Royal Par/T

This past weekend, I was down in LA celebrating a slew of friends' birthdays. One afternoon included venturing to a Culver City I'd not known before: design stores, art galleries, good eats and French Maid-clad waitresses. Yep, that's right. Apparently, French Maid cafes are a trend in parts of Tokyo. So in the spirit of the Japanese-inspired cafe/gallery/shop Royal/T, owner & art collector, Sue Hancock, provides kawaii and pop eye-candy all around.


From a gallery space that is home to a noodle-skirted, dumpling-winged sushi chicken


and eyeball bedecked tea accoutrements...



to a shop filled with all kinds of novelty items, including food coloring books (had to get one) and heart-shaped egg molds...


to the cafe space where the plants on the back wall of the cafe are grown in felt pouches made from recycled plastic bottles by Woolly Pocket Garden Company...


to the super-delicious Kobe beef sliders on brioche buns, topped three ways: bleu with caramelized onion, quail egg up & tomato chutney. The menu offers a nice selection and the tempting cupcakes were very popular at tables all around us.

Loved everything about Royal/T. It's just the kind of place I'd want to throw a royal party.