Saturday evening Levi’s hosted a small dinner soiree at their West Hollywood house in honor of this blog’s two year anniversary. Really it was just an excuse for me to gather some friends (the coolest ladies this side of the Mississippi… I’m just saying) and feed them and give them presents. The Stag Dining Group out of San Francisco did the amazing five course meal and initiated LA with their first ever dinner here, making this night even more special. The menu they created as well as a ton of photos from the night are below, everything was paired with a different wine and Perrier-Jouët sent us bottles upon bottles of their amazing bubbly. Aside from loving the act of feeding my friends, one of my favorite things about throwing these dinners is “curating” the gift bags with stuff I’ve written about on the blog, which this year included Stila cosmetics, the My Little Paris guide books, the sweetest leather wallets from Leoluca, beautiful Raven + Lily parchment books, cds from M83, Beth Jean Houghton and Nabiha, Levi’s brown leather belts for the girls and brown leather wallets for the boys, my favorite Rose gloss from Fresh Cosmetics, and even heels from ShoeMint! The girls also got to order dresses from the fall 2012 Levi’s line and everyone got private fittings for new jeans. Naturally we did the fittings before dinner so we could eat and drink to our hearts content. I can’t believe I am friends with so many amazing people, I know we always go on about how blessed we are but wow, so truly blessed and I can not describe the joy of bringing together so many people I love and being able to share all these goodies with them. And the fact that they came out to celebrate this little blog just means the world. And many many thanks to the lovely Levi’s ladies in LA and those that trekked all the way from San Francisco for the night. What a rad cool bunch. We also had my favorite film, Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie, playing on the wall throughout the night which made me sublimely happy. The beautiful photographs were taken by Lisa Fletcher.
We started the night with Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut champagne and an assortment of charcuterie & cheeses (also known as one of my favorite meals, I could live off of this…)
Pre dinner fittings for jeans and dresses
The first course, Apple Velouté with scallops, foie gras, carrot and black truffle
Karima Ridgley, Marcy Medina, Ibby Clifford and Jessica Kantor
Khanh Tran and Nathalie Renders
Marisol Nichols
Chef Jordan Donner of the Stag Dining Group described each amazing course as it was brought out
Our fabulous friend Tony Saavedra with Janie Bryant
Brooklyn Weaver, Kira Nasrat, Danny Mancini and Brooke Blumberg
Joni Kilmurry and I talking about our favorite topic, the adventures of dating in LA…
The second course, Ocean Trout Crudo with sorrel, pickled vegetables, creme fraiche and puffed brown rice
Khanh Tran, Nathalie Renders, Ali Forman and Melissa Ladines
Corey Lynn Calter and Marisol Nichols
Tony Saavedra, Janie Bryant, Shana Honeyman, Ali Forman and Melissa Ladines
Joanna Grier and Kendra Gratteri
Karen Levy
Janie Bryant and next to her Shana Honeyman, looking way more serious than she actually is…
Sturgis Adams
Sophia Banks-Coloma
Me and Marisol Nichols
Jessica Kantor
The third course, Spiced Elk Tataki with cippolini onion, roasted grape, morels, and miners lettuce straight from the Levi’s garden
Ali Forman and Melissa Ladines
Shana Honeyman and Corey Lynn Calter
Sophia Banks Coloma and Ali Paul
Taryn Manning
Joni Kilmurry and Corey Lynn Calter
Kristina Dechter
Taryn and me
Michael Heller and Angela Salazar
Karen Levy, Brooklyn Weaver and Kira Nasrat with Anil from Stag Dining Group
Me and Karen (I’m wearing my favorite bracelets from Nola Singer stacked on my right hand)
And finally dessert, Olive Oil Cake with poached strawberries, tarragon, vanilla ice cream, pistachio, and balsamic which we paired with Perrier-Jouët Blason Rosé
Eventually we had to get up from the table and start saying goodbyes. Plus, there were gifts to give out which was really fun… Marcy Medina and Jessica Kantor leaving after a really fun night.
There was no shortage of sweet dresses and killer heels that night. Joni’s Alexander Wang boots and Taryn’s Dolce Gabbana heels…
