Midtown Lunch

Got this email from Lunch’er “Steve” the other day:

Hello Zach,

Ive enjoyed reading about your LA food adventures. I read in today’s post that your wife works in Westwood, which makes me think you have to try Sak’s Teriyaki, if you haven’t already.

Is it great? No. Is it a great midtown lunch? Yes. It’s sort of cavernously hidden in Westwood and is a UCLA institution. It’s a sort of like Mall Chinese food filtered through Japan.

So, what do you recommend I order?

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There are sandwiches, and then there are SANDWICHES. Sandwiches are those things your boring co-worker eats or brings from home. Turkey and swiss, grilled chicken and avocado, deli counter roast beef with lettuce and tomato… the list goes on and on. Do they taste bad? Of course not. Who doesn’t like a good sandwich? But they’re not Midtown Lunches. I’m looking to get something more out of my lunch hour… and by more, I mean can you dip that roast beef sandwich in some gravy?’ Deep fry that chicken? Do something that shows you care just a little bit (beyond buying your bread from a good bakery, or not pre-slicing your boar’s head.)

When I first heard about Mendocino Farms, the ultra popular sandwich shop with two locations Downtown, I was pretty skeptical. This is L.A. after all, and there are no shortage of recommended lunch options that clearly put “healthy” in front of “tasty”. I like farm fresh. I like quality ingredients. But I also like things that taste delicious (ideally, with no attention paid to calories), and nobody brings all that together in sandwich form better than Mendocino Farms.

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ML has always been a huge fan and supporter of food trucks, but we’ve also been realistic about how hard it is for trucks to make money exclusively selling food on the street (despite what countless “trend” pieces would have you believe.)  So it was no surprise to read on Squid Ink that a number of trucks have already shut down or reverted exclusively to catering gigs. (Even a truck like Marked 5, which had almost 4000 twitter followers and was featured on VendrTV, decided it wasn’t worth it financially to keep roaming around the streets.)  The good news is, a new tool is launching that could help… meet Road Stoves GPS, the first iPhone app dedicated to mapping food trucks based on GPS instead of twitter.  Great news if they can get all the trucks to participate, although we still think there is no online substitute for a consistent schedule of parking spots.  [via Squid Ink]

Related:
Opening a Street Truck is Just as Risky as Opening a Restaurant (Despite What the Local News Says)
News Flash: New Street Vendors Are Finding It Difficult to Make Money
How Twitter Actually Hurts Street Vendors

Photo courtesy of Zach Behrens

• DOWNTOWN Syrup has some amazing look grilled cheese sandwiches [LAist]
• KOREATOWN A Won > Arado for hwe dup bap [Squid Ink]
• GLENDALE Massis is a standout lunch among mall food court mediocrity [LAist]
• CULVER CITY “The Guru” recommends the kafta kebob at Mezza [L.A. Weekly]
• FAIRFAX Chameau is now an under $10 lunch spot [Thrillist]
• MOBILE World Fare’s $10 special is calling to me [Caroline on Crack]

Over the weekend I had these words thrown at me by a good friend: “You’re a foodie a you haven’t been to Bay Cities yet!” First of all, don’t ever call me the F word. And if you ever hear me using the F word to describe myself, feel free to tell me to shut up.  (Unless I’m calling myself fat.  Because that is true.)  Second of all… uh… no.  I haven’t been to Bay Cities yes.  Is that bad? Is this is a challenge?  Do I need to fix this right away by scarfing a giant Italian sub with the works while sitting on a sidewalk in Santa Monica?  Yes, yes I do.

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One of the things I missed most about L.A. during my 4 year excursion was Peruvian food, so much so that within a week of moving back I didn’t bother trying to find the best Peruvian spot in L.A. (or the most Midtown Lunch’ish).  I just returned to my old standby… Mario’s (on Melrose). And when I discovered it was too expensive to qualify for a Midtown Lunch I hit up Inti a few doors down. Once my craving was satiated, I asked for some better (preferably under $10) Peruvian recs from you guys- and Lunch’er “luckyme23” pointed me to Mo Chica, the modern Peruvian food court joint that opened last year in the Mercado La Paloma- just south of downtown.

Mo Chica is no hidden gem.  “The Guru” is  all about their ceviche, LA Taco praised their market driven menu, and Profiled Lunch’er Pat wrote that the place takes Peruvian ingredients “about as far they can go.” Only one problem… practically all of the menu is over $10!  So when I made my first trip to the Mercado La Paloma last week, I felt inexplicably drawn to Chichen Itza.

Come to think of it, it’s not inexplicable.  It’s because I’m a cheap bastard.

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