get better at yoga the more you go, this lady was so quiet and hard to understand that I had trouble even attempting the positions...or maybe that's due to the fact that I got the spins every time I looked down and couldn't see Fusako past the brim of my baseball cap. The last time we did yoga was at the Sherman Oaks 24 Hour Fitness with two of our good friends, and their instructor, Trevor, was much better. His class flowed and was actually coherent. I would really like to get into yoga for spiritual and calming purposes, although when I workout, I put my mind to it, go for it, get down and break a sweat (where my Saved by the Bell fans at, yo?!). Would definitely try yoga again with a different instructor and without a hangover.

On Saturday, I was graced with the presence of one of my best friends, Keeley. Along with my family, we ate at Stone Fire Pizza for dinner. This place is great! The vibe is a classy sports bar. Good looking crowd and I coincidentally ran into Nick Swardson and some of his friends. If you go for Happy Hour, you get discounts on drinks and pizza. And Stone Fire definitely gets plus points for having Chateau St. Michelle, one of my favorite brands of Riesling. Salads are a decent size. My brother and I started with the candied walnut and fig salad and then went on to share the [clearly Kosher] bacon and pineapple and prosciutto and goat cheese pizzas. The pizzas have a thin, crispy crust (much thinner than NY pizza) and the slices are big at four slices a pie. They also have a vegan pizza for those who don't eat meat or cheese. Pizzas run an average of $15 a pop and salads are around $13. This place is perfect for group dinners and Happy Hour. Parking is street or valet and Stone Fire is walking distance to LA hot spots like The Spanish Kitchen, Koi, The Belmont, and STK.

As mentioned previously, I love my sweets. After I discovered the Farm-e-o, I didn't think anything could compare to its deliciousness. Boy, was I wrong! My dad's girlfriend introduced us to the Susie Cakes version of this sweet treat, a.k.a. Whoopie Pies, just as we arrived at the restaurant. I might have eaten a hefty chunk of the W.P. before my salad, oops. I was gonna eat it at some point! They're veeeery similar to the Farm-e-o, but the actual cookies are softer in the middle and the butter cream filling is a tad sweeter. It's truly a toss-up as to which my palate prefers, although I'll eat both without a doubt. The Whoopie Pies are $5 each, where the Farm-e-o's are around $4 (big difference, I know).

Despite the convenient location of Stone Fire Pizza, we decided to venture to the Village Idiot and Bar Lubitsch, with a side of Los Tacos for our night out. The Village Idiot is a chill spot. It gets pretty packed on the weekends and fills with young professionals. It's a restaurant/bar and the eating area takes up quite a bit of space, leaving little room for standing comfortably.  If you want to sit, you either need to find a seat at the bar, eat at a table, or move to the back where there's much more room to spread out.  There's also a room in back for private parties.  Parking is street or Valet.  We decided to change locales around 11:30, simply because we wanted a change of scenery.  All-in-all, the Village Idiot gets a thumbs up.  

We topped off this fabulous weekend with a trip to Lulu's Cafe, one of my favorite brunch spots.  They have a lot of healthy options and soy milk, soy milk, soy milk!  I love a restaurant with non-dairy alternatives that please my tummy.  I had the baked granola with fresh fruit and soy milk and Keeley and Seth had variations of the two-egg breakfast.  Between the three of us - coffee, tea, and tip included - it came to $15/per person.  I love the ambiance here - open and airy and packed with people enjoying their weekend.  The only drawback is the parking, although I've never had an issue finding a spot on the street; don't even bother parking in the back.  Despite the crowd of people in front, you'll wait no longer than 10 minutes.  

Needless to say, the weekend was a write-off for calories, and I'm not crying myself a river. I'll make it up on Monday.