Midtown Lunch

If you were one of those people (read: cheap bastards like me) who found the menu at Short Order, the Nancy Silverton backed burger concept in The Original Farmer’s Market, to be way too expensive for a casual lunch- a reprieve has finally arrived.  Short Order has announced the launch of lunch specials.  Now $14 will get you a grass fed cheeseburger with a side order of house fries or their signature spuds, plus a soda.  For $3 more you can get a beer instead, $7 more will get you a cocktail (the special is also offered during happy hour.)   It still doesn’t exactly feel cheap, but at that price it’s a lot easier to swallow than it was when the same lunch would cost you $18+.   And, I’m down with any deal that forces me to order those spuds.

Short Order, 6333 W 3rd St. 323-761-7970

I still remember the first time I want to the Original L.A. Farmer’s Market.  The year was 1994 and I may or may not have just been a studio audience member of the Price is Right (sadly I didn’t get called to come on down.)  Getting to go to Los Angeles, and visit my cousin, was my High School graduation present and I remember thinking the Farmer’s Market was quite possibly the greatest food court I had ever been in.  Fast forward 17 years later, and the excitement has worn off a bit.  Most of the places are pretty mediocre, and even the decent ones are kind of pricey for what they are (I’m looking at you Loteria.)  Was it always that way? Probably.  The 18 year old me also thought that I would never find better clothing stores than the T-shirt shops on Hollywood Blvd.

And yet, it’s rare that you’ll find somebody willing to outright bash the Farmer’s Market food court.  The place is an institution, and for somebody who loves food courts it is hard not to get a little bit excited walking into that place on a beautiful day.  (And let’s face it, it beats eating at La Piazza.)   But I think the real reason most people have fond feelings about the Farmer’s Market is because everybody has their one go to dish.  The one thing they always order, every single time, without fail. After all, the number of options can be intimidating.  And it’s easy to get lost in that maze.  Going back again and again for the same thing is the easy solution for that.

My go to dish?  The Mee Indo Style at Singapore’s Banana Leaf.

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