As a kid, I always hated getting stuck in the “kid’s table” at parties. You remember those tables, don’t you? They were the ones in the dark corner where your parents stick you in with other smelly kids while they and other grown-ups indulged in good conversation and way better food than what we kids got. While sitting on a cheap plastic chair and enduring annoying brats pulling my pigtails from each direction, I promised myself that I too will sit at the grown-ups’ table someday and enjoy a party with dignity.
Twenty-some years later, equipped with maturity (although questionable at times) and a bank account (if you can call it that), I now had the luxury to seat myself at a grown-up’s table with my grown-up friends.
The table we grown-ups selected tonight was in French 75 Bistro, a little French restaurant tucked away in the lobby of an office building in Burbank. We sat ourselves at the (fake) candle-lit bar and ordered fancy champagnes and cocktails, along with fancy appetizers. As I took a sip of Pomegranate Kir (a bubbly with pomegranate juice … yum), I realized that I had finally made it. I was not a kid anymore! I was da shit, ya’ll! I was all GROWN UP! Hooray!
Then, on the way to the ladies room located in the back of the restaurant, all my beliefs came to a shatter. On the other side of the bar was a REAL French restaurant – an elegant, sophisticated, upper-class dining room where they served dishes like Filet au Roquefort and “Luxe,” (filet mignon and lobster beignet with béarnaise sauce) to people dressed up in fancy dresses – a far cry from the order of happy hour French Fries we were sharing at the bar. Here, in a pair of beat up jeans and raggedy sweater, I was once again back in the dark corner of the room. I never felt more like a kid.
But when I returned to the table and looked at my friends, I realized that this was where I belonged — at the kids’ table — and there was nowhere else I’d rather be. We were crazy, loud, playful, happy, carefree and completely childlike, and I loved everything about it. Maybe I’ll never become one those elegant, sophisticated, mature women that I always wanted to be, but that’s okay because the kid’s table is where the real fun is.
Check out what the kids ordered:
Lobster Bisque with Sweet Paprika Cream
Dungeness Crab Cake with Corn-Pepper Sauté, Spicy Provencale Aioli
Spicy Tuna Tartare with Avocado, Crispy Sesame Wafers, Chile Sauce
‘Bistro Burger’ — 8 oz. Ground Angus Sirloin on Toasted Brioche Bun with French Secret Sauce and Roquefort, Cheddar or Gruyere Applewood Smoked Bacon upon request
Crepe
Bread Pudding
3400 W. Olive Avenue, Burbank, CA 91505
★★★★☆
Lavender and OliVE 