Huckleberry Cafe
Image Credit - Infatuation LA
If you were a baby of the 80’s or the 90’s, you can appreciate the art of a good Rom-com. For my ‘gen-x’s out there, a rom-com stands for Romantic Comedy, and the late 90’s and early 2000’s reigned in them. The plot was almost identical but these rom-com creators mastered the technique of tweaking the storyline just enough to leave you coming back for more. “No Reservations”, starring the timeless Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2007, was just that: the quintessential rom-com, feel-good movie that we’d all seen a hundred times before, but this time, with a restaurant twist. A workaholic, love life-less chef, convinced she could never ‘have it all’, Catherine’s character in the movie meets and falls in love with her sous chef and lives happily ever as part chef, part woman in love. But why the homage for a post about Huckleberry Cafe? The very similar ‘chef meets chef’ love story that created the cafe and cookbook we know and love today.
The stars of this real life romance, Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan both grew up locally in Santa Monica and fell in love while working together in their nearby restaurant, Rustic Canyon, also both chefs. Both long shared a desire to open a local, artisan bakery and café where friends, family and enthusiastic food lovers could come together and eat delicious food in a warm, casual atmosphere.
The warm and casual atmosphere caught on quickly in Santa Monica, as it’s the cafe has become one of the busiest restaurants in the area. And after fulfilling their dream of opening this local, artisan bakery, they decided to make these local recipes globally accessible, with the acclaimed Huckleberry Cookbook. In the cookbook, you’ll find more than 115 recipes and more than 150 color photographs, including how-to sequences for mastering basics such as flaky dough and lining a cake pan. The recipes span from sweet (rustic cakes, muffins, and scones) to savory (hot cereals, biscuits, and quiche), with whole-grain flours, sesame and flax seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables, natural sugars, and gluten-free and vegan options.