Adios and Buena Suerte, Curly Fries!

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Today was my pal Curly Fries' last day at work. So begins her maternity leave -- her baby is coming very soon! It seems I keep saying good-bye to my bridesmaids! Boo! Here we are, pre-Curly Fries' pregnancy....

A group of us went out for lunch to bid Curly Fries farewell. Talksa and I hopped into Ironman's sweet new ride. I mean SUH-WEET. Hard. Top. Convertible. BMW.

After a short breezy ride, soaking up the sun, we arrived at Tiara Cafe, a whimsical refuge from the hustle and bustle of downtown. At the corner of 9th and Main, Tiara Cafe is the brainchild of the marvelously creative Fred Eric, who brought Los Angelenos the famed 24-hour hipster diner Fred 62. Tiara provides much needed delicious food to the underfed waifs populating the Fashion District. In addition to serving breakfast and lunch in the restaurant, Tiara also has a great array of carry-out options for those on the go.

Tiara's menu trumpets, "Eat healthier more often and diet less!" For this motto alone, I love the place, and the food at Tiara makes it easy to heed this advice. All tables receive bottles of water with mint leaves. As always, I got the lemonade of the day. Today's was a fantastic cantaloupe vanilla lemonade -- the sweetness of the vanilla balanced the tartness of the lemon, with just a slight hint of melon.

We started with an array of appetizers. The chickpea fritters (a perennial favorite of mine) are little golden brown Lincoln-log-like sticks of french-fry-alternative goodness. Paired with aioli sauce, they're super duper yummy, and I have yet to meet anybody who doesn't love them.

Summer bubble bread also tantalized our tastebuds, and simple cheese pizzettes really hit the spot. You can actually taste how fresh the ingredients are.

As I often do, I had the smoked and roasted duck medianoche presswich, which, aside from duck, features monterey jack cheese, pickles, sweet mustard with an oh-so-slight kick, and a small green salad. There's a reason that I almost always get this sandwich. First, grill marks always make everything better. Second, I love duck, and it's not often that you can eat good duck for lunch at a reasonable price ($9.75). Thank you, Tiara!

While Curly Fries and Ironman also got the medianoche, T-West, Cheeks, Pescado, and Talksa ordered the cheeseburger, which is quite good at Tiara -- big, juicy, and accompanied by your choice of fries or onion rings, as well as a small green salad. Fred Eric is no stranger to comfort food, which is done just as well as the more innovative stuff on his menu, such as freshwiches (sandwiches wrapped in rice paper). I snapped a sort of faraway pic of Captain Amazing's meal (it's peeping out from behind some soup). I think it was the Thai Cobb freshwich. (My personal fave is the grilled steak freshwich -- yummilicious!)

We also tasted the fish enchilada seasonal special. The beans and rice were nothing to write home about, but the enchilada was rather delectable.

I packed up half of my sandwich (good Monkey!), so I could eat a mini red velvet cupcake sans much guilt. As cute as they are, they could stand to be a tad more moist. The sweetness level was right, though. I hate when things are way too sweet. Tiara doesn't over-sweeten, and I applaud that. Curly Fries got a gigantic cookie, too. Hey, Baby Curly Fries requested it, so shut up.

I got the server to take a group pic. These peeps (plus a few others who couldn't make it -- BPLJ, Perfecta, Labor Girl) are essentially my favorite peeps at work. I don't give a rat's ass about many people at work aside from these folks.

We will all miss you, Curly Fries, but I dare say Lasagna Man and I will miss you the most! Good vibes for a healthy and speedy delivery!