The Blue Rose – CLOSED
Desserts, Vegan, Coffee & Tea
1253 Vine St
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Things have not gotten better here and I find this place to be off-putting. I found out through eavesdropping that the owners have a vegan consultant on board. This guy told a woman who made a web series that featured this place that unlike Doomies this place isn’t doing great.
Big news there. And I can tell you exactly why this place isn’t doing great without the need for a paid consultant! For one, they have menu items that aren’t consistently available. If they don’t have a cold brew, like today for example, take it off the chalkboard! The vegan valley girl working at the counter was like yeah no we’re like brewing that right now and we won’t have it until tomorrow, while there was a half-finished cold brew next to her that was apparently hers. Great thanks for reminding that I don’t have a time machine.
Also, every interaction I’ve had with the baristas here has been mildly annoying. I feel awful for sounding rude but I feel like I’m dealing with not the sharpest tools in the shed here. Maybe it’s in part that their staff is working in a cafe that is usually out of things or trying to pass off a lot of their stuff that is stale, so they seem foolish when they are out of stuff or when it has to be remade when they get caught. I honestly hope that’s what I am sensing. That brings me to my last point: they serve stale stuff.
For example, a few months before this last time I was here, I asked for coffee. It was 4pm and the coffee that was sitting out all day due to the lack of customers was cold. Instead of making a new brew, the barista took the cold coffee, put it in a cup and steamed it. I have been in pretty sketchy coffee shops and never have I seen anyone ever do that before. I saw her do this and it tasted like hot stale coffee. I confronted her about it. She was quick to say sorry and made me an americano.
I’ve been vegan for 15 years and would rather go to a non-vegan coffee shop than support a vegan coffee shop that is committed to vegan things that 1. is inconsistent, 2. serves stale food/drink and 3. is poorly managed and run. It’s embarrassing as a vegan that this place represents the only vegan coffee shop/bakery of its kind in the area. They also play crappy Top 40 music. It’s as dead as when I first visited here a year ago and it should have no reason to be. But since it is, and they are tarnishing the reputation of their amazing sibling Doomies, please close down or hand the baton over to someone who has the time and willpower to turn this place around.
Useful: 8 Funny: 1 Cool: 5
4/20/2015
Previous review
I’M NOT REALLY SURE what to make of The Blue Rose.
First time I went in here, I had a vegan chorizo/nopales croissant. Although it was under a glass, it tasted slightly stale and the most disappointing part was that it was not actually filled with soy-rizo. It was a soy-rizo jelly-like essence. This undynamic paste made me against getting another option, the vegan turkey thyme croissant, in the future as I want to taste the flesh, not jelly. So I decided to bypass getting another croissant from here.
The second time I came in here, I had a Greek salad, which was already made, and with an Italian dressing. (There were wars between these two countries, this is an unlikely pairing for a salad.) When I asked for a cup of water, things got really strange. The girl looked at me as if she has never heard anyone ask for water before, looked around the area for a cup, and then went to the broom closet next to the bathroom. In the tiny closet was a stack of 32oz Coca Cola cups and pulled out a 32oz Coca Cola cup.
And I kid you not, she filled the entire 32 ounce Coca Cola cup with water. This turned out not to be so disconcerting because I was actually really dehydrated from bike riding in 90 degree weather and drank almost the whole thing. I stopped when I looked inside the cup and the bottom was peppered with black specks of dust particles. I am not sure if this was from the cup sitting in the broom closet or if the ice or water was dirty.
The feta cheese in the salad was light and subtle; and the salad is fresh and well proportioned. There are a lot of other delicious-looking vegan options here so I hope the tiny holes of this place get patched. I also hope more people come here because this place is perpetually empty. It makes me question the freshness of the selection of food, like the disappointing croissants, that don’t sell. Honestly, soy-rizo essences, jellies and flavorings might indeed be vegan, but you don’t win friends with meat jelly.
Useful: 4 Funny: 2 Cool: 1
5/2/2014