Tag: latte

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Ahoy, Scratch-Made Treats! Blackmarket Bakery 🏴‍☠️

Nestled in an eco-friendly retail campus surrounded by the 73, 55 and 405 highways is a glass building with a logo reminiscent of the pirate flag. It’s none other than Blackmarket Bakery!

Allow me to introduce you to the unique bakery serving scratch-made treats, fresh bread and savory sandwiches.

The CAMP at Costa Mesa

Blackmarket Bakery is a small, locally-owned business located within the CAMP, a green, eco-friendly shopping center in Costa Mesa, CA. It’s located near South Coast Plaza, LAB Anti-Mall, Mitsuwa Marketplace, and John Wayne Airport.

It really looks and feels like a camp in the middle of the city, with lots of wild plants, old trailers and camp-related decorations scattered about:

With around 25 stores that focus on healthy, active lifestyles, the shopping center hosts a bunch of events designed to bring awareness to the environment and the local community. (Plus arts & craft classes, free movie showings and drive-in concerts!) *For a full list of shops and services, visit the CAMP’s website HERE. For their calendar of events, HERE.

Now, back to Blackmarket. The bakery sits at the tip of the CAMP, right in front of the main parking lot that’s painted with feel-good messages in white:

I highly recommend choosing and parking at your favorite message! 😁

The Vibe

The first time I visited, I was taken aback by the exterior. From the outside, it didn’t look anything like a bakery with its modern glass windows and wild plants growing outside. I mean, I couldn’t see a single trace of baked goods. But the logo of a cake shaped like a skull, words “Bakery” pasted here and there plus these UFO-shaped cakes let me know that I had come to the right place.

It looks nothing like a bakery, with the only hint being the logo with the
Jolly Roger cake. ☠
UFO cakes taking people away! 🛸

Though it didn’t look at all like a bakery, it was plenty chic with its unique logo and vinyl stickers. As I entered, I expected the interior to be more “normal,” with clean walls in warm colors and baked goods neatly displayed in glass countertops like other bakeries.

But the interior was as eccentric and chic as the exterior:

There’s so much to see! 👀

The bakery was like an industrial factory with metallic lights hanging from above. I honestly didn’t know where to look with all these cool merchandise and aesthetic chocolate bars lying about. They had these cool periodic table lunch boxes, cookies shaped like dragonflies, metallic trailer displays and treats that all look good.

Menu & More

After being overwhelmed by all the products and standing dumbfounded for about a minute, I was able to make my way towards the counter to order. As I stood at the very end of the line, I got to watch bakers kneading the dough by hand:

Bakers kneading behind rows of freshly made breads.

When I moved a few inches closer to the cashier, I saw this huge menu board:

Visit https://www.blackmarketbakery.com/menus/ to view the official menu online.

Having witnessed all the tasty-looking cookies and bread at the entrance, I had confidence in all the menu items. In fact, I wanted to try everything on the menu plus all the treats displayed. But as I physically and financially couldn’t afford to do so, I narrowed down my choice to the Hot Potato Egg Sandwich, i.e. Hot Potato “Eggywich,” as called by the crew.

Along with the Berry Basque Tart and latte.

The Food

By the time I received my orders, I was too hungry to remember about blogging it. So… I devoured the Hot Potato Eggywich without taking any photos of it! 😫 But I remember and can say with confidence that it was good. The over easy eggs, bacon, and hash brown patty made it a hearty meal – an excellent breakfast. The pickled onions and garlic aioli sauce made it very savory.

Despite my overall satisfaction, I personally found the Eggywich to be a bit overwhelming. It was too much to eat the aforementioned ingredients with its butter croissant bread. I didn’t realize while I was eating it, but once I finished, I really was feeling overwhelmed.

The Berry Basque Tart was VERY good. It had a crumbly tart crust with fresh raspberries, thin almond slices, and lemony cream with powered sugar sprinkled on top. And the latte was smooth, with a good amount of foam. Both the tart and the latte were excellent. HOWEVER, I wouldn’t drive all the way to Costa Mesa just to have these again – especially with the insane gas prices these days. I would if I happened to be in the area and wanted some good tart and latte.

A few weeks later, I had another chance to visit Costa Mesa and so I went again to Blackmarket Bakery. This time, I ordered the Fresh Prince Eggywich. I liked it better than the Hot Potato Eggywich:

Healthy ingredients & savory sauce 👍

+ Update 6/18/22: I visited the bakery yet AGAIN and this time I got the Plain Jane. It wasn’t overwhelming with just cheddar cheese, eggs and brioche bun. It tasted great with fresh orange juice:

Delicious! I liked it better than the other eggywiches I tried.

A Bakery Worth Visiting

Blackmarket Bakery is definitely worth visiting – at the very least once. They’ve got good food and superb treats – made fresh every day. And equally importantly, they’ve got unique, clever decorations that you won’t be able to find anywhere else, like the metallic UFO cakes, chess boards painted on tables, and whisks hanging from above.

