Square One Dining, the place hidden behind that Ugly Blue Building

Square One Dining in East Hollywood (that's what the locals call the area, who am I to disagree) is nestled behind the bluest thing since Violet Beauregarde, the Scientology palace on Sunset. I love the food here but I do have one major problem, the service is soso when it gets busy. So that means Monday thru Friday for breakfast instead of the weekends. Oh and there will be a 15 minute if you go on the weekends. When I say love referring to the food, I don't mean best friend from high school love, I mean Mom & Dad thanks for the Sega Genesis on Christmas Love!! If you want to start with coffee your good because their serving Intelligentsia. From there you have three must try options. Maybe more but I'm still in a rotation of these three. A must try is what they were originally famous for, pancakes covered in a homemade Carmel bacon syrup. Yep, your drooling now, I know it, because so am I. Next on the list is the french toast covered in candied pecans and a to die for homemade vanilla whip cream. This is amazing and I'm not even a huge fan of french toast. My favorite though, and the thing I order the most is the in house cured smoked salmon eggs benedict on potato pancakes. Growing up in Alaska I became quite a smoked salmon snob so I'm weary any time I see it on a menu. I decided to give it a try and it was just like home, by way of Los Feliz that is. Please go and try this place, I promise you won't be disappointed, unless they lose your ticket for an hour. Yeah that happened to me on a weekend trip there lol.

I don't own these photos

LA Weekly Pancake Breakfast Part 3!!! Yeah it was that great

I've always been a big proponent of the LA Weekly; I believe Jonathan Gold's tenure at the paper made me a better foodie with the knowledge he passed on. Even though Mr. Gold is gone I still love supporting the food events they have and am always surprised about how well they turn out. The Pancake breakfast this year was no exception. The highlights for me were the savory pancakes at Gottsui, blueberry pancakes at BLD, the cronut at semi sweet bakery and prime rib quesadilla Chego's own Roy Choi was serving up. On the coffee front Kris Fulton from LAMILL was pouring amazing single origins thru the Hario V60. The crew from Handsome Coffee was there also with espresso, americanos and ice coffee, hope you didn't ask for sugar when you stopped thru. Pastries were plentiful with Village Bakery and Monica from Nickle Diner. Met so many great people at this event, can't wait for the next one.

LA Weekly's Best Ice Cream Shops

I love the LA Weekly, Jonathan Gold's food articles in the late 2000's really inspired my love for food. Even though Mr. Gold is gone I still turn to the LA Weekly first for my food news. This top ten ice cream shop list is good but it only mentions the West Side location of Scoops. I prefer the original location by LACC. This little spot is great, very interesting ice cream combos all made that morning. Try the Brown Bread that's what they are known for. Next door is one of my favorite 3rd wave coffee shops, Cafecito Organico.




http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/07/10_best_ice_cream_shops_in_los.php

LA Weekly Pancake Breakfast

The best bang for your buck LA food fest has to be the pancake breakfast the LA Weekly is putting on for it's third year. The first year was curated by former LA Weekly stalwart Jonathan Gold. The food was great but there was one problem; too many pancakes. Well last years breakfast with out Mr. Gold was a vast improvement. With baked french toast from Auntie Em's, pastries from Village & Nickle Diner and single origin coffee provided by Handsome & Cafecito Organico last years event became a great eclectic breakfast event. The best part is it's only 30 dollars, and they have an open bar! Hope too see you there.


Click the link below to purchase tickets
http://microapp.laweekly.com/pancakebreakfast/


The first year they gave away these great mugs from Harry & David; definitely worth the 30 dollar price of admission! I still use it everyday at work.

Terri and her mom from Auntie Em's serving up some amazing french toast at last years event.