- By Arlene Winnick
Searching for a patio dining or take out option in Santa Monica? Upper West restaurant is your answer. Located away from the crowds (on Pico between 33 and 34th streets), the menu features a wide variety of cuisine favorites from small bites to oversize platters made with locally sources ingredients from California’s top farms. Their bar offers exotic beers – even a 64 ounce growler – and killer cocktails (forget everything you ever thought about White Sangria – theirs will rock your world!). The kitchen, run by Executive Chef Nick Shipp – a Wolfgang Puck alum (where he orchestrated award show dinners and celebrity parties), was labeled a “mad scientist’ by a reviewer who added, “no two dining experiences are ever alike.”
Upper West offers well-priced take away dinner boxes for two include: Roasted Pittman Farms Chicken for $30; Steak Tacos for two are $24; and the Wagyu Burger Box is $35 – main courses plus all the fixings. The full menu is also available. Don’t forget dessert – try the Bread Pudding with whiskey caramel sauce and salty ice cream. October is National Pasta Month. To celebrate, Chef Shipp is featuring his famous Cioppino Pasta, squid ink spaghetti with calamari, shrimp, scallops and chorizo sarta.
Patio Dining is available Wednesday thru Sunday. Come early for Happy Hour – craft cocktails are $7 and Drafts are $5. Bottles of wine are half-price on Thursdays. Dine Local! For more details, click here.
