Midtown Lunch

Shhhhh… please don’t tell, but there’s a new “secret” burger place in Downtown L.A.  You would think that opening a burger speakeasy would be impossible in a city that treats every bit of Umami news like it’s a presidential address, but there it is off of San Pedro Street between 3rd and 4th, nestled in the no-mans land between Little Tokyo and Industrial Street’s restaurant row.  The building is completely unmarked, and according to the owners they plan to keep it that way (Escondite literally means hiding place.) But a restaurant that is truly serious about remaining completely hidden is a restaurant run by idiots, so in place of a full scale PR onslaught they have subtly taken to Yelp, Facebook, and Twitter, in the hopes that word of mouth would slowly bring the crowds.

Last week, they got their first hit of press- a blog post by L.A. Food God, which was quickly picked up by Grub Street.  And while it sounds like this place will be more nighttime bar hang out than daytime lunch spot, their menu was cheap enough for me.  And once I heard they were topping burgers with fried eggs and hash browns, I didn’t need to hear anything more.

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Most people will point to upscale cocktail bars, fancy pour over coffee shops, and hip gastro-pubs as the only proof you need that Downtown is experiencing a major resurgence.  But for the Midtown Lunch crowd, nothing says DTLA hotness like the rise of the Asian fast casual lunch spot. Starry Kitchen (which, at 18 months old, could be considered the old Grandpa of the trend) hit the scene to huge fanfare last year, and it looks as if others have taken notice. Spice Table started their under $10 banh mi lunch menu four months ago, Flying Pig Cafe followed a few months later, and last week Fat Spoon got into the fray (not to be confused with Wood Spoon, the great Brazilian place on 9th & Main.)

Fat Spoon features a menu of Japanese curry and Italian pastas, a unlikely sounding combo- until you find out that Italian style pastas are huge in Japan.  In some ways it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.  But unlike Flying Pig, which seemed to stumble a bit out of the gate, Fat Spoon seems ready to dominate on week one.

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My quest to uncover and defeat every all you can eat buffet in the Greater L.A. area is going surprisingly well.  During my first stint in Los Angeles 7 years ago I was surprised at how few all you can eat buffets there were here, especially compared to Boston the city I moved here from.  But this second go around has been far more successful.  Indian lunch buffets are never tough to find, but there’s also been the Ethiopian buffet on Fairfax, the Thai buffet (also on Fairfax), the Vegas’ish Korean buffet on Olympic, the Brazilian pizza buffet, and the brand new Chinese super buffet I demolished a few weeks ago in Hollywood. And let’s not even talk about the all you eat Korean BBQ places (have you been to Don Day for lunch yet!?)

Japanese, however, has proved to be a bit more elusive.  I’m still waiting for the West L.A. branch of Hokkaido to open up, but in the meantime I was pretty excited when Profiled Luncher Cari recommended Oiwake’s $8.50 tempura and teriyaki buffet in Downtown L.A. last month.

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I don’t know about you, but when eating out at Thai restaurants that don’t have a signature dish I’m always tempted to ask the employees or the chef or whomever is serving me what they like to eat. What they would order. After all, if you work at a restaurant you’re going to eat the best thing they serve, right? It’s a foolproof plan to get the best dish on a menu. Sadly, “What do you recommend?” almost always gets mis-translated as “What do you think somebody who looks like me would like?” Which for this short fat Jewish guy is going to always be something safe. Something boring. “Seriously. When your shift is over you sit in the back and eat a plate of pad thai with chicken? I find that hard to believe.”

But there is one way to ensure that you’re eating what they’re eating. Ensure that they’re not toning it down, or replacing the “real” food with the short fat Jewish guy food.  Go to a place where only restaurant employees eat. And LAX-C might be just that place.

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Porno appearance with Ron Jeremy aside, I’ve been an unabashed fan of the Flying Pig Truck since trying them out back in August.  So when I heard that they were opening a “cafe” downtown with an expanded menu I got pretty excited.  Duck fried rice?  Yes please.  After all, anybody that can make tofu taste this delicious must be doing something right.  Sadly running a truck well doesn’t translate to immediate brick and mortar successquality…

When I stopped in on Monday at 1:45pm they were still in the weeds from the lunch rush, with practically ever customer in the joint angry about something (missing food, missing drinks, general slowness). On one hand I feel bad for the place.  Customers should know that a brand new restaurant needs some time to get things on track (especially during the lunch rush in a high density part of town like DTLA.)  On the other hand, the one thing I tried was pretty terrible, especially compared to the delicious food on the truck, and the portion was laughably small for the price.  I think I might give Flying Pig Cafe another week (or four) to get everything sorted out.

Thankfully Aloha Cafe is right across the street, and was ready to save the day!

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If you work Downtown and saw the L.A. Times write up of Chimu last week (the new Peruvian place in the Grand Central Market) you must have run right out and tried it.  I know I did. Twice. Despite being a take out window just outside the Grand Central Marketplace, the menu of modern Peruvian cuisine is a bit out of my price range (“entrees” are $10-13) but I couldn’t help but splurge. The chef’s pedigree is top notch- he used to work Lazy Ox, another acceptable Midtown Lunch splurge, and Mo Chica, the Peruvian restaurant that was clearly used as a model for Chimu’s concept and menu style.  But the dishes themselves are mostly unique and changing every day.

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A few weeks ago Coly’s Stromboli opened up in Downtown L.A. (at 456 Hill) and I couldn’t help but be excited by the description posted on Blog Downtown: “Imagine a calzone, a slice of pizza and a burrito had a threesome and somehow made a baby named Strombol”.  For some reason that particular description caused me to ignore the fact that I’ve had access to stromboli all my life (they can usually be spotted getting stale behind the glass of mall food court pizzerias.)  But I’ve never seen a place that specializes in stromboli.  Perhaps they’ve unlocked some kind of  pizzazonerito magic that has previously been undiscovered!?

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