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).

Ordering is done at a counter, and behind that counter is a giant rotisserie filled with half-chickens dripping their juices and setting off delicious-sounding flames. Yet, as good as those chickens looked, I was caught by the bacon-beef blend burger. This came topped with fontina fondue, iceberg lettuce, calabrese relish and thousand island, with the choice or tots, fries or something called a potato waffle. I ordered mine without the veggies and then just had to find out what the potato waffle was as my side.

It turned out the potato waffle was not the waffle fries that you might expect. Instead, it was like someone mixed hash browns and eggs in a waffle iron and let it rip. Oh, and then they added shredded cheddar on top. It probably could have used a bit more potato, but it was unquestionably delicious.

The burger turned out to be a conundrum. It was good, no question, but it didn’t taste as special as you might expect from a bacon-beef blend. The bacon added some additional saltiness, but not so much in the smokey department. Plus, due to the bacon component, it had to be cooked a little more and wasn’t as juicy as I would have liked. On the other hand, the combination of fontina fondue and thousand island was like a perfect condiment.

I’m glad I checked out the burger and the waffle, because I really just had to. In the future, though, I’d probably find myself chowing down on that beautiful chicken instead.

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.

Yet, as I gazed at the savory section of the menu, I found myself wishing for more. Sure, the revolution begins with a single act, but there is an entire area of their menu dedicated to burgers, paninis (yes I know panini itself is plural) and sandwiches. Wouldn’t it be amazing if these were all available with waffles instead of bread or buns? That’s what I was hoping for, and I was sad to see that wasn’t the case, so I made my way back to the savory section and picked out a meal. Despite the interesting choices, Dwight’s Special Chicken & Waffle really stood out to me. I know I can get chicken and waffles at other places, but I felt this was a good way to gauge Bru’s.

The waitress told me that “Dwight’s Special” didn’t mean there were any frilly wasteful vegetables and I was safe (in not so many words). I was given the option of white or dark meat, and chose the white, thinking I didn’t want to deal with bones. She also asked if I was cool with all the condiments (ranch, gravy, Louisiana hot sauce and syrup). They all sounded great to me, then to top it all off I ordered their chili cheese waffle fries to make it an even bigger waffle experience. The waitress was surprised such fries still existed on the menu and was under the impression they no longer made them, but would find out for us. It turned out they would sometimes make them specially, and I happened to be special that day.

But before getting to the meal, there was a bit of a wait. I blamed the custom fries on this, but was happy when everything arrived. On top of a large Belgian waffle sat two huge, fried chicken breasts waiting to be motorboated between my teeth. I started with a bite of the chicken and waffle without condiments and found them both to my liking, then proceeded to drop ranch, hot sauce and syrup upon my meal. At that point I realized I was lacking in gravy and asked the waitress for some. She happily obliged and I dug even further into my meal. First off, the fried chicken recipe was awesome. While the breading was good, it was not too heavy in taste or stomach-feel. I also loved that Bru’s did not shy away from making a sweet, flavorful waffle (supposedly with Madagascar vanilla). As such, the waffle wasn’t just some waffle-shaped bread but a truly essential part of the meal.

As for the waffle fries, they were sliced thin and at times were more like chips than actual fries. This made for an interesting, if not totally delicious experience. You see, these fries kind of buckled and sogged under the chili and cheese pressure, where typical waffle fries probably would have stood stronger. The chili and cheese were good, and I certainly applaud the effort to bring a different type of waffle into the fold, but sticking with old-fashioned waffle fries probably would have been better for the cause.

Nonetheless, I am ready to go back to Bru’s Wiffle. Many things on the menu made my mouth water, especially not that Bru’s passed the chicken and waffles test. If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll even be able to convince the place to sub out a bun or bread for waffles on one of those burgers or sandwiches. A guy can dream, right?

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.

What I saw screamed unvegan at me and despite the disconcerting screaming, I know what I had to have. It was their Bacon Waffle & Eggs. Note the lack of a comma there, which meant that the bacon was a part of the waffle and not just a part of the meal. The menu elucidated a bit and claimed to have “crisp applewood bacon mixed throughout the batter.” Basically, it sounded like a dream come true for anyone in love with sweet, salty and meat. I ordered up my two eggs over easy to our incredibly friendly waiter and then waited for my bacon delight to arrive.

And when it came, it looked like a gift from heaven. At least until one of the others at the table pointed out a hair sitting on top of my eggs (thank the lord for the others). It clearly belonged to none of us table dwellers and the next time I saw the waiter I notified him of the hairy surprise. Not only did he play it off nicely, when he brought me my replacement dish he told me it was on the house. And then his manager came out and apologized for the problem. This stellar customer service not only redeemed the hairy surprise but the long wait surprise before being seated.

Now hairless, I dove into my dish with the fury of someone who hadn’t eaten a bite in 12 hours. My fury was quickly sated by the awesomeness of the bacon waffles. This was not my first foray into the world of bacon waffles, but it quickly became my best. The waffle had been done up Belgian-style, which gave them a perfect fluffiness to contrast with the crispiness of the bacon. I am usually not a man to ruin waffles by adding the overwhelming sweetness of syrup, but when I added syrup to this waffle, the combination of flavors danced upon my tongue like a star. Then, as a kicker, the waffle took on even greater flavor when I combined it with the runny yolks of the eggs. If there were anything I would change about this near-perfect breakfast, it would be to get the bacon more evenly distributed in the waffle. As it was, the majority of that cured meat made its way to the center of the waffle as if compelled by some sort of Higgs Boson.

Yet, that complaint is quite feeble, as Yolk did quite the job of treating me to an unvegan-worthy meal. If only all brunch could have the same ingredients and customer service, the world would be a much better place for me to eat at.

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.

The meal eventually arrived and looked great. Rather than eat the chicken and waffles as two separate entities, I set to work at carving up the chicken and strategically unloading it on top of the waffles. When I finished, I doused the chaffle (chicken+waffles) with syrup and dug in. I could tell that both the fried chicken or the waffles alone weren’t enough to sustain their own meals. Sure, they were decent, but nothing spectacular. Yet, when their forces were combined the chaffle was truly a force to be reckoned with.

When I finished eating, my body and soul felt rejuvenated. I was ready to take on the world, and it was all because of the unlikely combination of chicken, waffles, syrup and a whole lot of…oil. Or love. Either one works.

PS: You should really check out how classy their website is here.