I'm hardly a fashion-forward kinda guy, but when I'm on the road in a place like L.A. I try to make a habit of going to trendy restaurants. Like tonight's selection, Boa on Sunset: right across the way from the House of Blues and the Comedy Store, full of shi-shi blonds and corporate suits. It really pays to go to trendy restaurants, not just for the trendy people with the new Bentley or the fashionable arm-candy. Not for the poseurs with their attempts at wit and trying-too-hard-laugh. The clientele are not the reason to go to trendy restaurants when you're on the road. Another reason is not the obsequious wait-staff, who can make you feel simultaneously overly-attended-to and ignored. At this particular restaurant - a steak house, no less - there was no salt or pepper available on any table or from any waiter. To ask for either spice is to question the judgment of the chef, so the management couldn't bring itself to equip the restaurant with salt shakers. You might think the reason to go to trendy restaurants is the food. Boa's food really was exquisite, and didn't suffer from the usual microscopic portions. They did have a sense of humor though: they offered as the only vegetable accompaniment an artichoke-sized head of roasted garlic with a sprig of rosemary. Yum. No, the real reason to go to trendy restaurants is that they're expensive enough to make a meal claim for two. Since the tax laws have it that you can only deduct when you're taking someone else out for a meal, you need elevated prices. Who would believe that an $18 wine tab would be for a single glass of so-so Zin? Of course the meal totalling $97 was for two! Luckily, I don't have any tax auditors on my mailing list...otherwise I'd be relegated to Olive Gardens which can never, ever be thought of as trendy.