Order a picnic basket for jazz at LACMA

Summer in LA brings free Friday night jazz at LACMA. For the first time ever, you don’t have to worry about hopping back in traffic to seize a bottle of wine and your finest accoutrements to impress your date. Now, with a few less LA stops, you can leave the perfect picnic party planning up to LACMA Café since they now offer sensationally stuffed picnic baskets for dining, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy live music with your honey. Order them in advance.

The picnic basket selections offer you The Duke or The Louis. The Louis for $100 comes with a bottle of wine (Signature Patina Label Vega Sindoa Chardonnay or Merlot), a Whole Roasted or Fried Jidori Chicken (It was really like two) served room temperature, a plentiful Cheese and Charcuterie Board with fancy crackers, bread, nuts, salami, prosciutto and spreads, like one house made pâté. Ours tasted like goose liver pate. It was delicious on bread, and a nice combination with the dried fruit and sweet spreads that came with the cheeses – one domestic cheese, one imported cheese, one soft ripened cheese. Also, you choose Two Sides: Farfalle Pasta Salad, Classic Coleslaw, or Chickpea Farro Salad with feta.

Real plates and utensils come inside the wicker basket along with Seasonal Dessert (mini lemon pie and macaroons) which helped curb my sugar craving and fine water from Beverly Water 90H20. The chicken was deliciously moist and the chef revealed that she uses fennel pollen in the seasoning. Although each picnic basket is designed to feed two people, I felt like it could easily feed three or four.

The Duke does not come in a fancy wicker basket, but for $40 offers the same Whole Roasted or Fried Jidori Chicken, choice of Two Sides (same as above), and you can add a bottle of Signature Patina Label Vega Sindoa Chardonnay or Merlot for $25.

Arrive at 6 PM or earlier to get a good spot since when the weather gets warmer the lawns around the seated chairs are packed with every inch occupied. Since it was cold last Friday night we had plenty of room. The Louis picnic spread also comes with pillows, a blanket, and a small table. Pick up your basket fanfare at the Bing Courtyard right past the ticket booth area.

Watching the sunset with the soulful uplifting jazz tunes in front of LA’s iconic “Urban Lights” surrounded by palm trees and the modern architecture of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art made me remember why LA is the greatest city in the world. Munching on delectable bites with fun conversation to ease the pains of the day away made me feel happy to be alive in that moment, and even happier that I didn’t have to worry about curating such a nice spread after a long week of work.