Saturday, August 20, 2011

Manhattan Beach, CA

North End Caffe 3421 Highland Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, 310-546-GRUB


This place has two of my favorite things: a Triple D (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) endorsement and a good friend's recommendation! My friends from Chicago take a yearly trip to stay with a childhood friend at his place less than 200 yards from Manhattan beach. Consciously, I know I'm right next to LA. But this beach community feels nothing like I imagined LA to be like. Surrounded by uniquely designed beach condo's there's one little strip of breakfast joints on Highland Ave with about 4 great places all across the street from each other.

North End Caffe serves all meals, and was my friend's favorite, so we started our vacation food journey here, and it did not disappoint! The cafe itself seats about 20 people inside, and about 16 outdoors and boasts a beach view that combined with coffee or a bloody mary could cure any hangover! Being a family run caffe, the fresh baked bread and daily specials attract locals and tourist alike, but they keep coming back for the food that not only looks pretty, but tastes amazing as well! Breakfast joints often tend to be pancake or egg oriented, and this one definitely has an egg based breakfast menu with mexican elements and a witty play on words. Choose from Huevos Divorciados, El Gringo, 13 different breakfast sandwiches, etc, and expect salsa or guacamole with anything you may order!

Bree got Dos Tacos, a breakfast taco on corn tortillas that come with lightly spiced side potatoes. The potatoes were nicely cooked, soft in the middle with a nice crunch on the outside, but could have used either more spice or a different flavor combo to make them memorable.

My Sicilian eggs were a scramble of spinach, capers, tomatoes, and cheese and had a light blend of flavors instead of the power punch of tastes you might expect from the capers. In fact I kept eating even after I was full because it just tasted so darn good! The ciabatta toast was a big surprise for me because I think of ciabatta as primarily a sandwich bread, but with some jelly and
butter it paired perfectly with the egg scramble.

 Not only would I recommend this beachy little caffe for it's breakfast, after my experience this morning I plan on going back to try lunch and dinner as well. The fettuccine carbonara was featured by Guy Fieri, and their extensive lunch menu of salads and sandwiches as well as the lack of dinner menu (there's simple a Facebook link where you can view the nightly dinner specials) has me intrigued. But that may be tomorrow, because even though it's almost 2pm, I'm still full from breakfast!

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