Lola at the Coffee House, Cafe 101

Well as Leo Tolstoy famously wrote in War and Peace (Pierre's musings while a Russian prisoner with the retreating French army) " ... he realized that there is a limit to joy and a limit to sorrow, and those limits are soon reached, .... a man suffering from a crumpled petal in his bed of roses, suffers just as much as he" - (freezing and hungry).

This is clearly an overstatement of the proposition. However, hunger can be a relative thing.

I am somewhat taken aback reading georgeob citing a known anarchist/pacifist. I do find some degree of relief seeing spendi citing socrates, that's an expected fit although plato/aristotle seem more appropriate.

Lightwizard, the Sky Room is never open for lunch - it's the little French
restaurant with only a few tables up high on the tower of the La Valencia. The lunch room downstairs, behind the terrace, is called something else...

I think Spendius is as far from Plato as one can get, and a good thing too !

Tolstoy lived a long life and was many things during the course of it. The anarchism & pacifism came at the end of his life after he gave up on women. I've always thought there might be a connection there.

In any event, War and Peace is a great novel with many such jewels to choose from.

You're right -- I get them mixed up and there's so little promotion of the street level restaurant. It was enlarged during the remodel and redecorated and has a few tables outside on a patio adjacent to the street unless they've gobbled that up, too. I prefer to eat inside when on a busy street anyway -- the noise and auto emissions, including tire dust, is not worth the outdoor ambiance. Now if I could find the restaurant off the lobby entrance, it does have a name. I'd have to send some E mails or call one of my friends who have galleries in town. One of the artists I've dealt with in the past lives on the hill just above La Valencia. I've just gotten out of the business for the most part, concentrating on the audio/visual company I design for (at a home office, so not so much driving!) I could also phone the hotel -- I've been a customer for I'm-not-going-to-say-how-many-years.

The lobby floor on Prospect is actually four floors up and has two eateries, the airy Mediterranean cafe on one side has nautical views and opens to a street-side courtyard crowded with shoppers, and the Whaling Bar and Grill, I'm guessing, further down the lobby. I think the bar just off the street to the right of the lobby entrance was removed.

Could find no picture of the Mediterranean, but here's the Whaling Bar and Grill:

Okay, ossobucco and Calamity -- this is the closet I could find for the Mediterranean Cafe:



I remember the chairs and that's the view over the awning off the lobby.

Yes, the Mediterranean Cafe. It was remodeled and looks nice, however, at
the beginning they had an Austrian chef with exquisite cooking skills. He was
replaced by a Puerto Rican whose skills are far less than the Austrian had -
unfortunately the prices are the same. I love the Whaling Bar, it's so cozy
and old charm looking.

The ambience at the La Valencia is great, and for lunch it's good too,
but for a good meal I prefer the Tapenade in La Jolla. Have you been there
Lightwizard?

Yes, one doesn't give up on women without severe mental punishments!

Good gracious!! How utterly awful. One can imagine what sights one might see in proximity to a joint with "reasonable prices".

Were you properly educated LW you would have known not to mention "reasonable prices". That is what is known as a faux pas in ordinary, everyday conversation. I bet Cal shuddered.

It took me four nights to notice that the pub had been trimmed up for the anniversary of Our Lord Jesus last backend. And the tree was 8 ft and had flashing lights on it in a sequence locked in the plastic memory bank the landlord had swiped the mechanism with. He had three choices. I can't describe them because they had waves of colour going up and down about four times a minute. repeating until you pull the plug out, and which my optical facilities were unable to differentiate the transitions between scientifically but could detect the main points. A bit like the transitions in evolution I suppose. One can see the main points and do the sort of hypnotic pass I did with my transitions.

If I could collapse time like you evos do I probably would think the transitions were very draggy and not a lot different from a steady glow.

Actually Madame, the precise opposite is the case. There are agonies to be endured by those brave souls who don't give up on women. This fact of life can be mitigated though. All is not lost. A nice Christian education is thought to be the most efficient, and, indeed, humane, method yet devised.

Have you not read Ayesha?

Are you in the advertising business? Although, having said that, the "one" is a bit ambiguous.

I only usually order the entree salads so I don't believe a Puerto Rican chef could mess up on a Cobb or the Nicoise (unless he overseared the Ahi). They aren't publishing the menu so I'm not sure of the prices after a couple of years.

The litte village is permeated with art galleries but mostly decorative art -- Madison Gallery shows more serious painting and I know the owner and directors having worked with them at another gallery for well over a year.
November might not be a good time for a walk down the cove, depending on the weather! We once hiked up the beach clear past the Scripp's Institute into Torrey Pines but I was much younger then.

That Whaling Bar and Mediterranean both look charming. I think mentioning price when commenting on restaurants is reasonable, though if prices are unreasonable, I just eat less.. well, usually.
A place named Tapenade is bound to interest me..
I suppose I'll walk some around La Jolla. I think the house I used to live behind, in a cottage, right across from the cove, is long gone, but I might walk by anyway.
Having trouble remembering any hill above the Valencia but you probably mean below the street level on Prospect, lightwizard.

with a picturesque review.. Here

No, there are house on hills above towards Torrey Pines and it's a long view down on Prospect and the La Valencia tower stands out in all its pink glory.

Oh, that sounds beautiful.

It gets worse. An evolutionist talking about serious painting. Whatever will they think of next?

It's all just daubs of paint. More or less patiently applied. Various types go in and out of fashion as they plunge down the social order to the point where they are no longer any use for putting the punter's repute in a superior light. Three Ducks on the Wall, for example, probably started its artistic life in a palace.

These things define a person so. The Puerto Rican chef probably has inferior tastes to LW. Like my maids have to mine.

Yum, yum -- now i'm hungry.

LW--I have The Book of Snobs in my library somewhere. A 19th century hardback leather tooled with gold letters edition. A bit frayed on the edges.

I'll see if I can find it and get you some tips. You sure do need some.