Cortez - Los Angeles

This past weekend some girlfriends and I took a little day trip to Los Angeles. My usual MO has been to go up and spend the night - which is great too - but the day trip actually works pretty well, especially with a group of friends who make the drive a a pleasure instead of a chore.  We started the day with brunch at Cortez - a cafe in Echo Park run by the same lovely folks behind Cookbook - a small grocery and take out shop a few blocks away.
 The menu at Cortez is small, but everything on it sounded fantastic.  If you're familiar with Boulette's Larder at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, it was like that, only more California and less French, with half the price and pretension.  (I've been fantasizing a lot about opening a food business lately, and this was eerily close to what I imagine it would look like.)

I had the farro and lentils with harissa and egg - which came with a big tangle of fried shallots.  Something like this runs the risk of being bland or heavy, but this was neither - the perfectly cooked runny egg mingled with the harissa and farro to form a hearty but not gut-busting breakfast dish.
 Desi and Jora had the merguez sausage on flatbread with yogurt, pickles and greens - and Jora added an egg.  The lamb sausage was mild and the pickles added a nice sharp accent.   Elise had the white beans with smoked tomatoes, chard and an egg - which also had great flavor.
We shared some roasted kabocha squash with sage browned butter and shaved cheese, and the flatbread with avocado honey and olive oil.   To drink, we had blood orange juice (I did anyway, I was still recovering from a wicked hangover) and cappuccinos, and Elise had beautiful fresh mint tea - just mint steeped in boiling water.  The flatbread with honey and olive oil was pretty much the perfect indulgence.  It reminded me of the sopapillas at Tomasitas in Santa Fe.   I liked it so much I bought some of the honey at Cookbook later.

I was also really taken with the design of the place - it's a small room, with two long communal tables and a small bar in front of the kitchen. It feels open and airy with the simple wood & brick interior and high ceilings.  The accents - copper, citrus, dried herbs - strike the perfect note of modern California chic, and I  liked that it doesn't look just like every other hipster retro-pharmacy/train-station style joint out there.

After we ate, the place cleared out and we started chatting with Stephen and Jitson.  (I don't know what it was about this trip but we just made friends wherever we went.  LA has become so friendly lately!)  We even got them to pose for a photo.  When I originally asked if I could take pictures, Stephen said sure, just follow and tag us on Instagram!  (@restaurantcortez)While we were chatting, they mentioned that Jonathan Gold had recently savaged them in the LA Times - I pulled up the review and read it on the spot.  I usually like his reviews, but I think he may be off base on this one.   He went for dinner - which may be a substantially different experience than brunch, but he waxed rhapsodic about the food, calling one dish "just short of stunning" - so clearly the food was not the problem.  His main complaint seemed to be that the portions were too small and the wine ran out too soon.  A choice quote:  "You are going to cut the two globes of merguez sausage neatly into halves, wrap your bit in a bandage-sized scrap of flatbread and hope that you have not taken more than your allotted half-teaspoonful of yogurt sauce."  Their response:  just ask for more!  He also rather snottily references "screechy  jazz" and claims "if you belong here, you know who you are."  Oof.  The most irritating part is that it seems the review is mostly for effect - since he comes into Cookbook all the time, and has never uttered a complaint about the atmosphere there or seemingly felt out of place.  Regardless - I  doubt his review will deter anyone who would otherwise be inclined to go there for dinner,  and I for one can't wait to try it!

Stay tuned for more of our adventures on the East Side!

Cortez 
1356 Allison Ave in Echo Park - just off Sunset
Los Angeles, CA
(213) 481-8015

Roast Coach | Coffee & Tea Collective | Dark Horse - North Park

While there's certainly no shortage of coffee bars in San Diego, until recently there's been a bit of a shortage of good ones.  Three lovely new spots in the urban zone are helping with that.

You'll find the Roast Coach girls at their hand-built wooden stand in front of Sea Rocket Bistro on 30th near Upas and their brand new second location downtown at 330 A Street.  They do pour over coffee and delicious iced drinks like the "Southern Hospitality" pictured here - a blend of cold brew, fresh mint, chicory, sugar and cream.  Check out the menu here.

Most days they also do fantastic Aabelskivers - round pancakes cooked on a special gas griddle right there on the sidewalk.  There is always a sweet one and sometimes a savory - these were filled with lemon curd & blueberries.  They have a few pastries available from a local vendor, but I seldom get there early enough to get a good one.   The pour over coffee is like rocket fuel. Their Ethiopian Sidiamo actually prompted me to switch to pour over brewing at home and I haven't looked back.

A few blocks away on El Cajon Boulevard, Coffee & Tea Collective is upping the bar for espresso in the area... most of the time at least.  Though all the pieces are there, the coffee sometimes isn't as good as it should be.  The cortados and macchiatos are often a little too milky and not hot enough - but the espresso itself is good, the cold brew is delicious and they are pros at the pour over technique.

The space is lovely and the people are very nice - I keep going back because I like the environment so much.

This was a macchiato - a good one.

I especially like their ever-changing art exhibits.  The work is interesting and usually for sale  for reasonable prices.  Funny story - I bought something from a recent show and it turned out they had already sold it to someone else - they had to tell Jora to tell me to bring it back.  At least I got a free coffee out of it.

