Brunch at LA Spice (Culver City)

LA Spice is a catering veteran in Los Angeles, having catered some of the biggest events in town (and outside of town). The owner, LeAnne Schwartz, started missing the daily interaction with customers, though, and decided to open a small cafe in Culver City. LA Spice Cafe is mainly open for lunch and brunch (from 8am-4pm daily).

There's a cornmeal-crusted fried green tomato sandwich with jack cheese, avocado, pickled red onions on a demi baguette ($10.50)

I added bacon to this to make it a BL-fried-T sandwich! Crisp, fresh green tomatoes encrusted in crispy cornmeal batter, add to that the creamy avocado for a satisfying bite.

The eggs benedict is served on housemade biscuits with oven roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and avocado hollandaise ($12.95)

The avocado hollandaise is a nice touch and brings the dish together.

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Brunch at Caulfield's (Thompson Hotel, Beverly Hills)

Caulfield's Bar and Dining Room at the Thompson Hotel has started brunch service with pastries and a diverse array of dishes. We started brunch with their Whole grain blueberry muffin ($6) and Braeburn apple turnover ($7)

It's more expensive than going to a bakery and getting them to go but you're paying to dine there after all and I was happy that the muffins were full of blueberries instead of just a couple garnishing the top.

There are traditional mimosas and bellinis but I had to try the prickly pear one.

Inadvertently, I ended up having a vegetarian brunch! But don't be deterred by my brunch, because they do have hamburgers, pork belly, steak au poivre, chicken and waffles and the likes for brunch. 

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Brunch and Burger at Sunny Spot (Venice, CA)

Sunny Spot is the perfect brunch spot. Colorful space with an outdoor dining area, great cocktails by Brian Butler (with recently added bottomless mimosa and Bloody Mary), and delicious comfort Caribbean food from Roy Choi.

A staple dish is the Muh-F*K*N Mofongo and eggs (2 fried eggs, ripe plantains, applewood bacon, fennel, garlic, fresh herbs, ginger oil - $11)

Rather than the Hangover Plate, I think this one would be a better cure for that hangover! The rich and bold flavors would soothe that headache right away.

There's a sweet deal for a boozy brunch: Bottomless mimosa, Bloody Mary, cava, or rum punch (you can mix and match any of them) for $10 with purchase of a main course. If you prefer a craft cocktail instead they are $11 each. I highly recommend Permanent Vacation (Peychaud's, tequila, hibiscus, lemon, carpano, ginger beer)

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Vietnamese Brunch Pops Up on Melrose with BEP Kitchen

Every other week starting this Sunday (April 21), you can get an awesome Vietnamese multi-course brunch on Melrose. Connie Tran's BEP Vietnamese Kitchen will be popping up at Franco on Melrose. There's only one seating at 11:30 am where you'll partake in an 8-course brunch, mostly served family style, for $37.


I attended a media preview last week, starting my morning with some spiced boiled peanuts. I remember as a kid I loved boiled peanuts and would buy them at the zoo (I think they were meant for the elephants). I just love the texture! Here, suck on the shells a bit to get the flavors!

Chef Connie Tran explained to us the philosophy behind a Vietnamese meal. She said there is always a "water" component, which in our meal was the chao sang: rice porridge, lardon crisps, poached egg, sage brown butter

This one was not served family style but a small individual bowl for everyone. Egg lovers will rejoice over the high egg:porridge ratio here.

After that there will be 1-2 proteins but one of them will always have vegetables. More on that later, though, as she modernizes and expands things a bit with her own take.

Our second course was a beautiful salad of starfruit, fennel, burrata, bibb lettuce with lemon balm dressing

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Falling In Love with Longman & Eagle (Chicago, IL)

It was our third meal of the night, but a Michelin-starred gastropub wasn't something we wanted to pass up. In the end, we're so glad we went, because we fell in love with Longman and Eagle.

The cocktails here are excellent and they're only $8 each. I love Chicago! We drank quite a bit that night. There were $2 special Evan Williams shots around the table and conbon found her ultimate Old Fashioned.
 
That's my excuse for not really remembering what cocktails I had, but I am guessing this was the La Perla with tequila, Cocchi Americano, grapefruit, and habanero shrub.

We decided to just share a few plates since we were already full, and started healthy with the roasted cauliflower with beluga lentil and yogurt curry sauce

Steak and edamame with lobster tater tots. Lobster tater tots!

