I spent my formative years on the Westside. When I first became interested in eating something other than chain restaurant food, I remember that the Rose Cafe had a strong local following. In 2015, they changed hands and they brought in a new chef. My wife and I recently visited them for a weekend brunch.
While their website indicates that weekend brunch service is 100% walk-ins and no reservations, I was able to make an online reservation for 11:00 am. The entrance is through their bakery and upon scanning their inventory, I made a mental note to pick up something to go. We walked by the open kitchen and entered their outdoor seating area.
Dining in the Rose Cafe patio is quite a transformative experience. The area is filled with natural light. Numerous plants give the impression that you are eating in someone’s backyard. The fence, screen, and filled out ficus trees effectively shielded patio diners from bustling Main Street in Venice. Despite being steps away from the kitchen, it is a haven in the city.
Chef Jason Neroni’s menu focuses on local Southern California cuisine with an international influence from his world travels. The bakery features American classics, as well as some of the original Rose bakery classics re-conceptualized.
The brunch menu is quite extensive and is broken down into starters, eggs dishes, salads, pancakes, raw seafood bar, sandwiches, and pizzas. The diverse set of selections will satisfy the most discriminating tastes. Items listed on the raw bar section aren’t available until 11.
Creamy burrata is served with Thai pesto, fresh snap peas, and sliced Asian pears. The crisp pear slices added a nice contrast to the creamy burrata. Placing the ingredients on top of the supplied grilled sourdough bread really gave this a nice smoky and crunchy texture.
Noticing ”The Best Biscuits Ever” listed on the menu, we had to see if that was true. The hot, soft and buttery biscuits were accompanied by whipped butter and strawberry marmalade. These biscuits were indeed delicious!
Their quiche lorraine had some of my wife’s favorite ingredients such as bacon, caramelized onions, and gruyere cheese. She was quite happy at the creaminess of the eggs and was delighted that they used Nueske bacon.
The Lower East Side Breakfast is a nod to the Jewish section of New York City. This is a breakfast sandwich made with an everything croissant (modeled after the bagel) with smoked salmon, heirloom tomato, arugula, and crème fraîche. I thought that this was the perfect blend of flavors and the croissant was a nice lighter alternative over a bagel.
The brunch beverage list encompasses an entire page. Rose Cafe offers numerous wines by the glass as well as an extensive selection of craft cocktails. Beer doesn’t play a back seat on their menu as they have a curated list of bottled and draft beer.
On the way out, we passed through the bakery and I remembered to pick up a couple of kouign-amann and a churro donut. The kouign-amann had an extremely flaky outside and I’m sure that it was basted with a lot of butter. The churro donut was tasty as well.
Rose Cafe is the perfect weekend brunch destination. Even if you only pick up items from their bakery, it is worth a visit.
Rose Cafe, 220 Rose Ave, Venice, CA 90291; 310.399.0711
rosecafevenice.com