MALIBU, CALIFORNIA

There’s the thrill of perfect timing as you belly up to the massive seaside bar. The late afternoon light shines brilliantly off the Pacific and the air is distinctly summer, despite the late October date. One sip of crisp wine and a dormant feeling jars you awake, maybe not unlike the hibernating sense that better days are ahead and that they begin now. There’s a nearly imperceptible shift as pinpricks of optimism set an internal course correction. It’s in the bartender’s shake of that handcrafted cocktail, it’s in the unctuous smear of ahi on crispy rice, it’s in the twinkling sunset on your face, upturned to meet its warmth.

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© Essential Moment: Coastal LA at Nobu Malibu.