The average wedding record is full of blenders, dishes and game of glasses and elegant knives. The future Liv Dansky girlfriend did not need more cooking equipment.
As an experienced recipe developer, food writer and kitchen equipment reviewer, his appliances collection rivaled with the most supplied test kitchens in the country. When it was time to marry her lifelong boyfriend, she knew they didn't want or needed a traditional wedding record.
She and Jeffrey Rosenthal met at the University of Washington in St. Louis. It was from Manhattan Beach. She was from Denver. Their relationship flourished when the two ate around their new city, testing as many restaurants as they could with the budget of a university child.
Jeffrey Rosenthal and Liv Dansky Post for commitment photos. The couple requested restaurant gift certificates to guests at the wedding shower.
(Morgan Hunt)
“Explore restaurants and food are my love language,” says Dansky. “I love trying new restaurants, and he too.”
With his heart put in a food race, Dansky spent a year abroad at Le Cordon Bleu in London. Rosenthal continued his medical studies, and Dansky finally got a job in food and wines and magazines Southern Living in Birmingham, Ala. He spent his days buying, helping with the style of food in shoots and tests and developing recipes.
When the two decided to marry and move to Los Angeles, they knew how they wanted to discover their new home together.
“The food has been my whole life,” says Dansky. “I decided that it would be fun to get gift cards for restaurants in Los Angeles because it is an excellent way to know a city,” she says.
His bachelorette farewell to Los Angeles took place in a back room in Mercado La Paloma with Holbox food by Gilberto Cetina at the tables. And the invitation included a special request for guests in the form of a poem:
As they will know, Liv and Jeff love to eat
Explore food in Los Angeles will be a pleasure
Of Salt and straw to Sugar fish
Even In-n-out It is so delicious
So, instead of giving them a new Mud boat
Maybe a gift card for a restaurant that is hot!
Although a record is the typical treatment
I bet they would love to try your favorite food.
The guests delivered. Dansky and Rosenthal received dozens of gift cards to restaurants from all over the city. There were classics such as Dan Tana and Musso & Frank, restaurants awarded as République and Bavel. The selection went from the Hot Dogs of Pink to the crispy white tables of white planks in Nancy Silverton Osteria.
“It was very fun,” says Dansky. “Jeff's aunt really took it seriously and she took us a ton of gift cards to places to which we would probably never like Dan Tana and Philippe.”
Rosenthal's aunt organized the gift cards in a folder with specific instructions for the newlyweds. They could use cards for a night appointment at least once a month. And for each meal, she included two blank cards.
The couple received a gift certificate to a handful of Los Angeles institutions, including Pink Hot Dogs.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
“How about writing about food and your favorite dish,” he wrote. “Possibly write about another restaurant that you want to prove that you have the same chef.”
She told the couple to keep the notes cards in secret and share the memories with each other the following year.
Dansky and Rosenthal found themselves in all the angels. They became obsessed with Margarita Manzke baguette in République, ordered with butter and dripping drips. Although Rosenthal has spent a good amount of time in the south, he could not have enough of the shrimp and the semolina in high Adams of Keith Corbin in West Adams and the corn bread in Hatchet Hall in Culver City. He is still dreaming of a Funke orange meringue dessert in Beverly Hills and a dish of crunchy rice with squid ink that ordered as special in crude and knot in Santa Monica. They spent the day in Pasadena after a meal in Union, an excellent Italian restaurant in Old Pasadena.
“I had never been in Pasadena, so it was fun to explore new parts of the city,” says Dansky. “I just want to eat outside, and we really don't do many other things. I would have spent all this money eating in these restaurants, so it saved us enough.”
The chickens cook in a wood oven in République in Los Angeles. The juices of the chickens will end up in the drips served next to the baguette.
(Shelby Moore / for Los Angeles Times)
With restaurants and food vendors throughout the city that still fight to recover from Hollywood attacks, January fires and immigration rates and manifestations, gift cards were also a way to help Los Angeles restaurants. Gift certificates offer immediate income and, often, lead to regular customers and diners who spend more than the total value of cards.
Dansky says that she and Rosenthal have already returned to some of the restaurants who discovered through the certificates several times. Now they are habitual budding customers in Hatchet Hall.
After a year and a half to eat in the city, they still have some gift cards. Lobster Rolls In Brooke Williamson's beach dispositions, French immerses himself in Philippe The Original and Sandwiches in Johnnie's Pastrami in Culver City will be future dating nights.
“I lived in many interesting places, but in Los Angeles, all you want is accessible,” says Dansky. “On weekends, we can spend all day running, eating and exploring new neighborhoods. It is the best way to know a city.”
