Midtown Lunch

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve never been to Wurstkuche in Downtown L.A.  It’s strange because I eat lunch Downtown all the time, I like sausage, and I want to be one of the cool kids.  But there’s always been a burger, banh mi, buffet or baco to pull me from the super popular sausage and beer garden. But once a second branch opened in Venice, I reacted like most people who live or work on the Westside. I headed over right away.

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When bragging that Los Angeles is one of the best food cities in the country, bringing up all of our ethnic enclaves is my go-to argument.  The Thai food in Thai Town, Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley, Mexican food in Boyle Heights, and Vietnamese and Japanese food in the South Bay are unrivaled in San Fran, Chicago, hell, even New York.  Sorry America.  L.A. has the best, most diverse, ethnic food neighborhoods in the country, possibly even the world.  But as great as each area of this city is for its own specialty, for those of us who live here there is something exciting about discovering something regional removed from its region.  Whether it’s ramen in the valley (hello Jinya!) or dim sum on the westside (still waiting!), we seem to be willing to sacrifice a bit of “authenticity” for a bit less driving.

So when Lunch’er Dylan recommended Yang Ban, a Korean soup place in the garment district of Downtown L.A., that tinge of excitement came up again.  Surely it wouldn’t be as good as the places in Koreatown, but even a decent Korean option for people who work in DTLA would be welcome- especially as the days start to get shorter and the air starts to get colder.

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I’m a huge enough fan of Lazy Ox in DTLA, so much so that I broke my $10 rule just to eat lunch there (even though it clearly isn’t a Midtown Lunch.)  So naturally when I heard that its chef, Josef Centeno, was taking the baco- one of his signature items- and building an entire new concept around it, I couldn’t help but be super excited. The baco, which has been described by the L.A. Times as a gyro/taco/pizza hybrid, was invented long before Centeno served them at Lazy Ox as an occasional special, but the only time I’ve ever had one was from the Cart for a Cause Truck. And it was good.  Real good.  So good that when I heard Baco Mercat was in soft opening mode last week, I had no interest in waiting for them to work out the kinks.

The result?  A lunch of hits and misses.  The highs weren’t super high, but the lows weren’t super low.  And only a dick blogger would nitpick about a meal served during a soft opening period, right?  But a more fair-minded eater would probably see the potential, and give them time to work it out.  And a fan?  Well a fan would gush about how much they love the place.  (And, admittedly, I’m a fan.)

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Obviously we here at ML believe that lunch is the most important decision you’ll make today, and I often get asked how I decide where to go. I can’t divulge all of the complex algorithms that determine whether a place is worthy of being called a Midtown Lunch, but there are a few menu items that are guaranteed to get me excited (spoiler: putting avocado on a chicken sandwich, which an improvement, is not one of them). Topping a burger with a runny egg will guarantee you a looksee. In fact, topping anything with a runny egg is good thing in my book. Putting french fries or onion rings in places where they don’t belong also brings me a lot of joy (i.e. inside falafel pitas, or stuffed into burritos). And of course, there is the all you can eat buffet- which could be the greatest form of lunchtime eating ever invented. I am a very forgiving eater when faced with the prospect of all you can eat.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “You, are a fat bastard Zach. Of course you like the all you can eat buffet!” But to be completely honest it is way more about variety than quantity. Which is why I was super excited by the $7 sampler platter being served at Guisados in Boyle Heights.

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Urbano Pizza Bar has been getting a lot of ink ever since Top Chef Ilan Hall, from the Gorbals, started showing up sporadically behind the counter a few months ago. Nobody seems to know exactly what his role has been (besides creating a few side dishes and getting them a shit-ton of PR from blogs) but I was told by an Urbano regular that nothing seems to have changed about the pizzas since they’ve opened- and that’s a good thing, because Urbano probably serves the best pizza in Downtown L.A. right now. Sadly, though, the pizzas are all $12 and up- and not quite big enough to share, Bottega Louie style. So I never really considered this place a true Midtown Lunch… until they introduced their 2 slice lunch special!

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One can’t help but feel like there is a full scale ramen invasion going on in Los Angeles right now.  Jinya attacked the woefully unoccupied Valley and Mid City territories, while Yamadaya took their Torrence army north into a Westside previously dominated by Santouka– and will soon dispatch another force to Westwood, where Wakasan is the only ramen lunch to be had.  We are all eagerly awaiting Tsujita’s first move in West L.A., and even Hollywood seems to be under fire.

But none of those battles compare to the throw down that is about to take place in Downtown L.A. Love it or hate it, there is no dispute that Daikokuya is the best bowl of ramen in DTLA. But now that Shin Sen Gumi, a Hakata style ramenya with locations in the South Bay and San Gabriel Valley, has opened up an outpost in Little Tokyo that is all totally up in the air.

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When The Spice Table (114 S. Central Ave., DTLA) first started serving lunch back in April, they limited their menu to just banh mi and a short list of side dishes and salads, converting the sit down dinner time restaurant into a fast casual sandwich spot. Now it looks like they’re ready to expand their lunch time options. Last week, they added rice bowls and this week they put their Spice Table cheeseburger on the lunch menu as well. Check out an early look after the jump…

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