WHAT NOW?

The Sandwich Spot
(Nor-Cal sandwich franchise; Santa Monica satellite)
3101 Ocean Park
Santa Monica

WHY VISIT?

I’ve been to this joint more than a few times now, and at this point I will comfortably declare that the sandwiches are worth the slight sticker shock. I’m told the bread is flown down from upstate, on the daily. Further, very few things about the sandwich resemble the plastic mold (and taste) of a certain international chain’s $5 footlong (those are available three short blocks down Ocean Park). Westside lunchers, stop waiting in line for your MSG fix at Bay Cities Deli and get yourselves over to Ocean Park for a Roseanne’s or Sandman with Swiss, with everything. “Crunch bread” advised. If you’re doing it right, the total cost should clock in around the same as your average curbside food truck meal – aka, just under one Hamilton. Note that this is a lunchtime joint more or less, but you might ask about the advertised “comedy night” if that’s your bag. (Personally, I can’t wait to flee this part of town once work lets out.)

WHAT AMBIANCE?

Comedy LPs ranging from Joe Piscopo to Bill Cosby adorn the walls. Clearly somebody’s a fan of the live prepared routine. Drink machine is self-serve. A mysterious black curtain beneath the drink machine will draw your eye; whatever you do, don’t peek behind the curtain. »continue reading Under $10: The Sandwich Spot (Santa Monica)

Above: People really, really wanted to see Death From Above 1979 at South by Southwest 2011, March 19, Beauty Bar patio, 1am Saturday night / Sunday morning. Who could blame them?

Hey gang. Just a quick note to let you know we’re still alive, parsing photos, missing the Texas weather as compared to California’s typhoon, and will be uploading SXSW content this week per tradition. The final three gigs I caught, personally, were (A) Odd Future storming off the Billboard Buffalo Billiards stage quite early at their “official” SXSW showcase gig, (B) Yoko Ono doing Ono things at Elysium, and (C) Death From Above 1979 working the crowd into a fence-tearing-down frenzy, Beauty Bar patio (pictured, above). So, stick around or something. More soon. Ryan

ABOVE: While writing up THE PLACE‘s truck and informing the driver he needs to move his vehicle, one of ten vying for westside lunchtime dollars on Pennsylvania Avenue, a motorcycled member of the Santa Monica Police Department is photographed today both by the woman with the DSLR camera and the telephone of the author, who looks on with a curiously sweet-and-sour emotional mix of glee and dismay while scarfing food from a competing and possibly soon-to-be-written-up-as-well truck.

Since we originally heard from The Green Truck more than one year ago regarding the shakedown and anti-truck sentiments occurring at that time near Museum Square, Wilshire Blvd, we’ve had various legislature handed down, we’ve had health grades approved, we’ve heard more than once that trucks are soon to be the way of the dodo, and we’ve heard more than twice that trucks are here to stay. The trucks do appear “here to stay”, of course, and with them comes the ever-present threat of a ticket by The Man, both a cost of doing business and a dependable source of municipal revenue for the cities in which both inhabit.

» LA Mobile Vendors Set To Carry Letter Grades (Eater LA)
» LAPD Officially Tasked With Throwing Fines At Your Favorite Truck (Los Angeleaouise)
» Food Truck Lot Closed Down by City of Santa Monica (Los Angelatinous)
» India Jones: Open For Business, Impounded By Po-Po, Back On Streets (Losanjealous)

Who Loves Ya Sugar!

This Has Been
A Photograph of the Sugar Bowl at King’s Road Cafe (8361 Beverly)

SEE ALSO IN IMPRESSIVELY-STACKED HEALTH DETRIMENTS:
» Photo Op: Sitton’s Butter, NoHo

WHAT NOW?

The Golden State Cafe is situated on Fairfax a few doors up from Turntable Lab, Damiano “Mr Pizza” and the dried-up husk of Largo (RIP old Largo, you were much more fun and intimate than the Coronet). The cafe features craft brews, decent food and gelato offerings from Mr. Tai “Scoops” Kim himself at $2/scoop, all served within a space afforded a very keen “warehousey” design eye. They pride themselves on showcasing, in their own words, “the best makers of food and drink in California.” In a move that is patently inconsistent with this philosophy, they also pride themselves on the most expensive beer in their restaurant, the infamous “aged in Jim Beam barrels” Allagash Curieux from Portland, Maine, priced at $9 for one 10-oz glass. To their credit, though, they also have some great California brews on tap.

»continue reading Under $20: Golden State Cafe

HEADS CUT
Following that whole “somebody stole my cell phone while I was giving him a shave” debacle, NICK THE BaRBAER has a new number and is spreading the word, street style, for those of you that haven’t been trimmed in a while. (Eagle Rock Blvd; S of Colo.)

