Coffeextravagance
1636 Silver Lake Blvd.
Phone: 323-663-4441 | map | website

How they did it I don't know. There is a bitter air of gentrification hovering over Silver Lake, what with landlord disagreements, restaurant closings (Back Door Bakery, Eat Well on Sunset, Netty's a while back*). However, amid the skepticism, this coffee boutique with an obvious metric ton of money invested in itself manages to thrive.

It is not a casual vibe, at least not yet for us. The decor makes me imagine a wealthy Swedish ex-stewardess widow has just invited me in for an evening of racy endeavours. Electric-pastel chairs with crocodile-, ostrich- and snake-skin patterns. Small square black tables. A large, idyllic Greco-Roman pastoral scene a la toile de jouy on the wall. Waitstaff in black. Coffee served with organic milk, with elaborate presentation.

And they are about coffee, most certainly. Eton Tsuno is their "coffee savant," and he is accompanied by Michael Cimarusti (menu) and Adrian Vasquez (desserts). I'll let you look these people up.

The coffees and teas are made, depending on your point of view, with: 1) extreme, frighteningly technological fanaticism, or 2) devoted precision. To one not fully versed in coffee, it is roasted by German Probat G60 commercial roasters, whatever those are, and available in a bewildering array of methods: Eva Solo designer coffee and tea makers, Chemex coffee makers, a copper La Marzocco espresso machine, and the much-publicized $11,000 Clover. Some will think this all pretentious and snobbish, but believe me, there are places more deserving of the word.

I started easy: an iced mocha. It arrived on a light wooden coaster, and was sublime enough to make me order another when I had finished it, unable to make it last. Bianca had an orange-infused cappuccino and pronounced it very textured and complex; a second one proved too heavy. There is only so much silk in which one can be wrapped.

The food is tightly made, small-portioned meals with lots of thought put into them. The "Not Quite French Toast" is brioche brushed with a caramelized vanilla/cinnamon/sugar high. There are baked-egg casseroles with crab or wild mushrooms. Pressed chorizo sandwiches. Clam fritters with yuzu kosho mayonnaise, which we've yet to try.

LA MILL** is upscale, and it will set you back in a manner unexpected for what amounts to some coffee, pastries and a small breakfast meal, but we thought it worth the experience. It is not your everyday, in/out quick java fix, but an exploration of international coffee culture.

I will try a cafe con leche next time.

* It's still meant to open eventually as reservoir, which is promising. Still, it's sad to see any restaurant casually mentioned by Claire in a Six Feet Under episode go. I never bothered with Back Door Bakery myself.

** It's pronounced "lah-mill," by the way.

The Best Burrito in Los Feliz... and Hollywood?
2056 Hillhurst Ave. (original location) | map
4666 Hollywood Blvd. (new location) | map
Phone: 323-661-0523 | website

The original location is a tiny little stand on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. You order from the pleasant lady behind the window; behind her you can see four other people working in a space about the size of a closet. You wait with a bevy of patient Yuca's fans, then sit outside with a little bottle of hot sauce and go to work.

The carnitas are moist and amazing, the machaca even more so. I get the cochinita pibil, which is Yucatán style slow-roasted, citrus-marinated pork. The burritos are wide, flat and require some manual dexterity once you get near the end of them, because of the juice from the meat and the pinto beans threatening to run down your forearm.

Now a slightly larger taqueria has opened on Hollywood Blvd. & Vermont (where Casa Diaz used to be). It's got a bigger menu and is still working through some kinks, but it's got indoor seating, a bit of parking, and some bright decor. They have drinks, too (at the Hillhurst stand, you'd usually go into the liquor store next door to acquire a beverage before ordering), so I get a horchata which is sweet and has a bit of cinnamon coating the bottom of the cup.

So, Yuca's on Hillhurst: the original source for your junkie cravings. Great for lunch; they close at six. The Hollywood location: open until nine in case you're hungry later. Both are closed on Sundays, which is a painful thing to realize when you're thinking about a burrito on a Sunday.

