Bloom Breakfast Bust

As part of the Sunny with a Chance of Pancakes post, I described Bloom Cafe (5544 W. Pico Blvd.) as Pico Boulevard's (between Fairfax & La Brea) only chance of being hip. Scratch that. I am here to tell you Bloom Cafe needs some help.While their food is good, they have yet to get my order right. It's true. Every single time. Usually, it is the avocado that they leave off, but sometimes, maybe on the day they decide it is chef's choice (hell, I don't know), they send out a chorizo chicken with shitake mushroom omelette in lieu of my order: chocolate chip pancakes. Really? Yes, really. It gets worse.

On this lovely Father's Day with the Los Angeles sky looking blue as ever, I woke up looking for a good and near option for breakfast. Bloom is right down the street. I got online, placed the order and Ian went on his merry way to get breakfast. 10 minutes later, phone rings. Bloom didn't get our order via email (though they sent us a confirmation and happily took our credit card number) so they need more time. No problem. We're used to this. 20 minutes later, he heads back. Well, this time they said that the email got through and oh, they double charged us. With time ticking and lunch starting to sound better, they hand Ian our bag of food and the receipt saying we'll be refunded. I check the bank account. Double charged yes and for....two different amounts. Huh?

Finally, hungry and ready to eat, we get the food out on the table when I notice something. . .

Where is the avocado?

I'll make the rest short. Cut to Ian having a heated discussion with Bloom owner Arnaud Palatan at the counter in a Peruvian-French showdown over eggs. Arnaud is throwing 20 dollars bills, Ian's just saying he wants the order right and someone is thinking maybe it's time that someone helps the poor Spanish-speaking chef out by giving him the orders in his native language. It ends with this: an invitation to Thursday Paella Night at Bloom with live music and Palatan's company. We'll see if we make it.

(The real ending: with the food finally on the table and the avocado green as ever, we sit down to eat only to hear mewing and a loud crash from the kitchen. Mr. Miyagi flys out of the cup cabinet. Man, that cat knows how to upstage any situation. Bravo Mr. Miyagi. Bravo.)