Breakfast at Sqirl

LOS ANGELES – Damn that Jessica Koslow. The diminutive chef/owner of the quirky Sqirl in Silver Lake has officially made the process of ordering a simple breakfast fraught with potential heartache. No doubt, if you happen to scan the narrow, rectangular menu in her corner store/cafe/hipster hideout, you’ll be racked with such 1st World problems as “should I order the avocado toast?” versus “what if you get the crispy rice bowl and I’ll get the burnt brioche toast slathered with ricotta and jam?”

Koslow worked at several high-end restaurants in Atlanta before settling in Los Angeles, and it’s her love of jams, marmalades and toast that seems to preoccupy her these days. The national food press has already started sniffing around, posting glowing profiles (I read about her in Bon Appetit recently, which is what caused me to stop in). There’s also a compact lunch menu, which I’d love to return for, but it’s the breakfast scene I really dug. Dudes in short sleeved polos and hats; multi-pierced ladies with sun dresses and short-cropped hair, and fully leaded cold-brewed coffee to go with my blueberry-hazelnut financier, which I easily polished off after snacking on four other dishes I was able to convince my friends to try. The spelling may be slightly off, but there’s nothing wrong with a kitchen so dedicated to its craft.

Sqirl

720 N. Virgil Ave., Los Angeles

323-284-8147