Il Cielo

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Looking at wedding venues is so darn fun that, I swear, I think I would be happy just remaining engaged forever.  It could be my full time job.  What do you do?  Oh, I’m engaged – full time!  🙂  LOL  On Tuesday, my wedding venue expedition led my mom and me to a little restaurant in Beverly Hills named Il Cielo.    And I have to say that the place was downright amazing!!!  So much so that it’s at the very top of my very narrowed down list of possible locations.  Because I am such a picky eater, for years I’ve been steadfast about serving a buffet at my wedding, as opposed to a set menu.   Il Cielo doesn’t offer a buffet – they only do sit-down dinners – yet they are STILL at the top of my list!  Now, that’s saying a lot!  🙂

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Il Cielo, which means “the sky” in Italian, was opened up in 1986 inside of a tiny Beverly Hills bungalow by a man named Pasquale Vericella.  In the 70s, that bungalow was the home to another Italian restaurant named En Brochette.  A frequent visitor to En Brochette, Pasquale adored the intimate, homey feel of the restaurant and decided it was just the type of place he himself wanted to own someday.  He was so adamant about opening his restaurant in that exact spot, in fact, that for years he begged En Brochette’s owners to sell the restaurant and the bungalow to him.   They finally relented in 1986, and Pasquale opened up his own Tuscan-style restaurant, featuring his mother and grandmother’s traditional family recipes.  I had the pleasure of meeting Pasquale yesterday and of course asked him all sorts of questions about which celebrities had dined at Il Cielo.  He quickly brushed off my queries and said “When you get married here, the only celebrity we are concerned with is YOU!”  🙂  So cute!!!!

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Il Cielo has been voted “the most romantic restaurant in Los Angeles” numerous times by numerous publications.  It has also been named “one of the top five places to get married in the country” – yes, the COUNTRY – by The New York Times.  Those are some pretty amazing accolades!   The restaurant has hosted over 1,500 weddings in its 23 year history.  According to the restaurants’ events manager, Fabio, Il Cielo’s philosophy is service first, food second, and ambiance third.  And from what I witnessed yesterday, all three of those seem to be top notch, especially the service.  When I asked where the bar gets placed during a wedding reception, Fabio looked at me with confusion on his face.  Then, realization dawning, he explained, “Oh no, we do not do waiting in line here.  Our servers walk around taking drink orders, so that your guests never have to get out of their chair!”  OMG LOVE IT!  Even better than that, after the reception ends, guests are served lattes, cappuccinos, and biscotti out on the sidewalk while waiting for the valet to retrieve their cars.  SO LOVE THAT!  I mean, this place is downright A-MA-ZING.

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And, of course, there’s also the celeb factor!  Google the words “Il Cielo” and “celebrities” and a list of a hundred well-known names will pop up, including Christian Bale, Nancy Reagan, my girl Jennifer Aniston, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia De Rossi, Robert Redford, Rod Stewart, Colin Farrell, Claudia Shiffer, Ali Larter, Brandon Routh, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Nikki and Cathy Hilton.  Lesley Ann Warren was married at Il Cielo and (that little homewrecker) Brad Pitt took Gwyneth Paltrow there on their first date.

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And, of course, Il Cielo is also a filming location.   At the beginning of Legally Blonde, it’s the restaurant where Elle Woods’ boyfriend, Warner, does not propose.  When Warner first announces he is taking Elle to Il Cielo, she says “Oooh, I love that restaurant.  I heard Madonna went into labor there.”  LOL LOL LOL

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Il Cielo’s patio area stood in for the patio of Adam Sandler’s restaurant in the 2004 movie Spanglish. The exterior of Adam’s restaurant (pictured above) is actually the exterior of the Hal Valentine Hair Salon, which is located directly next door to Il Cielo.

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On the Season Three episode of Entourage entitled “Strange Days”, Ari Gold re-proposes to his wife after 15 years of marriage with a ginormous diamond ring on Il Cielo’s back patio.  The restaurant has actually popped up in Entourage no less than three times!

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In the Season 3 episode of The Hills entitled “A Date With The Past”, former flame Ste-phen Colletti takes Lauren Conrad out for a “strictly platonic” dinner at Il Cielo.  Smart move, Ste-phen, bringing a girl you just want to be friends with to the most romantic restaurant in all of L.A.!   LOL   Il Cielo was also featured in the Season Five opener of The Simple Life entitled “Welcome to Camp Shawnee” as the location where Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie finally bury the hatchet and become friends again over an Italian lunch.

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I honestly can’t recommend stalking Il Cielo enough – either as a wedding venue or for a romantic dinner!!!!  This place is truly one of a kind!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Il Cielo is located at 9018 Burton Way in Beverly Hills.  You can visit their website here.  Il Cielo is closed on Sundays.

Meet Me At 3rd and Fairfax!

