'Ghost' at The Pantages and Federal Bar!

It's always fun to do something new in LA and although I saw Jekyll & Hyde at The Pantages last year with my friend, Kristina, I wanted to take Neil to see Ghost at The Pantages a couple weeks ago.  He told me about the show on Broadway years ago so I was excited to surprise him with tickets while it was touring here in LA.  Seeing a musical together was new for us!

All dressed up for 'Ghost' at The Pantages!

To make the surprise even better we both got dressed up and once we got to the theater, we had a glass of wine at the bar and then took our seats for the show.  I instantly connected with Molly, felt like she was the stronger actor between her and Sam, even though Carl was more of a major character in the musical.  For the most part, the movie and the show were pretty similar but they gave some of the characters more stage-time than they had in the movie.  I actually really liked Oda Mae, even though she was really pushing for comedy but didn't need to, because it was already there.  Of course, as soon as the audience heard 'Unchained Melody' it silenced the entire theater and every time the melody or song played I started tearing up.  I loved the song 'With You' which Neil had played for me years ago when he introduced me to the musical and would love to learn that for Karaoke some time.  I really liked the vibe and music video feel of Oda Mae's song, 'I'm Outta Here.'  They way they transitioned people from living to ghost was incredible and the effects and lighting were phenomenal.  When I read the program, I found out that the girl that played Molly was from Wisconsin (woo hoo) and a bunch of the cast members were from the Midwest!  Overall, I thought the show was good but it didn't come close to Jekyll & Hyde or when I saw Les Miserables on Broadway before I even really knew the whole story behind that show.

Salted Caramel Cake

After Ghost I planned to have Dinner at Federal Bar in North Hollywood because we always talked about eating there but had only ever had drinks when we had stopped by.  I brought a bottle of Wine with me that was similar to a Shiraz or Merlot and we started off with the Ahi Tuna Crudo that was light and had a really yummy cilantro aoili on it.  I picked out the Roasted Beet Salad with arugula, fennel, orange, feta, and a white balsamic that was a huge portion (awesome) and had so many different flavors going on that mixed really well together.  Neil ordered the Grilled Salmon while I went with the Bone-In Short Rib with corn mashed potato and brasing au jus.  I had no idea it was going to be that much food, but it was absolutely delicious!  I tend to avoid fat, especially when it's connected to meat, but for some reason, however they had prepared the Short Rib made it so tender that it didn't have the typical consistency that weirds me out; it almost had more flavor than the actual meat!  Needless to say, I wasn't able to finish even half but was quite excited to take home leftovers for Dinner the next day.  No meal would be complete without dessert, so I decided on the Vanilla Salted Caramel Cake.  It took a while to get to the salted caramel but once you did, it melted in your mouth.  Even Neil liked the dessert and he's not a sweets type of guy.  There was a jazz band playing, and initially I was really excited but it got SUPER loud and we could barely have a conversation for about a half hour while they were doing this lively set.  Thankfully, it got more bluesy after a break when they did a singer/band set and that was much more enjoyable.  We'd definitely go back there again and try more food because everything we had tasted amazing!

Diego was quite excited about the Short Rib Bone...he got to play with it for a couple hours ;)

It was nice to plan a fun night out and do things that were new to us.  I'm still keeping up with my resolutions, new restaurants, something different I haven't done, each and every month, and that resolution is going strong :)