I have also enjoyed the beans I've bought from them, especially the Bolivian Yanaimo. (I may be spelling that wrong.)  All of their beans are medium roast and have great full flavor.  Since I personally like my coffee a smidge on the darker side though, I've been buying my beans at Dark Horse Roasters on Adams Avenue.  They opened just a few months ago in a tiny space on Adams near the post office in Normal Heights.  They sell their own house-roasted beans and serve pour over & cold brew and a few pastry items - including vegan donuts.  Their Sumatra is my current jam. :)

If the hipster scene at these places just isn't your thing - there is always Peet's in Hillcrest.  It was my mainstay for years, and pretty much the only place I would order an espresso.  It had slid a bit in recent months, but they have a new barista there who made me the best coffee I've had in as long as I can remember the other day.  It was a good thing, seeing as how it was a quadruple macchiato. "Yes, quadruple."  For some reason I always have to repeat that.   It was syrupy, not the slightest bit bitter, with good crema and just the right amount of foam. Most importantly, it made the drive to work immediately afterwards a pleasure, not a chore.  I'm sure the lovely chat with Vince and invigorating morning workout helped  - but there's just nothing like a perfect coffee to get your day going in the right direction - which is why I'm so glad to see these places popping up.
I also want to give a shout out to a couple of other great local coffee options: Dave Wasserman's  Joes on the Nose coffee truck appears at most of the local farmers markets and does catering gigs too.  He makes a great cup and some delicious island themed iced treats like the Aloha mocha with coconut whipped cream.  He's also a really nice guy, and was the first person to give me a cup of brewed coffee that tasted good without cream.  Paul and James of West Bean appear at local events (like the Camp Confab, pictured above), supply local restaurants and run an online store, though they have yet to open a cafe.  I need to try their beans again now that I have the proper apparatus for brewing.  The old percolator just doesn't extract the full flavor from their freshly roasted beans!

Polite Provisions | Soda & Swine - Normal Heights

Hello there!  It has been a while hasn't it?  I sure have missed you! I hope you've missed me too, at least a little bit.  There were a few reasons for the long absence - we moved, for one thing.  This probably isn't the right place to tell that story (or at least this post isn't) but suffice it to say we have relocated to a more central "urban" neighborhood and I am pretty happy about it, though I miss my fruit trees and being super close to Jora. I have also been busier than I would like with work - which prompted me to give up everything else and make that numero uno for a time (and it still is, really) - but I have very sorely missed the outlet this blog gives me to be at least a little bit creative.  There isn't much room for that in the old law business.
One silver lining of the relocation is that it's easier to get out more.  We weren't THAT much farther from civilization in the old house, but that extra fifteen or twenty minutes each way just made the casual night out on a weekday that much less likely to happen.   The abundance of fun new places to check out in the North Park/Normal Heights/South Park area is also great motivation.  The other night we checked out Polite Provisions and Soda & Swine with Desi and Josh.  We got there early - because it just worked out that way and because I figured it would be a good idea with it being a new popular spot and all.  It was already packed at 5 PM and became progressively more so as the night went on.  I would also recommend getting there early because the space is so lovely and light-filled with the huge skylights.  They (Arsalun Tafazoli & Consortium Holdings, the same team behind Neighborhood, Craft & Commerce and Underbelly) really put some money into the decor in this place - it's all mirrors, marble and wood with lots of brass light fixtures.  The drinks we had were good. I especially liked the Kitty Pryde, with tequila and cherry herring.  James knocked back two of the Lawyer's Privilege with bourbon, orgeat and bitters, and the Oceanside - with gin, mint & celery, and Misty Mountain Buck with housemade ginger beer & bourbon were pretty good too - though I thought the Buck could have used more kick. The drinks seemed to lean a little toward the sweet side overall.

The bar is connected to "Soda & Swine" - a more casual spot that serves food.  They will bring you food in the bar side - but you have to walk over there to order it.  I couldn't figure out if you can also drink on the Soda & Swine side, but it didn't look like it - nobody in there seemed to have cocktails and they stock lots of bottled sodas like Cheerwine and root beer.  The room features two long rows of picnic tables outfitted with swanky red stools and a huge metal-clad fireplace.  The vibe is much more casual and quieter - partly because the ceiling is open to the sky and the sound isn't reverberating.
The food menu is simple - it consists of several varieties of meatballs including a chicken one that was surprisingly tasty and a vegetarian quinoa with pesto which was also nice.  The chorizo tasted like a sloppy joe.  Surprisingly, the one we liked the least was the plain old beef with marinara - it was dry and the sauce was negligible.
You can get your meatballs in a slider, a sub sandwich or on a plate - and they have an assortment of sides to match.  The prices are around $4 per meatball and $3 per side. As for the sides, they wrap the scotch egg in the same chorizo the meatball is made of, so you probably don't need both.  The brussel sprouts with bacon were fine, but the shaved apple salad was a slightly sloppy overly sweet pile of shaved apple with small cubes of sharp cheese and celery - it needed a lot more watercress and more acid.

The main problem is, if you're going to just offer one thing, it should be really good, and what we had just wasn't that great.  It could have been that they were overwhelmed, it could have been that they're still working things out in the kitchen - but the bottom line is I am in no big hurry to rush back there for another  meatball, and since there's nothing else to try, I'm in no hurry to rush back period.  The long line indicates that the place is a hit - but they're getting a lot of disappointed reviews on Yelp (especially about the pie, so fair warning there.)  Hopefully, things will straighten out a bit in the near future, but until they do I'm more likely to do my small plates dining and cocktailing at the bar at Jayne's across the street, or El Take it Easy just a few blocks down.

Polite Provisions and Soda & Swine
30th at Adams
4696 Adams Ave
San Diego, CA  92116