Staycation Adventures - Restaurants, Part 1

Along with our bar crawl beach adventures, B and I have been exploring new restaurants in the area.  Nothing real fancy, but places that we have either seen and not tried or newly heard about and sound interesting.

One of our friends told us about a place called Fraiche in Santa Monica.  It is a mile from our house, which means that it is easily bikeable!

They've got a cool little bar area, which, in addition to bar seating, includes some small round tables surrounded by couches and loungey seats.  There is also a more formal dining area on the other side of the restaurant.

Their happy hour is from 5pm until close every day.  How can you beat that?  They offer $5 draft beer and $6 house wine as well as a great little happy hour food menu with things like: french fries with parsley and sea salt; baby beets with house-made ricotta, orange, and pistachio; truffle burger with onion fondue, boschetto, and truffle aioli; and short rib burger with pickled onion, bleu cheese, and bacon aioli.  Those are just a few of the options that B and I didn't try - just gives us a reason to go back!  Here is what we did have:

Salmon tartare with avocado, watercress, and spicy aioli ($6)

Prosciutto pizza with wild arugula, buratta, and red onion ($9)

Turkey burger with gruyere, lettuce, tomato, and spicy aioli ($6)

The atmosphere at Fraiche is fun and casual and makes for a great impromptu get together any day of the week.  We will definitely be back - especially since you can get a drink and a really substantial amount of (quality) food for well under $20 a person.

I love finding new restaurants!  I'll be posting new restaurant finds every once in a while as we test new places out.  A former co-worker of B's told us about the website www.restaurant.com.  It offers discounted gift certificates to certain restaurants in the area.  Every once in a while they'll have an even bigger sale where you can buy a $25 gift card for $2.  We have bought a few on this sale, so stay posted for what we discover!