{"id":898,"date":"2016-09-06T19:34:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T00:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/?p=898"},"modified":"2016-09-06T19:34:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T00:34:59","slug":"ive-been-everywhere-then-i-had-dinner-pasadena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/ive-been-everywhere-then-i-had-dinner-pasadena\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve Been Everywhere & Then I Had Dinner, Pasadena"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to L.A. for love. It\u2019s where my dog-boyfriend, Wally, lives. \"Wally-My

Pasadena has character, and that was a welcome surprise. Most of L.A. is filled with flat, blocky buildings, expanses of dirty pavement, and straggling trees\u2014everything Pasadena is not. Pasadena is charming and established. Full of light colored, Spanish style buildings crowned with red tiled roofs. Arched doorways welcome you into sturdy buildings that feel like they were built in a time when people took pride in their work, because they knew their work would stand for generations. The trees are established and full, and the plants show that California really can be a lush place instead of a concrete desert.<\/p>\n

On the third day of my Wally visit (Tuesday, July 18, 2016 1:15 p.m. CST) Diana took me to a place called Earth Caf\u00e9 to meet her writer friend, Ingrid Sundberg<\/a>. As we approached the restaurant I realized I was in for the most California of California meals. The place was really called the Urth Caff\u00e9,<\/a> and it was in one of these lovely Pasadena buildings where the caf\u00e9 was open on all sides, and you actually sat outside in a shaded terrace next to a fountain splashing water against a bright blue basin. The menu was expansive, but not overwhelming. Nothing was fried or fatty, and I was surprised to find red meat in the list of offerings.<\/p>\n

Ingrid joined us in the line at the counter as I debated a few options. When I mentioned the Pot Roast sandwich Diana lit up and told me, \u201cThat\u2019s what Wally\u2019s dad always gets.\u201d A girl\u2019s got to trust Wally\u2019s dad, so that\u2019s what I ordered. We paid, took our plastic-tent of a number, made our way onto the crowded patio, and procured a tiny wrought iron table next to the fountain. Diana filled plastic-cups from glass coolers full of ice, water, and floating fruit, while Ingrid and I made friends.<\/p>\n

After an appropriate amount of time a server piled our table full of plates. Mine held a lovely, unadorned roast-beef sandwich on a French baguette. A large ramekin of au jus and a small ramekin of horseradish sauce barricaded my sandwich from the salad\u2014lightly dressed, consisting of greens and one bright red cherry tomato.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t know how much we\u2019ve discussed roast-beef, but I should let you know I\u2019m biased on the subject. When I was a baby all I would eat was roast-beef and French fries. Thirty-six years later it\u2019s still my go-to meal. (It probably means I have an iron deficiency, but all the same I love it.) If I was on death row and I had to order my final meal, it would be my mom\u2019s roast-beef hash. Furthermore I\u2019m not even too particular about the quality or preparation in which the beef comes to me: rare, well-done, lunch meat, fresh roasted, thickly sliced, slathered in gravy, fried, stewed, Canadianed-up in Poutine, or cold from the fridge, I\u2019ll take it any way I can get it. And since I\u2019ve had it in every way possible I am quite happy to label myself a roast-beef connoisseur.<\/p>\n

As a connoisseur I will authoritatively say, Urth Caffe does roast-beef right. The beef was sliced thick, and the meat was still tender and juicy. Most places hide the meat in their sandwiches, burying it beneath stacks of lettuce, tomato, or cheese. At Urth they let the roasted meat do all the work, because nothing else needs to be done. The baguette crust was thick\u2014perfect for dipping in the au jus. The soft white flesh of the bread sopped up the flavor intensifying each bite of the beef. I\u2019m ambivalent about horseradish, but spread Urth\u2019s horsey-emulsion on a bite with great hope. It didn\u2019t really add anything because the horseradish had no kick to it, but it didn\u2019t hurt the sandwich at all. Luckily I kept peppering Ingrid with questions about her writing career, so I got to listen and eat. By the time I\u2019d cleaned my plate she hadn\u2019t even had a chance to get through a quarter of her meal.<\/p>\n

I ate my entire side-salad, but it was really nothing more than dressed greens. The dressing wasn\u2019t memorable; it was a bit like the rest of blocky L.A.\u2014there, and instantly forgettable. Ingrid and Diana both got salads for their full meals. Their plates were loaded with kale and vegetable-straws or some other healthy nonsense that would be scoffed at in the Midwest. Everyone ate their dinner in full, so the salads must have been all right.<\/p>\n

We dropped Ingrid off at her place and went to downtown Pasadena where Diana introduced me to Yogurtland<\/a>. A magical place of taro flavored yogurt and tiny balls of liquid strawberry that burst in your mouth like caviar. Yogurtland is full of creamy cold opportunity and endless topping possibility\u2014we went three more times in the next two days.<\/p>\n

If I was a good girlfriend I would have brought Wally a doggie bag and let him taste that delicious Urth Pot Roast Sandwich for himself. But it\u2019s okay he didn\u2019t hold it against me\u2014and that\u2019s true love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to L.A. for love. It\u2019s where my dog-boyfriend, Wally, lives. This is Wally, as you can see he is very handsome. Wally is also famous and has his own instagram. (Ignore the pictures of him with other women. He is in love with me. Those other women are models who throw themselves at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,22],"tags":[65,18,66,67],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nI've Been Everywhere & Then I Had Dinner, Pasadena - Jessica Conoley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's another Dinner and a Road Trip adventure, this time to Pasadena, CA. 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