Infamous Sprinkles Cupcakes!

 

For those of you who haven't heard of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the original gourmet cupcake bakery, you are missing out!  But don't worry, I actually didn't know anything about it until a few months ago after my lovely birthday lunch with Lisa at the Tea Rose Garden.  We were in the car driving around Pasadena when all of a sudden Lisa suggests going to Sprinkles Cupcakes.  She was surprised I've never heard of it and off we

 went to find a Sprinkles location!  Sadly, we couldn't find the it and decided we'll save our trip to there another day.

 

I'm actually glad we didn't go because the following week, Erica (best friend) surprised me with a gift certificate to Sprinkles as a birthday gift!  It's as if she read my mind!  Thanks Erica if you are reading this!  What's really freaky is that I have never once mentioned Sprinkles to her AND that was the second time I've ever heard anyone talk about this place in one week!  Talk about a coincidence, right?

For weeks on end I've been wanting to try Sprinkles and I was finally able to this past weekend by accident!  We were roaming around The Grove, which by the way is a great place to go to over on the weekends, and we came across the mini bakery that was hidden between a restaurant and a parking garage!

 

The cupcakes alone are $3.50 each so be prepared to break your piggy bank for a dozen of these babies!  Just kidding, but I have to admit, they're pretty expensive cupcakes!  I think it's worth it if you get the right flavors.  For example, we ended up getting the Banana, Strawberry, Coconut, and their Irish cupcake.  I liked all of them except for their seasonal Irish cupcake--the least moist cupcake and you can barely taste the Bailey's.  I think my absolute favorite would have to be the Banana because it was evenly balanced.  The strawberry was delicious except for the fact that the sweetness over-empowered after the third bite.  Coconut is great too but the Banana beat them all!

Can't wait to go back to Sprinkles again!

<3 Lina Chen

189 The Grove Dr.,  Los Angeles, CA 90036

323.931.4498.   http://www.sprinkles.com

You SNOOZE, You Lose.

Went to Snooze an A.M. Eatery, off of Colorado Boulevard this morning with my lover.  Craving to try new foods, we decided to go here since it was close by and I've heard excellent things about it.  The line of people inside helped validated what I read in the reviews too.

As soon as we got there, we put our names on the list and waited about 20 minutes of so.  They had a small table with fresh brewed coffee and water for people waiting to get a seat.  It was quite nice.  You don't often see that in restaurants.  The atmosphere is absolutely warm and the place is modern yet chic.  The room is filled with bright orange walls, with a splash of soft yellows, light blues, and greens.  They also had a patio, which was encased in a plastic rectangular bubble, only to keep the area warm enough for customers to eat in the winter.

Minutes after being seated, we ran into my good friend Erica and her boyfriend Son and we all had a lovely brunch together.  It's wonderful catching up with great friends and eating delicious foods.  They say food brings people together and surprisingly, it did.

Snooze has four pancake dishes.  They have a fifth option called the Pancake Flight where you can mix three of the four different pancakes.  Erica decided to go with the Pancake Flight and got the pineapple-upside-down pancake, the Red velvet pancake, and the pancake of the day which looked like it was made with Funfetti batter topped with a light cream cheese frosting and strawberry jam.

Out of the three I was able to try the Red Velvet Pancake and it was an orgasm in my mouth!  The cream cheese frosting topped with pecans and the espresso infused butter all complimented one another.  One would think the Red Velvet pancake would be too sweet, but it wasn't, it was perfectly balanced, taste-wise.

My lover Eric got the Upstream Benny.  According to their menu it's a "honey smoked salmon on house-crafted bacon-jalapeno spoonbread, topped with Niman Ranch poached eggs, cream cheese hollandaise and chives."  Eric being the carnevortarian that he is, he substituted the hash browns with corned beef hash.  Honestly, the corned beef hash wasn't worth the extra $3 substitution, but hey, like I said it wasn't my dish.  The Upstream Benny though was good and I'd definitely recommend it if you are looking more than just the usual eggs, OJ, and toast/pancakes.

Now I love pot pie so it was only natural for me to go ahead and order the Breakfast Pot Pie.  There was a fluffy, flaky pastry smothered in gravy and topped with an egg (sunny-side up of course) and hash brown on the side.  The Breakfast Pot Pie was equally mouth-watering as the other two dishes, but I would have to say that the Upstream Benny is the absolute winner.




A delightful meal to start the day. Afterall, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Confessions of a Fatty.

<3 Lina Chen

700 Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80206.

303.736.6200.   www.snoozeeatery.com