{"id":932,"date":"2014-07-15T15:29:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T22:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talkinggrid.com\/dev\/?p=932"},"modified":"2014-07-15T15:39:05","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T22:39:05","slug":"barneys-beverly-hills-expensive-restaurants-vs-joy-homegrown-organic-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/barneys-beverly-hills-expensive-restaurants-vs-joy-homegrown-organic-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Barney\u2019s, Beverly Hills, Expensive Restaurant(s) vs the JOY of Homegrown Organic Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday,<\/p>\n

Frau in the company of her beloved protective big\u00a0scientist German national\u00a0husband, Herr Dr. Kolb hit Beverly Hills on a well planned and anticipated SPREE!<\/p>\n

We\u00a0arrived\u00a0in Beverly Hills, California, fairly\u00a0determined and thoroughly prepared to feast on luxury fish and fashion. \u00a0Frau was all set and eager; ready to write about decadence with a\u00a0price tag\u00a0and taxes; written in and paid for nothings to be enjoyed; savored, abundant\u00a0tips added. \u00a0The BIT! \u00a0Frau was ready to shop and then to write about the pleasure.<\/p>\n

Entering the store via what used to be the quiet underfloor of offices into a\u00a0buzzing\u00a0hive of scented\u00a0candles\u00a0and cosmetics\u2026\u00a0what a NEW MACY\u2019S entrance\u2026 at BARNEY\u2019s NEW YORK??? What????\u00a0I mean I dig MACY\u2019S because it is easy and\u00a0convenient\u00a0to go there and get a lot for one\u2019s home, for example\u2026 \u00a0when I was in Philadelphia and furnished my husband\u2019s entire\u00a0bachelor\u00a0pad in 24 hours\u2019; Macy\u2019s was super. \u00a0(Click here for the downtown Philadelphia Macy\u2019s\u00a0hopping super shopping adventure with Frau Kolb.)<\/p>\n

Yet, \u00a0Failure of Barney\u2019s NEW YORK in Beverly Hills<\/a> to reel me in with its scarily overpriced\u2026\u00a0no it is INFLATION, gross and ugly; I remember buying the same scarves last year for two thirds the price and everything seems so crammed so sterile and strange; like a shopping hospital for ugly people.<\/p>\n

When I was a youngster, growing up like a weed in wonderful Manhattan, I was taken to Barney\u2019s<\/a> by a man, who later became my lover. \u00a0He was the first person to ever offer to buy me a truly lavish gift in an over-the-top luxury establishment. \u00a0I watched in amazement as LADIES floated by in chiffon and makeup. \u00a0They looked like fairies. \u00a0Angels. \u00a0I was overwhelmed and I refused the opal ring he offered me because we were not lovers, yet.<\/p>\n

\"img_9065_med\"<\/a>The Restaurant at Barney\u2019s now offers little food; just the same burgers and fries that every other place serves; little snacks; a salmon plate, whatever. \u00a0IT is so NOT BARNEY GREENGRASS and without Greengrass<\/a>, Barney\u2019s is \u00a0NOT The BARNEYS I Love. \u00a0 (Fortunately, Greengrass<\/a> has moved to new location in LA so I don\u2019t have to fly to NYC to get a dose of proper salmon, whitefish, and caviar; to go with my staple Vueve Cliquot<\/a>.) \u00a0Disappointed and vaguely disgusted by the expensively attired Japanese teen taking the proverbial selfie, to the older Italian businessman in a fabulous suit\u00a0ogling\u00a0her, we stormed out of Barney\u2019s and onto Wilshire Blvd.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We walked around Beverly Hills. \u00a0Everything seemed weird to us, foreign, even though we have lived in Los Angeles for a decade and know this part of town; intimately\u2026\u00a0we have the strangest feeling that something is OFF.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must be famished,\u201d\u00a0we concur and continue roaming until we step into Flemmings in Beverly\u00a0Hills for an overpriced BLAH meal. \u00a0The other guests, seated in the thick booths about us looked miserable. \u00a0The waiter was smug and pushing overpriced wines and the same salty scallops in the same dot of green mud, which every overpriced venue now has on\u00a0their menu (along with the standard Pork Belly and rubber steaks, which of course\u2026\u00a0we ALL want.) \u00a0Honestly, I eat meat. \u00a0Yet I LOVE ANIMALS no cow should die for some ass to eat an overpriced steak at a famous yet unimpressive steak house in an area known for luxury and increasingly delivering this to an audience which is clearly NOT as precise as Frau in her\u00a0expectations\u00a0of culinary perfection; being that whenever I eat out it is a treat for me I always want it be at least better than what I cook at home.\u00a0Recently, with the planting of a backyard organic garden, next to her very active kitchen\u2026\u00a0it is becoming difficult to enjoy the slap-dash, disasters, made of post-haste and kitchen waste that is passed of as gourmet in most\u00a0\u201crenown,\u201d\u00a0eating houses. \u00a0(Calamari, chicken wings\u2026. all this was considered GARBAGE food before\u2026\u00a0these dishes got transformed into trendy eats\u2026\u00a0“think before you chew,” that is my motto.”<\/p>\n

Gardening, growing food, cooking at home, drinking wine in the back yard\u2026\u00a0yeah, that is what this summer is going to be about at CASA KOLB.<\/p>\n

(Just take a gander at\u00a0at the\u00a0Bok\u00a0choi, Romaine Lettuce, Parsley, Basil, Chive and Sweet-pea salad\u2026\u00a0I \"img_9020_med\"<\/a>grew all the\u00a0organic\u00a0ingredients in my backyard\u00a0\u2014tiny\u2014organic dirt and seed, GARDEN!<\/a><\/p>\n

It is in the cold hard moments of reflection, when the thrill of shopping, has failed to entice and the fun of food is not what one expects, that one faces the truth about one\u2019s dining partner: either a person is fun and a good companion or not. \u00a0Thank\u00a0goodness\u00a0if have partnered with a very\u00a0civilized\u00a0human that entertains me with humor and soothes the cranky tiger of my being with compliments; making love to his Frau with words, coaxing laughter from his Frau at the table even if the food laid before us, is not the cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Frau in the company of her beloved protective big\u00a0scientist German national\u00a0husband, Herr Dr. Kolb hit Beverly Hills on a well planned and anticipated SPREE! We\u00a0arrived\u00a0in Beverly Hills, California, fairly\u00a0determined and thoroughly prepared to feast on luxury fish and fashion. \u00a0Frau was all set and eager; ready to write about decadence with a\u00a0price tag\u00a0and taxes; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-commentary","category-health-spiritual-fitness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/MP900448509.jpg?fit=944%2C508&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":943,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions\/943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}