Midtown Lunch

As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Robert, a web guru who clearly needs some help finding delicious lasagna in SaMo…

Name: Robert

Age: 25

Occupation: Founder and CEO of VOKLE.com, a live video townhall platform with the goal of humanizing the web.

Where in L.A. do you Work?: VOKLE HQ is located in Santa Monica, CA, right by the 3rd Street Promenade.

Favorite Kind of Food: Italian – a good lasagna could be a work of art.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything with anchovies. I know that sounds cliche, but anchovies generally taste like fish-flavored clumps of salt to me.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: There’s a lot of health conscious places to eat in my area of Santa Monica. Like “Real Food Daily,” (514 Santa Monica Blvd.) which serves only organic dishes (they have a “sweet green juice” made up of every green vegetable you can think of). But if you want a really delicious dish, there’s a hole-in-the-wall Middle-Eastern restaurant on 5th and Lincoln called Sham (716 Santa Monica Blvd.) that serves the most amazing “Shawerma Beef & Chicken Combo” plate. One combo plate is enough to feed a hungry pack of grizzly gold miners.

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Wokcano at 5th and Santa Monica. It’s sort of a mid to high-end Asian fusion restaurant. We go to it b/c the lunch specials are super affordable, and it’s literally right below our office.

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? I walk a lot to get food since the Santa Monica Promenade is chock full of places to eat. I wouldn’t walk more than 5 blocks though, especially if i’m super hungry.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? “Dream job based purely on lunch purposes?” You guys must really love food. Okay, well, my dream job would be to be an international spy (’cause it sounds cool). My operations would be based out of Italy b/c I like the food. Usually international spies can’t make demands like that, but I’m the best spy in the world and can make ridiculous demands based upon hunger.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers in L.A.? I tend to look at food as fuel, so it’s really nice to slow down and actually think about what we ingest day after day. In fact– it just hit me– I eat a lot of garbage. I should change that. This was actually super helpful!

Talk about your ultimate backfires. This was supposed to inspire you to eat more *delicious* food, not *healthy* food! You should check out Lunch’er Kat. She has some really good recs for your area (and also loves Sham!) And for the rest of you… if you’d like to be next week’s Profiled: L.A. Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d want to nominate), email me- zach@midtownlunch.com.