Meeting an American Hero

I met Buzz Aldrin today. He was at a Barnes & Noble in LA, and we hopped in to get his new autobiography signed. Normally we wouldn't have ventured that far away, but we were already scheduled to have lunch at The Stinking Rose (more details later). I didn't bring my camera, but fortunately had my phone:
Kind of a grainy shot, but that's Mr. Aldrin while he was signing the book for me!

I'd thought about saying something to him last night, but the most intelligent question I could come up with had to do with the olfactory nature of spacesuits. I asked Erin, the resident space expert, if she had any ideas. Hers was considerably better: "If we ever colonized the moon, would you want to live there?" So sure enough, in the few seconds I had (they were moving the line along really quickly) I asked him the question. His answer? He chuckled a little and said, "Well, it's a pretty desolate place out there, like the book says...Good luck!"

Moving on to The Stinking Rose. TSR is a garlic-themed restaurant (yes, essentially everything has garlic in it) in LA. It had a lot of what I would classify as not quite gothic kitsch--the interior reminded me a lot of Venice. It was grouped into sections; we sat in a covered booth in the LA/Beverly Hills section, which had murals all over the walls. There was a wall-sized Van Gogh mural, and the back room was Michaelangelo-themed. The paintings hanging on the non-mural walls were spoofs of famous art with garlic involved. There were Rembrandt, Picasso, and at least a dozen others. There was also Dracula's Grotto, a small subsection with gothic chandeliers, fake cobwebs, iron grating in front of wine bottles, yellowing glass, and all manner of fun vampire-y objects.

Since we were eating there to belatedly celebrate the IB's birthday, there were some other people there. Michelle, a mutual friend from high school, one of her roommates (Suzanne), and one of the IB's roommates (Clark). Fortunately, all of us got along. Suzanne and I ordered the Neon Ravioli, which was potato/cheese-filled ravioli with differently-colored pasta coverings. The green was spinach, the yellow seemed to be traditional, I think (but am not sure) that the blue was blueberry, and the red? no idea--possibly tomato. True to the restaurant's roots, it was covered in a garlic cheese sauce. I really enjoyed the ravioli, which was filling, but not enough to stuff me. For dessert, I was adventurous and tried garlic ice cream with molé sauce. Wow. It was good, very dense, and left a garlic aftertaste that I tried to smother with frozen custard.

The Stinking Rose
Ambience: A+ (Very unique and fun to explore.)
Food: A-/A (It was surprising and tasty. Not my absolute favorite, but still very good.)
Service: A (The servers were nice, had good senses of humor, and encouraged us to look around at our leisure.)
Location: B (Difficult to make the left turn to get in, due to traffic in the oncoming lane.)
Overall: solid A! Highly recommended.