Welcome to Left Coast Contessa!

My name is Katherine. This is the first post on Left Coast Contessa. Please bear with me while I work out the kinks and get my blogging groove. I am getting my digital camera this weekend, which I will use to document LA, law school, traveling, my life but mostly food and cocktails.

For my inaugural post I will blog about a delicious cocktail that I had last night. One of my main Boston besties, my former room mate Carolyn was in LA last week. For her last night we went to a Westwood favorite for happy hour, Palominos (http://www.palomino.com/page/home). They have a good happy hour menu with $4 drinks (although somewhat limited selection to choose from), $5 flat bread pizzas, and half price appetizers. Perfect happy hour staples. Of course, we roll in to the bar and immediately decide that, we don’t want a pomegranate margarita or house wines which populate the happy hour drink menu. Instead I ordered a Lavender Cosmo and Carolyn opted for a “hot and dirty” (or, you know, just dirty martini with jalapeno stuffed olives)

Disclaimer: I am a picky cocktail drinker. After weeks of self reflection I think it stems from turning 21 in Boston. Bars like Drink, Church, Beacon Street Tavern, Banq, and Living Room all have ruined me and turned me into a bit of a cocktail snob. Along that same theme, I like stronger cocktails. My default drink is a dirty gin martini and I also love Lillet Blanc, Gin, St. Germain. My second favorite “sweet” cocktail is a south side.

I have had drinks before at Palomino’s and found them to be too sweet. I am specifically referring to the ginger pear martini. I love pear martinis and I love ginger flavored everything, but needless to say it was a saccharin strike out.

So, getting back to the Lavender Cosmo.

I first feared it would be too sweet but I took a leap of faith and tried it. The drink is 1 oz cranberry juice, 1 oz mandarin vodka, 1 oz parfait amour. It is all topped off with lavender sugar on the rim of the glass. I had never had lavender sugar before, and it was one of the key elements of the drink which intrigued me. Overall it was light and had a mild flowery flavor. The only flaw was that the sugar got all over the stem of the glass and made it sticky. Luckily I hadn’t had anything to eat since 12:30 so I didn’t mind the stickiness once the drink was half gone.

Overall, this cocktail was a win. I will order a Lavender Cosmo again. I will be interested to see how a different restaurant (perhaps one less chain-y) would make it.  As for the hot and dirty? I love a dirty martini… they can do no wrong in my eyes.

Palomino

10877 Wilshire Boulevard,Los Angeles,CA 90024

Phone/Fax: 310-208-1960

http://www.palomino.com