You feel instantly relaxed when you step into Olive & Thyme (crowds aside, as I was able to finally experience at dinnertime tonight when most studio employees have fled en masse back to their westside homes).
Top that all off with cute decor items for sale, like Tocca candles. There are white marble countertops, a rustic wooden picnic-style communal table, a lovely center-island wine/beer/coffee bar, glass cases of freshly made salads, gourmet cheeses, charcuterie and fresh made desserts, and shelves of packaged gourmet goods from artisan chocolates, flavored marshmallows, cookies and butter waffles, to tins of imported toffee, to house branded jars of spices - it's our very own Joan's on Third, in the heart of studios central. The cafe / marketplace has a decor that is clean, sleek and chic without being intimidating or at all pretentious - spacious yet cozy and intimate at the same time. There is just something special about Olive & Thyme that has not been seen inside the triangle these last few years. In their first few days, Olive & Thyme's resident chef estimates they served hundreds per day at lunch, and the cozy space continued to be packed at dinner. As the immediate mob of studio and local folks converging upon the place - almost like survivors of Oceanic 815 upon their first discovery of edible fruit / marine life (or an all-engineer frat upon the rare new girl in class) - would attest, it seems like they have been waiting forever for Olive & Thyme to arrive. Into this vortex, Olive & Thyme bravely dove headfirst on Tuesday this week. There are some amazing eats on Tujunga and Ventura (not to mention Portos on Hollywood Way), of course, but all again outside the triangle.
There's also Sweetsalt and Arde's Bistro, which I love, but also just 'out-of-bounds' - when you only have an hour for lunch and you're wearing heels - you'll lose a good chunk of both walking, or spend too much time driving over and circling for parking before you can even get in line to place your order. Mo's has good salads and crazy good warm chocolate chip cookie dough pie, but is fast, casual fare that is relatively spendy, and falls just outside the triangle. Don Cuco's is great for the occasional lunch or happy hour, but a decidedly casual dining space with a delicious but fairly standard menu, and the thighs and waistlines of image-conscious studio folks can only handle so much Mexican over time. Gindi Thai, Arnie Morton's and Studio Cafe Magazzino are pretty much the only chic/more upscale/cute spots offering creative/finer/fresher fare, that have stood the test of time within walking distance of the three studios in this pneumatic triangle. Exhibit C.Actually, maybe that was about it, at least in the last few years. Exhibit B: Three generations of white linen, wine listed Italian restaurants that cycled through so quickly that no one even remembers any of their names, on the corner of Riverside and Kenwood. Exhibit A: French 75, which became Savannah before disappearing forever. There's a vortex in Burbank around Warner Bros., Disney and NBC, roughly bordered by Olive, Alameda and Pass, where many ambitious food venues that dared venture seem to vanish quickly without a trace.
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