Friday night in Los Angeles. Many young gay men (and in fact just many people in general) will find themselves at The Abbey in West Hollywood, voted best gay bar in SoCal numerous times by numerous publications, drinking cocktails and stuffing dollar bills into the underwear straps of the chiseled gogo dancers. I, however, go to the Abbey on a Friday night, sit at a table with friends, and order nachos and mac and cheese. And you know what? I am not sorry about it at all.
Though the menu is admittedly quite enticing, there is a reason that the Abbey is known as a gay bar and not as a culinary destination. As you know, there is rarely a mac and cheese that I don’t enjoy. While the Abbey is no exception, it certainly did not wow me like the mac and cheese from Local I wrote about last month. Good crust, very creamy, but somehow rather…. mechanical in its execution. Same was true for the nachos: good, but a bit manufactured. Clearly they don’t have someone’s grandma in the kitchen cranking out good home cooking. And why would they, it’s a gay bar! Their purpose is to make money off the drunken masses, and that, friends, is what they do. Still, I would not mind going back to sample some more.
I confess I rarely find myself in the throws of WeHo on a Friday night, but I was in the area for a really fantastic concert of new music at the astonishingly gorgeous West Hollywood Public Library. My dear friend and mentor, Dr. Byron Adams (whom I lovingly refer to as Auntie Byron), was the host of said concert, and so we joined him afterward for cocktails and gossip. We got there early enough to enjoy ourselves and left just as the crowd began to get out of hand, around 1130/12. For someone who isn’t a bar goer, I really enjoyed the vibe and had a good time. I mean come on, it’s The Abbey! But then again one can enjoy anything with the right group of friends and a pile of food to munch on.
The Abbey
692 N Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
www.abbeyfoodandbar.com