Midtown Lunch

ink.sack’s cold chicken sandwich. Photo courtesy of Aaron Tell

• WEHO A look at ink.sack’s larger sandwiches [Savory Hunter]
• BEVERLY HILLS Venga’s lunch menu looks pretty good [EstarLA]
• CULVER CITY Moko is being rebranded G2 with cheaper options [Grub Street]
• CULVER CITY Newly open Savor’s has arepas [Grub Street]
• CULVER CITY Ramen Yamadaya opens on Saturday [Grub Street]
• DTLA Korean chain Mr. Pizza is coming to Little Tokyo [Squid Ink]
• DTLA Your first look at Mo Chica on 7th [Food GPS]
• DTLA Shin Sen Gumi is coming to Little Tokyo [LAT]
• DTLA Two Boots Pizza is coming to Downtown [Eater]
• DTLA The BLTA at Nickel Diner is great [SE]
• HWOOD Ricky’s Fish Tacos is still the best [Dig Lounge]
• MOBILE A Chego Truck is still possible! [Eater]

I try to be positive here on Midtown Lunch… and I freakin’ love this city.  The food is amazing, and there’s no better place to be a “Midtown Lunch’er”.    But as much as I love much of the food in L.A. (and will defend it to the death against any outsiders, or natives with an inferiority complex) there are some things about eating lunch in this town that really annoy me.  Here are 7 of them, LAist style, for your enjoyment…

1. Oh Los Angeles, sometimes the things you flock to in droves are so silly.  If I cut a baked potato into strips, it doesn’t make it french fries.  It’s just cake people.  Maybe it’s the best cake ever made, but it ain’t doughnuts. And people should not be this excited about this in THE GREATEST DOUGHNUT CITY IN THE WORLD!  The biggest irony? (Besides the fact that the calorie info on these things will likely make you throw up the 4 fonuts you ate this morning.) It’s replacing a shop that failed selling bundt cakes, which are… wait for it… baked cakes cut into the shape of a doughnut!  Huzzah for brilliant marketing.

2. If the word lunch is permanently painted on your window, you should probably be open for lunch more than just Saturdays and Sundays!  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

3. Amazing restaurant and dishes I wish were just a little bit cheaper so that they could be considered “Midtown Lunches”.  I’m looking at you Lukshon’s new lunch menu, galbi jim from Seongbukdong, Sotto, and Cube LA.  What’s more important to you guys?!  Staying in business or pleasing cheap bastards who don’t appreciate the value of superior product.  On second thought, don’t answer that.

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L.A. Times’ “The Find” column has sussed out some pretty amazing lunches over the past few months. In March it was all over the completely under-appreciated Flavors of Belize on La Brea. Then came Koreatown jokbal in April. Chimu was the big June discovery. And this month the streak continues with Gish Bac, a Oaxacan restaurant in Mid City uncovered by Bill Esparza, L.A.’s resident food expert of all things south of the border. And for me, when Bill says go eat something you know it’s going to be good.  (Cases in point: Mariscos Jalisco, Ricky’s Fish Tacos, and Mariscos Chente.)

A big portion of the article focused on their weekend only barbacoa, but it also had high praise for their 30+ ingredient house-made mole negro. So when I saw that nothing on their lunch menu was over $10, I rushed right over to check it out.

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As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Joanna, a professional eater who loves Korean Pho but hates improperly cooked risotto.

Name: Joanna

Age: 25

Occupation: Marketing and customer relations, the better half of LA in Stilettos, and professional eater and shopper.

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Miracle Smile Dentistry in Miracle Mile and El Segundo, but I mainly work at home in Downtown LA.

Favorite Kind of Food: Oh gosh, this is a tough one. Of course, Korean food is my comfort food so that definitely makes my list of favorites. But besides that, it all depends on my mood. I love a good cheeseburger and fries, but I also have a major truffle obsession.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I try not to discriminate when it comes to food and I’m not a picky eater, but I highly dislike overcooked food or food that’s not made properly, especially risotto. For some odd reason, that really bothers me so I’ll rarely order risotto from restaurants unless I know they’ll make it correctly.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: I mainly work from home in Downtown LA, but since I do work from home, I’m not restricted to eating lunch just in this area. Of course, like everyone else, I love Starry Kitchen for lunch. Not only is the food great and affordable, but Nguyen never fails to crack you up and bring some laughs and tons of f bombs into your life. I love their Tofu Balls, but I also like that their lunch menu always rotates. It can get a bit tiring eating the same thing day after day, but that’s never the problem at Starry Kitchen.

I eat a lot of sandwiches for lunch so Mendocino Farms is the place to go for that. I always get their Kurobuta Pork Belly Banh Mi, which I love since the meat is so tender and it’s balanced out perfectly by the pickled veggies and has a nice kick to it from the jalapenos. I generally can’t handle too much heat (weird since I’m Korean…) so this sandwich provides the right amount of kick.

My regular lunch spot is actually around Larchmont.

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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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Pork Cutlet Curry from Fat Spoon. Photo courtesy of Treasure LA

• DTLA Fat Spoon is now open in Little Tokyo… [LA Times]
• DTLA … and here’s your first look [Kevin Eats;Treasure LA]
• DTLA Freshii is now open on 7th & Grand, and here’s a freebie coupon [Eater]
• DTLA Not everybody likes the banh mi at Spice Table [Gastronomy]
• DTLA It’s too bad LAX-C doesn’t sell their pork leg during the week! [Food GPS]
• DTLA Add one more person to the I Love Chimu list [Savory Hunter]
• BEVERLY HILLS Bouchon Bakery is now open [Food GPS;Eater;CoC]
• CHINATOWN Yang Chow’s orange chicken > Panda Express [Squid Ink]
• CULVER CITY Gloria’s makes a good carne adobada [Squid Ink]
• PALMS Now that Indo Cafe is closed, you’ll have to go to Simpang Asia for nasi bungkus [Squid Ink]
• WEHO A look at ink.sack’s entire menu, with prettier pics than ours [Serious Eats]
• MOBILE The Westside Food Truck lot is temporarily closed [Squid Ink]

When the first photos of Ink.Sack, Michael Voltaggio’s new sandwich shop on Melrose, hit the twittersphere I jumped into cautious hysteria mode-  furiously clicking for any indication of whether or not this place would be cheap enough to qualify as a Midtown Lunch.  The best look I got was this blurry photo, where I could kind of make out a 5 next to each sandwich.  Shit.  Of course the sandwiches are $15 each. This guy is not just a freakin Top Chef, but probably the most famous Top Chef there is.  Oh well.  Fuck it.

And then the greatest, most shocking, news of all time hit the blogosphere.  I was imagining the 1.  The sandwiches were only $4-6.  Is this guy nuts?  What happened to cashing in on your success?  Rent on Melrose ain’t cheap buddy. Buuuuuuuut there was a catch (there always is).  The sandwiches are small.  And the debate, which will likely rage on for years to come, officially began.  Do you need 2 or 3 sandwiches to make a filling lunch?  2 would be fine to keep me under $10, but 3 would be too expensive.  So… how small are they really?  Most of the photos out there have been inconclusive. But let’s put it this way: if the guys-who-have-small-penises-drive-big-cars adage applies to sandwiches, Michael Voltaggio must have a gigantic penis.

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