This is not a post on Halloween costumes.
I am really am going to tie Morimoto to Gene Simmons in this post. Just read on…
~
When we stepped off the plane in L.A., I saw a restaurant called SKEWERS by Morimoto. As a fan of all things food television, I would have loved to try a Morimoto restaurant. Chef Morimoto is the man!
Why didn’t I do a little more pre-trip research?!
In any case, at the end of our trip, when we got back to LAX with plenty of time before our departure, we found that we were in the same terminal/gate area as that Morimoto restaurant and it was time for lunch!
As we made our way down to the gate area where Skewers was located, we noticed a huge crowd around another airport bar/restaurant. Camera flashes were going off left and right. With all that going on, there just had to be a celebrity present. I couldn’t see, so I asked someone in the vicinity who just looked like she would know…
What’s all the hype about? Who is there?”
“It’s Gene Simmons. This is a new restaurant in the airport and he’s here for the opening.”
Sure enough, Rob pointed him out. You could see the back of Gene’s head. The texture of his hair is unmistakeable. {And, no, I did not take a photo of the back of his head.}
The place was closed for a grand opening or something, so we ventured on to SKEWERS for lunch.
Holy busy and airport-like! The dining area was small. There was no room for us at the bar. The entire area was open to anyone for seating, not just for those dining there. Service was horrible, but it wasn’t the guy’s fault. He was the only server in the entire place. 
It took us a good 15 to 20 minutes to get him over to our table and take a drink order/get us a menu.
We chose the Kushiyaki and Kushisage, both with beef so that we could split them.
To be honest, they didn’t taste much different from what you’d find in a food court. Ouch. The quality of the meat wasn’t very good either. But what should we expect in an airport restaurant? I’d once heard that you can’t really do much with airport restaurants because they are all run through one entity.
But then why is it that we’ve had decent, even excellent, food at other airport restaurants before?!
I’m quite sure Chef Morimoto would not be pleased that his name is on this restaurant. At least not by what we were served that day.
After that disappointing meal, I did some walking around. We still had a lot of time and I thought it would just be nice to have a cup of coffee or a beer at a bar and relax.
As I was coming back from a shop where I picked up a San Pe for me and a juice for Rob, I noticed that the Gene Simmons Rock and Brews restaurant was finally open for patrons! I walked in and found a couple of seats at the bar and texted Rob to leave the gate and join me. They had plenty of beers on tap.
There are few interesting things to note about this place.
- They really pushed the booze. I kept hearing the bartender ask if people were ready for a shot or wanted a shot of X for dessert.
- They play old music videos! Instead of sports, you can watch old rock videos for hours on end. Okay, so they did change one of the tvs to a game, but without sound. The sound remained on the music videos! I loved that. It was nostalgic to watch old videos and talk about them. I wish more places did that.
- The Hello Kitty Kiss dolls on the wall in the above photo.
Our bartender was Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison’s doppelganger. And while he was trying to push the booze, I just really wanted an easy drinkin’ porter. “Just leave me alone so I can watch some videos!” I thought to myself. I wasn’t about to do a bunch of hard stuff and get onto a plane. Although, maybe that’s a rock star sort of thing?? He also liked to talk a lot and not really listen. Since our lunch at Skewers wasn’t really that filling, we ended up ordering a small flatbread. When the bartender asked if we wanted to add chicken, we explained that Rob was allergic. He added chicken sausage. I still don’t think he understood why we sent it back. We ended up paying $5 for the “added” chicken anyway.
No matter what, I thought the place was cool and I wish there were more places that played old videos like that! It would be a good change from Sports All The Time.
Seriously.
So, if you want a re-cap of our California Trip in the CORRECT order, here you go:
10 Tips for Tasting Wine in Temecula
What We Learned about Wine in Temecula
Where are you planning your next vacation?
Cheers~
Carrie
Season It Already! 