Division Champs

Well we do not have our own restaurant at the moment but we got some practice when we helped Intelligentsia Pasadena open with a Farmer's Market Menu. They use all of our pastas and, yes, our Lasagna Cupcakes which got some ink in Los Angeles Magazine's Best New Restaurant Issue. 

Intelligentsia Pasadena serves them hot and delicious dressed with a salad, but you can stock up your freezer with them at our retail outlets Silverlake Wine, Cookbook, The Village Gourmet, and The Oaks.

Tasting Menu with Coffee Pairing

In November, Kyle, the Director of Innovation at Intelligentsia Pasadena, hosted a Coffee Tasting and asked Matt to pair the featured coffees with food. The best part of this extravaganza was that Matt was invited to attend a "cupping" beforehand where all the coffees were tasted. Now the point of cupping is that you spit out the coffee after swishing it in your mouth to experience it's flavor components otherwise you risk sending your body into a e-ticket jolt of what can feel like a heart attack or a seizure even. Lover of coffee that he is and not one to waste it, Matt swallowed it all and couldn't eat or sleep for about 36 hours afterwards, but in that time created a thrilling menu that complimented all of the coffees so that guests hardly touched their wine as they eagerly awaited their next course's offering. Here was the Menu:

Course 1

 Mokha: Sweet, floral, lemon, lavender, honey, berry, anise

Served with wild boar tartar on grilled bread with house cured guanciale hollandaise

Course 2

Typica: Well composed, citric, fig, dry fruit, nectarine, hard candy

Served with savory bread pudding with persimmon chutney and crisp virginia ham

Course 3

Sudan Rume:  Enzymatic, floral, jasmine, tarragon, lavender, green apple, ranier cherry

Served with crispy duck confit, apple slaw, walnut and tarragon aioli

Course 4

Mibrizi: Mango, sweet clemetine, raspberry, fresh basil

Served with a salad of butterleaf lettuce, radish, turnip, house-made cream cheese, beet reduction and spicy peptitas

Course 5

Icatu: Pineapple, crumb cake, cherry, dried strawberry, toffee, apple, sage

Served with brown butter, marjoram, chestnut, kuri pumpkin agnolotti

Course 6

Erecta: Caramel, orange, tomato, almond

Served with almond romesco, eggplant terrine, fried basil

Course 7

Maragogipe: Herbal, lemon, tangy, hibiscus, tangerine

Served with charred cap steak, pickled fennel, sweet and sour baby carrots, fried cavalo nero

Course 8

Bourbon: Dried strawberry, floral, cherry, grapefruit, sparkling, grape

Served with chocolate ganache cake with white chocolate mousse and pistacchio tuille

Eater LA Dispenses a Huge Compliment

Honored to be in the company of these amazing eateries!!

Chow Balla Talks About the Menu

 

Sunday Brunch at Intelligentsia

You may have your own favorite java jolt, but I'm going to share with you ours. It's at Intelligentsia of course and it's off the menu so that when you order it you immediately feel like an insider which never hurts at a place of food. Named for the glass it's served in, the Gibraltar is an espresso with milk heated to the tip of it's sweetness so sugar isn't really necessary. Pair this shot with an Americano and you'll feel enlivened and ready to go.

Now, the Grub!


Jidori Chicken Salad Sandwich




Pork Sausage Fritatta with Weiser Farm Banana Potatoes


Suadero Tacos with Pico de Gallo and Peppadew Slaw



Roasted Nieman Ranch Pork Belly Sandwich

Come and Get It!

Intelligentsia Pasadena

55 East Colorado Blvd.

Leslie Balla Shows Us Some Love

Jonathan Gold Doesn't Know Who We Are

We LOVE Intelligentsia and we are HUGE FANS of Jonathan Gold so it's okay that he gets his facts wrong when he writes that "the squandron of coffee jocks" invented Lasagna Cupcakes because you here on our humble blog are the actual insiders who got "The First Bite" in this scenario and it is you who are armed with the truth:

Heirloom LA makes the Lasagna Cupcakes! Intelligentsia makes the Iced Angelenos!

Our heads are hung low, our egos have encountered a hiccup for it was Matt in a giddy state of enthusiasm who personally served Jonathan Gold his Lamb Ragu Lasagna Cupcake last Friday at Intelli Pasadena. Yet, today, we raise our chins, as well as our Iced Angelenos, and choke back our bluster realizing that a sincere and flattered thank you is still very much in order to the Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer for scribing so eloquently about our food despite not knowing that he has.

Sunday Brunch at Intelligentsia

Breakfast is not overrated, especially when it's at the new Intelligentsia in Pasadena.

Did I mention that we were doing the food?

We are. Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Lunch, Lunch Boxes, and Dinner
(Wine and Beer coming soon!)

Tal and I met there last Sunday for Brunch. Although Tal said he had already eaten, I ordered both Brunch Menu items, Juevos Rancheros and Sausage and Biscuits insisting, "You have to at least taste them!"

I live for this motto. I taste everything Matt makes.

He shrugged and said again, "I'm just really full."


The dishes arrived, I took my pictures, and went to work on the Sausage and Biscuits (I had made the biscuits and they were very good, thank you).

Amazing, delightful. I told Matt this without bothering to cover my mouth.


Juevos Rancheros, delectable, surprising.

I turned again to my sleep deprived boyfriend and took his hand in mine, only this time I made sure not to be chewing. I just don't say this enough, but you are doing such a fantastic job. I'm so proud of you.

Then I turned back to my plates, fork in fist ready to polish them off, but alas... they already had been.

Hmph. Be careful of the "full" people you share your Brunch at Intelligentsia with!

Intelligentsia Coffee
55 E Colorado Blvd I Pasadena

Catching a Righteous Caffeine Buzz at Intelligentsia

Okay Seattle, I'm sorry to roast on your coffee (see: Filling Up in Seattle), but down here in Silverlake, Barista Champions make our joe so you had some high standards to live up to. 

It was just last Sunday that three of Intelligentsia's baristas

took top honors at the Western Regional Competition where they had to make and present an espresso, a cappuccino, and a signature drink for four judges. Last year Intelligentsia's Kyle Glanville became the US Barista Champ and placed in the world competition.

Kyle, a long time Seattle resident coincidentally, defends this city, proclaiming it to have really good coffee overall. Okay, but what I was looking for in Seattle was more than that, something to make me remember and want to go back. Intelligentsia has the Angeleno, an iced coffee

shaken up like a martini with milk and Agave, and they also have the Gibraltar. Named for the glass, the Gibraltar is served as a condensed espresso shot using milk heated at it's optimal temperature of 135F to provide a natural rich sweetness. It's not on the menu, but now you know about it, so make sure you order one on your next visit... to Intelligentsia here in Silverlake that is.