Midtown Lunch

If you follow me on Instagram you know I’ve recently been obsessed with mashing up stuff at Grand Central Market in Downtown L.A.  Think: adding GnB espresso shots to horchata from Ana Maria, or stuffing Belcampo fries into Madcapra’s falafel sandwich.  If you’re interested in getting a full window into my grossness, all 10 of my creations are can be found on Thrillist.  Warning there is a grand finale featuring smoked salmon from Wexler’s, brisket from Horse Thief, a pizza from Olio, a carnitas taco and a sandwich from Egg Slut.  Aka, you’ll probably want to go with friends.

Oh, and you prefer hearing the sound of my voice rather than reading my words, I’ll be on KCRW’s Good Food this Saturday at 11am PST going over the list with Evan Kleiman.

THRILLIST: 10 Ways to Hack LA’s Grand Central Market

Apparently today is International Falafel Day (who knew!?) and our good friends over at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded us of this great falafel round up we posted last year.  If you’re looking for some lunchtime falafel action today, all of those places are still rolling strong.  But here’s two new spots that have opened since then that could both lay claim to serving the best falafel in L.A. right now.

When Dune first opened in Atwater Village at the beginning of this year a very specific kind of food writer induced hype commenced, and for good reason.  It’s good.  Really good.  This tiny storefront with less than 10 stools serves up the kind of the things you might expect from a new school Mediterranean take out spot in Atwater. There’s a beautifully simplistic blood orange salad with black olives, tabouleh with organic gluten free quinoa, and a pickled beet sandwich with sheep’s milk feta, an 8 minute egg, and shoestring potatoes.  But the insanely good flatbread makes the two pita sandwiches the thing to order. The lamb meatball one is surprisingly great, especially considering that Dune’s owners also own the vegetarian Elf Cafe.  But today isn’t National Meatball Day.  It’s National Falafel Day, so you’ll want their green falafel sandwich topped with house made pickles, tahini, hummus, tahini, and shoestring potatoes.  Did I mention the flatbread is amazing?

Even newer is Madcapra, a falafel stand that opened recently in the Grand Central Market cut from the same cheffy cloth as Dune.

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The transformation of Downtown L.A.’s Grand Central Market into a world class dining destination has continued unabated over the past few months.  For people like us it was always a great place to eat lunch, with pupusas, pork tacos, and wonton soup that made getting summoned for jury duty that much more bearable.  But with the addition of Sticky Rice and Eggslut, Valerie’s and Horse Thief BBQ it has become an actual lunchtime destination, one that seems ready to deliver on the PR promise of becoming L.A.’s version of San Fran’s Reading Terminal Market.

A bunch has happened since the last time I visited the market, pulling me back for 3 lunches over the past few weeks.  Here are the last 5 things I’ve eaten at GCM (and the next 2 things on the docket.)

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Despite its name Egg Slut has made it anything but easy to find them since they popped up over two years ago, especially for those of us who are fans of breakfast for lunch.  For awhile they spent mornings in front of Commissary Coffee on Fairfax, weekends at Handsome Coffee Roasters, and there was word of a stint at The Hart & the Hunter (although it was never clear if their truck was parked in front of the Palihotel or they were cooking out of the kitchen.)  But getting to try their delicious sounding egg sandwiches after Noon proved to be difficult, a policy that continued when they opened their first brick and mortar last week inside the Grand Central Market in Downtown L.A.  Excitement was high, lines were long, and for their first week they were only open until Noon.

But week two goes to the lunchers!

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If you’ve been to Downtown L.A.’s Grand Central Market at all in the past month or two you’ve likely noticed some big changes happening inside the building at the base of Angels Flight.  You can still get a pupusa from Sarita’s, a carnitas taco from  Las Morelianas, or a bowl of wonton soup from China Cafe.  But some of the lesser known longtime vendors have been cleared out to make way for more gourmet options as the market looks to re-make itself as a tourist destination somewhere between Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market, and San Francisco’s Ferry Building. There’s talk of a heavily curated oyster bar, real deal Texas BBQ (in the old Chimu space), a branch of Valerie Confections, and G&B Coffee.

But the first new space to open and be selling food is Sticky Rice, a Thai “comfort food” lunch counter sporting organic ingredients and some real cooking pedigree.

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If you work Downtown and saw the L.A. Times write up of Chimu last week (the new Peruvian place in the Grand Central Market) you must have run right out and tried it.  I know I did. Twice. Despite being a take out window just outside the Grand Central Marketplace, the menu of modern Peruvian cuisine is a bit out of my price range (“entrees” are $10-13) but I couldn’t help but splurge. The chef’s pedigree is top notch- he used to work Lazy Ox, another acceptable Midtown Lunch splurge, and Mo Chica, the Peruvian restaurant that was clearly used as a model for Chimu’s concept and menu style.  But the dishes themselves are mostly unique and changing every day.

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Yesterday I took my very first trip to the Grand Central Market downtown- and let me be the first (although probably not) to say: if you work in walking distance from Hill and 3rd, I am extremely jealous of you!  Sure, some complain that a number of the stalls are crappy, and there is not enough variety.  You know what I say?  Who needs more than roast pig parts and cheap Chinese food!?  Not me.

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