Blu Jam Café
Blueberry Pancake with $1 Pure Maple Syrup Supplement
Crunchy French Toast – Brioche rolled in corn flakes, topped with fresh fruit, served with vanilla bean sauce
Coffee
Praised by some as the reference standard for French Toast in Southern California, Blu Jam Café on Melrose had long been on my ‘to visit’ list and with two disappointing stops already behind me on my last day in town I decided to finally take the bait; an 8:05am arrival nabbing me a seat without the typical 1+ hour wait as the surprisingly sizable restaurant filled to capacity by 8:30, a small line extending to the sidewalk on an atypical grey morning. Largely there with a singular purpose in mind but happy to entertain other options it would not be long before my server greeted me with a menu and after a short delay an order were placed, the young man subsequently disappearing to the back and leaving my coffee mug dependant on me begging back servers for refills more than once during the course of my forty-five minute wait. Service issues and a particularly loud table to my left aside, when my plates finally did arrive it was admittedly to high expectations and with a fluffy blueberry pancake kicking things off the fabled French Toast that followed was merely decent, the brioche not particularly memorable and still slightly doughy beneath inconsequential cornflakes – the vanilla cream, remaining pure maple syrup, and superlative So.Cal berries all helping to buoy a plate whose critical acclaim I simply fail to comprehend.