Florentine

Eastside Road, October 13, 2013—

BREAKFAST DOESN'T OFTEN figure here at Eating Every Day, as Constant Reader will know. Here at home it's usually the same thing: a couple of bowls of coffee with milk, a couple of pieces of toast with honey; add a soft-boiled egg on Sunday.

This morning we were in Los Angeles, though, and of course it's Sunday, so after taking in the Hollywood Farmers' Market, where a friend was debuting her own bread, made from her own flour, milled from her own wheat, we stopped in at a favorite breakfast joint before undertaking the boring drive up I-5.

I like the place even though it's terminally cute, with knickknacks everywhere, busy print wallpaper clashing with busy print curtains, and more revisionist variations on the simple croissant than you can shake a crumber at. Thing is, the croissants are good, the eggs fresh and tasty, and the atmosphere warm and friendly without being cloying or irritating.

I can never resist anything "Florentine," meaning involving spinach, so that's what I had: eggs Florentine: poached eggs on a bed of steamed spinach, the whole on a split croissant, then covered with a nice lemony Hollandaise sauce. (Next time I'll ask for toast instead; I prefer my croissants straight, if that's not a contradiction in terms.)

The cappuccino left a little to be desired, but with the addition of a little sugar was pleasant enough.

• La Conversation, 638 North Doheny Drive, West Hollywood, California; (310) 858-0950

FINALLY HOME, we had only to open the icebox and get out some lentil soup left from a few days ago, have yesterday's Martini while it heated up, and make tuna sandwiches on some of the very fine bread we'd bought in Hollywood, from our friends at Kenter Canyon Farms.

Cheap Primitivo