WHY For excellent homestyle sweets: German chocolate cake, banana pudding with vanilla wafers, layer cakes, cupcakes, whoopie pies and lemon squares. WHAT This nostalgia-driven bake shop dressed in retro colors turns out desserts that owner Susan Sarich found on her grandmother’s recipe cards. Several more locations, including Calabasas (23653 Calabasas Rd., 818.591.2223) and Manhattan Beach [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Gorgeous cakes, breakfast pastries and cookies that taste as good as they look. WHAT This is L.A.’s high-end birthday-cake central, turning out superb Almond Roca, chocolate mocha praline, passionfruit with apricot, triple berry, even red velvet cakes. They’re no bargain, though, and the service can be less than warm. But the cakes are so [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY A good selection of veggie burgers, and respectable beef burgers, too. WHAT Better than its sibling on Melrose, this Astro is full day and night. It’s the usual fast-food menu—burgers, dogs, fries, pastrami—with a few interesting additions, like the fiery chicken quesadilla. The crowd can get a little rowdy in the wee hours. WHO [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY For ‘slow’ fast food that’s really tasty: pulled pork, rotisserie chicken, burgers, Belgian fries, fresh salads and monster cupcakes. WHAT A former drive-through got a near-complete makeover but still retained its ’60s A-frame goofiness. The gimmick is fast food prepared the slow way, with quality ingredients—a burger joint for people who read Cook’s Illustrated [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY For its famous crusty baguettes and hearty artisanal loaves speckled with nuts, herbs and olives. WHAT The original bakery home of former Campanile pastry chef Nancy Silverton still has some of the best bread in town—and it’s wholly different in quality from the grocery-store brand bearing the same name. WHO Tourists checking it off [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Croissants for breakfast, quiches and such salads as dried cherry and brie for lunch, picnic boxes and lavish cakes—try the chocolate peanut butter mousse or berry blossom. WHAT Exquisite tarts and pastries are laid out in glass cases in this European-style bakery, with tables for enjoying sweets up to 11 p.m. 7122 Beverly Blvd., [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Cheeseburgers and banana cream pie. WHAT This no-frills diner with a long counter and even longer lines serves fantastic burgers, very good short-order breakfasts and house-made pies that are famous enough to draw folks from around Southern California. In fact, just about every food group on the wall-mounted menu has its passionate devotees, including [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY The Kobe burger, made with American Kobe beef, smoked mozzarella, caramelized onion, tomato, mixed greens and herb mayo on a ciabatta bun, attracts burger buffs from as far away as Woodland Hills. WHAT This born-in-1952 fast-food institution has been spiffed up for a new era, with gleaming tile and shiny tables. The food is [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY A dessert case packed with dreamy retro desserts, including Hostess-never-had-it-so-good chocolate cupcakes. WHAT Heirloom’s first-rate breads and baked goods, fine sandwiches (try the Cuban) and excellent salads (especially the Cobb) have made it one of the most popular breakfast and lunch spots in South Pasadena. The setting is stylish, hip and friendly, and the [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY New York strip, spinach with caramelized sweet onions, well-mixed drinks, and, for those who save room, chocolate soufflé. WHAT The setting is retro-modern—rich mahogany, white linens, etched glass, Craftsman-influenced light fixtures—and the fare is reliable comfort food for the captains-of-industry set. Prime steak is a specialty, along with simple and carefully prepared sides (asparagus, [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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