A sunny start to your day

WHEN the sun is shining (and it almost always is), what could be more L.A. than breakfast on an outdoor terrace? Weekend brunch used to be quite the event at Rockenwagner in Santa Monica, but after Hans Rockenwagner’s long-running restaurant closed some months ago, where are beachy breakfast aficionados going to go for their German apple pancake fix?

Not to panic. Rockenwagner is back, this time with 3 Square Cafe + Bakery, a stone’s throw from the Abbot Kinney address where he began his career in L.A. Housed in a lean, contemporary building, it’s basically two parts: a takeout bakery and storefront, and a cafe with an outdoor dining terrace next door.

The coffee is a full-bodied roast from Julius Meinl in Vienna, and the crowd is a wild and woolly mix, including laid-back architects, mothers with self-confident toddlers in tow, serious bikers and literary and artistic types digging into bowls of Bircher muesli or apple-smoked bacon and eggs. Every other person, though, seems to be sharing that warm apple pancake. Slathered with creme fraiche, it’s breakfast and dessert rolled into one. The kitchen also turns out terrific huevos rancheros, which come with a good, fresh salsa and chiles rellenos. Potato rosti is a good bet too, if you like your potatoes crisp and golden, but the chicken hash seems more virtuous than delicious. And only serious bike riders need apply for a breakfast of Bavarian meatloaf, eggs and pretzel roll. 3 Square Cafe is one of the few places to serve grilled weisswurst sausages with your eggs too, and for that I’m grateful.

AND yes, I know you were just about to ask: You can also get Rockenwagner’s signature pretzel burger -- a juicy beef patty on a soft, egg-glazed bun made from pretzel dough, lavished with caramelized onions and Swiss cheese, if you like. Who says you can’t have a burger before noon? At brunch here, you can.

Daintier appetites, though, might want to order the mini-sandwich sampler -- you choose the three, all served with homemade pickles of various sorts.

Attempting to park on Abbot Kinney Boulevard can rile even the most serene of souls. 3 Square Cafe has that one aced too. There’s a valet around the corner, which means, after you’ve had your last sip of coffee, you can scoot across the street to Tortoise to see what’s new at this beautifully curated design shop.

A full service cafe is just what the neighborhood needed. And it, fortunately, gives all of us the chance to play Venice bohemians for a morning. Or a night.

weekend@latimes.com

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3 Square Cafe + Bakery

Where: 1121 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice

When: Breakfast and lunch, 8 a.m.-

3 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekends; dinner, 5-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. The bakery is open 7 a.m.-6 p.m. daily.

Price: Breakfast items, $5.95-

$12.50; lunch items, $6.75-$13.95; dinner items, $6.95-$17.50

Info: (310) 399-6504, www.rockenwagner.com