It’s a must-see bakery for photographers, bloggers and tourists alike who appreciate industrial chic decor with creative, artistic culinary touches.

More About Blackmarket Bakery

🏴‍☠️Fun Fact #1: The unique Blackmarket Bakery in Costa Mesa was founded back in 2012 by Rachel Klemek, a UCI alumni. Her first Blackmarket Bakery opened even further back in 2004 in the city of Irvine (now closed).

🏴‍☠️Fun Fact #2: Chef Rachel Klemek is a champion of the Food Network show Chopped! Watch her slay in the “Sweets Showdown: Cake!” episode (Season 43, Episode 10) on Food Network. Watch the full episode at: https://watch.foodnetwork.com/video/chopped-volume-3-food-network-atve-us/sweets-showdown-cake

🏴‍☠️Fun Fact #3: According to the founder herself, the name “Blackmarket” comes from the fact that baking fundamentals like butter, flour, sugar and eggs were only available via black markets during World War II. She says in an interview with OC Weekly that the name for the bakery was developed during the Atkins diet craze in the early 2000s when baked goods seemed culturally outlawed (read the full interview HERE).

What brilliant way to incorporate history to one’s bakery! 🤩

Photo by Patrick Fore

🏴‍☠️Fun Fact #4: There are currently 2 Blackmarket Bakeries: one in Costa Mesa and one in San Diego (with another San Diego store coming soon). They offer online ordering, gift cards, and loyalty cards that you can use to get free coffee:

The chic red loyalty card from Blackmarket Bakery.

Visit these links to learn more about Blackmarket Bakery!

🍪Get to know Blackmarket Bakery – from CAMP’s website

🍞Interview with Chef Rachel Klemek – from Great Taste Magazine

🍰Podcast Interview with Chef Klemek – from UCI School of Social Sciences

🎂Interview from Chef’s Insight – featuring Chef Klemek’s chocolate caramel tart + marshmallows

P.S. Visit their official Instagram Page HERE for seriously aesthetic cookies & more!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Rendez Vous Cafe in Corona Del Mar: Best Beignets, Worst Latte 🥐

If someone had asked me where my favorite café was just three months ago, I would have readily answered: Rendez Vous French Bakery & Cafe in Corona Del Mar, CA! But now I can’t. Because despite their still delicious beignets and food, it saddens me to say that I’ve tasted one of the worst lattes there.

So let’s talk about Rendez Vous Cafe.

Heavenly Beginning

Rendez Vous French Bakery and Cafe is an “authentic artisan French bakery” and café where “everything is made from scratch” with the best ingredients. They serve breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner and offer catering.

The restaurant/café banner outside.

I chanced upon this café when I was driving by Corona Del Mar one day. It has an eye-catching aesthetic exterior, with a blue and white sign and outdoor seating area adorned with garlands of pink florals.

The lovely exterior of Rendez Vous.

When you walk inside, you come face to face with lovely Parisian decorations, including this beautiful wall of pink, white, red, and purple roses and a chic white cart displaying macarons and caneles:

Quelles jolies roses! 🌹🌹🌹 *Click HERE for another aesthetic café that abounds with roses.

Not to mention the tempting pastries and bread surrounding you when you stand at the cashier to order!

The first time I visited with my family, I ordered a French toast, veggie panini, cream filled beignets, and two cups of latte. And we remember it like it was yesterday: it was HEAVENLY. Everything tasted great – not too sweet, not too salty. Fluffy French toast with fresh fruits, flavorful panini packed with cooked vegetables and side salad, doughnut-like beignets packed with rich cream, and foamy, rich lattes.

I wish we had taken photos that day, but we were too busy devouring the food. Click HERE to see the official photos of their French toast and HERE for their cream beignets.

*Visit their IG page for more mouthwatering photos of their menu items💕💕

The heavenly taste continued every week we visited the café, and for the past few months, visiting Rendez Vous was our family’s little ritual. We would order, take the food and lattes, and watch the beautiful shores of Corona Del Mar:

Sunny or cloudy, the coast of CdM is always a delightful sight to behold!

The Ever-Changing Quality

But sometime around late March, things began to change. We were surprised to find our beloved Rendez Vous French toast, which had been fluffy and yellow, coming out too burnt to eat. Our lattes had become foamless and tasteless.

But we loved the cafe so much that we went back week after week, in hopes of tasting the gastronomical heaven we had experienced in the beginning. But the French toast always came out with black bits on the bottom, some weeks worse than others, while our lattes tasted different every week. *Sometimes, it would be like drinking hot water and espresso separately. Other times, it was like drinking lukewarm milk and espresso. Our lattes always came out with barely any foam, and the milk and espresso that should blend together came out tasting like they hadn’t been mixed.

*5/29 Update: Delicious foamy lattes are back!

How the latte was on 5/29/22. 👍

And at times we would come home with the cream beignets only to discover that we received plain ones. 🙁

Photo by Matthew Henry.

