‘Waffles’
A lot changed in Downtown LA while I was gone for two years. The Arts District, which is adjacent to Little Tokyo, had already had a bit of a resurgence that has kinda blown up. On top of that, Chef Neal Fraser, who is behind BLD, has popped out a couple new spots. When you combine these, you get Fritzi, which is like an affordably upscale fast-casual concept (yeah, I said it).
When you think of brunch, do fries, mac and cheese and waffles come to mind? Okay, maybe the the waffles, but when the brunch destination is Point Brugge in Point Breeze, a Belgian gem of a restaurant, it would be a shame to limit yourself to typical brunch options. That’s why we didn’t, and it turned out to be a mighty good choice.
While “the bun” has undergone many iterations (pretzel, brioche, etc…) and sandwich bread is known for its varieties, there is one bread-like breakfast conduit that still hasn’t really seen much glory as far as being put to alternate uses. It is the waffle, but Bru’s Wiffle in Santa Monica is out to change that. You see, Bru’s thinks that waffles need more of the limelight and they are willing to give it. At Bru’s, you can get a pizza waffle, taco waffles and even “sliders” with waffle buns. Of course, Bru’s offers waffles in their sweet breakfast form, but the savory offerings were really what drew me to Bru’s.
In the Windy City for a cold and lovely weekend, some friends, family and other converged upon a brunch place called Yolk in River North. On such a cold day, I was surprised to find such a long line of people waiting to get a piece of Yolk’s action. Despite claiming to have a 20-minutes wait, it was a good 35 minutes until we were seated. It was not a good sign of things to come, but a quick glance at the menu made me immediately forgot the wait it took to get there.
I’d been waiting for a very long time to finally make my trip to Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles. It took the right combination of alcohol and lack of sleep from the night before to finally propel me to the location in Mid City.
My buddy and I walked in around noon and there was a short wait before we took our seats. The menu was loaded with so many varieties of chicken and waffles, without a vegetable to be found, that I really couldn’t figure out what to order. I decided to wait until the waitress arrived to make sure I ordered the right thing. Unfortunately, service wasn’t exactly the strong suit of Roscoe’s. I didn’t mind though, I wasn’t there for service, just for chicken and waffles. Finally the waitress came and told us to get combo #1, which was 1/4 fried chicken and two waffles. We happily complied.