Ok so technically the first stop was not Echo Park, it was in Westlake: the famous Langer’s Deli. This is apparently one of the best for pastrami sandwiches in LA, and a short walk from my new temporary home so a logical choice.
Inside it looks like a big diner with plenty of seating.
There’s a massive sandwich menu predominantly pastrami & salt beef. We went for one of each to try and a small fries (these turned out to be crinkle cut chips which made me very very happy). The sandwiches are MASSIVE- and at $15.95 they should be.
I genuinely was only able to eat half- I know, seems hard to believe these days. As you can see we went for the toasted one, though looking around the non toasted seemed more popular. I think the pastrami was the better choice. The other feature they had which I really liked was the ‘make it lean’. For 3.95 you can get the fat bits cut off your meat and replaced with more meat. For me, normally when I’m having a hot salt beef bagel from Whatchamacallits (Shoreditch) I love it till I get a big mouthful of fat which makes me hand my bagel over to Al (which he likes); not happening this time!
Then it was a walk over to Echo Park. LA is absolutely not a city for walking, so not something I’d recommend. And it was hot. 30 degreees hot! I’d heard about a place called Mohawk Blend which was a gastro pub, so that seemed like a good place to cool down. They have a massive selection of beers or as I prefer, some new gin for me to explore. I didn’t get any food but looked at what was coming out and the menu: it’s very veg heavy and the pizzas look really good.
After that we were ready for more exploring. We kept on down Sunset till we got to El Prado. This is a great bar. They only sell beer and wine and the staff are great. I’ll definitely be coming back here, maybe on Tuesday nights when they do record club and people bring in their own records to play.
On our walk back home (much nicer route than the one in) we went through Echo Park. This park is really pretty. A big lake with pedlos, people picnicking- all the good stuff.
Feeling pretty happy with our first day of neighborhood exploring. Echo Park has some good looking restaurants, cafes etc. it’s definitely a neighborhood I’ll be spending some more time in.
Jilltopia 