05/29/2011

Out and About Around LA: Feature Burbank

Have you ever seen a pile of books you know you’ll never get through but the possibility of so many words just amazes your mind? I felt that way going into this book shop with Stephanie called Movie World quite the contrary name for such a massive book store. We have so many fun adventures together that I love being able to document these precious moments in time. We all take advantage of our daily grind. Getting to know people sometimes gets pushed to the back of our thought process I’m glad to say that this wasn’t the case last Wednesday. I love California, now much more than ever before. Spring is amazing here and theres so much life just in the air its really wonderful. Last Wednesday Stephanie and I headed out to Burbank for some food, fashion, and furnishing fun. Ikea, Urban Outfitters, Movie World, Chadka Thai, and Tony’s Darts Away were our destinations on a beautiful spring afternoon.

I love Burbank, it really has everything in a small radius of an area and venturing out a little further will get you even more for what you’re looking for. We set out to go to two places and ended up stopping at much more than that. Take Movie World

This is a land field of literary knowledge and once you arrive there you’ll see why it looks as if someone threw up a million books in this place. Movies are barely a shelve in the place but the books that line the shelves have theatrical themes as well as the classic bundles of knowledge. Stack and stacks of old books reminded me of the child hood libraries I so desperately miss. But this place is just overwhelming you could spend three days and not get through one stack of the colossal amount of magazines, books, periodicals and other literary knowledge that resides in such a place.

Here’s Stephanie Rummaging through to find a healthy hand full of books to grace her coffee table at extremely affordable prices. I also bought the rest of my Harry Potter Books 1-3 in great condition for 10 dollars.

So after that we proceeded to walk down North San Fernando and see what was going on. The streets are lined with restaurants, small boutiques, as well as the larger more corporate operations.

We went to Ikea and just the color pallets and Kitchens alone make my heart soon. Oh the imagination that takes place in drawing up my dream kitchen and then realizing that its more than I’ll make for a long time so i can keep dreaming for a bit.

After our browsing about we decided that we would enjoy something to eat, I was thinking about just having a Vegan sausage at Tony’s Darts Away but with all the options around we decided to have lunch out where we were. Thai had sounded nice to Stephanie so we decided on a place with a seemingly interesting menu as well as a happy hour and thought why not. I love Thai Food but I wasn’t extremely hungry for curry or pad Thai or anything that I would normally order at a Thai restaurant.  But for a three dollar beer and a 5 dollar appetizer I felt sold and they had what Stephanie wanted on the menu too.  The place is called Chadaka Thai The style I believe their going for is contemporary, the lighting in side is very dark but it was a beautiful day so we opted to eat on the small patio. I ordered Tom Kha with tofu which was seasoned well and pretty good, I’d eat it again. As well as Thai egg rolls that tasted like peppery cabbage the sauce was good and the shells were fried nicely but were nothing to really write home about. I’d say go for happy hour with good company,have a drink, and enjoy California sunshine. My beer was good, my soup was awesome, my company was better.

The memory card on my camera was a bit off so I only have a couple of pictures.

The last stop on our afternoon of food and fun was Tony’s Darts Away Tucked away on the loaded street of Magnolia Blvd is Tony’s Darts Away. I’ve decided that I’m very interested in beer lately and I’ve been in the last couple of months to Ladyface, Boneyard Bistro, and Tony’s for local hand crafted beer. While my knowledge of lager, IPA’s, and Stouts is still lacking my devotion to new and well crafted beers has become a new passion of mine. Tony’s is a cool little place with a kind of basment hang out type feel. With pool tables, darts, and even stack of board games you can help yourself to. The joint is small we went in on a Wednesday evening about 6pm and the crowd was a lot of older men probably just ran home change from getting off of work and people who looked like they were just grabbing a bite and a beer. Sitting down to watch Oklahoma take on Dallas for the western conference finals of the NBA. Our bartender greeted us nicely and made a couple of jokes and proceeded to talk about a couple of tips for beer selection.

I know that my preference is darker stout beers with bitter notes and lovely espresso essence. Coffee and beer in one you have my heart. I ordered a flight because I like doing that. It gives me for 8 bucks the chance to explore flavor and change it up if one beer is too heavy, another is lighter, and then compare and contrast.

The bad part of having such good company is you forget that you’re also taking pictures for your blog. So I forgot and I bought a flight that came on this lovely little board of small little glasses and then drank the 1st two beers which i didn’t like that much but what weren’t that bad.  The 1st one much it was a bit too floral for my liking and the second one was washing down the 1st but that was much more medium bodied and a much better after taste. The Bartender picked my flight for me and kinda spouted off the names a little faster than I got to them. Note to self, next time write it down. The stout that i had was very good i caught the name of that one which was Solidarity *Nitro Black Mild. The flavor was mildly bitter and lighty coffee scented and extremely drinkable, If i were to of had another beer it would of been that one.  The beers at Tony’s come from all local California breweries. They take pride in sourcing the best on tap beers which in turn reduces waste and provides a unique service that i really like. They also have food a plethora of pub style sausages in buns and vegan sausages as well.  By the time we were finished chatting and done with our beers the bar was packed people were standing behind us waiting for seats. A good sign for any business. I do believe another trip to Tony’s will be in my cards sometime soon. We packed it up and made our exit, enjoying the fun times we had in Burbank.

Thanks for sharing our journey.

P.S. It’s the end of the month so you know what that means. Head over to the spiciefoodie.blogspot.com and check out this months YBR. Your Best Recipe is a awesome way to share your food with a multitude of culinary writters. So if you’re a food blogger please keep up to date with Nancy and here’s a link to a little more information. My entry this month is Spring Rolls. I hope you’ve seen them if you haven’t please check them out by clicking this banner and visit Nancy at the spiciefoodie for all the other awesome entries.

Unrivaledkitch
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Filed Under: Burbank, cocktails, dining out, Los Angeles Eats, Los Angeles Finds
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