There are a few tables on the sidewalk, and a few jammed indoors that are usually full, so we ll take our coffee to go. With slim counter, tiny interior and sidewalk umbrellas, it s stylish and hip and also packed, especially at lunch. Here, oatmeal is steel-cut, served with fresh strawberries and maple syrup. The scones alone can induce a drive of any number of miles to eat one. Bran muffins, also with currants, are moist, flavorful and, again, right on the alluring edge of sweet.
Gingersnap cookies are chewy and wonderful, if misnamed there s no snap at all.
I d gladly meet anyone here on a Sunday afternoon for the grilled shrimp salad with cannelini beans and asparagus. If scones and croissants aren t enough for breakfast, Walter s pours Yuban and Brim into its bottomless cups and serves bacon and eggs all day long. One can see lots of jewelry and taut skin line up at lunch time in the portals of La Scala . Compared to Walter s, La Scala is a relative newcomer to Ca on, and many say it has never been the same since moving from its original Santa Monica Boulevard location a dozen-plus years ago. The food was, and is, American Italian way too much sauce on the pasta, salads of iceberg lettuce.