west~bourne

West~bourne sounds straight out of a ’90s Soho fantasia, but its mission is grounded. It’s an all-day café that pairs the healthier approach of hippie-bowl cafés with an actual mission. Through a partnership with the Robin Hood Foundation, the restaurant donates one percent of every purchase to the Door, which provides free youth-development services. (The restaurant is also helping to fund and build a neighborhood “hands-on hospitality retraining program” with the Door, from which it’ll hire employees.) Employees start shifts with a meditative exercise; reimbursements are given for all sorts of things from museums to an investment account. Owner Camilla Marcus grew up in Los Angeles, and her restaurant calls back to the city in the 1960s as an inspiration. The menu, executed by culinary director Amy Yi, doesn’t take a strict approach to health. Different dishes are named after different neighborhoods, places, and institutions in L.A., like the Sunrise Kingdom breakfast sandwich on an English muffin, the Echo Taco with onion-pepper-potato hash, and the Bay Cities Cauli for the nearly century-old Santa Monica deli.