Early Bird: Four Cafe in Eagle Rock

Nothing brings a family of artists together like transforming the sterile, corporate interior of a former Coldwell Banker office into an exceedingly warm and rustic restaurant. At least that's what husband-and-wife team Corey and Michelle Wilton discovered when they opened up Four Cafe in Eagle Rock earlier this month.

Corey is a painter, his father, Paul, is a master machinist and designs glass-blowing studios, and his mother, Leslie, is a glass blower. Michelle is a chef who spent the last six years cooking for wealthy families on the Westside and cut her teeth making pastries at L'Orangerie and Patina before that.

Together they became a Warhol-esque restaurant-creating factory with the end goal being the deliverance of Corey and Michelle into what they saw as the relative safety of self-employment. Read more here:

The flat iron steak sandwich at Four Cafe in Eagle Rock is served with ginger and cilantro slaw. (Bret Hartman / For The Times)