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Coffee is an obsession at LA Mill
By Richard Foss
There is no item of food and beverage so arcane that someone, somewhere, won’t obsess over it. People have devoted their lives to making the most silken tofu, the perfect bacon, the apotheosis of chocolate – and let’s not even get started on the wine and beer snobs who use outrageously poetic metaphors to describe their favorite tipples.
I was therefore not surprised when the encyclopedic coffee menu at LA Mill included the phrase “thick with fruit and berry flavors, with complementary savory notes of tomato broth … .” in a 34-word description of Kenyan Gichi coffee. When I tasted my cup, by Jove, there were indeed fruity and berryish flavors, and a hint of something I might even call tomato. I’ve tried many coffees, liked some and hated others, but never analyzed a cup so intensively as that one.
Welcome to Olympic-level coffee tasting, available daily at LA Mill. The coffee sommelier (you had to ask?) will not only help you select a bean from their vast variety, but will offer your choice of four brewing methods – regular filter, Danish wire mesh filter, French press, and the German siphon method that looks like a chemistry set. Think it doesn’t make a difference? It does, because some methods filter out oils that are part of the flavor. Having tried the same coffee brewed several different ways, I prefer the French press for flavor, but often order the siphon method because it’s great coffee and fun to watch the process. The baristas at LA Mill seem delighted when you order comparisons like this, because it suggests that you might be as obsessed and analytical about flavor as they are. They also love decaf drinkers, who they know are there for the flavor rather than the effect.
This café might be considered a coffee tasting room that serves food, if it weren’t for the fact that the food is worth the trip by itself. The menu here was created by the mighty Michael Cimarrusti of Providence, and it’s as eclectic as anyone can ask for. Some items seem self-consciously odd, such as the breakfast of polenta with butternut squash topped with candied pecans and mascarpone cheese ($9). It works surprisingly well, corn, squash and cheese merging into a light, refreshing sort of porridge. You can of course get a more conventional breakfast, such as eggs topped with a mix of exotic wild mushrooms sautéed with applewood-smoked bacon ($10). That’s not all that conventional – you can get your free-range organic eggs scrambled or baked in a clay dish – but it’s pedestrian compared to some of the other offerings. It’s also quite good, and you can taste the difference between real wild mushrooms and the shiitakes with enoki thrown in that are sometimes substituted around L.A.
The eclectic attitude continues at lunchtime, with sandwiches and panini, fresh seafood items, and salads. The standout is house-cured Tasmanian sea trout with rice crackers, wasabi peas, chives, and watermelon radish ($14), a stunningly arranged dish that may be the most beautiful plate in L.A. The fish is surrounded by colorful confetti of things that go crunch, and it’s beautiful and delicious. I’ve also enjoyed the potato-leek soup with manila clams and bacon ($12), a rich, warming chowder that balances seafood tang and onion sharpness, and I appreciated a panini of Spanish cheese, scallions, chorizo, and piquillo pepper ($14). The only thing that disappointed was a French ham baguette ($12), because it was authentic, but ordinary – good ham, fresh butter, and a nice baguette, but something I could have had anywhere. The freshly made Yukon Gold potato chips that came with it were a consolation, but there are more interesting things on this menu.
As I relaxed with a cup of orange zested cappuccino (tasty and not as bizarre as the “liquid tiramisu” or “jelly doughnut in a cup”), I was sure that I had just enjoyed the best breakfast in miles – and I was in Silver Lake, so that means something. LA Mill started serving dinner two weeks ago, and I’ll return to try it, because an establishment that can transform breakfast like this is capable of anything.
LA Mill is at 1636 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 663-4441. Open daily 7 a.m.-11 p.m. No alcohol served. Parking in rear, wheelchair access OK.
Published: 04/09/2008
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