Few places in Los Angeles embellish their eating establishments with extravagant displays during the Winter holidays like they do in France. Bottega Louie is an exception, with a towering "tree" of macarons, including gold ones, reaching to the ceiling, one of several throughout the restaurant and market, but the grand centerpiece in the dining area can be seen from the pastry counter at the other end of the cavernous space.
I've been enthralled by this place ever since my first meals here years ago, so much so I wrote two posts, back to back on it back in 2011. Since my return to the US, I have been wanting to revisit some old favorites, and when friends came into town for the week-end, it was a perfect opportunity to meet for brunch downtown.
After years in France, the macarons looked very bright to me, but I'm sure the intense colors sell well here, where bright intense colors are an enticement.
If you can't decide what to choose, you can always opt for one of the prepackaged gift boxes of varying sizes (they will ship many of their products if you don't want to carry it back home).
Some things can't be shipped and should be eaten fresh, like their viennoiseries and
bread, which are very good even to a bread snob like me. The big baguette is pricey at over $5, but it is huge and it freezes well if you can't eat it all the same day.
Since I usually came for lunch or late supper, this was the first time I encountered the brunch choices, like this freshly squeezed pineapple juice for $7. They had other choices like melon, carrot, and "green", if you want something other than the usual fruit and citrus.
Once one of my friends saw the table next to us eating the two eggs with turkey sausage, potatoes, and smoked bacon, she didn't want to get anything else, and she was very happy that they made her order exactly as she wanted, right down to the "burnt" whole wheat toast for $17.
Another friend and I both ordered the Lobster Hash for $20 with lobster, yukon potatoes, shallots, brussel sprouts, and two poached eggs napped with a smoked paprika hollandaise. I liked how the poached eggs were slightly runny, but she preferred her eggs runnier; I thought that the kitchen did a nice job of "middle ground" eggs in a dining room with over 200 seats. Our server was very attentive and literally followed every request with a smile and "Yes, of course"! Including one for warmed milk with the filtered coffee ($.50 surcharge), and as I mentioned earlier, making sure the wheat toast on the side was "well done".
When we had all cleaned our plates, I tempted everyone to get an order of beignets ($12) to split; the table next to ours chimed in on my description and echoed that they were indeed wonderful. These are still the best beignets I've ever had :) Light and buttery, with the raspberry compote so addictive that my friends were licking it off their fingers and "double dunking"!
No one had room for anything else,
but our eyes feasted on all the pastries as we left :)
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