Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles - Food Adventures for Your Urban Lunch Hour

Lunch Links (The “Camaguey Take Me Away” Edition)

Photo courtesy of the LA Times/Anne Cusack

CULVER CITY La Cocina del Camaguey looks amazing [LAT]
DOUGHNUTS I want to eat every single one of these [Serious Eats]
DTLA Freshii is coming to 7th [Brigham Yen via Blogdowntown]
SAMO I need to try this sandwich at Bru’s Waffle [Unemployed Eater]
SAMO Huckelberry’s owners to open a pizza place/bakery in November [Eater]
WESTWOOD Native Food’s “meatball” sub isn’t as bad as you’d think [Unemployed Eater]
TACOS The best carnitas tacos in Los Angeles [Street Gourmet L.A.]

Posted at 10:00 am, April 8th, 2011 under Lunch Links.

Komodo’s Storefront Makes Me a Reluctant Fan

It seems that these days more and more food trucks are getting into the brick and mortar business. It might appear to be a prestige or legitimacy thing to some, and I’m sure there are food trucks chefs who always saw a restaurant as their end goal. But at its core, having a storefront is one of the best financial moves a food truck owner can make. For one thing it gives your fans a static location to enjoy your food (a necessity for running any kind of retail establishment), but more than that it gives you a home base for your operations that actually generates revenue. It doesn’t guarantee success, and I wouldn’t recommend opening a restaurant to anybody. But if your concept is good, having a brick and mortar business spreads the overhead of your truck out and gives you a better chance of being profitable over all.

What many people don’t realize is that food trucks don’t really operate rent free. In addition to the cost of running the trucks themselves, they also have to pay rent at a commissary or commercial kitchen to do all the prep work (and in some cases, a lot of the cooking.) Having a self sustaining brick and mortar restaurant to utilize for prep is a great way to place less of a profit burden on your truck, and it’s part of the reason that it is far more economical for a restaurant to launch a food truck spin off, then it is for a food truck to launch on its own.

And that’s the main reason why you’re seeing so many food trucks going brick and mortar these days. Flying Pig has plans to open 3 restaurants, Coolhaus is opening a shop in Culver City this summer, and Komodo recently opened a storefront on Pico and Robertson- which I went to check out the other day.

Posted at 11:45 am, April 7th, 2011 under Food Truck, Komodo, Mid-City/Miracle Mile.

0 Comments

Sawtelle’s Tempura House: What to Order and What to Avoid

When my friend Katie wrote about Tempura House back in October on Squid Ink, I was pretty intrigued. A 22 year old take out Japanese lunch counter, run by a married elderly Japanese couple, serving up authentic Japanese style bento boxes, all for under $8? Maybe intrigued is an understatement. It sounded downright awesome! Located on Sawtelle, a few blocks north of the Japanese intensive drag known as “Little Osaka”, Tempura House feels like a gem that is off the beaten path of an area that itself is considered by some to be off the beaten path. An island off an island.

As promised, I found Tempura House to be completely charming, totally homey, and most of all cheap. But not everything is great, and some stuff they serve is downright awful. But if you know how to navigate the menu, you can leave with a great lunch- and support a truly old school Sawtelle institution.

Posted at 11:30 am, April 6th, 2011 under Japanese, Tempura House, West L.A..

1 Comment

PROFILE: L.A. Lunch’er “Rebecca”

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 its Rebecca, a photographer who will travel just about anywhere for good lunch- but has yet to find a good doner kebab.

Name: Rebecca

Age: 31

Occupation: Photographer

Where in L.A. do you Work?: All over! But when I’m not out shooting, mostly from home in Silverlake.

Favorite Kind of Food: As a native Californian, I’ve been spoiled by fresh food all year round, so I love clean, bright flavors and anything at the height of its season. I also love tangy foods so Mexican, Lebanese, Thai, and Vietnamese are all favorites (anything where I get my own lime wedge gets big points).

