By There’s something about homegrown food that excites me. Maybe it’s the different texture or taste that stimulates my taste buds, or maybe it’s knowing that things taste better when it’s locally grown. Wait, now that I mention that, is food supposed to taste better everywhere you go if it’s locally grown? That’s a legit question. Wow. Sometimes I amaze myself. I suppose it depends on where you are and what you’re eating to make sense of the food being better if it’s “locally grown”. I decided to try out a locally grown restaurant in Santa Monica, California close to downtown Los Angeles. This restaurant is founded by Chef-Owner Jeff Cerciello. It’s most known for being creative, innovative, and its focus on quality.
There aren’t many restaurants that I’ve been to that are of high quality and offer an area to “grocery shop” in. This maybe the first restaurant that I’ve been to that offers that. It offers fresh meat along with a butcher, fresh cheese, different spices, and even has a wine cellar. My only regret from going to this restaurant is not walking ten steps and purchasing a bottle of wine to take back with me. When you go to this restaurant, please purchase me a bottle of wine! I decided to go to this restaurant for breakfast because I wanted something light but refreshing at the same time. This place is exactly what I was looking for, and much more! Led by manager Kyle, he provided excellent service in providing extensive details on how dishes were prepared and a little history of the restaurant.
A few dishes were ordered along with some pastries and desserts to give a little boost before I got back on the road. The dishes were the coddled eggs, house made pastrami, and the pastry basket. Let’s discuss the coddled eggs shall we? It consist of smoked salmon, mushroom conserva & brioche toast. Now, what makes this dish “coddled”? Kyle gave some great insight on what made the dish “coddled”. The eggs are poached, placed in a cup, mushrooms are added on top, and then baked in the oven for a certain amount of time on a low level temperature. Sounds interesting, right? Well this dish taste every bit of amazing. It was refreshing, light, and flavorful. If you decide to order this dish, make sure you order something else with it because you will leave hungry. I’m not a big bread eater, and bread quickly fills you up, so I’m sure if I would’ve eaten the bread I would’ve been quite fine. I love mushrooms, especially if they’re sauteed, so if you love them as much as I do, make sure you ask for extra mushrooms!
The next dish that was ordered was the House Made Pastrami & Poached Eggs. It consisted of thorne farm shishito peppers (which add great flavor to the dish as it gives a hint of spiciness), fresh cranberry beans, and sweet corn & chimichurri. Instead of having poached eggs for a second time, I opted for freshly scrambled eggs and told them to add some mushrooms in it. This was one of the best breakfast decisions made. The pastrami that sat on top of the bread, coupled with the eggs, and mushroom will send your taste buds on a journey they’ve never been on. The pastrami was flavorful and had a hint of smokiness to it but worked well with the sweetness of the cranberry and corn. The chimchurri took the dish to the next level as it added the extra kick it needed. The eggs were scrambled perfectly as they were light and a little runny. Eggs are delicate and should be cooked under low heat otherwise they will be hard and firm. They should be soft and have a light texture. If your eggs aren’t what I described, send them back and ask for them to be cooked the correct way. When you go to this restaurant, I’m confident that you won’t have to do that. I never had pastrami for breakfast so when this was ordered, I was excited to try something new and it didn’t let me down one bit.
Last but not least we have a fresh pastry basket. It consisted of a homemade chocolate chip cookie, fresh banana nut chocolate bread (possibly the best pastry I’ve had), and an almond croissant accompanied with their fresh jam and homemade butter. If you have a sweet tooth but want to be health conscientious at the same time this is the perfect dish for you. My favorite out of this group other than the chocolate chip cookie, because a warm chocolate chip cookie is the way to my heart, was the banana nut chocolate chip bread. I’ve never heard of a banana chocolate chip bread until this moment. It was soft, packed with flavor, and sweet. The croissant was pretty good as well, and even though I’m not a bread eater, this restaurant will persuade me to try more pastries when I go to different places.
Overall, this restaurant is a go to. The customer service, the experience, the quality of the freshness that derives from this restaurant is like no other. Shame on you if you’re in Los Angles and don’t take a trip to this restaurant in Santa Monica and head to the beach afterwards. Let me know of your thoughts when you go.
SavoryTravels 