LA’s Best New Breakfast Sandwich Destination Has Arrived

When joy and community were in short supply during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, Cara Haltiwanger’s pop-up Calabama served up both from an East Hollywood apartment fire escape. The periodic “ bucket drops ” that delivered Southern-style breakfast sandwiches from a red plastic bucket attracted a cult-like following of stir-crazy Angelenos who needed sustenance and a dash of whimsy amid social isolation. Starting Friday, November 15, 2024, fans of Haltiwanger’s downhome pop-up can come to Calabama’s permanent home in Hollywood for a dependable dose of Southern comfort.

Headlining the new restaurant’s menu are Haltiwanger’s signature breakfast sandwiches layered with bacon, egg, cheese, grilled onions, and avocado and served with a proprietary spicy-sweet dipping sauce, along with other staples from her Alabama childhood, including sweet tea, delicate biscuits, and pimento cheese. “I want to keep this shockingly simple, Southern, and country,” Haltiwanger says. “I didn’t open a restaurant to do an extensive menu.



” Even though Haltiwanger has worked on and off in hospitality as a line cook and bartender since relocating to Los Angeles from Mobile, Alabama in 2004, owning a brick-and-mortar was never her goal. “I think a lot of people romanticize running a restaurant, and to me, running a restaurant takes away the part that I love,” she says. “I’ve been fulfilled with my clients, pop-ups, collaborations with other chefs and businesses.

” Haltiwanger’s earliest pop-ups began in 2009: First from a friend’s Fairfax hair salon, then on the patio of Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood and at the Friend Bar in Silver Lake. The menus usually highlighted Southern delicacies like hoe cakes and hot gravy, but occasionally, she prepared grilled cheese sandwiches, especially when money was tight. “It’d be $1 for onions, $1 for bacon, $1 for avocado, $1 for egg,” says Haltiwanger.

“If they got everything, that was the breakfast sandwich — that’s how the breakfast sandwich was born.” Haltiwanger changed her mind about opening a restaurant when she saw the tiny, free-standing building on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and McCadden. “I just fell in love with it,” she says.

The former location of Taqueria of Hollywood came on the real estate market just as Haltiwanger was looking for more consistency after steadying the hot sauce arm of her business through co-packing and increased distribution. She was itching to move out of her East Hollywood apartment and needed a place for regulars to get their Calabama fix. Haltiwanger signed a five-year lease on the space and transformed it into a slice of Southern hospitality set in Southern California.

“The whole thing is 256 square feet, including the patio, so the inside is only 180 square feet,” she says. “It’s all windows; the whole thing is so cute.” Calabama will only offer takeout, given its minimal space, with dedicated windows for ordering and picking up food.

Outdoor seating consists of seven stools bolted to the ground and a counter lining the shop’s western wall. Inspired, in part, by the open kitchens at Waffle House , Calabama’s customers will be able to peer into its kitchen from every angle. “You’re going to be able to see people rolling out biscuits,” Haltiwanger says.

“When you’re waiting in line, you can see what’s going on in the kitchen.” In addition to serving breakfast sandwiches, Calabama’s succinct menu features buttermilk biscuits using a recipe from her paternal grandmother. Haltiwanger uses a mix of White Lily and a sturdier flour to construct flaky, not massively tall biscuits that are “substantial enough to hold things,” she says.

Biscuits are served plain, with butter, or with house-made seasonal fruit butter. Bigger appetites can build biscuit sandwiches with additional ingredients like scrambled eggs, bacon, and pimento cheese. Haltiwanger’s formula for pimento cheese, which calls for whipped cream cheese and mayonnaise, can be eaten either hot or cold, though she recommends it melted like a grilled cheese sandwich.

Haltiwanger plans to introduce rotating specials and a biscuit of the month once she settles into the new space. Gluten-free versions of the breakfast sandwich will be available to start with gluten-free buttermilk biscuits forthcoming. “I wanted a new challenge, and this place sealed the deal for me,” says Haltiwanger.

“I think the universe is lining up some stuff for me, and I’d like to explore that.” Calabama is located at 6751 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90038, and is open Thursday through Monday from 8 a.m.

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