One of the best things about Los Angeles is the ability to find excellent restaurants with outside seating to take advantage of 74 degree February days. Now, I know that many of my readers located in the Midwest and East Coast have just moved on to a new page, but I did not mean this as a taunt. Well, I did, but not exclusively as a taunt.

I took Friday off of work, and spent two hours at lunch with Chloe and Pen at Gjelina (http://gjelina.com/) in Venice—good friends, good food, amazing weather and just enough wine to make us effusive with our compliments to our brilliance at arranging such an event.

On the off-chance that you are dying of curiosity, we went with:

• Wood Roasted Parsnips with Pistachio Gremolata
  
• Roasted Beet, Burrata, Arugula, Toasted Walnut & Walnut Oil
  
• Salt & Pepper Kennebec Frites with Aioli & Romesco
  
• Caramelized Fennel, Confit Tomato, Green Onion & Spicy Fennel Salami Pizza
  
• Flourless Chocolate Cake with Crème Fraîche & Hazelnut
  
• Butterscotch Pot de Crème with Salted Caramel & Crème Fraîche
  
• Warm Pumpkin & Bitter Chocolate Bread Pudding
  
• Roccolo Grassi, Garganega (Soave, Italy ’07)
  

And yes, that is three desserts. Let’s not judge—we were sharing so they barely counted as one. Also, yum, so get over it.

Naturally, when the three of us get together, the lore of dating in Los Angeles arises as a topic of conversation. Seriously, a person who dates in LA is a mythical creature to us—like Loch Ness only less believable and less wet (most of the time). Also, when someone does have a dating story, it generally involves indirect knowledge, aka “I know a guy, who has a friend, who has a cousin who dated once.”

Not this time! Chloe knows someone personally who is actively dating in Los Angeles. He is meeting a lot of fascinating, accomplished women who are making him feel alive for the first time in years. Or at least that’s what he told his wife.

Awesome. The only thing better would have been if he didn’t understand why she wasn’t happy for him, or blamed her for his liaisons. Oh, wait.

Relationships. Can’t wait.

Kate