A Weekend in Pasadena
City to the South Offers Fun, Film, and Food
It’s only 10 miles as the crow flies from downtown Los Angeles, but Pasadena has a feel all its own. With sprawling lawns, eclectic architecture, and a vibrant Old Town, the city offers an oasis from the congestion of its neighboring metropolis.
My traveling companion and I took the train from Santa Barbara rather than deal with the ever-present Southland traffic. After a leisurely three-hour journey, we arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles, the closest train stop to Pasadena. A 20-minute Uber ride got us to the Hilton on North Los Robles Avenue. Our room had a California contemporary feel with clean lines, neutral hues, and wood accents. We settled in, and then went to the on-site bar and restaurant, the Corner, for happy hour.
Refreshed and relaxed, we headed to dinner at the Parkway Grill. Opened in 1984, the Parkway is a popular upscale restaurant with brick walls and high-beam ceilings that blend together to create a rustic-elegant interior. The menu is reflective of the American cuisine movement, which mixes traditional American cooking techniques with European, Latin American, and Mediterranean elements. We ordered melt-in-your-mouth pan-seared crab cakes with lemon remoulade, avocado salad with slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, and short ribs with creamy polenta, green harissa, and braising juices. While their signature black-bean soup tasted bland and underwhelming, the highlights of the meal were the rich, delicious scalloped potatoes with garlic and Gruyère cheese, and the Meyer lemon custard atop a shortbread cookie with homemade ice cream, raspberries, and raspberry puree.
