A Link to Sausages

Suppose you wake up one morning with a terrific craving for one of Jody Maroni’s sausages. Say you’ve been dreaming about his Yucatan sausage (made with chicken, duck cilantro and Dos Equis), or perhaps one of the spicy Cajun sausages. Thing is, you really don’t feel like driving all the way out to Venice to get one. And you feel even less like standing on the boardwalk to eat it.

You don’t have to. Caffe Latte, 6254 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles (213) 936-5213, is cooking up Maroni’s sausages (including one made of pork, bacon and maple syrup). They also make mean omelets, pancakes, hot cereal made of oats, wheat, rye and currants cooked in apple juice and milk and even breakfast pasta. Lunch features more sausages, more pasta, salads, good sandwiches and things like roast chicken and grilled prawns. Coffee is roasted on the premises, and there are more kinds of tea than I can remember. Unfortunately dinner is not served in this bright and unpretentious little place.

If some of the dishes sound familiar, it’s not surprising. Proprietor Tom Kaplan helped make breakfast big at his father’s Hugo’s. “But I just wanted a nice little neighborhood place,” he was explaining earnestly to a customer one morning as he made her a cappuccino to go. “I didn’t want the scene.”

“I’ll tell my friends,” she called back. “Same food. No nonsense. It’s great.”