Friends & Family

Friends & Family Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant & chefs: Chef Daniel Mattern and pastry chef/baker Roxana Jullapat are behind the stylishly hip Friends & Family restaurant and bakery in East Hollywood’s Thai Town. The husband and wife team, who made Cooks County a favorite destination for local California cuisine, has transformed this former bakery into a casually sophisticated breakfast/lunch spot that the neighborhood could only have dreamed of previously.

The décor: A modern, airy space is richly inviting, and the relaxed vibe makes it hard to stop lingering over Counter Culture coffee drinks and consummate pastry. Sunshine spills in through large plate glass windows, a fistful of nasturtiums inhabit a mason jar and a stamped tin ceiling evokes vintage nostalgia. You might hear a soundtrack of Afro-Cuban jazz. The long bar counter overlooks Hollywood Boulevard, there’s a communal table, and plenty of intimate two-tops with comfortable, mod leather-covered chairs invite lounging and web surfing.

Likes: The most refined pastry in East Hollywood; 4,000 square feet eases the weekend hipster crush for brunch.
Dislikes: Quality has its price; brunch for two can easily go beyond $50 before coffee and dessert. Street parking is challenging, you might take a bit of a hike.

Food & Drinks: Choose from a glass case displaying Jullapat’s tempting pastry for breakfast, coffee or takeout --- a chocolate croissant, summer corn hand pie and blackberry crumble tart are a few of nearly two-dozen bakery offerings. Brunch is a more serious story, with elevated dishes like a cloud-light Dungeness crab quiche with Meyer lemon and crème fraîche, or the standout lamb merguez sandwich, a generously stuffed chewy house baguette with red and green harissa, crispy potatoes and grilled spring onion. Also find daily morning eggs and pancakes, while lunch features deli case salads, grain bowls, cold sandwiches and a wood-grilled burger. If you can resist the caramel glazed brownie --- and why should you? --- make a selection from the separate homemade ice cream counter for dessert.