On Superbowl Sunday, my roommate , her friend, Justin and I wanted to go somewhere to watch the Superbowl, especially since her friend was out of town. After doing a bit of research (we are, after all, still LA newbies), we decided to visit Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. It has since become one of my favorite places to go to in LA (even though Santa Monica is not technically in LA, but that’s a minor detail )

Pictures abundant, along with details, underneath the cut

Two things that made me fall in love with Library Alehouse: extensive selection of beer on tap, and a surprising number of vegetarian offerings for an alehouse/pub. The latter feature wouldn’t normally be a make-or-break feature, but being that I’m still on my vegetarian stint, it’s certainly a convenience.

I started off my meal with an Old Rasputin, a stout with notes of coffee and cream. Delectable!

I ordered the portobello sandwich, which consists of (as stated on their website): a marinated and grilled portobello mushroom with fontina cheese, red onion, tomato, arugula and basil aioli on rosemary bread). It was quite tasty, and a great reminder of how effective mushroom can be in replacing the texture and mouthfeel of meat. The proportion of aioli was just right, and I have to say that I love arugula (it’s probably one of my favorite leafy greens!).

Justin’s usual go-to is fish and chips, so it’s no surprise that he decided on that, here, with cod fish. He says it was delicious. The amazing part about it is the bed of fries it comes with–that whole basket is filled with them! It took us all evening to finish the fries, and even then, we had to take some to-go. They were well-seasoned, though, and remind me of curly fries from Jack-in-the-Box

After the game (hooray for the Saints!), we decided to get some dessert. Initially I wanted to try Jin Patisserie, but it was closed by the time we got there, so instead we went to N’iceCream on Abbot Kinney. It’s been awhile since I’ve had gelato (the last time was probably in the Bay Area, a year ago!), and personally, I like gelato more than frozen yogurt. Perhaps it’s because it’s been awhile, but it was quite tasty at N’iceCream!

We ordered one scoop of the stand-by stracciatella, and one scoop of chocolate and hazelnut in vanilla. Superb!

All in all, a wonderful way to spend Superbowl Sunday. For me, it couldn’t really get any better than good food, good beer, good dessert, and especially good company ♥