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My boyfriend has some amazing celebrity karma!   He pretty much sees a movie star of some sort or another everywhere he goes.  And for some odd reason it seems his celebrity karma is especially strong when I am not with him.  It drives me nuts!!  Just a few of his celeb encounters that I somehow missed – he ate dinner once next to Calista Flockheart and Harrison Ford – and he didn’t even look to see what, if anything, Calista ate!!, he shopped for CD’s right next to Britney Spears at a Circuit City store, he sat next to Julia Louis Dreyfus during an outdoor theatre performance, and, my personal favorite, he stood behind Jennie Garth in line at a deli in San Ysidro.  Ugh!!!  Not that I am bitter about it or anything.  🙂  But I must say that the place where my boyfriend most often has a celeb sighting – I mean virtually EVERY SINGLE time he is there –  is the Los Angeles Farmers Market located at the corner of 3rd and Fairfax (pictured above – that’s me and my good friend Stephanie in the pic).
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So the other night, while my mom and I were walking through the Farmers Market after dinner, I told her to keep her eyes peeled for celebs.  “Here???” my mom asked me in disbelief pointing to the numerous outdoor tables and metal folding chairs.  “Yes!”, I told her.  “No, here????” she asked me again.  LOL  She could not believe that the popular, but by no means upscale or fancy, outdoor market was a celeb hot spot.  And wouldn’t you know it, just as we were having this little tete-a-tete, who should we walk by but Scott Caan – star of the Ocean’s 11 movies and son of movie star James Caan!   Due to my thrill over seeing him in person and the flurry over our slighty ill-timed conversation, I got just a bit flustered and immediately walked right into the men’s room which happened to be located straight ahead of me.  LOL!  I’m not kidding!   After I recovered from walking into the wrong restroom, I just had to ask Scott if he wouldn’t mind taking a pic with me.  He was super nice and friendly (even though he is not smiling in the above pic) and said he would be happy to pose for a photo.   After I got my pic and Scott walked away, I told my mom who she had just taken a picture of and she just about spazzed out at the fact that it was James Caan’s son.  LOL   See what I mean, you’ve gotta keep your eyes open!

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The Farmers Market (no apostrophe) was the brainchild of businessmen Roger Dahlhjelm and Fred Beck who in 1934 proposed creating an open air market on a vacant 30 acre parcel of land owned by oil tycoon Earl Bell Gilmore.  During its early days local area farmers would pay 50 cents a day to park on Gilmore’s land and sell goods directly out of their trucks.  Those tailgate food stands became enormously popular and it wasn’t long before permanent stalls had to be created and, thus, the Los Angeles Farmers Market was born.  Today the Market is an L.A. institution, housing over 70 permanent stalls and shops, employing more than 700 clerks, and serving up over 16 different varieties of native foods to an average of 3 million yearly visitors!  Somewhere along the way someone coined the phrase “Meet me at 3rd and Fairfax” and it became almost as famous as the Market itself.  🙂

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A few of you have been asking me lately for some information on the best place to spot celebs in L.A. – and I promise to do a post on that subject very soon.  But for the time being let me suggest the Farmers Market, which the Los Angeles Times recently called “the number one place in L.A. to spot stars!”   If you are visiting Los Angeles and want to see a movie star, this is definitely one of the top places I’d stalk. 🙂  On a recent trip there I spotted the ENTIRE Wayans Family and on my last visit I saw David Edwards who starred in the Real World: San Francisco!   Also spotted at the Market and at the nearby Grove Shopping Center: my girl Jen Aniston, Jay Leno, Lauren Conrad and Steven Colletti, Jessica Simpson, Rihanna, Mischa Barton and Brandon Davis, Teri Hatcher, Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, and (sigh!) Luke Perry.  The Market has had some historical brushes with celebrity, too.  Supposedly on the morning of September 30, 1955 James Dean ate his last meal there.  And legend has it that Walt Disney did some of his original sketches for what would later come to be known as Disneyland while sitting at the Market’s circular tables.  Besides being a celeb hang out, the Market has also been featured in a few productions, including Body Double, Stigmata, an episode of Diagnosis Murder, and in the Season One episode of my fave The Hills entitled “Somebody Always Has To Cry”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Farmer’s Market is located at 6333 West 3rd Street, at the corner of Third and Fairfax, in Los Angeles.  I highly recommend eating at DuPars while visiting.  Tyra Banks, Teri Garr, and He’s Just Not That Into You author Greg Behrendt are all fans of the 70 year old restaurant.  For dinner you just can’t beat their “Beat the Clock” menu – a special menu where everyday between the hours of 4 and 6pm, the hour you arrive is the price you pay for your meal.  Yes, that means that if you arrive at 5:30pm, your meal (not including a drink) costs $5.30!  And the food is really good!  For slightly more money, head on over to Monsieur Marcel – a superb restaurant with great food and even better service.