Review: Cafe 2001 is the kind of eccentric haven that L.A. needs right now

"At Cafe 2001, breakfast rolls out for the Arts District morning crowd at 8 a.m. An unusually beautiful avocado toast, crowned with a soft-boiled egg, can arrive alongside your cappuccino or hojicha. The wobbling oval hides, just visible, in a grassy nest of julienned zucchini, cucumber and kohlrabi. This is the day's healthy start, rendered as Easter egg hunt. After 11 a.m., lunch-leaning dishes become available."

"The last menu item is ready at 1 p.m. and not a moment before: watermelon cake. If the algorithms did their job, a slice was the viral hit you saw on the socials this summer - the pretty image that drew you to Cafe 2001, a peculiar and quietly serious little place, with a narrow yet soaring space reclaimed from urban decay, and casual, sophisticated daytime meals. Its eccentricities feel like welcome refuge."

"For the star-turn dessert, Cafe 2001 chef Giles Clark readily credits Toshio Tanabe and his French restaurant in Tokyo, Ne Quittez Pas, as inspiration. If in Clark's pastry case you glimpse a whole cake already missing a section, you could momentarily mistake it for extra-bright red velvet. That tells you about the proportions: think a round of the fresh fruit sandwiched between slim layers of simple sponge cake and covered in smooth whipped cream frosting."

Cafe 2001 serves breakfast beginning at 8 a.m., including an avocado toast topped with a soft‑boiled egg nestled in julienned zucchini, cucumber and kohlrabi. After 11 a.m. the menu adds lunch-leaning dishes such as a pork tenderloin katsu sandwich on shokupan with thin breading and a sharp-sweet lacquer of ketchup, hot mustard and Japanese barbecue sauce. The last menu item appears at 1 p.m.: a watermelon cake composed of fresh fruit rounds, slim sponge layers and whipped cream frosting, accented with a splotch of watermelon jam. Chef Giles Clark draws inspiration from Toshio Tanabe’s Ne Quittez Pas, and a finishing dusting of grated Fox’s Glacier Mints adds menthol coolness.

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