After weeks of giving the French toast and lattes multiple second chances, we gave up on our favorite items. So we had no choice but to find quality lattes elsewhere, which we did at Rose Bakery Café a few blocks away.

Rose Bakery Cafe’s ever delicious latte with foam. The great thing about them is that they are ALWAYS good, week after week.
Review of the café is coming soon!

Food’s Still Great Though 👍

But I’m happy to share that they always have great beignets and paninis.

Their chicken panini is delicious! (Comes with side of salad or fries. Their salad is always fresh, too)

The best beignets I’ve ever tasted!
The bread and the pastry cream feel thick & taste real – they’re not some cheaply made pastry.

And croque madame!

I’ve also tasted some of their pastries, including the fruit tart and pear almond tart. And they’re as good as they look! 👇😉👍

And the café is as chic as ever, with pink roses and decorations reminiscent of Paris itself. They’ve got great food and lovely, friendly employees. I recommend Rendez Vous Café to anyone visiting Corona Del Mar, CA but just be aware of their French toast and latte.

⚠ The French toast might come out very burnt on the bottom, and the latte might come out tasteless & foamless. Hopefully they go back to tasting phenomenal!

To wrap up, here are more photos of the chic interior & exterior:

Here’s the exact location:

P.S. To visit the cafe’s official website, click HERE. Like their motto, they really do have real food and real people! 😉

P.P.S. During Christmas, this pretty French café becomes even more aesthetic with a pink Christmas tree!

Pink boxes, ornaments, and roses galore!

P.P.P.S. Update 5/24: I visited again and ordered a panini with cream beignets for take out. The panini was delicious as always, but I was given plain beignets again… 😔

Posted on by — Leave a comment

The Other Cafe Lola: The Henderson Location

2021 came to an end a few weeks ago. Yet, there is still no sign of the pandemic coming to an end. Not even close. The pandemic, as everyone knows, has been terrible, affecting everyone across the globe. It has taken the lives of countless, disrupted the hopes of many. I dreamed of traveling after graduation, but such dream has been postponed indefinitely. Who knows when we will get to travel freely again? Without the fear of the virus? Until then, I plan to travel domestically, supporting small businesses and appreciating places within the states. And without further self-reflection, I reintroduce you to Cafe Lola, one of the most aesthetic cafes I’ve ever visited in the West – but this time, it’s the Henderson location!

*To check out my post on the Summerlin location (near Red Rock Canyon), click HERE.

Cafe Lola in Henderson, Nevada

The Cafe Lola I visited this time was located in Henderson, Nevada. To be honest, I’ve never heard of the city until now. But after a quick search, I was able to discover that it is located just 16 miles from Las Vegas. (I was able to see Vegas from Henderson on my way.)

Apparently, it was voted (back in 2018) as one of the top 50 Best Places to Live in America by Money Magazine and ranked by Forbes as the second safest city in the U.S. It was also named the Greenest City in Nevada. And here’s an interesting fact: Steve Aoki lives in Henderson, Nevada! 😎 For more info on the city, check out this blog post: https://www.retirebetternow.com/blog/living-in-henderson-nv/.

Henderson’s got a neat website, too! Click HERE.

It did appear to be a clean suburban city, with nice new buildings and homes. Cafe Lola was located in a neat plaza by a big hospital:

On the outside, the cafe looks neatly plain. But once you open the door and step inside, it’s a whole different world of florals and aesthetics:

The Interior

I happened to have visited the café in December, so it was extra pretty with a giant Christmas tree with sparkly pink ornaments and even a pink nutcracker. But I believe the beautiful crystal chandeliers, pink telephone booth, golden rose decals on inlaid white walls, and other aesthetic decorations all remain the same in the other months as well.

The Food

Although the main purpose of my visit was for the aesthetics, I couldn’t just take photos without ordering anything. So I ordered a latte and waffle to eat at one of the cute tables while snapping as many photos as I could.

The employee brought out my latte first, and I was surprised to find this placed on my table:

Take a closer look:

The letters below the smiling dog/cat reads “Merry X-mas.”

Isn’t it the cutest little latte foam? 😍

The food was exceptionally aesthetic as well, as you can see from the photo below:

Waffle with strawberries, strawberry cream, and strawberry jam.

Now, the fork and knife were kind of dirty – I couldn’t get whatever was stuck on them off with the napkin… But the food was delicious! Not the most delicious latte of waffles I’ve ever had, but nonetheless good.

Conclusion

Cafe Lola in Henderson, Nevada is a fun place to check out if you’re near Las Vegas and if you’re into pretty cafes. It also seems like a great place to hold birthday parties and meet your friends if you live nearby.

It’s a delightfully flowery café with rosy walls, pink telephone booth, and a bicycle to remind you of Paris and London at the same time. And despite some unsanitary utensils, you can enjoy a good drink and some good food all the while surrounded by pink roses.

🌺🌹🌺🌹🌺

And extra-lovely around Christmas time! 😉