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Not a big fan of anything heavily sauced, extremely rich, or overly sweet.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: If meeting a client for lunch near my house, Forage, because of its fancy-hipster vibe and its pork belly sammy (although their veggie version is just as good). If I’m heading up to my parents in Carpinteria, I’ll hit up Brent’s (the Westlake one) for matzo ball soup and half a tuna sammy on toasted rye. If en route to the beach via the 101, we’ll pick up turkey or veggie wraps from Tarzana Armenian Deli (11288 Ventura Blvd)–perfect picnic food. Any time I’m dropping off or picking up at my lab on La Brea is an excuse to go to M Cafe (7119 Melrose Ave)–their tuna burger is a thing of beauty and I’m still trying to figure out how to make that kale salad. When I’m running around doing errands in the neighborhood and need something fast I’ll go to Zankou (5065 W Sunset Blvd) and grab a chicken tarna wrap and stuff it with extra pickles, or Vietnamese Soy Cafe (1997 Hyperion Ave), when it’s open, for the tofu banh mi and their fresh, amazing soy milk. On a rainy day, Sanamluang for their wonderfully tangy tom kha gai which I like to eat over rice, or Good Girl Dinette (110 N Ave 56) for their grandpa’s porridge (congee w/ chicken and cabbage). And if it’s more of a breakfast-for-lunch kind of day I will indulge in Local’s BBQ pork hash and eggs (2943 W Sunset Blvd), which is abominably good.

Posted at 11:45 am, April 5th, 2011 under PROFILED L.A. Lunch'ers.

1 Comment

Manila Machine’s Response

For those who are interested, Manila Machine posted a response to my article on their blog yesterday. It misses the point of my post, and twists some of my words around, but in a one hour conversation I had with co-owner Nastassia yesterday apologizing to her for any grief I might have caused them and explaining my editorial in detail, I told her I would post any response they had and promote it with just as much vigor as I promoted my own words. But just for the record, I still stand by everything I wrote yesterday- and know that it is 100% true.

What I really wanted people to get out of my post yesterday was that running a profitable food truck is way more difficult than the media and food trucks themselves (who want to protect their reputations for future endeavors) would lead to you believe. As somebody who has spent the past 4+ years supporting so many of these new food trucks (both in New York and Los Angeles) I’ve read too many of these rosey, “closing to pursue other opportunities” PR announcements. Food truck owners need to realize that their actions effect the whole community of street food vendors, old and new. And if you’re considering jumping into the street food world for any other reason than to create a sustainable, long term food truck business, you should reconsider, because it ends up hurting those who rely entirely on their food trucks to pay their bills.

I know that Marvin & Nastassia didn’t get into the food truck business for the wrong reasons. The passion and love they brought to their food was clearly on display every single day, and it’s why I loved the truck from the beginning. In fact, as one of their biggest supporters, and somebody who wants to see great food trucks like the Manila Machine succeed, it’s their continued insistence to spin Friday’s announcement as “good news” (or a “wonderful end”) that makes me so sad.

Posted at 9:55 am, April 5th, 2011 under Food Truck, Food Truck Issues, Manila Machine.

0 Comments

Manila Machine Should Tell the Truth: They’re Closing (Their Truck) Because Running a Food Truck Sucks

April Fools Day never disappoints when it comes to outlandish news stories, but one sad story from Friday looks like it’s actually true. Manila Machine, the six ten month old Filipino food truck run by two food bloggers, will no longer be roaming the streets of Los Angeles, selling their delicious lumpia, sisig, and pork adobo. The news is disheartening for a few reasons, not least of which is the fact that I loved the truck. It was one of the few “gourmet” food trucks doing something truly unique (and it didn’t hurt that it was also delicious.)

But as much as I loved Manila Machine, and am sad to see them go, I was really upset by the letter they posted on their website announcing their “hiatus”. In it they list all their amazing accomplishments (press, awards and the such) and imply that the truck is closing because they’ve achieved all their goals- one of which was to make it to the 6 month mark. Sorry, but I call bullshit. And if they are completely satisfied with what they “accomplished”, they never should have opened a food truck in the first place and teased us with their delicious Filipino treats- only to pull them out from under from us once the very first “possibilities beyond the realm of food trucking” presented themselves.

Posted at 11:30 am, April 4th, 2011 under Food Truck Issues, Manila Machine.

18 Comments