Un lugar a relajarse y a gozar
3129 Sunset Blvd.
Phone: 323-661-8055 | map | website

Man, but it's hard to write when you're sleepy from a meat-high.

We went to La Parrilla today: one of those Mexican restaurants where you don't want your typical combo meal, but want home-style, no-frills comfort food, where people come in for their Sunday morning menudo. Rancheras are softly playing over the speakers, the women are wearing lacy white dresses, the bricks are painted gaily and the place is decorated to the gills. There are stations where someone is making fresh, thick, homemade corn tortillas, and excellent guacamole.

There is even a little burro (named Brasero, assuming the waitress understood me correctly when I asked if the burro had a name, and assuming I understood her reply) standing atop the long island running down the middle of the restaurant.

You start slowly and without a bang at La Parrilla. Bianca had a can of Tecate, I had iced tea, which arrives in the biggest damn plastic glass you ever saw. The two salsas are a dark, almost brown spicy salsa and the chopped onion/cilantro/serrano, although the chips aren't terribly warm. The soup is a thin but flavorful vegetable affair, but I suspect that it's more for repopulating your lost vitamins from whatever you were doing last night, rather than to blow your mind with a soup experience.

Today Bianca had the chile verde just to try it out; the pork was rich and swimming in sauce, and the beans were what she described as silky. I had the Platon de Patron. Good Lord. Grilled steak, nicely black around the edges. Oh, and grilled chorizo on top of it. On top of that? Chipotle pork tenderloin. Heap some of that atop a fresh corn tortilla, pinto beans and a little rice and guacamole, and you too would be as stupid and sluggish as I am right now.

La Parrilla also specializes in parrilladas, which are grilled dishes that come piled on a fajita-like metal grill, and dishes such as enchiladas de nopal, which satisfy one's occasional craving for cactus. We also recommend the molcajete arriero: shrimp with cactus, panela cheese and onions, covered in a molcajete-made sauce (a molcajete is the stone mortar used for grinding spices).

They're open every day until 11pm, and they have four locations (we need to try the one on East Side on Cesar Chavez). At the Silver Lake location, park on the street or in the tiny lot next to El 7 Mares.

The service can be slow, but relax. You're in a Mexican restaurant on a warm day with older gentlemen calmly strolling by playing guitars. Are you in a hurry?

kung ang hanap mo ay lasa
130 N. Maryland Ave. (in Glendale)
Phone: 818-241-0880 | map

I do not claim expertise in Filipino cuisine, but so far I've immensely enjoyed the food over at Salo-Salo. I've seen reviews complaining of dry food and bad service, but perhaps that's from an earlier time, or during dinner hours. My time for Filipino is lunch.

Usually I'll get the Sizzling sisig, which is spicy pork seasoned with chili peppers and calamansi and served with onions (it's probably not authentic, considering that it's meant to be pig's head and liver, but the menu admits it's an "interpretation" of pulutan). That, with a cool glass of calamansi juice (a sour citrus fruit drink that looks like orange and tastes sort of lime-ish), will make me slow and agreeable for the remainder of the day.

Or, I can recommend the Kuya's Fried Chicken lunch special, which comes falling off the bone with garlic fried rice, their slender egg rolls and a single fried plantain-in-the-skin that is more robust than sweet, and a little hard to dig into. There is also a small tub of what they tell me is ketchup but is almost like a sweet jelly.

Or, I can tell you that the miki guisado (stir-fried egg noodles with fish balls and Chinese sausage, and, bless us all, lechon bits), is satisfyingly day-slowing as well.

Want breakfast? Longanisa pampanga: a sweet pork sausage grilled, with garlic rice and two eggs. Is that breakfast? Yes, Virginia, yes. It is.

I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps all this fried food is not ideal for my cholesterol, sodium or fat intake, but perhaps if I whistle merrily and don't think about it everything will be fine (tongue firmly planted in cheek).

