los gatos cafe and spike

what a fine, fine day Saturday was (until I got a raging headache at the end of it). A bit dark due to the massive rain clouds, but absolutely fine indeed. Stephanie, my good friend and ex-city roommate was kind enough to drive down the the burbs today to cruise Los Gatos. Thank you so much for coming to visit Spike!

I wasn't too sure where to go for brunch since I don't usually partake in the brunch scene. Let's talk about that for a second. Why don't I partake in the brunch scene? I love brunch. I think it's positively the best meal of the day. You get to eat an unnatural amount of food before noon and not feel bad about it because a) you won't eat again until dinner, and b) it's one feeding instead of two. So why don't I brunch more often? Well, life usually gets going a little too fast on the weekends for it. Note to self: brunch more often.


Back to the story. I went to the ever-popular resource, yelp, to do some brunch research in Los Gatos. Los Gatos Cafe was the first thing that popped up and next to Southern Kitchen, had the highest rating. The choice was easy! We got there around 11:30am. I was worried about a line, because the yelpers said it could be gnarly, but we only waited about 5 minutes. Right at the top of the menu was the Souffle Omelet section with every imaginable combination of meat, veggies, cheese, etc. So of course, what did I do? I made my own omelet with the usual...egg whites, ham, onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers. Stephanie ordered the crabcakes benedict. Both dishes came with the most amazing potatoes ever. They were like home potatoes, you know, chunks of potatoes with onions and sometimes peppers, but they went the extra mile and smashed them a bit so they melded together and had a delicious crusty crispyness to them. AND they were seasoned perfectly. It was like the home potato and the hash brown fell in love, got married and made a beautiful potato baby. My omelet also came with toast or a baked good. Normally I'd go for whole wheat toast, dry, but going back to the yelpers again, I opted for the raspberry coffee cake...a very wise choice and I made Stephanie eat half. The coffee cake came with a side of butter, but I think I'd point and stare at anyone who put the butter anywhere near the coffee cake. It was amazingly moist and fluffy and light. Don't drown that out with butter people. In the words of GOB from Arrested Development, "Come on!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIT5sFhw4sU (Note: Youtube video has nothing to do with butter, this blog, or LG Cafe. It's just GOB doing the Chicken)

Wrapping up LG Cafe, I'd give it two thumbs up. The food was wonderful, the service was excellent and the price was manageable ($10 for an omelet). Side note, these folks own the Iron Skillet closer to our house. It's also bigger and the menu's exactly the same. I think next time I'll try that location. Perhaps I could run there and wobble back home with my omelet baby.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/los-gatos-cafe-los-gatos

After brunch, Stephanie and I did some window shopping on Santa Cruz Ave. We went to Williams-Sonoma, where thanks to her holiday work at Pottery Barn she still gets 40% at WS (owned by the same company). I replenished my whole pepper blend for my grinder and picked up some Lulu Fig & Meyer Lemon Balsamic Vinegar. I love this stuff...pour it straight on to a salad. No oil or additional work needed. Stephanie likes to marinade chicken in it. Maybe I'll try that. Back to the 5 pepper blend, I went a little OCD on it. I didn't notice that it had whole white pepper in it I hate white pepper almost as much as salmon and goat cheese. It tastes like sweaty horse to me and I can smell it in any dish. Ruins the whole thing. I don't actually know what sweaty horse tastes like, I just know the smell, so I can imagine the taste is quite similar. That's disgusting, sorry. When I got home, I poured the entire jar out onto a cookie sheet and proceeded to pull every white pepper out. It took about 45 minutes. Yes, I'm insane. Stephanie doesn't know it yet, but she'll be getting them in the mail with a thank you note. Back to WS --- Stephanie picked up some Henckels...a pairing knife, utility knife, and a chef's knife. My girl's all growns up, I'm so proud of her purchase. People, do yourselves a favor and get some good knives! We poked our head around Banana and I was shocked at the discounts. They were Old Navy prices, it was insane. It kind of made me sad for BR. Oh, and how can I forget, we went into Domus where sitting on a pedestal right as we walked in were funnel cake makers. Stephanie, being from Oklahoma and a funnel cake aficionado melted at the sight of the display and quickly made a purchase. You can take the girl out of Oklahoma, but you can't take Oklahoma out of the girl!

Thanks for a simply marvelous day Stephanie! Special thanks as well to LG Cafe, yelp, Domus, WS, Hank & Eli for being purr babies for Stephanie, Kevin and Lew for mounting the flat screen to the wall while we were out playing, and Lucy for showing Stephanie her fumanchu beard.