DINING AT DINETTE

Dinette in Echo Park has been one of my favorite casual brunch/lunch spots for roughly the past year. When it first opened, the now-local hot spot was nothing but one tiny order window and a couple of steel stools, easily missed. Today there are still only a few casual outside tables and seats, and that order window is still the only way to access any semblance of restaurant experience, yet the spot has become a huge favorite among many people living in the Los Angeles area. The overwhelmingly laid-back exterior is complemented by fresh, delicious seasonal menu items. My favorite? The waffles. 

I usually have a very strict philosophy about the ranking of breakfast foods. My top three favorite brunch entrees, in order, are french toast, waffles, and pancakes. If I ever go to a restaurant and spot french toast on the menu, it's a done deal. Especially if said french toast is made with brioche or some other very thick-cut bread. Dinette doesn't offer a french toast option, but with waffles this good, they really don't need to.

I kid you not, this is the perfect waffle — moist on the inside, crispy on the outside, and the most beautiful shade of golden brown you've ever seen. I usually opt for the seasonal fruit waffle option. It comes with berries and whipped cream, both of which are extremely fresh and not overwhelmingly sweet, which is perfectly balanced by the slightly caramelized exterior of the waffle.

I'm also a huge fan of smoked salmon. A slice of artisanal bread, toasted and topped with a layer of cream cheese and slices of briny, buttery salmon, pulled together with the fresh kick of chives or onion? Delicious. Plus, salmon is really good for you, so you can really never go wrong with this combo. Dinette's rendition of this classic puts a twist on the traditional lox on toast with the addition of fried garlic pieces. 

Whether you're digging into a piece of avocado toast or lox toast, a berry waffle or poached egg & bacon waffle, or even one of their baked-fresh-daily pastries, Dinette really has something for everyone, and at a fairly reasonable price, too. If you live in the area, make sure to check it out! Fair warning: you will get hooked on those waffles. It's inevitable. 

BRUNCH - OTIUM

I know I just showed you a picture of a delicious and dangerously decadent-looking piece of thick-cut brioche toast topped with a perfectly cooked sunny side up egg, prosciutto, fig jam, and greens, but forget about that for a second.

First things first. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT FRANK'S NEW ALBUM. For those of you who are unaware, Frank Ocean released his long-awaited second album after four years. FOUR f***ing years. Does he know how much pain he caused whilst on his hiatus??

No matter — his second masterpiece, "Blonde," is now on Apple Music, with tracks featuring the same beautiful velvet and laid back cool voice we heard in "Channel Orange," but with newer and more daring vocal elements. Favorite tracks of mine include "White Ferrari," "Solo," "Ivy," and "Godspeed." Seriously, this album is incredible. I've listened to the whole thing through maybe five times in the past two days. 

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming (the brioche toast pictured above).

Most of my weekends are spent waking up between 11am and 12pm at my boyfriend's apartment, watching an unhealthy number of episodes of "Lost," then eating my first meal of the day at around 2 or 3pm...

#brokecollegekidforlife

(Seriously. I'm starting Soylent the day school starts again. I have one week left to consume actual food. Help me.)

With the fall semester, and thus my first encounter with Soylent, imminent, I decided to switch things up this weekend by going out to brunch. And an expensive brunch at that. 

Otium is one of those places where you want to want to eat a full meal before you go in order to avoid racking up a $60/person bill. Maybe a $60 for brunch isn't a big deal for some, but July and August were the months of birthdays galore, so my wallet is pretty much kaput at this point. 

After trying to decide what dishes we could get without causing ourselves immense regret after seeing the bill, my friend and I decided on the brioche toast with prosciutto, and the blini with smoked salmon. 

Blini are typically pretty thin — like crepes. So when this super fat pancake, similar to an uber fluffy Japanese-style hotcake, arrived at the table I was a bit shocked. For $17, I was expecting a teeny tiny crepe, 4" in diameter, rolled up with a single ounce of lox and a teaspoon of creme fraiche. What I got was probably 10x that quantity. 

I had absolutely no complaints about this unexpectedly large entree, because it was incredibly good. I usually opt for sweet brunch items (think French toast or waffles), but his number hit the spot.

Our second entree, the toasted brioche with prosciutto, eggs, gruyere, greens, onions, fig jam, and olives, was equally decadent. Probably more so. Definitely more so.

(Sidenote — I hadn't eaten prosciutto in 5-6 years until I decide to welcome the delicious cured ham back into my life with this dish. Go big, or go home, right?

I 100% underestimated Otium's brunch portions. I'd been for dinner once before, and many of the dishes we ordered were on the small side. Oh no, not this monstrosity of a plate. By the time I forced myself to stuff the final bite into my gullet I was wishing I had come to brunch dressed in the Juicy Couture tracksuit I used to sport in middle school. That drawstring and elastic waist would've come in handy.