This night out could be a real work of art

A multi-part date doesn’t have to involve negotiating the worst of L.A.: its traffic. Some places -- the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fridays, for instance -- have all the pieces of a great-date puzzle that can be assembled in just a few steps.

As the sun sets over the city, Wendy and I walk from my apartment to LACMA, through the impressive sculpture garden, and up a monstrous flight of stairs. But once we’re up, we’re up for the night. As we approach the top, we’re greeted with warm, vocal jazz in LACMA’s busy courtyard. Tonight, the music is performed by the Julia Kelly Quartet. Young men type on their laptops while middle-aged couples cozy up. We tap our feet as the night gets darker and the breeze turns cooler.

The warmers at the Pentimento cafe look inviting. It doesn’t hurt that the restaurant is right on the patio; we can still hear the music while we fill our grumbling stomachs. I order an Ahi steak; Wendy, the warm chicken salad. Dinner’s in the mid-priced range, but the taste is gourmet all the way.

We taste each other’s food and parse semantics. Wendy says this is our first date; I insist a mutual friend set us up months ago. We can’t reach an agreement on questions of social import, but we can agree on dessert: A warm brownie ice cream sundae, with mint ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Afterward we’ve got options. The Billy Wilder film “The Apartment” is playing in LACMA’s theater, but we’ve missed the first half-hour, so we decide to wander the exhibit “Trajectories: The Photographic Work of Robbert Flick.” As we look at angular photos of parking lots and black-and-white renderings of rural landscapes, this late-night museum visit seems near ideal. There’s no one around to hear our critical musings on light coming together with the dark, the possible pretentiousness of parking lot photos, or the beauty of a barren farm.

It’s so empty, in fact, that we sit down in front of one of Flick’s recent pieces, a film-strip-type photo of a familiar street in L.A. When security tells us we can’t sit down in the museum, it’s a wake-up call. This is Los Angeles. The night doesn’t belong to just us -- even though, for just a bit, we can’t be blamed for feeling like it might.

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The tab

Music: Free

Where: LACMA’s Central Court, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., (323) 857-6000

What: Friday Night Jazz, with different musicians every week

Dinner: $41.81

Where: Pentimento, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., (323) 857-4761

What: Two entrees and dessert

Art: Free after 5 p.m.

What: “Trajectories: The Photographic Work of Robbert Flick,” running through Jan. 9.

Total $41.81