The desserts sound particularly enticing here. The first was a lightly savory dessert: warm gruyere donuts, fig jam, hazelnut mascarpone, wild flower honey ($9)

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The Roof on Wilshire: New Year's Day Brunch Is Never a Good Deal

One of my pet peeves is when I sit down at a bar for the first time and the bartender asks what they can get for me without giving me the menu. "Uh, the menu, please" is typically my response. This one takes it a bit further. As he handed me the menu, he says that they have specialty cocktails but they can make me whatever I wanted, like Jack n Coke ... Right. Either he thinks I'm a Jack kind of girl or that's all he knows how to make, but either way it did not seem promising.

I had chosen The Roof on Wilshire for New Year's Day brunch partly because I remembered reading good things about their hot cocktail menu. Granted, Caroline's review was from winter the year before, but I was hoping maybe they'd kept at least some of them - or the quality - for a year. I didn't see any hot drinks listed, though, so I asked the bartender. Apparently the page with the hot drinks list was missing from the menu I had, so he said he'd get me one. Ten minutes later he asked what I wanted to order. "Um, the hot drinks list?"
"Oh, yeah!"

This happened two more times. Luckily I had plenty of time waiting for my party of ten friends who are always late.

Finally, I got the "hot drinks list" which only consisted of a hot toddy and some kahlua whipped cream concoction. That was what I waited 20 minutes to read? Huh. I finally settled on a jalapeno-mezcal cocktail. Not bad, quite spicy.

Finally my table is ready and my friends arrived. The New Year's brunch deal here was a "3-course" meal for around $25 if I remember correctly.
The first course listed some bread and pastry selection, but as I tried placing an order for a croissant, they said they're just bringing a "bread basket" to the table. The "basket" turned out to be this plate. Not bad, but ... the same plate that they brought for the 10 of us they brought to tables of 4. There's also only one croissant and one bacon cheddar biscuit. Which meant I didn't get any. I asked them for more croissant about half a dozen times, which were always answered with "I'll bring them right out" but never appeared.

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Brunch and Sherry "Mimosa" at Bow and Truss (North Hollywood)

Bow and Truss is a new Spanish restaurant in North Hollywood featuring a sherry focused bar program by Aidan Demarest and Marcos Tello. They recently started doing brunch with a Latin slant and sherry brunch cocktails. I don't know how busy it gets at night, but it's a quiet and spacious place for brunch, with a beautiful bar at the center.

I did say the brunch menu leaned towards Latin flavors, but you may want to also get the Crepes with Almond Butter and house made caramel ($6)

Loved the texture of these crepes! With almond butter like this, you don't need syrup or toppings.

Since this is a sherry-centric bar, and since Aidan and Marcos doesn't mess around, even their brunch cocktails are special. The Mimosa de Manzana is no regular mimosa. They call it a "Spanish Style” mimosa and it's made with Pedro Ximenez sherry, organic apple juice, rosado, apple slice

It's still a "mimosa" so it's topped with some sparkly, but it's much better and much more interesting than your regular mimosa and bellinis! They also have Bloody Mary's here and I tried a sip of one which was quite good.

For the brunch entree I recommend the "I’m Creamy" with polenta, asparagus, charred corn, peppers, cotija, quail yolk, piquillo pepper sauce ($10)

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Wake Up The Zombie: Breakfast at The Raymond (Pasadena)

The Raymond and 1886 Bar have been my favorites in Pasadena, but I still have not been there during daylight, until now. They had been doing brunch but recently also started a weekend breakfast menu. I was invited in to try their new breakfast items (and cocktails!) on a Saturday "morning". On a nice warm day, opt for a table outside.

On the menu were the breakfast pastries and other backed goods, the eggs, and other breakfast staples like blueberry pain perdu, pancakes, etc.

I got the Italian Style Baked Eggs - prosciutto, potatoes, and mushrooms baked with tomatoes and parmesan. With fresh fruit and toast ($13)

My ideal breakfast (weekends are for eggs), with plenty of prosciutto and hearty tomato sauce.

With 1886 Bar attached to it, it would be a blasphemy not to order cocktails, even in the morning. The brunch cocktail list is not as extensive, which is to be expected, but I was surprised to see one thing on the menu: Zombie ($14). Drinking a zombie first thing in the morning (or afternoon)? Well, why not!

Zombie is a blend of three rums, passionfruit and demerara syrup, fresh lemon, lime and pineapple juice. The menu limits the Zombie order to two per customer, but if you don't already know beforehand how strong Zombies are, you won't be able to tell. 'Tis the beauty of tiki drinks.

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Sunday Brunch Buffet Extravaganza at TAPS Fish House & Brewery (Brea,CA)

When I think of brunch buffets, I think of the expensive $70+ ones at fancy hotels with fresh seafood and unlimited mimosas. At TAPS Fish House and Brewery, however, $35.99 gets you a buffet of over 100 items and your choice of beer or sparkling wine (2 TAPS beer or unlimited sparkling wine).

