For a while now, I’ve been hearing about this place in Hollywood called Griddle Cafe. “Go to Griddle,” they say. “You’ll like what you eat there,” they also say. “They make pancakes with anything in them,” they continue, and then I get excited. You see, I like me a pancake, but a regular pancake can only be so good. Usually it tastes the best after a night of binge drinking, and it doesn’t matter if it comes from a box mix or the nicest brunch restaurant in the world. But I got excited about Griddle and finally made it out to Hollywood to see what all the pancake hype was about.

Recently, the world has been all about red velvet pancakes. Similar to regular pancakes, I feel like this is something difficult to mess up. So I decided to give Griddle more of a challenge and ordered the BLUESberry pancakes (no, there were no bacon or cheese-filled pancakes). This was a whopping three pancakes stuffed with blueberries (my favorite fruit) and topped with blueberry sour cream and powdered sugar.

And well…they were amazing. I was a little scared about the use of sour cream, but the fresh blueberry blend gave it a nice, subtle flavor to help keep the pancakes moist. It was definitely a big step up on butter or syrup. Inside the pancakes, I found a delicious distribution of blueberries that kept all of the pancakes in perfect balance.

In reaching for something to complain about, I really can’t find anything, except one thing – my stomach just wasn’t big enough. Yes, my stomach gave in before the stack of three pancakes did. And to add insult to injury, before I ordered I had asked the waiter if one order of pancakes would be enough. He assured me it would, and he was more than correct. That stack could have fed two hungry eaters, but as for me, I could not finish.

But that is a worthless complaint, because every bite I took was awesome. Griddle truly lived up to the hype and I would happily delve into those BLUESberries again if I can ever make it to Hollywood for brunch again.

Ok, I have a confession to make. Longtime readers know it already, but newcomers may be a little surprised. That confession is that…well I don’t eat meat for every meal. Yes, it’s true. Sometimes, a breakfast of pancakes or a dinner of mac and cheese satiates my appetite just as much as a steak. But most importantly, these meals are devoid of vegetables. After all, unvegan principles are more anti-veggie than pro-meat. One such meatless meal occurred at BLD.

Although the name of the restaurant sounds like some twisted version of bacon, lettuce and ummm Doritos, BLD actually stands for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Supposedly it covers all three. We arrived on the Saturday of Carmageddon to see what BLD was all about. Certainly, we expected a wait, but were seated within minutes. Thank you Carmageddon! I quickly discovered by looking at the menu that BLD was true to its acronym and covered a nice variety of food. I was thinking breakfast.

There were definitely some meaty options, like the Baked French Toast that happened to be stuffed with bacon or the section simply called “Breakfast Meat,” but I was told the real highlight was BLD’s Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes. The waitress confirmed that this was the right choice and I ordered away.

The well-rounded pancakes arrived soon enough, with a nice little extra crisp sticking out that seemed to scream homemade to me. Despite the awesome log cabin-shaped dispenser carrying the syrup, I opted to simply spread some butter and get to work. I figured the blueberries would add all the sweetness I need…and I was right. Of course I’ve had blueberry pancakes before and as my favorite fruit they have been delicious, but the addition of the ricotta elevated BLD’s pancakes to a level of culinary genius rarely found in breakfast.

You see, I am huge fan of the sweet-salty mix. Some of the greatest food combinations (kettle corn, salt bagel with strawberry cream cheese, etc…) involve this blend and while the risotto wasn’t too salty, it added just enough to keep the tartness of the berries, the sweetness of the batter and the sweetness of the berries in harmony.

I don’t mind admitting it: I’m glad I went meatless at BLD. Breakfast like that is hard to come by in a world of egg white omelets and granola yogurt parfaits.

Over in the land of Silver Lake on LA’s east side, my sister, girlfriend and family friend converged upon a restaurant called Home. The place looked nothing like my home and the menu items barely had some items I’ve ever seen at home, so I assumed the name was derived from some sort of Silver Lake hipster irony. We sat outside on a relatively cold Saturday for LA and I watched as the workers fumbled helplessly to try to keep the heat lamps lit while the women tried desperately to keep warm. It was unintentionally entertaining, to say the least, and I hoped the food would at least be half as good as said entertainment.

Looking at their specials, one thing stood out to all of us: red velvet pancakes. But it would have been silly for all of us to order our own set, so we decided to order them as a bit of a brunch appetizer. A brunchetizer, if you will. These things came out covered in a thick cream sauce almost like condensed milk, but not as sweet or sticky. Stacked three pancakes high, they were light and fluffy and everything you could want from a normal pancake, but with the added benefit of being made of red velvety goodness.

