The Sycamore Kitchen

The Sycamore Kitchen Restaurant Review:

Karen and Quinn Hatfield are behind this airy bakery/café on La Brea. The indoor rustic-industrial space is bakery-fragrant and inviting. There’s a pretty front courtyard patio, ideal for sipping a cup of Stumptown coffee. Breakfast and lunch are served alongside a devilishly tempting bakery case stocked with treats ranging from giant salted caramel pecan rolls to ripe plum crostata and a soft, warm chocolate hazelnut fudge cookie. Everything is seasonal, local and organic; all the meats and fish are smoked, roasted or cured in-house. Breakfasts include a croque madame with fried egg, and buttermilk barley pancakes with vanilla maple butter. An heirloom melon salad subtly mingles Hungarian chiles, lime salt and mint. Even in a town so saturated with pork belly, the BTLA’s crispy braised version is nicely offset by country bread, butter lettuce and balsamic tomatoes. Our hit pick is the seductive open-face toasted sandwich with house-cured salmon, avocado, capers, hard-cooked egg and lemony pickled radishes.