Botanica – All Day Goodness For Body And Soul
Author:Abigail Stone
Market fruit and grain studded breakfast bowls, morning mezze with plump eggs in salsa verde, rainbow-bright cocktails, soft lettuce salad with fennel curls and shallot vinagrette, cast-iron pimenton clams. If the menu for Silver Lake’s Botanica restaurant and Market reads like it was written by people practiced in the art of making words mouth-watering, it was.
Founded by Heather Sperling and Emily Fiffer in May, 2017, the former food and travel writers quickly proved that they could create food that was as delicious and appealing on the plate as it sounded on the page. Botanica Restaurant & Market is a produce-driven, all-day eatery, located steps from Lawson Fenning and La Mill. Designed by FreelandBuck Architects and Weekends, the 80 year old space, a former liquor store, is cool, inviting and utterly Instragrammable, from its wood-slatted ceiling to its plaster pale pink walls to its delicate brass light fixtures and potted-plant dotted back garden.
It’s easy to find excuses to pop in here all day. The bright and airy white-washed space is inviting even before you’ve had a chance to taste the menu’s offerings. A market just inside the front door, the windows and doors framed in a bright French blue, stocks farmer’s market eggs, a selection of organic wines, baskets of fresh produce and intriguing jars and bottles of spices and oils.
You could order tea or coffee to go. Or you could pull a rattan stool up to a long stainless steel counter for the first of many meals you’ll probabably have here. Move to a table for lunch or if you’re meeting friends. At night, the garden, with its stained-white fence, is the place to be. Fairy lights dangle overhead illuminating intriguing dishes that are easy to share.
Relying on beautiful local produce served in a calm and bright setting, this is food that is colorful, fresh, exciting and nourishing to both body and soul.
Botanica, 1620 Silver Lake Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026, 323-522-6106