Epic Pasadena Evenings

I may refer to myself as living in "LA" from time to time, for those who do not know the lay of the land, as that explanation is much simpler than trying to describe by freeway intersections (that they've never heard of) exactly where I live.

In reality, I live in San Dimas.

You may know it as the home of Raging Waters, or where Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was filmed or even as the location of the only U.S. Louis Vuitton manufacturing plant.

We are about 25 minutes East of Pasadena, right off the 210 or 20 minutes North of Brea at the dead-end of the 57.

San Dimas is a darling little town with a very "Old West" style downtown, one Starbucks, and a fun Farmer's Market. Oh and we have a Rodeo once a year. It is, however, lacking in night life. So if you were to ask my roommate and I where we go on dates, where we recommend to friends who are visiting from out of town, or where we go for a little fun on the weekends, 9 out of 10 times we will say Pasadena. Particularly Old Town Pasadena.

I am not here to chronicle all of the exciting things there are to do in Old Town, I would merely like to share with you the most wonderful evening that I had last night.

We will skip over the hour it took me to get there thanks to the 605 being shut down and traffic being backed up all the way to Sunflower and get right to the good stuff.

There is a lovely place that used to be called Holly Street Bar & Grille but is now Eden Garden Bar & Grille in Pasadena on Holly street. It is an absolutely delightful brick building covered in ivy with a patio that is currently all decked out in red ribbons and Christmas lights.

The theme of the food has a heavy emphasis on Turkish food so the menu was as follows:

• August Kessler Riesling. Definitely the best riesling I have ever had and quite affordable. 
• Fattoush. I am not exactly sure on the specifics but this was a delicious salad as appetizer dish that had all kinds of fresh greens, radishes, mint, tomatoes, and cucumbers with only mild seasonings that really drew out the individual flavors of the vegetables.
• Grilled shrimp. Covered in a lemon sauce and served with rice and sauteed veggies. Need I say more? It was scrumptious. 
• Turkish coffee. Served very black, in cappuccino style cups this is the perfect way to end a heavy meal that would otherwise put you right to sleep.

• Baclava. Served with fresh blackberries and a fabulously sweet accompaniment to the bitter black coffee.
• Hooka. To top it all off there was watermelon flavored hooka to mellow things out just a little. Hooka is tabacco but there is no nicotine or a lot of the other chemicals found in cigarettes and such. It comes in fancy things and you smoke it out of a tube with coals sitting on top to keep it hot. I am definitely not an expert but it was yummy. 

The service was wonderful and the food delicious. The place doesn't pick up until 9 or 10 and there is live music frequently. 

At the conclusion of the most deliciously satisfying dinner ever it was movie time! I am an iPic member for a very ritzy theater in Old Town Pasadena so had received an email about an early preview of the new Sherlock Holmes movie! 

The theater has recliners instead of theater seats, serves free popcorn, gives you pillows and blankets to use during the show and will serve you drinks and appetizers right to your seat in the theater! The tickets are about $24 apiece but for an incredibly enjoyable movie-going experience I would highly recommend it. 

Being an avid reader of Conan A. Doyle's The Complete Sherlock Holmes and a lover of Guy Ritchie's films, I loved the movie and am now dying to pick up a classic like The Hound of the Baskervilles again just for fun. 

All said and done I was headed home again around midnight and determined it an evening well-worth being tired for in the office today.