Local Flavor - I’ve been meaning to try downtown LA’s hip Bottega Louie Restaurant, Bakery & Gourmet Marketplace since it opened 2 years ago and was finally motivated to make the trek with friends Jill, Nick and Pasha on Memorial Day. It was SO much fun! An amazing Italian brunch, colorful pastries and even more colorful characters. Come inside and see what I mean…
I met this colorful “balloon trooper” on the way in when I asked about her great shirt, which she got at a hippie Topanga Canyon store for 99 cents. She had done her research and found out Wackenhut is an international security force, so it seems to be part of a uniform. Funny. Here, she’s digging for her card and I’m pretty mesmerized by her creative endeavor.
Jihan’s a Seattle transplant who had the vision to launch Geronimo Balloons based in downtown LA. There’s something very dreamy about Jihan’s perspective and her inspired balloon designs that you should check out.
When I stepped inside the resto, the pastries stopped me in my tracks. The selection went on for days and this case covers only about a third of it.
A rainbow of colorful eclairs were embellished with flower petals and gold foil details.
Superstar! This stylish stranger was vamping for me and jumped into a Molly Shannon Superstar pose, but I only caught the tail end of it. She was so cute!
A cache of chocolate bars and macaroons at the entrance and I must say the salted caramel macaroons were my fave. Plan to take boxes of treats away as gifts.
It took me a minute to turn around and take it all in, but I finally noticed the cute bar & cafe area…
… as we were led to our table in their expansive 220-seat dining room (where I ran into fun friends Raika & Alex – heyyyy!).
The bakery was generally a madhouse the entire time, but I happened to capture them all in the same place as I was leaving.
I spotted Chad and his gorgeous babies on the way out. They were still for a fraction of a second until something funny happened. To the two sisters I shot outside, there was a technical issue with your pix, but please contact me if you ever want a do-over! Check out Bottega Louie at 700 Grand in Downtown LA. Their website is no frills, but you can check out fun imagery on their blog or facebook or just salivate over their weekend brunch menu here.
