Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sunday, May 4. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know:

Celebrate mom by taking her to a fantastic brunch

With Mother’s Day a week away, it’s a good time to preview suitable spots for celebrating mom.

The Los Angeles Times’ Food Team has, of course, aided the cause with its recommendations.

They picked their 32 Best Weekend Brunch Spots in Los Angeles. They include old favorites such as tart and bubbly mimosas, tasty Bloody Marys and bountiful Benedicts. But there are other delights, from seafood towers to stacked sandwiches and caviar service.

The locales range from breakfast nooks in Long Beach, to drinks in Pasadena and savory treats along the way on the Westside and in Inglewood.

Of course, you don’t need a special occasion to enjoy brunch, just an appetite, a little sense of adventure and an appreciation of quality.

So, here’s a sumptuous preview from that list. Of course, check out the entire article for all the details.

(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)

Alder & Sage (Long Beach)

Our Danielle Dorsey selected this Kerstin Kansteiner Retro Row cafe, which buzzes with locals picking up daily pistachio-rose cold brews. Others settle in for a few hours of remote work on the sandy wraparound patio.

On weekends, the Streamline-style building is packed for brunch, with the restaurant serving as a popular stop before or after visiting nearby thrift stores or the beach.

The brunch menu skews seasonal with soyrizo hash, French toast bedecked with apple compote and rosemary maple syrup, and quiche threaded with mushrooms and leeks.

Cocktails encompass soju Bloody Marys, micheladas, a couple of low-ABV spritzes and mimosas that you can order with a flight of three juices, plus wine by the glass and bottle. A handful of nonalcoholic options are available, including a convincing mojito mocktail.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )

Pez Coastal Kitchen (Pasadena)

The brunch menu at Bret Thompson and Lucy Thompson-Ramirez’s Pasadena restaurant is a celebration of seafood, with a grand chilled tower, ceviche, oysters and caviar that impressed my colleague Jenn Harris.

There’s a whole fried fish, and you can opt for smoked salmon on your eggs Benedict biscuit or avocado toast.

The bar slings spritzes, build-your-own mimosas and a handful of brunch-appropriate cocktails.

But Thompson has managed to create a menu that also will appeal to the diner looking for French toast or a breakfast sandwich.

Harris believes in starting brunch with the bacon flight, a wooden plank of four slabs of bacon rubbed with various flavorings.

Recently there was apple-cinnamon bacon, an apricot mustard variety and chipotle honey. The French toast fingers are more of a meal than the name might suggest, with tiles of perfect French toast that are crisp around all the edges and soft and tender in the middle.

The dish is scattered with toasted walnuts and slices of sweet, jammy banana and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce. There should be at least one order on every table.

Saltie Girl (West Hollywood)

Seafood lovers, climb aboard, says my colleague Stephanie Breijo.

Ever since docking in West Hollywood, the Boston-founded, seafood-slinging Saltie Girl has served some of L.A.’s best and most indulgent shellfish towers, lobster rolls and sea-tinged pastas, sandwiches and toasts — in addition to a tinned-fish list that’s roughly 150 options long.

But brunch is an especially good time to set sail, with dishes such as Eggs & Eggs, where caviar and crème fraîche top silken scrambled eggs; meaty hunks of fried lobster complement a fluffy-interiored waffle with spicy maple syrup and sweet corn butter; and the Benedicts can involve caviar, smoked salmon or lobster.

But one item worth launching a thousand ships isn’t seafood-focused at all: Don’t miss the cinnamon roll sweet buns — made by Ben Sidell’s SweetBoy bakery — which receive a tableside pour of a thick sweet-salty toffee syrup that will have your whole brunch party licking the mini cake stand clean.

Please check out the entire list here.

The week’s biggest stories

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

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Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here’s a great piece from this past week:

Two men lay in a dark street in Pomona. The gunshot wounds made clear how they died. Their tattoos offered clues about how they lived: Swastikas. Lightning bolts. Iron crosses. The words “Blood and Honor” and “Death Squad.” The slain men were part of a white supremacist gang called Public Enemy Number 1, or PEN1. Prosecutors say they were killed in 2022 by members of their own crew, acting on orders from the Aryan Brotherhood, a syndicate with vast influence over white inmates in California prisons.

More great reads

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For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Vivien Killilea / Getty Images for IMDb)

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Alexander Vidal / For The Times)

She was tired of working too many hours, of battling chronic illness and running ultramarathons. She couldn’t find love in New York, so why would Los Angeles be any different? Then one day, she went paddleboarding for first the time in Laguna Beach and found an unexpected neighbor, a 40-ton gray whale. The visit was a religious experience. Coming back to the shore, she gained new perspective and happened to run into James, an uncomplicated big guy who ran a bike shop. Would she fall for this other gentle giant, or is the perfect man her white whale?

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Andrew J. Campa, reporter
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