No, I did not make it out today. I waited in Marina Del Rey all day as planned, Sandalwood Conference Room, Courtyard Marriott. Eventually the truck arrived, carrying our two new conference tables. Hey, somebody’s gotta handle the nuts and bolts. Fuck off. Still, the wait and unfortunate LES SAVY FAV dodge actually afforded me the opportunity to check out that Free Blood / Death Set / Yeasayer / No Age show inside that freaky Eastern Bloc ballroom on Melrose (photos TK). Thanks Sean, that shit was tight and I don’t mean that in a security way. Amazing bands, clientele, locale…what do you want from me. If I couldn’t be in a dusty field in the desert, well, this was the closest second.

Meantime I get this missive from Victor. We’ve got photogs running all over Indio, yet what’s the sole photo I’m greeted with? Pork nachos. Behold:

From: Victor
Class: Personal
Sent: Apr 25, 2008 8:52 PM
Subject: Pork topped nachos. Invented right here right now.

Speechless. See you out there bright and early, Saturday. Fuckers.

“Baby Got Back”
The corner of Pico and Fairfax, 3/8/08
Credit: Matthew

Kudos Matthew for not only capturing the ubiquitous Dickies™ Bench ad and the unfortunately-placed pedestrian, but also for dredging up my craptastic-phone-photo- infatuated past and shining the harsh light of day on it for all to see. Yes friends, craptastic has been and remains the name of the game. They didn’t put those tiny, crappy cameras into your telephones for nothin’! Got a craptastic cell phone photo the world must see? Fire it off to [email protected] for consideration. Operators are standing by.

Well, that didn’t take long:

Five of these Kermies belong together
Five of these Kermies are dressed as one.
But one of these Kermies is calling it “Bullshit”
Can you help me spot-which-one?
And now my song is done.

Melrose at Fairfax this time. Again, modified. Fess up, which one of you guys called bullshit on Supreme’s laughable viral campaign? Don’t make me call LA Taco. Seriously, somebody go dig up the culprit on wooster and share for the greater good; things are busy this week.

PREVIOUSLY IN STOLEN TREASURED ICONS USED FOR HALF-ASSED MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
» Your Weekend Poster Snapshot

In which Kermie becomes an unwitting shill for a skateboard-and-tennis-shoe shop. Green guy was spotted on Fairfax at Oakwood. But wait, it’s been modified. What’s this “slay” business…commentary on the store? The poster tactic? Iraq? Overall Weltanshauung? A nudge from the creator to modify any further posters we may encounter? Who cares at the end of the day; long live Kermit. Note to Supreme: Consider wheatpasting locations that are more than a half-block from your own store. Go a few more blocks east and head up La Brea towards the Henson lot; should go over well.

In unrelated weekend poster activity, Robbie Conal’s newest double-sided missive “Emission Accomplished” went up February 29 and can now be seen all over town. Gruesome, but it makes its point. I’ve already seen a few that were not cleaned so much as they were town down in disgust. Maybe you’ve seen one? Was it whole?

Lyrically and sonically, Pitchfork-approved and Boston-bred Tulsa lead singer Carter Tanton walks a delicate wire bordering Richard Ashcroft and Tom Petty. To his credit, dude even looks like Petty: Skinny frame, sharp features, all flannel and hair letting the sound man know who’s running the show in this neck of the woods. It’s not a stretch, in fact, to postulate that he need but bleach his hair and adhere to a steady diet of sensimilla in order to firmly clasp the “Young Tom Petty” sceptre, but good. Last night I visited le Lounge du Silverlake to witness the band in person, live, and I was not disappointed with the performance. Following the set, though, two questions needed answers. Bigtime. I asked Carter himself to assauge my concerns:

Regarding your Fender Mustang. Is that an original, or a reissue?

»continue reading Thumbs Up For Tulsa (With Minor Reservations)

Admittedly, my familiarity with the Editors prior to this show consisted entirely of the two songs I heard in the car en route to the Wiltern. I am slightly more knowledgeable about Hot Hot Heat, having purchased and enjoyed their 2002 release Make Up the Breakdown. However, I haven’t listened to that in a couple years. So, I went in without any agenda or expectations.

I arrived around 9:30. Louis XIV had already finished their set (which I wanted to see), and people were milling about to buy $14 large draft beers. The crowd was full of white guys in their 30s with hair product. Other prominent demographics included Latino and Asian guys in their 30s, with hair product. The women present were pretty unremarkable. As far as crowds go, this was one of the most conservative that I have seen in recent memory.
»continue reading Editors, Hot Hot Heat @ The Wiltern, Feb 9, 2008