<p>Any suggestions for restaurants during grad weekend?</p>
<p>What is the price range? Type of food?</p>
<p>I’d check out Bottega Louie if you have never been.</p>
<p>Also, will you be driving, taxi or walking? We had lunch on campus, right near where the grad ceremony took place. The Radisson has decent breakfasts. Love Jacks and Joe for breakfasts. </p>
<p>We like Din Tai Fung and Bottegga Louie. Burger Continental has great Greek and mid eastern food. </p>
<p>Thanks! We are open to pretty much any type of food. Price range is flexible. We are staying at the Radisson since parking for ceremony is probably crazy. Haven’t heard of Jacks & Joe but will happy to find good place for breakfast! How early do you have to get to ceremony to get decent seats? </p>
<p>You’re gonna have to wake up really early if you want to get breakfast, I feel like you need to be there at 7:30am or earlier to get a really good seat. Otherwise they broadcast on screens set up near the center of campus.</p>
<p>In all honesty, assuming you’re talking about dinner, you should probably just go downtown and find something everyone can agree on, plenty of serviceable food there.</p>
<p>Suggest LA Live for dinner in downtown, ton of restaurants to choose from and parking is easy with big garage underneath it. Total LA experience, next to Staples Center and all that. Depending on when you go there may/probably be a wait at some places so plan that, but we have had good luck with it moving fast at The Yardhouse and they have big giant booths for a good size group.</p>
<p>LA Live is a good place to grab dinner if you’re looking for a tourist attraction. Consider WP24 (located in the Ritz-Carlton).</p>
<p>Some others you may want to try:</p>
<p>Alma: <a href=“http://www.alma-la.com/”>http://www.alma-la.com/</a> (Food critics love this place; I thought the flavors were great; located in a sketchy corner of downtown…)
Baco Mercat: <a href=“http://bacomercat.com/home.html”>http://bacomercat.com/home.html</a> (one of chef Josef Centeno’s excellent restaurants)
Bestia: <a href=“Bestia Los Angeles | Bestia Reservations”>http://www.bestiala.com/index.php</a> (one of the founders is a USC grad)
Bottega Louie: <a href=“http://www.bottegalouie.com/”>http://www.bottegalouie.com/</a> (I think the ambiance is better than the food…)
Church & State: <a href=“http://churchandstatebistro.com/”>http://churchandstatebistro.com/</a> (out in the Arts District)
Patina: <a href=“http://patinarestaurant.com/home.php”>http://patinarestaurant.com/home.php</a> (located in the Disney Concert Hall; walk down the street to check out Grand Park: <a href=“http://grandparkla.org/”>A Message to Gloria Molina Grand Park Yogis - Gloria Molina Grand Park)
Perch: <a href=“http://perchla.com/”>http://perchla.com/</a> (great rooftop view)
Rivera: <a href=“http://riverarestaurant.com/”>http://riverarestaurant.com/</a> (just one block east of LA Live)
Water Grill: <a href=“http://www.watergrill.com/downtownla/”>http://www.watergrill.com/downtownla/</a> (a downtown staple; popular for “power” meals)
Wurskuche: <a href=“http://wurstkuche.com/”>http://wurstkuche.com/</a> (if you just want a simple meal of sausages and beer; one of the founders is a Trojan)</p>
<p>Thanks for that list jjalfonso - I will use that too!</p>
<p>My D will officially graduate this summer but is supposed to “walk” in May, and should theoretically be listed in the program for both the large ceremony and her school. Should we, as parents, be receiving any information or invitation from the school? We are making arrangements to fly cross country, so want to be really sure that even though she has talked to her advisor and thinks it’s all arranged that the school knows it too! She says she hasn’t gotten info on cap and gown rentals, etc. also any traditions or other things we should know about? I seem to recall reading about leis…</p>
<p>^ if you are on Facebook, there is a wonderful parent group there for the class of 2014 that has graduation information. It does seem like they have been receiving (or their kids) information about graduation stuff for a few weeks now. There was also a grad fair on campus a few weeks ago. </p>
<p>Thanks, that was helpful. Looks like she’d better check with her advisor again and be sure they know that she would like to participate in the ceremony.</p>
<p>All the info that she would receive is here: <a href=“http://commencement.usc.edu/”>http://commencement.usc.edu/</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the info! Hopefully some take reservations!</p>
<p>Here’s the info for Lei’s. You can pre order them and pick them up next to the bookstore graduation morning.
<a href=“http://aaapetalpushers.com/graduationleis/index.html”>http://aaapetalpushers.com/graduationleis/index.html</a></p>
<p>Congrats younameit! We were in your shoes last year. We did take out from Chichen Itza and hosted a party at DS’s apartment the evening before graduation. He and his dad hit up the 9-0 @ 6am graduation day. Not being one for crowds, I opted to scope out the best place for DH and I to sit. By some lucky chance DS was only 10’ away from us during the campus-wide ceremony! (They hand out a map of what department sits where. DS was walking with Marshall… not a small group.) It was a long day for us as he had dual degrees/ceremonies that day. Our dinner plans changed that evening, but it wasn’t an issue.</p>
<p>We didn’t buy a lei for our son, but most of the girls had one. Went to Jack & Joe’s on Sunday… a longer wait than normal, but not too bad.</p>