{"id":31420,"date":"2017-12-06T17:45:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T17:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/?p=31420"},"modified":"2017-12-06T17:45:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T17:45:01","slug":"diningparty-the-flats-re-introduction-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/diningparty-the-flats-re-introduction-party\/","title":{"rendered":"DINING\/PARTY: THE FLATS RE-INTRODUCTION PARTY"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE FLATS RE-INTRODUCTION PARTY<\/h1>\n

When I was doing my TV series, Karen\u2019s Restaurant Revue<\/em>, and also for my Dining section in this e-zine, (which you\u2019re reading right now,) I\u2019ve never pretended to be a food<\/em> critic; I\u2019m a restaurant<\/em> critic. That means that I\u2019m not one of those pretentious peeps, who make believe…well, it\u2019s easier to explain it in one of my YouTube vids, which you can watch here (but come back here after you\u2019ve viewed it): www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lstbObwr490<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Salmon<\/a>

Salmon skin appetizers. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the big one at the top of the page.<\/p><\/div>\n

To that end, I\u2019m always about the entire<\/em> dining experience, which includes<\/em> the fare, but is far from limited to it. So, I\u2019m going to tell you about a happening party at the The Flats in Beverly Hills last week, even though it featured almost no foods that I eat. (Never fear\u2014I brought along two trusty eaters who were thrilled with it all!)<\/p>\n

I had been to The Flats\u2019 opening<\/em> fete about six months ago, and was\u2014how shall I put it\u2014less than impressed. (If you want to compare my then-and-now experiences, here\u2019s that<\/em> link: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/dining-the-flats-restaurant-opening-party.) So, when I was invited to their recent re-introduction<\/em> party, I was most curious to see what\u2019s changed since then. And I really respect the powers-that-be over there for recognizing the need for a do-over. And it\u2019s all good news this time! [Note: I caught a gander at their new menu, and, outside of their many signature flatbreads, it was entirely different from before, which, trust me, is a good thing. A very<\/em> good thing!]<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad that the place looks exactly the same as before, which was their original strong suit. They also kept the good art on the walls, and for this soiree, they moved all the tables out from the middle of the room, for more mingling. (Which was a good thing because this<\/em> guest list was far superior to the previous<\/em> one! Just sayin\u2019.)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A basic cheese and tomato flatbread. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

And this time, instead of over-taxing the kitchen (as it appeared they did last time) by letting the assemblage order anything they wanted off the menu, they passed the appetizers that\u00a0they<\/em> wanted us to sample! And trust me, it was all very generous, including many interesting cocktails, (that you know I didn\u2019t try, either. But they looked<\/em> great. And everyone seemed very happy with them.)<\/p>\n

So, out of everything, the only thing I ate was a sort-of margherita flatbread, (they had no basil that night, so they put tomatoes on it instead.) It was fine, but I so starving by that point that I just inhaled it and didn\u2019t judge.<\/p>\n

\"Soy<\/a>

Soy marshmallows. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

But my pals, Lauren and Babette, tried most of the very not-the-norm\u00a0offerings, and raved about it all<\/em>! Both their favorite was a soy marshmallow, which they described as \u201cinteresting,\u201d \u201cmellow,\u201d \u201cspicy,\u201d and having a \u201csweetness to it.\u201d Lauren said the little spoon of lobster topped with caviar (I told<\/em> you it was generous!,) was \u201cdivine,\u201d while Babette lauded the unusual eggplant and hummus flatbread. They both agreed that the gnocchi with truffle oil was \u201cinsanely rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m sure that those of you who know my food dislikes by now understand why there was nothing I eat. I detest truffle oil even more than coffee, alcohol, olives, and e-words, and I don\u2019t like lobster, caviar, or eggplant. (Mr. X always says that I\u2019m a cheap date…and I don\u2019t cost that much, either. Ba-dum-bum.) But you also see why the crowd went nuts over everything. And there were even more<\/em> dishes than that on offer that night!<\/p>\n

\"Cheescake<\/a>

Cheescake bites. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

But please do not feel bad for me, thinking that I couldn\u2019t eat anything, because I was in for a fabulous surprise. The very best change from last time is that…they finally have desserts!!! Three of them, to be exact, and all delicious. When they came out of the kitchen, I was thrilled that I had eaten hardly anything else because I still had room to try them all! My favorite was the very creamy tiny cheesecakes, each with a blueberry on top. I could have consumed just\u00a0the whole tray of those and been a happy party guest. But I also tried the bite-sized carrot cakes and super-mini brownies, the latter of which were just perfect for those of us who always need a taste of chocolate at the end of every meal but don\u2019t want to add too many calories at that point.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The two choices of little gifts on the way out. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, this re-introduction was a big success for The Flats. And for us<\/em>, as well, including getting a choice of two cute gifts on the way out the door. One was a little bottle of Meyer Lemon Gastrique, (gastrique is a flavoring for sauces, and lemon…well, as many of you know, is way up there on my very long list of food dislikes,) so of course, I chose the other one, a tiny cute jar of Brown Sugar Toffee Pine Nuts. (Who thinks of these things???)<\/p>\n

Their regular menu has several items on it that I do<\/em> eat, such as salads, chicken breast, and brussels sprouts, so if I get some time in the near future, I will<\/em> go back and do a full review for you guys. And I\u2019ll bring along the members of my Reviewing Panel who love the foods on the rest of it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE FLATS RE-INTRODUCTION PARTY When I was doing my TV series, Karen\u2019s Restaurant Revue, and also for my Dining section in this e-zine, (which you\u2019re reading right now,) I\u2019ve never pretended to be a food critic; I\u2019m a restaurant critic. That means that I\u2019m not one of those pretentious peeps, who make believe…well, it\u2019s easier<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-restaurant-reviews","category-parties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31420"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31789,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31420\/revisions\/31789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}