Urth Day, Europane and the Norton Simon

Being a foodie with a baby is tricky, but not impossible. Cooking at home (or having food cooked for you at home: thanks, Mom and Dad!) is one way to eat well.

Another way to is to meet up at a gastronomic hot spot with a couple of baby-friendly pals. This way, you can pass the little guy around while everyone takes turns stuffing their faces. Win, win!

This is what we did with Mike and Sabrina a few weeks ago, when we started off a Saturday with coffee and breakfast at the new Urth Caffe in the Downtown Arts District and closed out the afternoon with sweets -- and more coffee! -- at Europane on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena.

Between meals, we strolled through one of L.A. County's best-kept secrets, the Norton Simon Museum, and learned one of Mike and Sabs' wonderful little secrets: they're expecting! Congrats, guys!

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We hadn't seen Mike and Sabs since they got hitched last December, so it was nice to kick back with them at the new Urth's outdoor tables, chat, and enjoy the boho-hipster ambience.

As always, Urth we gave an A+ for its ingredients; everything was organic, fresh, and attractive, and the coffee strong and rich. Urth's prices make us think they might've called the place "Sky" (or even "Space") but it's good to chow down here once in a while in the charming brick alley ambience of the Arts District.



After driving home to Pasadena to check out The Norton (which has got a pretty amazing collection, especially of late 19th and early 20th century painters), Mike and Sabs took us to Europane on Colorado. It's right in our 'hood, but somehow we've always missed it (although we have sampled their sweets at Jones Coffee on Raymond).

Mike swears by the Egg Salad Sandwich at Europane. Still kind of full from Urth, we stuck with sweets, and weren't sorry in the least.



The apple pie Yuri chose was probably our favorite. We liked it so much that we took Tommy and Lisa there a few weeks later. We sampled every kind of macaroon in the house, and got a free sample of Europane's delicious home-baked bread from a nice German man in line in front of us.

And of course, we tried that egg salad sandwich. You were right, Mike! We're going to have to go back for that one soon.