Cafe Olli Is Whatever You Want It to Be

Cafe Olli is a variety of eating places.

By day, it’s an off-the-cuff counter-service spot, along with your decide of pastries, sandwiches and sq. Roman-style “pizza alla pala” by the slice. There’s additionally soup, two completely different sorts of fancy cheese on toast (whipped ricotta with bee pollen and citrus marmalade or stracciatella with Calabrian chile honey), and made-to-order breakfast choices, all in a vibrant house with massive home windows going through each Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Failing Road.

At evening, the room darkens. There’s wait workers on the ground, and the cooks get busy with the wood-fired oven, which stays from the house’s earlier occupant, Ned Ludd (although it’s not the one cooking implement). The pizzas are actually complete and spherical, and the menu consists of snacks like beef tartare and marinated olives, salads, roasted veggies, a single pasta, three mains and desserts (get there early or eat quick to ensure your self a slice of basic chocolate fudge cake).

With its eclectic simplicity, Cafe Olli has a determined “that is what a restaurant must be after a pandemic” really feel. Its 5 founding companions all beforehand labored for Submarine Hospitality (Ava Gene’s, Tusk). They personal 50% of the restaurant, whereas the opposite 50% is in an employee-owned belief. Which means half of quarterly earnings go to workers based mostly on hours labored and seniority.

There may be additionally no tipping right here since Cafe Olli expenses a 20% service payment to pay all workers larger wages and supply well being care in addition to paid break day. Socially minded practices prolong to the menu, which features a sliding scale ($0-$14) group meal—savory farro porridge through the day and a meatball entree at dinner—out there, because it describes, to “those that are experiencing meals insecurity or monetary hardship. No questions requested.”

However Cafe Olli additionally has acquainted pre-pandemic components: It’s, after all, “seasonally centered” and “regionally sourced,” with Pablo Munoz Farms produce and Laney Household Farms beef. There’s additionally a dedication to creating as many issues as doable in-house, together with pasta, breads and roast meats for sandwiches. Each the menu and the house additionally deliver to the thoughts the brunchy, crunchy vibe of all-day L.A. stalwarts Sqirl and Gjusta.

For breakfast, a frittata of the day ($8) modifications with no matter seasonal veggies are available—throughout a current go to, that was potato, leek, spring onion and inexperienced garlic. It got here with a swipe of mayo and a aspect of hearty dressed greens.

Should you’d desire a sandwich as a substitute, Cafe Olli permits you to order your frittata nestled inside a seeded ciabatta roll served with cheddar, greens, mayo, and a fermented jalapeño and serrano scorching sauce ($10).

An enormous inexperienced schmear of scorching sauce with cheddar and mayo can also be on the sausage sandwich ($10), which might be ordered with or with out fried egg. Its smallish crusty “breakfast roll” appeared unlikely to include its layers, however, in reality, the roll is each chewy and compressible, and all the weather held collectively while not having the provided knife.

If it’s Saturday or Sunday, the star pastry attraction is bombolini ($6), a huge, crunchy sugarcoated Italian doughnut that walks the “is it dessert or is it breakfast?” line, particularly when the filling is a salted chocolate custard. Different current choices have been ardour fruit curd and cheesecake mousse. There’s additionally an old style doughnut ($5), with vanilla bean buttermilk glaze, in addition to good outdated espresso cake in loaf type ($3 a slice).

The dinner menu has a choose-your-own-adventure really feel, appropriate for somebody searching for a fast meal of pizza and salad on the counter with its full view of the oven, or a buyer searching for a full journey via the menu. On a current evening, a plate of deeply flavored roasted Brussels sprouts ($10) stole the present. In reality, its char, sweetness and acidity additionally made the following plate, beef tartare with potato chips, horseradish and Meyer lemon ($14), appear bland.

If it’s a must to select your carb, go pizza over pasta. Present choices embrace a four-cheese (no tomato) with kale raab and agrodolce onions ($26) and an Italian sausage with pepperoncini and Calabrian chile ($25), which you can even gild with Calabrian scorching honey ($3). However it’s the minimalist pomodoro ($20)—nothing however tomato sauce, thinly sliced garlic, oregano and olive oil—that basically reveals off the naturally leavened, fire-kissed crust.

Besides you’re additionally going to wish to “spoil” the purity of this pizza by including stracciatella ($3). And oh boy, will you are feeling spoiled. Hand-stretched from curd supplied by Cowbell Creamery, the milky fattiness of the recent cheese is concurrently decadent and easy. Which additionally sums up Cafe Olli.

EAT: Cafe Olli, 3925 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-206-8604, cafeolli.com. 9 am-2 pm Tuesday, 9 am-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday.