Vibrato Grill Jazz

Tuesday evening we returned to Vibrato Grill in Bel Air to see the Wayne Bergeron Big Band.  For those of you who may not know the name, Bergeron is a trumpet player best known for his screaming high notes in movies such as “The Incredibles”.

Although Friand, “A” and I have seen this same show before, we returned to relive the glory again this past Tuesday evening. And this time, without the added pressure of a 3rd date hanging over me, I was able to actually read the menu & find some good quality vegan food at the jazz club!!

With a classy atmosphere and world class live music, Vibrato is a fun experience, and I highly recommend spending an evening there.  The meals and drinks are a little on the high priced side, and there is also a cover-charge for the shows, so come prepared.  There is also a 2 hour limit on your table during shows.

Look over the drink menu carefully, though, the Vibrato Martini is made with a feta cheese stuffed olive. For the record, the lemon-basil martini was quite possibly the best drink I’ve ever had in my life outside of my first legal drink in 1995 appropriately named “Orgasm”. I’m not normally a 2-martini girl out in public, but this lemon-basil potion was too good to pass up a second serving!

The salad menu, with the exception of the Caesar’s Salad, contains many options for veg*ns. And because of the jazz club experience itself, this is a place where I don’t feel funny ordering a salad, eating light, and focusing on the drinks.  Last summer, I swooned over the Beet Salad (without the goat cheese), but this time, I was too hungry to go for a salad!  I ordered:

And it was FANTASTIC!  Although, the pasta was not rigatoni. It appears as if they make their pasta fresh and in whatever shape they want.  I was treated to one of my favorites: Pappardelle, long flat, often hand-cut ribbons of fresh pasta. And it also feels like they toss in whatever vegetables they have hanging around, too, because I definitely had eggplant and zucchini in mine.  And of course, I only had to remove the reggiano.

It was a delicious & exciting pasta dish despite that fact that I usually ache & moan about being served pasta & veggies when I’m out to eat. But the herbs and oils on this pasta were light, delicate, and appropriate.   I suppose I am cutting Vibrato a lot of slack on this point because one doesn’t necessarily go to a place like this for the food, but for the show.

Maybe next time we’ll try calling ahead, I’m sure this is a place where the chef would show off their creative chops. But, not sure I feel the need to challenge this place!  They put shaved truffles on my pasta… you’d have to be a sadist to argue with that!

What a treat to eat a filling meal, drink a couple of amazing martinis, and maybe even finish out the meal with a fruit sorbet or another lemon-basil martini…

VIBRATO GRILL JAZZ