Tuesday, September 15, 2015

It's Never Too Late For A New Favorite

My mom has lived in the same area code her entire life.  Of that, she's lived in the same vicinity for roughly the last two decades.  In Reseda, in the Loehmann's Plaza, sits a cafe, that in all the years my family has been going to that plaza, we hadn't tried until now.
The store Loehmann's, which was a clothing store, in the Loehmann's Plaza has long closed, but the name stays.  For the most part, the same stores have been there for forever.  CVS, Vons, Pizza Hut, Kaye's Music Scene, and Carl's Junior are all still there.  Gone is the Blockbuster Video and KayBee Toys.  It's the new home for Fab Dogs, a terrific hot dog joint, made famous on Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dives on the Food Network.  It got too famous for it's old location and moved here to continue gifting the world with their bacon wrapped hot dogs and genuine Chicago dogs.  Next to Kaye's is a cafe that I swear has been there for forever.  Glass front windows and colorful high-backed booths for outdoor seating always looked inviting but we always felt they would be too expensive.  We never gave them a chance.  It turns out, Roladin Bakery and Cafe is a fabulous little Mediterranean restaurant with good prices and simple, clean, inviting decor on the inside as well.
The Little One, her techie friend, and myself needed to run errands and the plaza had most of the stores we needed.  We hadn't had breakfast or coffee yet, so we thought now is as good a time as any to give them a shot.  The three of us walk in and behind the large glass bakery counter, we're greeted by a couple of girls who show us to our seats and hand us each a tall, spiral bound menu.  This menu has everything.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, desserts, and a huge section of coffees.  Before we order, a pretty, cold bottle of water was brought for the table as well as some Turkish appetizers.
We each order breakfast, which the portion sizes are huge, and a coffee drink.  The Little One ordered a blended iced mocha.  Chocolate was poured down the sides of the glass and it was topped with java chips.  Her friend ordered a cappuccino that came with pretty design in the foam.  For myself, I thought I would try a house specialty.  The Roladin Dream is a hot coffee with caramel and white chocolate.  The white chocolate isn't just an added powder.  It was white chocolate chips melted into the coffee.  It was sweet and rich and at the bottom of the mug was a pool of leftover melted white chocolate.  All the coffees were great and so was the food.  We didn't have room to try anything from the bakery case but we're sure to revisit soon.
We rolled out, very full and very satisfied.  We needed to walk off some of our recent indulging.  Lucky for us, they turned the old Blockbuster into a Petco Unleased.  Buying cat food and litter was next on our errands list.  And we may have needed to check out the newest Star Wars cat toys.
What Dreams are made of.

Cappuccino.

Blended iced mocha.



I liked the big landmark photos hanging above the booths.

1 comment:

  1. I went there once. Didn't look at the menu and asked what was good. I ordered the lox on bagel with cream cheese. It was delicious and beautifully plated. The price was higher than I expected but I had forgotten it usually is for the meal I had.
    Your coffees are so pretty and make me want to go back. Yes, those pictures are awesome. Now I want to go back. Love - Mom :-)

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