After eating my fill of the pancakes, I moved on to my main course (because only fools don’t eat multi-course brunches). I had ordered the “World Famous” Sloppy Joe even though the waiter had assured me it wasn’t truly world famous. Instead, he said it was just famous locally. He was quite the literal man, but despite being stripped of its title, I was still excited for the mildly famous sloppy joe. It had come with a choice of many sides, and I had gone with the waffle fries.

World famous, or not, I found Home’s sloppy joe to be damn good. Bursting with flavor, meat and slop, it reminded me of the Manwich of my youth rather than a depressing cafeteria food. The ground beef was tender and chunky, and without fail every time I took a bite an equal amount of slop went into my mouth and onto the plate. The insides had been padded with a soft, yet hearty bun, which kept the sloppy joe intact and refused to get soggy. Unfortunately, the rare bit of onion slipped into the joe, which was the only source of disappointment. These rare bits provided no flavor and were wholly unnecessary, but did not detract from the overall enjoyment of this great sandwich.

And then there were the fries. Honestly, I don’t understand why more places don’t serve waffle fries. After eating them at Home, I was reminded that waffle fries are just incredible. I’m hesitant to say they are the best fries in the world, but an average waffle fry kicks the ass off of a really good skinny fry any day. Even better, these waffle fries were the perfect conduit with which to scoop up the scraps that my sloppy joe left behind.

While not exactly reminiscent of my home, Home in Silver Lake certainly delivered. From pancakes to sloppy joes to waffle fries, everything I ate surprised me with flavor. Aside from my issues with onions and a feeling that they were short at least one waitstaff (presumably the one who knew how to turn on the heaters), the food from Home found a very welcoming home in my belly.

EDIT: The truck is no more, but apparently the food can now be found at Willie Jane’s in Venice…

As I sat on my couch in the morning, waiting for my English Muffin to toast, I realized that I didn’t actually have a Newsweek to read. This was very disappointed, so I turned to my iPhone and checked Twitter. Thinking nothing new would be there at such an ungodly hour (8:30), I was just hoping to kill time. But then I saw it. The Buttermilk Truck was already on the streets and serving up breakfast in El Segundo, essentially across the street from where I work. I shot up from my couch, grabbed the English Muffin from the toaster and tossed it back into the fridge, then hit the road to get some breakfast from a truck.

I arrived to find a relatively small line at the truck. I had expected the corporate people in El Segundo to flock to this thing, but perhaps I had already missed the rush. They were featuring the Buttermilk Brick as a special (which is usually a night thing), but I thought that would be a bit too heavy and might put me in a coma for the day. Amazingly, this truck had no trace of vegetables in any dish. Breakfast might just be the perfect meal. I ordered their breakfast sandwich with bacon. This sandwich came with egg and cheese on a biscuit. For an extra buck, I ordered some rosemary garlic hash browns. Then, for a breakfasty dessert, I also ordered the pancake bites, which were red velvet chocolate chip pancakes.

I forked over my money and waited a while for my food to be ready. Finally, my name was called and I headed to work to eat, as I was already running late. My food looked nothing less than awesome and I hoped it would taste just as good. First, I tested out the sandwich, which put every other breakfast sandwich to shame. I’m talking about you, McDonald’s. The biscuit was fluffy and oily, while the bacon was perfectly crispy. The egg could have been a little runnier, but that is really just a personal preference. The hash brown was kind of like a gourmet latke or potato pancake, but was also good and the rosemary wasn’t overwhelming. Finally, the red velvet pancakes were amazing. I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate, especially in my breakfast, but these pancakes have changed me.

Either one of these would have made a meal in itself, but combined they created a breakfeast. I will definitely be returning to the Buttermilk Truck and would recommend it to anyone looking to shake up their breakfast or late-night snackery.

A long night of drinking compelled me to head to Norm’s Diner in West LA. Of course, this decision wasn’t the best I’ve ever made, but my decision of what to eat at Norm’s was a far worse one.

When I walked in the door, their specialty of the night/morning was on display and even a long look at their long menu couldn’t take my mind off of it. The special was a Filet Mignon, with eggs, hash browns and pancakes. Yes, pancakes. Whoever thought of this one was clearly on something that made him happy and delirious. Best of all, it was a whopping 10 bucks.

As I waited for my inevitable disaster, I went on a search for steak sauce, knowing that whatever came from the kitchen would need enhancement. When my food came, the filet looked as grotesque as I expected. I’m not sure what sort of genetically engineered cow the meat came from, but it looked like no filet I had ever seen. Perhaps it was from a healthy cow, just now the same part that a filet mignon typically comes from. I was glad I had steak sauce.

The meat was tough, but not terribly difficult to cut through. It was definitely a relief when I was cutting through pancakes or hash browns instead. Aside from the steak, everything else was so-so. It was all certainly enough for a late-night drunken meal, but no replacement for food I could have gotten in the normal hours of the day.