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Try Chilaquiles in Encino at Claudine Kitchen & Bakeshop

Today we’d like to introduce you to Encino’s Claudine Kitchen & Bakeshop.

We’d love to learn the story behind Claudine Kitchen & Bakeshop.
I’ve been working in restaurants for the past 17 years cooking my way in kitchen in San Diego while in college, San Francisco, and back home in Los Angeles. I got lucky and discovered cooking while in college and finally was able to latch onto a career that made sense for me.

My partner and my children’s Godmother, Lea Newton, is a talented baker and pastry chef that had her own successful dessert catering company. It was growing fast. I asked Lea to partner up with me because we saw an opportunity here in the Valley. There weren’t really any scratch kitchens, places we loved going when it was our turn to dine out, so we thought we could establish ourselves west of the 405 and bring our product to the local community.

Successfully running a restaurant is extremely difficult. Tell us about some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome.
NO! This has been a challenge since the day after we came up with the idea, but at the same time, it has been a lot of fun filled with tons of growth both personally and professionally. I think the biggest challenges were finding the money to invest in the business and learning the business end of restaurants….making art and commerce meet. We found the best way to overcome these obstacles was to attach ourselves to mentors…other chefs, restauranteurs, and business professionals that have done this type of thing or have seen it. Their experience and knowledge have been invaluable to our growth.

Is there something unique or interesting about Claudine Kitchen & Bakeshop that our readers should know about?
We have a culture of Yes. We do our very best to accommodate our guest’s needs and sometimes along the way we find new discoveries either with steps of service or creative menu options. We separate ourselves from our local competition by offering a menu filled with approachable dishes with a fine dining approach to technique and execution. We have not seen a fried egg sandwich like ours with Old bay remoulade, house American beer cheese, and our homemade giardeneria. We also ferment our own fresno hot sauce that pairs well with a lot of our sandwiches. Our fried chicken is first brined in pickle juice, then cooked sous vide to maintain juiciness and tenderness then in a traditional buttermilk batter and fried. We make our own chorizo tacos. All our baked goods are baked fresh every morning so we have them until we sell out!

Most Popular Items

Chilaquiles

a fried corn tortilla casserole cooked with a tomatillo and cilantro salsa, mexican creme, cotija cheese, avocado, shaved onion, sunny side egg
Fried Chicken Sandwich

pickle brined fried chicken sandwich, creamy ranch spread, house pickles, house american beer cheese, red cabbage slaw, hot honey mustard

Egg White Fritatta

sautéed market vegetables (asparagus, mushrooms, spinach), egg whites baked and topped with wild arugula salad and a side of Vero’s salsa roja
Dietary: VegetarianParking Advice:
Yes, we have free parking in our underground parking lot and have 6 assigned spots for Claudine guests only.

Happy Hour:

Average Entre Cost:$13

Address:16350 Ventura Blvd., Unit F, Encino, CA 91436

Phone:818-616-3838

Website: www.claudinela.com

Social Media links

 
Image credits:
Ryan Tanaka, Kevin Mata, Wonho Frank Lee

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