highly likely

    it’s not often i leave a restaurant and tell whoever i dined with that i was floored. this has happened twice. one of those times has been at highly likely, and the other at the studio city bacari*.
     highly likely was chosen for a few reasons that night. It was reasonably close to the venue my friend and I were going to in downtown, and they had steak tartare. my friend was very clear that she HAD to try this steak tartare (spoiler alert, we did). 
    even though this is remotely not even close to part of the dining experience, driving to the restaurant brought my little adventurous spirit so much joy. i have never been to highland park, and im sitting in my drivers seat squealing over how f**king cute everything was, then the restaurant was even better. IT WAS CUTE AS SHIT. although what wasn’t cute was the parking situation, if you go just know you will be driving around for at least 5 minutes trying to find a spot, or waiting for someone to leave in the public lots. 
    as we sit down, we’re greeted by our server (lord bless me i forget his name) and he is giving us the goods. i rarely drink or order much other than water, but the way he was describing the “nahgroni” was really sounding too good to be true... so naturally i ordered one. my friend ordered a glass of vino. 
    i’ll admit, when i first got my “nahgroni” i was skeptical. it was a bit too much like spiced fruit punch for me. but then the starters came, and my opinion was thrown out the window. we started with the steak tartare (shocker) and then their seasonal veg option which was a roasted butternut squash over an orange labne. i took a bite of the squash, and i think i dissociated for a minute. i didn’t know how they made roasted butternut squash taste so f**king good. but i still had my “nahgroni”, and took a sip to clear my palete for a nibble of the steak tartare. 
    “oh my god”
    my friend gave me a look. i thought i said that in my head but i guess i didn’t. i nearly forcefed squash and a sip of the “nahgroni” to my friend so she could experience the increasing delight that i was going through. my friend agreed it was a wild flavor combination that paired perfectly, especially for a mocktail. never again will i ever doubt the power of mocktails.

    as we were snacking on our starters, our server man came back for our entrees, and naturally we wanted some suggestions, or recs based on what we got. mr. man went off. he started describing things down to the minute details of the spices and sold both of us on our choices. my friend and i have worked together at a restaurant where we were deemed “disneyland servers” because we would take our guests on a ride through service. we accepted his application to join our club.
    on to our entree’s, my friend ordered the papardelle bolognese and i ordered “the burger”. yes, it’s literally that on the menu. i also had to give my friend only a small amount of shit for ordering pasta when she works at an italian restaurant with some of the best bolognese i have ever experienced. her defense:
    “i have to see if it’s better for competition purposes”
    i digressed.
    her take on the competition was that it was different, so they passed the challenge and she heavily enjoyed the pasta. 
    “the burger” was a beast. not in terms of it being huge, but in terms of flavor. as a gluten intolerant gal of nearly five years now, i am rightfully skeptical when i order a gluten free bun. once again, i had to forcefeed my friend a bite so she could see how you could barely tell it was gluten free. it had that bite only buckwheat can give and i loved it. then the burger only came with the patty, a cheese sauce, and crispy shallots. that was all it needed. the cheese sauce was the star of the show and i had to keep mopping it up with the bun. if you’re wondering if the side salad from the photo was good, i mean just go get it, its a side salad. 
    i nixed on desert, but my friend got an affogato after a hefty debate with desert aracini, which i’m sure we’ll be back for. sadly, it was the one thing that she did not rate an a+. yet we didn’t care. we still told our server when he brought the check that he did a fantastic job and we tipped him generously because he f**king deserved it. 
    throughout all of this we could not stop shazaming the music they were playing because damn they were hitting the vibe just right. lets just say it is HIGHLY LIKELY that i’ll be going back (i couldnt resist).