It took years for Silver Lake to get a taste of the kind of fresh, casual modern food that was found in other neighborhoods. Venice got Lemonade, Downtown got Mendocino Farms, Third St. got Joan's on Third, West Hollywood got Food + Lab...and until Forage arrived, Silver Lake mostly got bupkus. Now the scruffy, spacy vegan place a few doors down from Dusty's has become the third outpost of Food + Lab, and it's a sleekly designed breakfast and lunch spot -- as well as a great chance to check out the stores that flank it, Sumi's and Gogosha Optique.
Soon, Food + Lab will be open for dinner until 10, and like Forage it's useful for takeout as well. There's no particular theme to the menu -- just quality organic products with European touches -- everything from organic eggs with Austrian speck for brunch to a proscuitto, fig and ricotta sandwich on raisin walnut bread and some attractive salads in the deli case. Meinl coffee from Austria comes cafe au lait style in big ceramic bowls or Austrian style with whipped cream.
Sandwiches are mostly in the $10 range, but I didn't need any dinner after my huge tuna sandwich on olive bread. Tapenade, apples and red onions brought lots of flavor to the sandwich, which comes with a pickle cup.
Chicken arugula salad with apples, grapes and candied pecans in a creamy dressing wasn't too mayonaisey for Kathy, although the very green servers didn't know what was in the dressing or where the nice-looking pastries come from. But so far Food + Lab is striking the right chord for Silver Lake -- now how about some good cafes near Rowena on the other side of the lake?
Food + Lab
3206 W. Sunset
323-661-2666
8 comments:
We're on that side of the lake, I would love to be able to walk somewhere. I had high hopes for Silver/Take, but no hope there.
Sounds great, but it looks like that salad would be incredibly difficult to eat on that crowded plate. I wonder if it is possible to order salads already dressed.
thanks for reminding me, I need to check out the WeHo location. I've been eyeing their prosciutto and fig sammie
I had breakfast there on Sunday. I was extremely disappointed that their egg dishes all seemed to have pork in them (except for the salmon omlette). They did agree to make me a fried egg sandwich with Gruyere cheese. Turned out to be a sliced hard boiled egg sandwich ... for eight dollars.
The lunch options looked much better for the mammal-flesh averse.
I also had a cannele. It was eggy and not too sweet, but the "crust" was more like a sticky bun.
I'm still going to give them another try, choose more carefully and ask more questions.
Nice. I only knew about the WeHo one. Now I need to try the SL location!
What's wrong with Coffee Table?
A new place in our 'hood to check out -- something that is always welcome.
We recommend a gratuity of 15-20% and we don't think it's accurate to estimate a waiter's average hourly wage based on how much time a waiter appears to spend during one particular meal. Even if a waiter spends only 15 minutes on a particular patron during dinner time, that may be the busiest time of the entire week, and the waiter may be counting on those tips to compensate for slower periods. Also, tips are sometimes shared among other employees, such as the kitchen and bus staff.
Post a Comment