The owner Joe Manzella so loved the brunch he had in New Orleans that he was determined to replicate the fun here, with a balloon lady and all. He didn't know how well it would do but now TAPS does about 700 covers every Sunday brunch.

There's a DIY Bloody Mary Bar, though for our media tasting they had gone ahead and prepared some for us, complete with pepper, olive, and a cocktail shrimp as garnish.
 

There are over 100 items in this buffet. Where to start? Start with the fresh oysters, of course!

In this station they also had ceviches and dungeness crab salads. Then, move on to the made-to-order omelets

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Ra Pour, Take Two: Brunch (Rancho Cucamonga)

After our dinner at Ra Pour, we stayed at a nearby hotel and came back for brunch.

Since seeing it on the menu the night before, I had been eyeing the Chicken and Waffles: fried tenders, malted waffle, tabasco reduction, candied jalapeno, maple ($14). This was no doubt everyone's favorite. The chicken, despite being breast meat, was tender and the tabasco reduction gave the dish a nice little kick.

I liked how they did this as an appetizer. I'm always tempted to get chicken and waffles yet still want to try other things. With these small bites, I can happily eat them and still order an entree.

Overall, the prices at brunch are lower, although a couple dishes still seemed expensive, like the Fresh fruit of the season: melons, pineapple, papaya, mango, "local favorites", champagne, mint ($9)

Fresh fruits aren't cheap, they were good and the use of mint gave me ideas, but it still seems steep to be paying $9 for a plate of fruits.

The fruit plate and items like Yogurt Parfait with blueberry compote, fresh mixed berries, yogurt, granola ($7) make up the lighter options.

Entrees included things like eggs benedict and fried chicken, but I went with one of the more interesting options.

Duck Confit Hash: duck confit, beets, potato, bacon, soft herbs, poached eggs ($16)

The waiter described this as "like a confetti" and when it came, I can certainly see where he was coming from, especially with the thinly shredded, crispy beets adorning the top. This was the best out of the entrees I tried with interesting flavor combinations, although there were parts of the duck confit that were a little tough.

Ra Pour
7900 Kew Avenue
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739
(909) 899-7999
rapourrestaurant.com

Brunch at Lazy Dog Cafe (Torrance)

Usually my trips down to Torrance only involves Japanese restaurants and bakeries, but I broke the pattern on my latest trip with brunch at the Lazy Dog Cafe.

Here is what you need to get at brunch:
Sunny Side Up Pizza: white pizza with Spinach, Sundried Tomatoes, Bacon, topped with three fresh Eggs, baked until golden brown ($9.25)

Fellow blogger LA OC Foodie ordered this, but luckily he was generous enough to share. It was my favorite thing I had at Lazy Dog, especially the slices with the egg yolk on them. It's breakfast on a pie! Hmm, maybe they should put six eggs instead?

For sweet potato lovers, get the sweet potato tater tots with roasted jalapeno-lime aioli ($4.75)

The bacon lovers should try the Bacon Bloody Mary (Vodka, housemade crispy bacon infused bloody mary mix, pepperoncini, pickled cherry pepper,olive, bacon-corn nut salt, $7.50). I'm not a huge fan of savory cocktails and bloody marys so I didn't order one. I tried a sip of someone else's and it's got quite a kick to it! Bloody Mary lovers should enjoy this one.


Lazy Dog Cafe has their own house brews, made by the brewery Firestone Walker and you can get a taster of six for $6.95. The taster includes the Lazy Dog Honey Blonde, Lazy Dog American Hefe, Lazy Dog Bavarian Hefe, Lazy Dog Pale Ale, Lazy Dog Red and a seasonal beer (which happened to be the Firestone Velvet Merlin the day we went).

Out of the Lazy Dog beers, we liked the red ale the best, and I also liked the Bavarian Hefeweizen.

You can also get a sampler of their three house-made Sangrias: White Peach, Black-Currant Rose, and Pomegranate Red ($8.25)

The three have pretty distinct flavors. I liked the white peach and black-currant rose, but if you've never had them, the sampler trio is definitely the way to go.

It's rare to see fried rice on a brunch menu, especially at a western restaurant, so I was intrigued enough to order the Hawaiian Fried Rice: Stir-fried steamed rice with hickory-smoked bacon, pork sausage, cabbage, veggies and eggs ($7.95)

I wished they had put a sunny side up egg with runny yolk with this instead of the frittata-like egg. It's an enormous amount of food for the price-I could barely eat a third of it - but I much preferred the breakfast pizza.

