LA Weekly

If you are a person who thinks more of human happiness than the state of her teeth, you probably have a bag of Little Flower caramels stashed in your desk right now: chewy, buttery, melty lozenges flavored with vanilla, lemon or French sea salt, soft enough to chew with your tongue. It's probably the best candy made in Los Angeles at the moment. Now there is a Little Flower cafe, a weathered-brick dining room at the western edge of Pasadena, where you can pick up roast-beef sandwiches with aiole, takeout cartons of lasagne or sherried black-rice salad, the full line of candy, and the delicious breakfast pastries of candy auteur Christine Moore, who worked for several years with Nancy Silverton at Campanile in the 1990s: muffins, almond croissants and gooey cakes, among other things, including a tiny, fragile tart of frangipane and sliced blood oranges that may be the single best thing to eat with Moore's velvety cappuccinos. Little Flower is the kind of place that has both tempeh-enriched vegan things and baguettes stuffed with ham and good French butter, creamless squash soup and beefy sirloin chili, artisanal crackers and a really tasty tortilla chip Moore imports from East L.A. 1424 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 304-4800.