Dining with Jake - WDW Road Trip reaches Santa Monica and another near miss

The WDW LA Road Trip today reached Santa Monica and Venice, giving me the opportunity to seek out Jake's favourite cafes and restaurants in this area in person (it's a hard job, I realise) and do one of my Dining with the Gyllenhaals features. Admittedly, no Gyllenhaals were actually present during the creation of this post, but one, namely Jake, has been seen at each at some time or other. I didn't go in all of these myself because there is a limit to how many coffees and smoothies I can drink in one day.


First up was Cafe Montana on Montana Avenue, a very lovely street which finishes at the Pacific Ocean, just to the south west of Brentwood. I was particularly mesmerised by The Wagging Tail dog store, which seemed to be selling some kind of outfits for paparazzi dogs. Cafe Montana was very empty and seemed more like a restaurant, so it didn't seem like a good place for 10am, although the reviews of this cafe indicate it's a good choice for those hungrier times of the day.



A little further down the hill towards the ocean on Montana Avenue was Caffe Luxxe. This cafe was buzzing and specialised in what I was in need of - coffee - and so I went in this one. Everything inside was the colour of a Latte and they sold no orange juice, just 'organic soda'. This cafe, and its popularity with Jake and Reese, is a subject in this week's OK magazine. The manager told the magazine that 'They're regulars, and they have their regular order - coffees and pastries.' This isn't a big surprise because I couldn't see that they sold anything else but the atmosphere was good and the staff were extremely friendly and knew many of the customers. If I lived there (in my dreams) I'd be a regular too. And when you walk out of there, fuelled by good coffee, look down the hill and see the ocean and palm trees, it puts a spring in your step.



Next stop - via the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, the promenade along the ocean and lunch on the pier - was Urth Cafe on Main Street, Venice. I don't know if Jake's ever been to this Urth but we know how much Jake enjoys the cafes on Beverley Drive and Melrose, so it's better than possible and gives me a good excuse to post a link to the Urth website. I had a large orange juice - freshly squeezed in front of me - and it was so large it contained the oranges of an entire orchard - a bit like the one Jake has here.






After quite a walk, Main Street became Abbot Kinney Boulevard at a point very close to the place where Jake encountered the little white dog. This is also the location of Axe, which is pronounced, for some reason, 'Ah-shay'. Just as well I knew this as I had to ask directions because Axe was very discrete, dark and quiet - and shut. The menu looked wonderful and mixed. By this point, I realised I had a very long walk back.




Just missed Jake again

There was a sighting of Jake yesterday at a 'trendy house wares store' on Beverly Boulevard, Beverly Hills. My hotel is off Beverly Boulevard and yesterday I was driven along its length, little knowing that while I had been at Disneyland, Jake had been shopping for household goods close to my hotel. To quote one of my favourite sayings 'Strange old world'. This has prompted a gratuitous photo of Jake shopping.


Includes pictures from IHJ, Flynetonline and WDW.