Kevin A.
Yelp
Been coming to Bolt for coffee and breakfast the better part of a couple weeks now and really enjoy it. It's a beautiful space w high ceilings and the ability to feel safe inside as folks are pretty spread out. There is a beautiful outdoor garden I plan on using more after the cold and rains abate...
To start, I'm fussy about coffee and Bolt's is a good one, medium brewed and always piping hot, which I really appreciate. At $3 for a large, it's fair and always does the job.
The food here is both familiar and rather curated simultaneously. They do splendid Mexican staples with a generous brisket breakfast taco made with their homemade hatch chilis salsa hot sauce. I like this better than the breakfast burrito I had which, while fine, felt rather poorly assembled. Also, LA's very best is just down the road at Cafe Los Feliz, so there is always that memory nipping at the neocortex when I try breakfast burritos...
I recently had two of the better dishes here: the "Bolt Bowl," and the avocado toast. Loved the bowl, a low carb creation of sautéed veggies (broccolini, onions, grape tomatoes etc), two types of ground Italian sausage - spicy and sweet - with a nice duvet covering of a pair of perfectly over easy eggs-- Yummm! I hit it w pepper and Cholula Hot Sauce and it's excellent. Would be even better with red or green Tabasco but they don't carry those despite my daily grumbling for them.
The avocado toast is excellent here too, well assembled on toasted sourdough bread, sprinkled over with quality salt, chili flakes, and a touch of olive oil. For an extra couple bucks I added on the over easy egg which really added something. That all said, it's avo toast w egg and at $16 before tax and tip? It's overpriced. Should be the same cost as their venerable breakfast sandwich, a play on the egg McMuffin with what one must assume are healthier ingredients at $10.65.
As good as the coffee and grub are (and don't let my advice to Bolt here dissuade you off the otherwise high recommendation!), I can honestly say Bolt's staff may be the main reason to come by here. Either they hire only the coolest and happiest of players for behind the register and counter, or I want whomever trains them all to guest-educate at every coffee shop in LA-- this is a fun group of good looking and smart young people. I've gotten to know one a little - Joy - a comedian I'm betting is great just off our interactions.
Winding this down with recommendation for the house made cookies. They make some truly incredible cookies. I like the sea salt covered chocolate chip and the chocolate with peanut butter center but I friggin' dream about their almond cookie with a dollop of jelly in the center: it's not that cloying marzipan biscuit you might be conjuring up in your head but rather a crumbly revelation made of almond flour, I suspect. Seriously, dreamt about it already...
As this is a "review" I'll offer one real bit of advice that I feel would help Bolt out: They have the most lovely outdoor garden space. Covid safe and beautiful, like a gem culled from similar coffee houses in Brooklyn and elsewhere. They should let it be QUIET. Free of music, which can be as alienating to as many customers as it is enjoyable for others. The inside plays the same music as outdoors for the majority of patrons but I would love the beautiful silence out there to read and write and work. I know others would too... Oh, and get a "slow-door-closer" to silence that back door from slamming all day long. It's soooo disruptive to everyone working inside!
So get to Bolt. It's a wonderful EaHo coffee shop that brings up the 'hood some.
*** PS if you are blessed by your higher power, you may get the rare sighting of the pet rat, "Ratsputin," a healthy boy that flashes about in the rafters on occasion. I love seeing him so be kind and don't scare him off.