Filed under: Food, Santa Monica | Tags: breakfast, Huckleberry, Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica, Zoe Nathan
I don’t like paying a lot for breakfast because it’s stuff I generally can make at home; at the same time, it’s probably my favorite meal to go out for when I can. There’s something lovely about lounging around at the beginning of the day, eating, talking, and contemplating the hopes and plans for the rest of the day, rather than bitching over dinner about the regrets and anger about that assignment you should have taken at work because you badly need the billable hours. Welcome, Huckleberry!!
Huckleberry Cafe is the bakery/day-time offspring of Rustic Canyon and its James Beard-nominated pastry chef, Zoe Nathan. This place has been in the works for a while; along with Santa Monica Seafood a few doors down, we’ve been busy with excitement over their simultaneous openings. I’ve been particularly excited about Huckleberry, because Santa Monica severely lacks in solid breakfast fare. Don’t give me the overpriced Bread and Porridge; Snug Harbor is meh; and Swingers is good but typical. The openings of these places also were a nice distraction from yet another shit week at work, this time infused with potential layoff politics. I wanted to start a pool to place bets on the date that they will announce the bloodshed; so far, no takers.
Back to the more important topic: food. In the tradition of all things beachside, the cafe is super airy with lots of natural light. I really like that. A huge menu showcases breakfast items (pancakes and eggs), and a huge counter showcases their pastries. A lot of pastries.
We got there around 9:30am on Saturday, usually a decent time to get breakfast around here, but it was already mad with activity, with all manners of white people and their families at every nook and cranny of the cafe. Other than one Asian woman, we again were the only non-white people there. I guess all the rest of the Asians were over at Amandine. We got into the huge line and surveyed the menu – for brunch, it goes from $8 for two soft-boiled eggs all the way to $12 for brisket, “green” eggs and ham, and poached eggs. Coffee is $2.75. Whenever substantive breakfast choices top $10 and the coffee is over $2 … well, you’re starting to pay lunch and even dinner prices, just for breakfast. That’s dangerous.
Whenever I bitch about not having enough affordable food options in Santa Monica, someone inevitably reminds me of Bay Cities or Santa Monica Seafood. I’ve talked about Bay Cities before; Santa Monica Seafood, though, is a different story. At its former location on Colorado and 11th, it was primarily our local source for fresh fish and amazing …ly expensive mango salsa. In addition to fresh fish, a very tiny portion of the shop was devoted to non-fish, but fish-related essentials, the cashier counter, and general walking space. Not totally comfortable, especially when it got Bay Cities-crazy during peak hours. Effective yesterday, SMS has moved to the corner of 10th and Wilshire.
I think the prior tenant was Carl’s Jr. and/or some other fast food restaurant. Before totally gutting and renovating the space, SMS opened its then-shabby ass storefront with a fairly limited menu with even more limited operating hours, sort of an experimentation lab while it decided on its menu and got used to the kitchen. The girlfriend and I hit up the pre-fab SMS and while the food was good – your basic chowders, fish and chips, etc. – the space was horrendous: retro 70s baby turquoise lacquered pastel, fast food-style booths and tables, and horrific linoleum. I mean, you felt like you were eating in a fish tank. What they did with the space is amazing.
Filed under: Food, Santa Monica | Tags: angry, cocktail, dessert, pizza, Riva, Santa Monica, torta della nonna
Santa Monica is tough. Just tough. There are not nearly enough good, decent, wholesome under $20 places here. It makes me mad. Every time something new opens up, I get super excited and think that maybe this is it! … but then each time (looking at you, Bar Pinxto), I leave sorely disappointed. Sore. Ly.
Riva just opened on 3rd and Wilshire. This is from the makers of Fraiche in Culver City, which I have heard great, great things about, but have not gotten around to going just yet. Early reports indicated that Riva’s pizzas were “phenomenal” to quote one Chowhounder who I will never trust again. (Edit: Someone on Chowhound points out that they can’t find this post. Me neither. I don’t know where it went, but I swear this is what I read.) Other reports kind of alluded to the entrees on the menu – whole organic chicken, quail, lamb, etc. I figured those would be really expensive, but if the pizzas were under $20 and good, then it might be worth it. More than one person said that the cocktails were great. So, in an ideal world, I was hoping for The Hungry Cat’s cocktails plus Mozza’s pizza, all under one roof. Too much to ask! Stupid.
Second day in its soft opening, and the front room was full of people in business outfits and ties and their hanger-on girlfriends/trophy wives in the highest of heels and the longest of hair extensions. This made me sad for those people.
We were led to the back area, as were another couple a few minutes later. They were pretty angry about this and insisted that they be given a new table in the main dining room so that everyone could see his tight pants and long boots and her tight pants and long boots. Us, we were pretty happy to get away from the scene.
Everything is expensive. Cocktails at $10-12; crudo and appetizers at $9-15; pizzas $13-17ish; entrees in the high 20s, low 30s, like a bad day on the East Coast. We were here for a cocktail and a pizza.
Cocktails – disappointingly, typical fancy-bar flavors. We ordered something with elderflower. This was $12.
This was not worth it. Our first reaction was, So small! But really, there is a lot of alcohol in here, so it’s not a total rip-off. It was probably the right amount for how it tasted – any more and it would have been an oversaturation of spirits and sweetness (from the elderflower, which was interesting in it of itself) (but not that interesting, you could just use lavender to get that same effect). That said, it was good, but not great, and certainly not outstanding. And for those of you who say, Oh, that’s just what a cocktail costs in this city – fine, true, but this doesn’t mean the bar gets a license to cop out. You pay $12 for your mediocre cocktails, I’m getting another pizza for this price.
