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(Santa Monica, CA - August 29th) The young and the chic (and the hungry) were on hand for the Grand Opening of the fifth Wokcano Restaurant and Lounge location in Southern California. Santa Monica joins Burbank, Long Beach, Downtown and Pasadena as destinations where Wokcano has made a home for itself. Making its humble beginnings as Wokcano Café, this restaurant chain has grown just as fast in popularity as it has geographically. Judging from the excitement of the guests that evening, it will be some time before this electric popularity loses momentum.
Wokcano boasts the finest in Pan-Asian dining experience. With an imaginative and diverse menu that fusions Thai, Japanese and Chinese dishes, the Wokcano brand name has elevated itself well beyond being your average sushi bar.
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This tray was not full for long
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Throughout the evening, guests were treated to various Wokcano hors d’oeuvres specialties. The favorite of the evening was perhaps a tie between surf and turf selections. The tender prime rib skewers never make it more ten feet past the kitchen before he tray was empty. Equally popular was the scrumptious shrimp tempura, hot and crunch, basted on a rich but light sweet sauce, each served on tiny pallets of fresh sliced cucumbers.
Surviving a bit longer on the crowded lounge floor were serving trays of sweet potato tempura, crunchy warm eggs rolls and an interesting twist on a classic: cream cheese wontons.
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Birdseye View Patio
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Wokcano Santa Monica’s multi-level set-up offers a few choices of where to diners can meeting, greeting and eating. The ground entrance level provides a cozy bar to order cocktails until you are seated in the second level dining room. The outdoor patio is a courtyard featuring bamboo and brick, and a lit, gently flowing step fountain. A quieter private dinging room is located in the rear of the restaurant with booths for more comfortable, secluded dining. Finally, the outdoor mezzanine level is idea for small private parties under the stars.
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DJ Garth Trinidad in the ones and twos
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KCRW’s own DJ Garth Trinidad worked the Ones and Twos for the evening. Mr. DJ did a great job of keeping it lively and eclectic, seamlessly weaving reggae with funk with jazz and hip hop and back again. I think I even heard a little world music in there. His array of tunes was impressive and infused the evening with a colorful soundtrack that virtually everyone involuntarily swayed to.
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Plenty of TRUMP VODKA was pouring at the grand opening of Wokcano in Santa Monica
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Trump Vodka, “the world’s finest super premium vodka”, was also a featured sponsor of the evening. Every VIP booth had a fresh bottle of Trump Vodka for guests to mix their own Screwdrivers or Cosmos, as strong as they liked. Trump was also featured in the circulating Wokcano’s specialty cocktails; the fruity delight Last Dragon, or the Kahluha based Wax On-Wax-Off. I was fortunate enough to score one of the black and white spaghetti strap Trump Vodka T’s worn by the event’s female wait staff. (Thank you!!)
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Specialty drinks and great hors d'oeurves were real crowd pleasers
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It was a school night for me, so the festivities were still just ramping up when I had to leave. But not before I saw it: the line to get into the Grand Opening of Wokcano Santa Monica was a block long and beyond! Clearly, the people of Santa Monica have spoken: Wokcano is their newest nightlife Hot Spot.
WOKCANO Restaurant & Lounge is located at 1413 5th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401. Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week from 11am to 2am.
Reservations are suggested. 310-458-3080
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