Brunch and Sherry "Mimosa" at Bow and Truss (North Hollywood)

Bow and Truss is a new Spanish restaurant in North Hollywood featuring a sherry focused bar program by Aidan Demarest and Marcos Tello. They recently started doing brunch with a Latin slant and sherry brunch cocktails. I don't know how busy it gets at night, but it's a quiet and spacious place for brunch, with a beautiful bar at the center.

I did say the brunch menu leaned towards Latin flavors, but you may want to also get the Crepes with Almond Butter and house made caramel ($6)

Loved the texture of these crepes! With almond butter like this, you don't need syrup or toppings.

Since this is a sherry-centric bar, and since Aidan and Marcos doesn't mess around, even their brunch cocktails are special. The Mimosa de Manzana is no regular mimosa. They call it a "Spanish Style” mimosa and it's made with Pedro Ximenez sherry, organic apple juice, rosado, apple slice

It's still a "mimosa" so it's topped with some sparkly, but it's much better and much more interesting than your regular mimosa and bellinis! They also have Bloody Mary's here and I tried a sip of one which was quite good.

For the brunch entree I recommend the "I’m Creamy" with polenta, asparagus, charred corn, peppers, cotija, quail yolk, piquillo pepper sauce ($10)

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Brunch at Lazy Dog Cafe (Torrance)

Usually my trips down to Torrance only involves Japanese restaurants and bakeries, but I broke the pattern on my latest trip with brunch at the Lazy Dog Cafe.

Here is what you need to get at brunch:
Sunny Side Up Pizza: white pizza with Spinach, Sundried Tomatoes, Bacon, topped with three fresh Eggs, baked until golden brown ($9.25)

Fellow blogger LA OC Foodie ordered this, but luckily he was generous enough to share. It was my favorite thing I had at Lazy Dog, especially the slices with the egg yolk on them. It's breakfast on a pie! Hmm, maybe they should put six eggs instead?

For sweet potato lovers, get the sweet potato tater tots with roasted jalapeno-lime aioli ($4.75)

The bacon lovers should try the Bacon Bloody Mary (Vodka, housemade crispy bacon infused bloody mary mix, pepperoncini, pickled cherry pepper,olive, bacon-corn nut salt, $7.50). I'm not a huge fan of savory cocktails and bloody marys so I didn't order one. I tried a sip of someone else's and it's got quite a kick to it! Bloody Mary lovers should enjoy this one.


Lazy Dog Cafe has their own house brews, made by the brewery Firestone Walker and you can get a taster of six for $6.95. The taster includes the Lazy Dog Honey Blonde, Lazy Dog American Hefe, Lazy Dog Bavarian Hefe, Lazy Dog Pale Ale, Lazy Dog Red and a seasonal beer (which happened to be the Firestone Velvet Merlin the day we went).

Out of the Lazy Dog beers, we liked the red ale the best, and I also liked the Bavarian Hefeweizen.

You can also get a sampler of their three house-made Sangrias: White Peach, Black-Currant Rose, and Pomegranate Red ($8.25)

The three have pretty distinct flavors. I liked the white peach and black-currant rose, but if you've never had them, the sampler trio is definitely the way to go.

It's rare to see fried rice on a brunch menu, especially at a western restaurant, so I was intrigued enough to order the Hawaiian Fried Rice: Stir-fried steamed rice with hickory-smoked bacon, pork sausage, cabbage, veggies and eggs ($7.95)

I wished they had put a sunny side up egg with runny yolk with this instead of the frittata-like egg. It's an enormous amount of food for the price-I could barely eat a third of it - but I much preferred the breakfast pizza.

We had to try the pancakes for dessert, especially one with a bacon butter, no?
Wild blueberry pancakes and maple bacon butter: Three large buttermilk blueberry pancakes, topped with blueberry compote, housemade maple bacon butter and syrup on the side ($7.75)

The maple bacon butter actually had chunks of bacon in them! This made me be picky when I spread the butter, as I had to look for the parts with the chunks. The small, wild blueberries are sweeter than the big supermarket kind and thus worked better as a pancake topping.

When you live far from Torrance, it's hard to go there without stopping at at least one Japanese restaurant or bakery, but Lazy Dog Cafe should certainly be a spot for the locals. The menu is a good value, they have their own brews plus a few more local craft beers on tap, and that addictive sunny side up pizza!

Lazy Dog Cafe
3525 W Carson St
Torrance, CA 90503
(310) 921-6080
lazydogcafe.com
 

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Hot Brunch at Playa

The promise of a free pitcher of Julian Cox's cocktail during brunch was all I needed to try out the brunch at Playa, John Sedlar's newest restaurant (thanks, BlackboardEats!). And I was glad I did.

Now, being a Latin restaurant (they call it "urban Latin"), you can expect a lot of kick in your egg dish. Spicy sauces abound, though not everyone.

I love tamales so obviously went with the Tamal (Cracked Corn Masa, Pulled Pork, Sunnyside-Up Egg, $12)

Yes, that is Clockwork Orange on the plate (part of his changing Reflexiones series). The sauce was pretty spicy for me but the egg yolks helped with that. A hearty and satisfying breakfast plate!

Oh, and make sure you get the Blue Corn Muffins made with Anson Farms Organic Cornmeal, served with a side Almond Butter ($6)

Not only were they cheap at $6 for 4 pieces, they are incredible. I have never had an unfilled muffin so moist with such a distinctive flavor. I'll be back for these. Over and over.

(Look, it's really blue inside! Or more like purple?)

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