Too Much of a Good Thing in Century City

0

Since it opened in July, Craft, the West Coast version of celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s New York City restaurant, has hosted a cavalcade of VIPs who tuck into perfectly cooked pork belly and pillowy gnocchi.


Businesspeople say the Century City eatery is so popular they have to make reservations weeks in advance if they want to dine at a reasonable time.


But Patti Gilbert and Jeff Lasky say they wouldn’t mind a break from the hot spot.


Gilbert and Lasky work for CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. at the Century Plaza Towers next to the restaurant, and they handle leasing at the 2000 Avenue of the Stars office project, which includes the eatery. As a result, most every client wants to be taken to Craft.


“It makes me sound like this jaded L.A. girl ‘Oh man, I’ve got to go to Craft again,'” said Gilbert.


Gilbert says she’s eaten at the restaurant more than 20 times in the last three months and Lasky isn’t far behind. “I’ve had the entire menu,” she sighed.


In fact, it’s gotten so trying for Lasky that he’s taken to mixing it up a bit, with trips to nearby Marty’s Hamburger Stand, home of the Marty’s Combo, a hotdog-cheeseburger concoction.


“I’d rather go to Marty’s,” Lasky said.



Golden Coin

Kevin DeMeritt, president of Lear Financial Inc., a Santa Monica-based precious metals company, spent the last three years tracking down an extremely rare gold coin on behalf of a private investor.


And earlier this month, DeMeritt brokered the sale of the 1880 Coiled Hair $4 Stella on behalf of the unnamed client in New York. DeMeritt couldn’t say how much the New York investor paid for the coin or even who sold it.


What is known is that the coin is valued at over $3 million and joins the collector’s set of three other similar coins that were minted as part of an abandoned plan to make an international trade coin so Americans could more easily do business with Europeans. The set of four is worth about $6 million.


The coins now sit in the collector’s bank vault, though if times get tough, he could bust them out of their sealed cases and make a run to the corner store where he could theoretically spend them for $4 each.


“It is legal tender,” DeMeritt said. “I think a lot of people would be confused, but it’s still a $4 gold piece minted by the U.S. Government.”



Daniel Miller can be reached at [email protected].

No posts to display