Why I love LA: I can show up at a good restaurant in a t-shirt and shorts, and get a table

I love LA.  There is a lot to love about LA, especially the weather, but today I was reminded of something else I really like about it here: I can show up at a really good restaurant in a t-shirt, REI shorts, and drivers' shoes, with three days' growth of scruffy beard, and not only get a table, but get really good service, with no indication from anyone that they would prefer that I take my business elsewhere.

Today my dad invited me to lunch for a special occasion, and we decided on Tavern on San Vicente.  We had been wanting to try Tavern for quite a while, but we always tried to get a dinner reservation at short notice, and of course they were always booked up.  I was working at home so not dressed very nicely, basically a Saguaro National Park t-shirt, some shorts from REI, and drivers' shoes.  And I had been taking a vacation from shaving so had several days worth of facial hair growth.

We showed up there with my son and were seated promptly.  My dad and I both had the fish special of the day, Scottish salmon.  I had the soup of the day, a tomato soup.  My son had the grilled cheese sandwich.  Which reminds me, another great thing about LA is how indulgent the best restaurants are with kids.  Tavern, like many of the best restaurants in LA, actually had a kids' menu.  We concluded by sharing the carrot cake. Throughout, the service was impeccable.  And the food was all great.  I want to go back with my wife for dinner at some point.  Or maybe my dad and I can go hit the bar there one evening and have drinks surrounded by the beautiful people of Brentwood.

Initially I felt out of place, since all the other diners were dressed nicely.  Not formally, but nicely, the way I usually like to dress when I hit a decent restaurant in LA.  But later on I felt better because some other patrons were seated wearing t-shirts and jeans.  Of course, they looked a lot better than I did.  Their t-shirts probably $200 t-shirts purchased at Fred Segal, and their jeans were probably $400, custom-tailored from fair trade organic denim made from cotton grown on farms where all the workers were paid $30 an hour and had health and retirement benefits.  We're talking Brentwood, here.  But it was all good.

Anyway, I tried to imagine wearing shorts and a t-shirt walking in to a restaurant as good as Tavern in NYC, DC, Boston, SF or practically any city in North America, or Europe, and I just couldn't imagine it.  I mean, I got into trouble years ago in Tokyo for wearing shorts, and those were Brooks Brothers shorts, and I wasn't even in a fancy restaurant.  And once in Seoul I was barred entry from a jazz venue and restaurant in Kangnam by a beautiful but emphatic young woman with a headset who was apparently maitre d' whose only English, as far as I could tell, was "No shorts!"  I suppose I could get seated at a good restaurant in Beijing if I had on shorts and a t-shirt, but probably not in Tokyo or Seoul. Shanghai might be a problem as well.

All the more reason to like LA.