Midtown Lunch

When I first read that there was a Chilean bakery serving sandwiches on Melrose in East Hollywood I got pretty excited.  Ever since visiting Chile in 2008 I’ve been a big fan of their food.  Mote con huesillos, chorrillana (steak and egg topped french fries), their sandwiches (churrasco FTW!) and their egg and olive filled empanadas de pino will forever be embedded in that part of my brain where good things are stored.  After a bigtime lunch fail a couple of months ago (they’re one of those places that are closed on Mondays!) I finally made it over to Rincon Chileno to see if their sandwiches and empanadas would live up to my fond memories of Chile.

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There seems to be no shortage of newish, fancy pants, $10 sandwich shops in the Beverly Center/Melrose area of Mid City West, and all of them seem to have chosen a non-sandwich item to distinguish themselves from the fray.  Potato Chips is an ok option (although I wish they made their own potato chips), and I’ve always been intrigued by the steak bomb at Soda Pop’s.  But the latest entry into the “are these sandwiches really worth the money” sweepstakes has completely upped the ante.  In fact, they may have won the game by virtue of their name alone: Simplethings Sandwich and Pie Shop.  Because, quite frankly, how can soda or chips compete with pie.  Answer: they don’t.

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There’s no doubt that fusion tacos are the most ubiquitous item found on food trucks these days (thanks for that, Kogi!) but if you were forced to pick a runner up, you wouldn’t be wrong to think banh mi. Nom Nom Truck is undoubtedly the most famous, thanks to their nearly undefeated record on the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race, and the Phamish Truck was named one of L.A.’s ten best food trucks by Los Angeles Magazine. On paper Mandoline Grill is an easy pick for 3rd place (they’re vegan friendly and don’t even have pate and Vietnamese cold cuts!?!) and yet their grilled pork banh mi might be the best version from a food truck in the city.

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If you work Downtown or on the west side you are probably well aware of how amazing Mendocino Farms is.  What you may not be aware of is that every month they have a different off-the-menu “secret sandwich” that you only find out about if you sign up to receive their emails.  I got on this train months ago, but there hasn’t been a special sandwich yet that sounded good enough to unseat my go to order: the pork belly banh mi.  That is until this month…

Meet “Andrea’s Beef Bourguignon Dip”: Marsala braised short ribs with roasted fall mushrooms, parsnip puree, balsamic onions, sauteed greens, and arugula on toasted ciabatta in jus, served with a horseradish crema.

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I have to admit there was a bit of eye rolling when I first heard about All About the Bread, the sandwich shop on Melrose near La Brea.  Calling yourself “All About the Bread” is a bold move, potentially opening yourself up to all sorts of ridicule if your bread doesn’t end up kicking some major ass.  (Kind of like if you named your place Potato Chips, but didn’t make your own potato chips!)   When I stopped in months ago I was completely unexcited by the menu (boar’s head?  No thanks. Pastrami shipped in “from the East Coast”?  Sorry, that’s not a selling point!)   Then I saw this blog post by this week’s Profiled Lunch’er “Lynn”.   A burrata sandwich with pesto for under $10?  Honey lime chicken with cilantro salsa verde and avocado?  I don’t support blogger freebies, but damn those sandwiches look good. Let’s see if they’re as good on a regular day, ordered by a regular customer.

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Clearly there is nothing I can’t write about Bay Cities that hasn’t been written before. If you want a sandwich, and you’re anywhere near Santa Monica, it’s pretty much the only spot that anybody and everybody will send you to. On my first visit I learned that waiting in line was for suckers. Ordering online saves a ton of time, but I get it. Sometimes you’re driving around, you didn’t plan for the visit, the craving comes all of a sudden- and boom. What are you going to do? I’ll tell you what you’re going to do… go for the hot foods! The bread at Bay Cities is unbelievably good. But the cold cuts they put in the Godmother? It’s just Boar’s Head. On my first visit the chicken parm sandwich blew away the Godmother, and last week I headed back for the meatloaf sandwich- a recommendation from Lunch’er “Jeff”.

Just a warning… it’s about to get super messy in here!

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The lunch options have slowly been getting better and better for those who work in the Fashion District part of DTLA. And when it comes to sandwiches, I think you could do a lot worse than Gram & Papa’s. But spending $10 on a sandwich doesn’t exactly thrill me, so when I saw on Yelp that there was a far cheaper, highly rated torta place called La Torta Loca right around the corner from G&P, I couldn’t help but be curious. I’m always cautious when using Yelp as a guide, but all I had to do is look at the first (and most popular) torta listed on the Torta Loca menu, and I was sold.

The Cubana: Ham, sausage, chorizo, breaded steak, bacon, and egg.

Uh… yes please.

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