Their slogan is Kung Hanap Ay Lasa, which I can helplessly assume is Tagalog, but if you know what it means, please leave a comment... although I see that my friend Ade has done so already.

Silver Lake's Local Pizza Joint
2664 Griffith Park Blvd. (@ Hyperion)
Phone: 323-661-5656 | map | website

Hard Times is apparently another of those Silver Lake places that used to be godlike a couple of years before we moved here. Now, there seems to be a high employee turnover rate, the management looks kind of surly and irritable at having to make pizza for people, and they're not quick to deliver because they're usually frenetic. There's an unfortunate, needless LED sign colorfully blaring in front of the building.

That said, it's still one of the places we keep picking up the phone and calling when we need delivery*. It's young and energetic, and at least the delivery people have always been pleasant. Inside there's a vintage Charles Bronson movie poster of the same name.

They have a thick, square Sicilian style and a thin, round Neopolitan style, and we go for the latter. As long as you don't overload your pizza with toppings (this isn't Pizza Hut, after all), which really should be the point of proper pizza anyway, you should do well. Pepperoni or chicken, garlic, black olives, that sort of thing. The garlic bread is shrug-worthy, but the salads and pasta salads are fresh.

A slice of New York in Los Angeles? Probably not. But if you're still ordering from the corporate high-volume delivery joints** and you're ready to move beyond that, Hard Times is worth a try.

* Or, since we live close, it's a good idea to order and pick up. We save about twenty or thirty minutes. Besides, if you pick up, you can buy bottles of Heineken from them.

** Although I'd probably still slow down and pick up Round Table if it was hooking itself on the street.

Okay, It's Trendy, But Relax Already
1850 N. Vermont Ave. (in Los Feliz)
Phone: 323-667-0062 | map | website

Retro has become an embarrassing word. One could argue that Fred 62 (named because both founders are named Fred and were born five years before I was) tries desperately to be hip, but to us there is still charm and comfort in it. It's not supposed to be a diner from the '50s; it's a diner from a quietly hyper-now that nods in appreciation to Hollywood. It is trendy, pretentious perhaps, but what else should one be in Los Feliz? There is still honesty in its stylings.

The seats are vinyl with an automotive theme; greyscale drawings of classic Hollywood celebrities dot the walls; spindly metal tables and chairs are outside and usually filled. The inked-and-pierced waitstaff wear black t-shirts with brassy sayings on them*. There always seems to be a scruffy guy sitting nearby, just this side of thirty, wearing a frumpy tweed hipster hat. There will also always be someone expounding on his screenplay to his companions. Sometimes it's the same guy.

The menu is creative diner fare with some healthy alternatives, given punny names. The Dime Bag is your usual pancakes/hash browns/bacon or sausage. The Juicy Lucy is their classic hamburger replete with thousand island dressing. Mr. Frenchy is French toast, and the bearded Mr. Frenchy comes cornflake-encrusted (not the gloriously crunchy French toast like Jinky's Cafe does it, but good and fluffy).

I like the Fred McMurray (buttered bun with scrambled eggs, sausage patty and hash browns) and the Charles Bukowski (grilled ham and cheddar on sourdough). Fred 62 does bread quite well (i.e., where you lick toasted, buttery crumbs from your fingertips). Fries are nicely greasy and come in a cutoff paper bag.

They have surprisingly good udon and soba, but they don't give them funny names.

They have coffee and mocha shakes, and you know how I feel about that.**

Some regulars who have come here for years are disillusioned with the inversely proportional ratio of waitstaff attitude versus food quality. So far we've been lucky. For a brief and balanced debate regarding Fred 62 I appreciate the words of Josh, Dave and John, especially since one of them mentions the Astro Diner on Fletcher, a personal comfort zone which I shall review soon.

* e.g., "JESUS IS OUR DISHWASHER", "LESBIANS EAT OUT", "EAT NOW, DINE LATER".

** Maniacally pleased.

Addendum: Oddly enough, this is post ID #62. The world is uncanny.