tasty lunch at tender greens and tomato pie in la

I went to LA over Labor Day weekend to visit my dear friend Brendan Eisan. The plan was to make it a working weekend redoing his photography business web site with updated photos, colors and graphics. Brendan is the owner of Blink Photo and he is a talented photographer, but the hours of work involved in redoing a web site is so daunting it is much nicer to split up the work.

Brendan and I are big foodies. It is not uncommon for us to hop in the car and fight traffic for an hour to find some hidden gem. Add to that the fact that we are hungry most of the time, making it inevitable we would need to venture out for some sustenance sooner rather than later.

Usually we build our food trolling around a theme: all hotels, LA landmarks, Mexican only, etc. This weekend, we needed to keep it tasty but quick and inexpensive. Brendan's new favorite quick lunch spot that I hadn't tried yet is Tender Greens, located at 8759 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. The great concept of this clean contemporary space is the well priced organic food from local farms. I loved that whatever big salad you choose, the price is the same, $10.50. If one salad has a little more food cost it is simply made up by the low food cost of another. Brendan is hooked on the grilled chicken cobb, chopped romaine tossed with Point Reyes blue cheese, bacon, egg and avocado. I was drawn to the Chinese chicken salad because of the tatsoi greens, a favorite of mine but not on a lot of menus. You can have soup, sandwiches or a hot plate from the grill such as marinated flank steak with Yukon gold mashed potatoes and a simple salad for, you guessed it, $10.50.

Brendan got a recommendation from someone about a certain little joint serving a slice of pizza that reminded them of New York. All we remembered was that the name had the word tomato in it. After a Google search, we found Tomato Pie at 7751 ½ Melrose. The place looked closed till you opened the door and the tiny interior was packed. Lots of slices to choose from, most in the $4.00 range. We ordered the “grandma,” topped with crushed tomatoes, garlic, basil, oregano, Parmesan and mozzarella and the “meat lover,” pepperoni, sausage, ham and bacon. The service was great. The young gal at the counter brought our slices outside to us. She checked back later to see how we liked it and offered to get me another diet Coke. (Only .50 with a slice). This is not a table service place-- so she was very refreshing. The pizza was tasty, but we decided we are still on the search for perfection.

We did get back to work and the website turned out great. Check out Brendan's portfolios at Blink Photo and use him for your next event.