A brunch that leaves vegetable lovers sighing is back

Do your tastes lean sweet or savory for the day’s first meal? At home, the answer for me is simple: savory, mostly involving a soft scramble that incorporates whatever among the week’s copious leftovers pairs well with eggs.

In restaurants, my leanings aren’t so binary. I’m in for a spectrum of tastes.

The return of Kismet’s beautifully L.A. brunch menu

What I most want arrives in a form that has recently reappeared in Los Angeles: These days Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer call it “the big brunch plate,” marking the return to their weekend daytime service at Kismet.

Kismet’s “big brunch plate” includes a jammy egg, barbari-style bread and small dishes such as kale dip with tahini and pomegranate molasses.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

A center pile of herbed, sharply dressed lettuces gives the platter its visual anchor. Ramekins in various shapes surround the greens. Smaller ones contain plump, crinkly dates and a mix of marinated black and green olives. An egg is halved to reveal its jammy yolk. This being Kismet, vegetables ebb and flow with the seasons, but lately there have been spiced tomatoes with creamy beans and chopped cucumbers over a thick drift of labneh. Wedges of barbari-style bread are crucial as vehicles for honeyed feta with walnuts and a dip of kale pureed with tahini and finished with a tart drizzle of pomegranate molasses.

This very Hymanson-Kramer collage, a feast for sharing plainly inspired by the abundant breakfasts of Turkish and Persian traditions, was my lasting first impression of Kismet when the restaurant opened in Los Feliz in 2017.

The version of Persian kuku served at Kismet includes spinach and white beans with sorrel aioli and salad.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Early on, the place had “all-day” vibes. Lunch/brunch and dinner menus, both rife with vegetables, also had their respective draws. Daytime, beyond the big plate: gentle shakshuka, pastry chef Meadow Ramsey’s fantastic scones and smart ideas like toast smeared with labneh and scattered with chopped broccoli and citrus. Evening: the “jeweled crispy rice,” a riff on Iranian tahchin with its surprise runny-yolk heart, starters like fried cauliflower with caper yogurt and a stunning tomato and stone fruit salad in the summertime. (Hymanson and Kramer wrote a cookbook that was published this year. The dressing ingredients for a make-at-home version of the salad include orange marmalade and white wine vinegar.)

Then … the pandemic. Daytime operations ceased immediately at Kismet; the focus for lunchtime hungers shifted to crisp-skinned chicken and schmaltz-roasted potatoes up the block at Kismet Rotisserie.

As of September, 4½ years later, brunch was back.

It wasn’t just nostalgia toying with my memories, nor my contentment at sitting among the dining room’s pinkish-blond wood booths and paneling in sunlight again. Ramsey’s scones, lately accented with strawberries, still show off a caramelized crust and crumbly, buttery interior. They demand slathers of room-temperature butter and jam. And ah, I’d forgotten about Hymanson and Kramer’s take on Persian kuku, a frittata-adjacent slab of mulchy spinach and collapsing white beans. Originally yogurt came on the side. I like the swap-in of sorrel aioli even better.

New to me, fulfilling the meal’s sweetest elements: homey challah French toast, served with a melting blob of whipped labneh and warmed maple syrup bobbing with blueberries.

The chicken schnitzel sandwich that sometimes appears on Kismet’s dinner menu has reappeared as a brunch dish.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Kismet’s sesame-flecked chicken schnitzel sandwich, draped with a blowsy leaf of butter lettuce concealing vinegary giardiniera and a smear of lemony-creamy sauce, has many fans. Hymanson and Kramer have moved its availability to brunch as sneaky enticement.

I’ve said before that Kismet is one of my favorite restaurants to take friends visiting Los Angeles for dinner. The devotion to freshness, crossed with the herbs and seasonings from the Levantine canon, marry so well to our produce. Vegetable lovers tend to leave sighing, “This is the California dinner we dreamed about.”

Out-of-town guests surely will appreciate the return of the daytime goodness. But really I’m just happy that once again Angelenos have their big, herby, savory-sweet feast for two (or three), and these knockout scones. Kismet’s brunch is for us.

Check out the lineup for the 101 Best L.A. Restaurants reveal party

It is that time already: The reveal party for the annual 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles guide is on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

Here’s the full lineup of restaurants serving food that evening: A.O.C., Alta Adams, Azizam, Bavel, Bistro Na’s, Bridgetown Roti, La Casita Mexicana, Delmy’s Pupusas, Dulan’s on Crenshaw, Dunsmoor, Fat + Flour, Found Oyster, Here’s Looking at You, Holbox, Jitlada, Kismet, Knife Pleat, Kuya Lord, Ladyhawk, Lasita, Majordomo, Moo’s Craft Barbecue, Morihiro, Mr. T, My 2 Cents LA, Nok’s Kitchen, Osteria Mozza, Park’s BBQ, Perilla LA, Petit Trois, Pizzeria Sei, Poncho’s Tlayudas, Providence, Rustic Canyon, Stir Crazy and Tacos La Carreta, plus drinks from 1010 Wine and Events, the Benjamin Hollywood, Dahlia and Old Lightning.

For tickets and more info, click here.

Other stories this week ...

Rashida Holmes of Bridgetown Roti makes macaroni and cheese pie at her parents’ home in Pasadena.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

• This week Danielle Dorsey has the uplifting content we need, documenting and celebrating the warmth of Black traditions around the Thanksgiving table. Among recipes included with the story are the glorious macaroni and cheese pie from Rashida Holmes of Bridgetown Roti, saffron-scented Swahili lamb biriyani from cookbook author Kiano Moju and, speaking of the joys of sweet and savory in a single bite, mincemeat cookies from John Cleveland of Post & Beam.
  
• Danielle also has a guide to the new generation of restaurants making Long Beach one of Southern California’s most dynamic dining epicenters.
  
• Farmers markets feel like a cornerstone of L.A.’s food culture. But Stephanie Breijo writes about how, as the weekly beacons in Santa Monica and Hollywood flourish, other smaller markets struggle.
  
• Jenn Harris goes on a food crawl through one of my favorite dining enclaves in the region: O.C.’s Little Arabia.
  
• Tariffs proposed by President-elect Donald Trump are likely to include wine and spirits. What will this mean for retailers and wine lovers? Patrick Comiskey reports.