June 03, 2007

Square One: Best breakfast in LA? Yeah, probably.

Fruit_2

This is fruit salad at Square One. I think it makes a nice picture. However, I am a shitty photographer, my camera phone is a whopping 1.3 megapixels and the only commands I know on it are Shoot and Send.

All credit goes to Square One. And this tasted exactly like it looked. Apricots (ripe and tart, not mushy!), Gaviota strawberries, white peaches, cherries, nectarines. A few bananas, but nothing obnoxious.

"Fruit salad" is usually a sop for the low-carb crowd, one that translates to "underripe melon chunks with the occasional albino strawberry and a few pineapple chunks if you're lucky." Even at the Four Seasons, fruit salad feels like an afterthought.

Here, fruit salad is a classic bit of underselling: I've been to Square One three times, in three different seasons, and it tastes like a core sampling of whatever's at the farmers' market. Finish Sunday breakfast before noon and you'll have enough time to drive two miles to the Hollywood market and find the fruit for yourself.

Also great: The grits (like gutsy polenta), the Nueske's bacon, the baked eggs with fava beans, wild mushrooms and feta, the coffee. The space is unpretentious and the service is OK , thanks to an attentive owner (I foresee fundraisers for LAWS, LA Waitress Syndrome: An inability for the cornea to focus on customers, a side effect of overexposure to florescent lighting in casting agents' offices).

One bit of caveat emptor: When the restaurant website says it's "convenient to the Scientology Center," it's not kidding.

Square One, 4854 Fountain Ave. 8 am-4 pm, closed Monday. (323) 661-1109

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BECAUSE EVERYONE EATS LUNCH IN THIS TOWN AGAIN.

ABOUT DANA HARRIS
I'm the editor of Variety.com. I think soggy Caesars are a restaurant’s death rattle.

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