Los Angeles

It’s 4 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, and like any well-adjusted twentysomething, I’m eating breakfast.  More specifically, I’m having brioche french toast and cappuccino at the Little Next Door on 3rd with my friend Gloria.  After living in LA for six months, I have determined that breakfast in the afternoon is exactly the sort of reckless behavior Sundays demand.

Typically in New York, Sundays amounted to consumption of greasy brunch complemented by mimosas and black coffee.  Following brunch was an inevitable headache, followed by more consumption in the form of excessive window-shopping, followed by an indulgent nap upon what appeared to be a laundry pile, but was in fact my bed.

Shakespeare once wrote, “a place for all reasons and all seasons” and those words are a great intro to Coupa Café, a lively restaurant and wine bar situated on North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. I know there are about 15 restaurants along that well-known restaurant row and at least 13 of them are Italian and another one is Chinese. So if you are looking to dine on cuisine that is different and delicious then the Venezuelan treats at Coupa Café are your best bet. A very welcoming aura pervades the spacious dining room, with the umber painted walls, friendly bar and large outside patio. Well-informed staff serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and can answer any of your questions.

The owner Camelia Coupal who hails from Venezuela is well versed in her nutrition and cuisine. She works in tandem with the modern slow food movement and promotes the use of organic and fair-trade ingredients. This has been a family business for 30 years and besides the Coupa Cafe in Beverly Hills her family have opened four Coupa Cafés - on the grounds of Stanford University, one in downtown Palo Alto and of course the parent one in Caracas.

I'm pretty sure LA is the only place that it can be hard to find a restaurant marked by a gigantic neon sign. That's because in a city that's made up of a string of strip malls, neon signs are easy to overlook. And this one is tucked behind the parking lot of an unassuming boba place. It reads 'park' above an arrow pointing one way and 'drink' above an arrow pointing the other way, towards Beer Belly.

Aptly named since (refreshingly for LA) there's not one remotely dietetic thing on the menu. Even the broccoli rabe is drenched in burrata, and don't get me started on the duck fat French fries. Or do, because they're the perfect combination of crispy and greasy.

And the grilled cheese might just be the best I've ever had.

After watching Ludo Lefebvre on Top Chef Masters I knew I wanted try out his food. Around the same time his episode aired he opened up a “pop-up” restaurant at Bread Bar on 3rd St. On Tuesday night a bunch of my friends and I went. Simply put the meal was amazing. It’s really a mixture of classical french food and molecular gastronomy. Onto the food.

The table that was supposed to be ours decided they wanted to sit and talk for a long time so we had to wait. To make up for this Ludo’s very nice wife brought us out some lobster medallions with daikon & rosemary with a honey-sherry vinaigrette. It was amazing and great indication of things to come. It looked like a scallop and the sauce was very strong and sweet so the lobster was mainly there for texture.

One of the best things about the meal was the butter for the bread. It was a homemade honey and lavander butter.

First came the chorizo soup with cantaloupe and cornichon. It really tastes like the essence of chorizo. It was perfect. When there was only a little left we almost fought over it like junkyard dogs.