Back to school is the theme of my life this week. Sunday was Rock School, Monday was preschool. I joke that I can just as easily raise a successful rock star as I can as a successful banker or lawyer – if you have a child that shows talent in music it’s all in the way the parents play it. Now that I’ve seen the kids of RockSchoolFund, I am completely vindicated in my theory. I heard the buzz about the fund and that there would be performances by the students and Dave Stewart at a new restaurant from the An Family down in Costa Mesa, so I laid out the Critter’s clothes for the next morning, gave my Perfect Husband bedtime instructions, and hopped on the 405 to see what was happening.

Since the Ans are restaurant royalty here in Beverly Hills, I was very interested to see what the family who brought us Asian fusion at Crustacean would offer down in the County of Orange. I was completely blown away! I arrived a few minutes before my friends, so I had some time to walk around and scrutinize the place. As a designer who has spent time working in the hospitality field, it’s hard to get me excited about the design of a new restaurant, but I was gasping all over the place. AnQi opened a few months ago and is the progeny of An third generation Elizabeth – AnQi is spectacular! The physical restaurant is amazing, housing a noodle bar, catwalk/soundstage, cocktail bar, main dining room, and mineral gardens – a Feng Sui dream. No detail has been left unattended, even the washrooms are beautifully appointed down to the burnished edges of tile seams. Honestly, food would have been an afterthought after the visual sensory delights, but after tasting about five of the signature dishes I was ready to see if I could just live there. From now on.

When I thought it couldn’t get any better, Dave Stewart came out with his new diva. I was a huge fan of the Eurythmics in their heyday, and it appears that Dave has continued to embrace talent for his tunes. The School of Rock All Stars are clearly being taught well. As a “rock music school teaches kids to play music by teaching them rock and roll, with a curriculum that includes Led Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, and Black Sabbath….the Classics”, my whole table was rocking out to these kids who were not even born when most of these songs were originally hits! The whole place was singing along with the Gwen Stefani cover that you can see in the video. It was all love and happiness, and I managed to get home in time to sleep a little and then take the Critter for his first day of preschool. I only cried once, I promise.