Midtown Lunch

Last week Adam Perry Lang (formerly of Daisy May’s BBQ in NYC) returned to the Hollywood parking lot behind Jimmy Kimmel’s studio for another go-round of his Serious Barbecue pop up. Once again it’s Tuesday through Friday, food is available during lunchtime  from 11am to 3pm, and this time it’s only until October 24th, so you’ve officially got only 10 days left to taste some of the best smoked meat in Southern California.

Adam is still sleeping on the lot (the meat goes into the smoker around 8pm the night before), he’s still making his own charcoal out of pecan wood (and white oak from California), and the giant beef rib is back. But here are 5 things that have changed from last year to this year that you’ll probably want to know about…

1. APL has a new smoker, and it was custom made by Aaron Franklin in Austin, TX.  Yes, that Aaron Franklin. So with an Aaron Franklin smoker, there must be brisket right? Yup. And it’s available for the relatively-reasonable-compared-to-the-beef-rib price of $15. Warning though… Adam still prefers a milder smoking process with homemade charcoal in place of fresh wood, so if you’re expecting a intensely smokey Texas style BBQ you will be pretty disappointed.

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I don’t know exactly when this happened but at some point in the last year NYC barbecue chef Adam Perry Lang (founder of Daisy May’s BBQ) quietly moved to Los Angeles! Apparently he’s got a lot of different ideas for potential permanent projects here in L.A., but our first taste of how lucky we are to have him here is a lunchtime bbq pop up that opened two weeks ago in the parking lot behind Jimmy Kimmel’s studio.  APL set up a smoker in the shadow of Jimmy Kimmel’s outdoor stage and is serving “Serious Barbecue” Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11am to 3pm.  Each day he only offers one option, but that option will change each week.  Last week it was beef ribs w/ Texas toast.

Check it out after the jump…

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If you are an L.A. BBQ fanatic, you’ve likely heard of Big Mista’s.  My first encounter with the well known caterer/farmer’s market vendor was at the 2010 Vendy Awards, where they served up plates of ribs and strips of their addictive pig candy (aka sticky sweet bacon.)  I was disappointed to discover at the time that they didn’t have a permanent location, and did most of their selling at Farmer’s Markets around the city… the only problem was, all of their weekday locations weren’t ideal for Midtown Lunch’ing. In other words, not located between Downtown and Santa Monica. And if I was going to drive 30-45 minutes for BBQ, I might as well hit up Bludso’s in Compton.

So, I was excited to hear (courtesy of Lunch’er “Bigmouth”) that about six months ago they changed up their locations- switching to Century City on Thursdays and Downtown L.A. on Fridays.  That, I could definitely do.

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I can’t remember when exactly I first heard about Park’s Finest, the neighborhood BBQ outfit turned professional caterer turned brick and mortar that’s been cooking up their brand of Filipino BBQ since the 80s.  But I do remember the disappointment I felt when I discovered that their brand new restaurant, on Temple just outside of Downtown L.A., was only open on Friday nights for dinner!  Thankfully this setback was purely temporary, because last week (after a brief flirtation with random Tuesday lunches) they started a new Thursday-Sunday lunch and dinner schedule.

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If you want the best barbecue in all of Los Angeles, go to Bludso’s in Compton.  Sure, it’s out of the way and doesn’t really have any seating- save for a few bar stools across from the ordering window. But it all becomes worth it when you pull into that parking lot and see the gigantic smokers doing their thing.  It’s the kind of sight that makes you instantly realize you made the correct decision, even before having a single bite of food.  But how many of us can realistically hit up Bludso’s for a weekday lunch?  30 minutes from Downtown L.A. or the Westside isn’t going to happen on even the most loosely enforced one hour lunch breaks… so where does one go when the craving for ‘cue hits?

For me, it’s now JR’s Barbecue on La Cienega just south of Washington.

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I’m beginning to learn that there is no shortage of good BBQ in Los Angeles, provided you know where to look and are willing to drive.  The Vendy Awards introduced me to Big Mista’s BBQ back in May (their pig candy is possibly the greatest use of bacon ever invented), last week Ed Levine from Serious Eats took me to Phillip’s in Jefferson Park (totally worth the ride south!), and Bludso’s in Compton is high on my list of places to try.  But what if you work… say… Downtown.  And don’t have two hours to trek over to Compton, or down to the Torrance Farmer’s Market on a Thursday.  What then?

Answer: The Original Texas BBQ King.  Located on 7th Street btw. Grand and Olive, the OTBBQ King is one of those places that you could drive by a million times and never notice (even if you were looking for it.)

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