Anthology | Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band

If you’ve been reading my blog since last year, you’ll notice that one of our favorite places to go for live music in San Diego is Anthology.  We love this jazz club venue and have been here many times to see some of Todd’s favorite jazz musicians: Bela Fleck, Stanley Jordan, Fourplay, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Pancho Sanchez.

So when Todd found out that his favorite big band, the 18 piece Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band was coming to Anthology, he had to get tickets!  Todd used to play trumpet and played in jazz band in high school, and took jazz improv classes at Ohio State when we were in college.  He also played trumpet in the Ohio State basketball band.  He’s seen Doc Severinsen’s Tonight Show Band before too. He is a fan of the jazz big band. 


On Saturday, after we drove back from visiting my dad in LA, we went down to Anthology for the show.  Anthology is also a restaurant that serves good food.  We got there around 6:30pm for the 7:30 show, so that we could get seats together in the section that we bought tickets for, and to eat dinner beforehand. 


Saturday was my official “cheat day” for my low-carb/eat less diet.  I don’t have a cheat day every Saturday, but this past Saturday it was.  Todd got the House Made Fettuccini, which was homemade fettuccini with roasted cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, artichokes, zucchini, burrata, and tomato pesto. 

Mmm, Todd let me have a bite, it was delicious. 

I got the all natural beef short-rib sliders with house dried tomato, chimichurri and spicy kimchi.  When it came, they were smaller than I had imagined!


But all was well, these actually filled me up, along with some Anthology Pommes Frites.


There was a bar right by where we were sitting, but we didn’t order anything this time.


The concert was about 1.5 hours and we both really enjoyed it.  Although they play a lot of original music, my favorite of the night was Gordon Goodwin’s arrangement of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue”, for which he won a Grammy award.  LOVED it!


After the concert, we walked to nearby Extraordinary Desserts to see if they had our favorite cake, the Truffe Framboise.  As usual, there was a line out the door and a waiting time of over an hour to get in to EAT DESSERT.  We opted for to-go, and that was a long line too.
 

While Todd got in line, I went to look at the display cases and saw the Truffe Framboise!  There were a few pieces left.  While in line, I took photos of some of their other spectacular desserts.










 

It was finally our turn to order.  I ordered the Truffe Framboise.  She said they were out of it.  How could that be???  She double-checked and said they were out of it.  I went and looked and it was gone!  So, while we were in line, our favorite dessert sold out.  Sigh.  So we ordered the Gianduia, with Myers’s Rum laced chocolate cake layers, hazelnut buttercream, chocolate mousse, and boysenberry preserves.  I forgot to take a photo of it.  It was good, but it was no Truffe Framboise!  :p