The Liquid Muse

How To Plan A Picnic

Option 1: Spend half the day planning a menu, food shopping, cooking. Then, pack everything into the pieces of tupperware which actually have matching lids. Search the back of the kitchen cabinets for paper plates left over from last year's holiday party. Stuff it all into that backpack you've had hanging around since college.

- OR -

Option 2: Pick up your phone and call Napa Valley Grille, in Westwood.

Whether your favorite LA outing is spending an afternoon at the beach, an evening at the Hollywood Bowl or catching dinner-and-a-movie amongst the dead, bring along a wine-country worthy bag of goodies:

*The Napa Menu features a crunchy sweet pea and wild arugula salad with shaved fennel in a lemon vinaigrette; a large lobster and jumbo crab salad sandwich and an assortment of artisnal cheeses. $37

*The Sonoma Menu has a sweet corn and mushroom salad; sliced pink-in-the-middle roasted prime sirloin with roasted fingerling potato salad and a shortcake surrounded by plump berries and cream. $35

*The Carneros Menu presents a sweet-and-savory chopped salad of romaine and radicchio, smoked blue cheese and tart apple in a honey-sherry vinaigrette; a Harvest Platter featuring a gorgeous assortment of salami, proscuitto, buratta cheese, marinated olives and eggplant tapenade, and house-baked cookies for dessert. $27

(Insider Tip: Although the prices are suggest "per person," these picnics are easily big enough for two.)

Each of the above also includes plates, silverware, bread and butter and the restaurant's signature sugared nuts. The restaurant can also pair a bottle of wine with your picnic - and even include a complimentary corkscrew!

Per Option 2, this place is going on my speed-dial...

*Picture courtesy of Kappa Mikey