Friends & Family Anchors the New Thai Town Dining Scene

Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

Thai Town is less than one week away from the reveal of Friends & Family, chef Daniel Mattern and pastry chef/baker Roxana Jullapat’s long-awaited all-day solo project. The place is part bakery, part AM breakfast hang, and part lunchtime destination — with dinner to come.

The corner address on Hollywood Boulevard is part of a new Thai Town anchor, with Tabula Rasa just down the way and places like Harvard and Stone mere steps to the west. It’s an airy, window-ringed restaurant that oozes morning light and casual charm thanks to dark wood tables and comfortable leather seats. The front counter will soon be stocked with some of the best pastries found anywhere in town, as well as a takeaway loaves, a full lineup of coffee and espresso drinks from Counter Culture, and soon-to-come ice cream to boot.

Thankfully the kitchen in the back is massive, because it’s likely that Friends & Family’s 4,000 square foot space will be packed for weekend brunch right from the start. Mattern and Jullapat are veterans of the genre, having spent years together at places like Campanile, AOC, and Cooks County. Now they’re on their own (well, along with Trejo’s Tacos partners Ash and Niroupa Shah) turning out Sonoran wheat croissants, buckwheat pancakes, and just about anything you can put an egg on. Lunch leans casual with grain and salad bowls, sandwiches, and even cheese plates — all of which will also be available from a takeaway case for those in a hurry.

Friends & Family officially opens next Tuesday, May 9, with plans to keep breakfast and lunch hours only to start. That means 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with longer hours later in the spring and dinner service coming in the summer. They’re also hosting an opening party on Tuesday evening with Portland’s Jami Curl, founder of sweets empire QUIN, who will be signing her cookbook as well.

Friends & Family
5150 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA