2008'S STANDOUT DISHES

Los Angeles Times, December 31, 2008

Zoe Nathan's Pastries

Not since the early days of Campanile when Nancy Silverton was turning out batch after batch of fresh-baked breads and pastries has breakfast riveted the attention of food lovers. That's because pastry chef Zoe Nathan of Rustic Canyon Wine Bar & Seasonal Kitchen in Santa Monica decided to do breakfast on Saturday mornings. It didn't take long before the place was mobbed with hungry early birds munching on Nathan's delightful crostatas filled with raspberries and blackberries, her flaky strawberry turnovers, or old-fashioned buttery coffee cake with a vein of cinnamon crumble running through it. She'd start baking at 4 a.m. And keep baking all through the morning, even frying up divine French doughnuts to order. Sad to say, that breakfast is no more. Nathan has shut up shop while she and Rustic Canyon owner Josh Loeb work on Huckleberry, a bakery and cafe slated to open early this spring a few blocks west of the restaurant. If this is what she can do with Saturday breakfast, it boggles the mind to think what she'll get up to once she has an entire bakery to herself.