The Nook
Coffee
Monte Cristo – Fried ham and cheese French Toast Sandwich on Egg Bread
King Kong Cakes – Buttermilk Cakes, Bananas, Chocolate Chips, Topped with Peanut Butter and Whipped Cream
Already garnering praise from locals in Encino, it was just after 8am on Friday that I parked in front of The Nook and entering the recently opened space to find smiling owners ready-in-waiting amidst cozy décor it was mere moments before I sat down at a sizable four-top as an I-Heart-Radio station played quietly overhead.
More sizable than one would expect from the exterior, a large dining area with bucolic themes divided from the kitchen by a long bar, it was with coffee poured that the menu was perused and after a few questions confirmed fears of no WiFi and a lack of pure Maple Syrup the decision process became much simpler, a pair of plates tallying $30 after tax and tip along with the copiously refilled brew.
Friendly enough, and near 1/3 capacity by the time I exited the establishment some sixty-minutes later, it was after a somewhat lengthy delay that my pair of plates arrived, and beginning first with the ‘Monte Cristo’ suffice it to say that the sliced French Toast was good, if not memorable, the addition of ham, cheese, and a touch of Strawberry Smucker’s equally competent though certainly not artisan or destination worthy, at all.
Moving next to one of several varieties of pancakes, it was with high hopes based on the menu description that the buttermilk cakes would gussied up enough to avoid the use of a sidecar of Log Cabin quality stuff, but unfortunately relatively lacking in bananas or chocolate chips within the batter a large dollop of whipped cream and perhaps a tablespoon of Skippy only went so far – the fluffy triple-stack eagerly sopping up ‘syrup,’ though only the top cake proved worth eating, thus sending me forth unsatisfied and looking for more…
http://www.breakfastatthenook.com/
