Zeidler's Cafe

Parking: On Site
Family Friendly Deli Quiet

It's peaceful up at the top of Sepulveda Pass.Crickets. Shrubbery. Vagrant breezes. The only clues that you're in L.A. arethe distant growl of the 405 Freeway and a lot of modern architecture by MosheSafdie.

That would be the Skirball Cultural Center, arambling suite of strikingly designed buildings where the theater and otherfacilities bear familiar L.A. culture-maven names such as Ahmanson and Taper.More or less the same goes for the center's restaurant. Zeidler's Café is namedfor Marvin and Judy Zeidler, well-known investors in restaurants around town,who are friends of the Skirball and have consulted with the café.

In the Skirball Center (which has parking lots oneither side of the complex of structures--if you can't get into the firstone you see, just keep going along the rambling driveway), Zeidler's is locatedbetween the museum and the Taper Courtyard. It's a solid-looking sort of roomwith blond wood lattice on the ceiling and the cement walls, and a suggestionof vast arcs in its shape. It's basically a lunch place serving kosher food ofthe dairy persuasion. There's no meat from anyland creature here--nothing that chews the cud or cleaves the hoof or evenflaps the wing. Even the Thai barbecue pizza is made with tofu "chickentenders."

The menu leans to lunch-type things: soups,salads, sandwiches, pizzas and pastas (the Zeidlers always spend part of theyear in Italy, so this is kind of a kosher Tuscan place).

The soups include a surprisingly convincingvegetarian chili and a sweet borscht with plenty of julienne beets, with sourcream on the side. The soup of the day might be gazpacho--a thick puree offresh tomatoes and just a bit of onion. On the other hand, I've had anasparagus soup with rather little asparagus flavor.

One of the best things here is on the salad list,the chopped salad. It's a light, delicate pile of lettuces and tomatoes tossedwith cheese and bits of bell pepper. The pot sticker salad, on the other hand,is like a very good Chinese chicken salad--lovely greens, niceginger-sesame dressing--but the puffy pot stickers themselves are chewyand almost empty.

The sandwiches are all made with excellent bread.The salmon pastrami club, using wonderful, crusty corn rye, won't convince youfor a second that you're eating pastrami, but the filling is good cured,pepper-rubbed salmon.

The grilled portabello sandwich, on dark wheat,has a meaty, substantial filling of grilled mushrooms, caramelized onions andmelted Swiss cheese. (It tends to get a little soggy, so eat carefully.)Sandwiches come with salads, such as new potatoes with balsamicvinaigrette.

Oh, the Creative Things They Do With Tofu
One thoroughly Italian dish is penne pasta withstewed eggplant and a good fresh tomato sauce that probably has a sprinkle ofsugar in it. The "Tuscan" frittata is definitely sweet, but it's prettyirresistible--an egg cake mixed with crumbled tofu "sausage" and blackolives, the whole thing topped with greens, tomatoes and roasted redpeppers.

That Thai barbecue pizza has a pretty flavorfulmedium-thin crust and plenty of cheese and barbecue sauce. The tofu "chicken"on it is inoffensive; in fact, it gives this California cliché a certainlightness.

The desserts tend to change day by day. Therealways seems to be brownies--two big wedges of rather stiff-textured cakewith strong, dark-chocolate flavor, served with raspberries and chocolatesyrup. If there's chocolate crème brûlée, it's likely to have a smooth,pudding-like texture, very little caramelized sugar crust and a splash oforange flavor.

Actually, one of the best desserts is listed inthe "pizzas and more" section of the menu: cheese blintzes. The filling of thecrepes is not overly sweet, and it comes with raspberry syrup and freshfruit.

Zeidler's also serves a buffet on evenings whenthere's a theatrical production at the Skirball Center. The food is cooked inthe separate catering kitchen because it includes meat choices--say,carved roast beef and chicken breast in tomato sauce--as well as fish,salads, petits fours and cookies (the chocolate-chip cookies are particularlygood).

Be the first to create a list »

Know something we don't? UPDATE LISTING