We had to try the pancakes for dessert, especially one with a bacon butter, no?
Wild blueberry pancakes and maple bacon butter: Three large buttermilk blueberry pancakes, topped with blueberry compote, housemade maple bacon butter and syrup on the side ($7.75)

The maple bacon butter actually had chunks of bacon in them! This made me be picky when I spread the butter, as I had to look for the parts with the chunks. The small, wild blueberries are sweeter than the big supermarket kind and thus worked better as a pancake topping.

When you live far from Torrance, it's hard to go there without stopping at at least one Japanese restaurant or bakery, but Lazy Dog Cafe should certainly be a spot for the locals. The menu is a good value, they have their own brews plus a few more local craft beers on tap, and that addictive sunny side up pizza!

Lazy Dog Cafe
3525 W Carson St
Torrance, CA 90503
(310) 921-6080
lazydogcafe.com
 

Perfect Croissants and More for Brunch at Luca on Sunset

About a month ago, e*starLA blogged that Luca on Sunset has the best pastries in West Hollywood, so when I got invited for a brunch tasting, I was quite excited. Little did I know I would be in for an eight-course brunch!

Our brunch started with a spread of the pastries we couldn't get enough of:
croissant, almond croissant, chocolate brioche, scone, apple danish, blueberry muffin, sweet potato speck biscuit, citrus poppy seed muffin

The pastry chef at Luca, Rebecca West, apparently was a runway model in France, where she lived off of coffee and croissants. When that career had to end, she thought making croissants was the logical next step!
Well, it's true. The croissants are definitely some of the best I've had from the buttery plain croissant to the flaky chocolate brioche. I had been looking for a good pain du chocolat or something similar ever since Bite Bar closed, now I've found one.
If I didn't have the menu of the other seven courses in front of me as a reminder, I would eat all of them. ALL.

Unlike the muffins at most bakeries where they drop a few blueberries at the top so they're visible but there's nothing inside, Luca's muffin is chock full of blueberries inside!

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Brunch at M.B. Post (Manhattan Beach, CA)

I knew that the bacon cheddar biscuits at MB Post would be perfect for brunch. What I didn't know was that Chef David LeFevre had a lot more under his sleeves.

We even went from sweets to savory to sweets again. While waiting for the fourth person in our group to arrive, we started nibbling on the Sticky Buns with pecan and brown sugar ($6). This one's a must-get for the sweet-toothed, or just to share with the group.

Between the four of us, we tried many a great cocktails ($12 each), from the Last Rites (Sangria with Compass Box “Oak Cross” Scotch, lambrusco, pear, quince, hibiscus) to the Bloody Mary-derivative, the Coughlin’s Law (Tito’s Vodka, Belgian Pilsner, tomato, dill, bacon, and quail egg) and MO-PHO-JITO (mojito w/ starr, kaffir lime, mint, ginger, coriander honey).


A bowl of oro blanco grapefruit salad with grapes and honey is a lovely way to either start or finish light.

The fruits in this bowl was so sweet and fresh, they barely needed anything else!

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Brunch at Nopa (San Francisco)

Brunch is apparently as big in San Francisco as it is in Los Angeles, and there are plenty of great choices (which fill up right away). One of the places offering a more unique menu is Nopa.

Eggs are a staple brunch item for me so I went with the Curry spiced sausage, poached eggs, green lentils, kale, delicata squash, and coriander yogurt ($14)

The casing for the curry sausage gave a nice snap, and the sausage was flavorful. I also liked the runny egg yolk over the kale and lentils. My dish suddenly pales in comparison after trying my friend's dish, though:

Chile rubbed pork, fresh shelling beans, hominy, collard greens, and a black pepper biscuit ($14)

This was a hearty bowl packed with a lot of strong flavors. Tender chile rubbed pork? Intensely earthy collard greens? All check. It wasn't a dish I would've ordered at brunch (because it didn't have eggs), so I was really glad my friend did and I got to taste it.

Our other friend got the grass-fed Hamburger with housemade pickles, and herbed french fries ($13)

For part of dessert, we had a small order of the Custard French Toast, caramelized apples and maple butter ($6)

It was a very buttery French Toast, but I could've used more apples. Luckily our other dessert was the Rome Beauty Apple Tarte Tatin, sweet creme fraiche ($8)

I always love a good apple tart tatin. This one could've had more flaky pastry, but the coolness of the creme fraiche made up for it.

It was overall quite a good brunch and the food came out in a timely manner despite being so busy (I'm sure they've gotten it down by now). When you're bored of the standard eggs benedicts and omelettes, try this place out.


Nopa
560 Divisadero St
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 864-8643

nopasf.com