Mary's Market: lunch with ladies, men and dogs of the canyon

Mary's first opened in 1922 -- it's now owned by Carolyn.

 It's not easy to find a place close to L.A. where you really feel like you're not in the middle of the city anymore. Froggy's in Topanga Canyon, maybe, or the Rock Store way out on Mulholland. Too far to drive? Just a few minutes north of Sierra Madre is Mary's Market, a 90 year-old institution in Santa Anita Canyon near the trail for Sturtevant Falls.
"Is there really a restaurant up here? This feels like Big Sur," my kids said. The menu's simple -- a few egg dishes at breakfast, burgers, tuna fish and turkey sandwiches at lunch. Sometimes there are chicken and rib dinners and music and night. Sunflower seeds on the tuna sandwich added to the hippie vibe, and Swiss cheese perked up Sam's burger.

The simple menu (pasted on a brown lunch sack) is perfectly fine, but Mary's is more about the setting and homey atmosphere. Sitting among thrift shop finds and cans of corned beef, diners are invited to paint rocks and paper table coverings while the food's being prepared.

An old-timer with a long white beard settles in at the counter. Several dogs wait outside. A plate of terrific chocolate chip cookies just baked by owner Carolyn (Mary is apparently no more) arrives unbidden after the meal. At Mary's, it's a different pace with a ladies of the canyon feel and a history told in historic photos lining the walls, and a great way to escape the city.
Mary's Market

561 Woodland Dr
Sierra Madre

(626) 355-4534

Lobsta Truck is (almost) on a roll

Lobster with mayo is the way to go

The Lobsta Truck, one of the few places in L.A. to get real East Coast-style lobster roll sandwiches, is rolling out starting Dec. 3 in Venice, but we got a preview of the lobster rolls and chowder at the soft opening last night in Pasadena. Owner Justin Li ships in both the lobster and the special split-top rolls from the East Coast. Lobster chunks were big and fresh in both the plain roll with melted butter and the traditional one with mayo, but the mayo one gave the lobster much more flavor. Lobster rolls are $11 -- a bit of an indulgence compared to tacos, but not outrageous given the quality of the lobster. You'll probably want a cup of clam chowder ($3.50) or a homemade Whoopie Pie ($4) to round out the meal. There's also crab rolls for $9, Cape Cod chips and fresh squeezed lemonade. Whoopie Pies, also a Northeast specialty, are from L.A.'s own Baking Whoopie. My friend Matt, a Rhode Island native, pronounced the lobster rolls authentic tasting, though he'd really like it if they would add fried clam cakes to the menu. With trucks like the Lobsta Truck and the LudoTruck, food trucks are evolving away from food for drunk people and into full-fledged meals -- as long as you don't mind curbside seating.

Just one dish: District's spam sliders

"It's rich," warned a work colleague who had been to District. "And kind of salty. But really good." He was right -- District is rich, and a bit salty, and porky, and irrestible. At last night's press tasting, the Spam slider that stood out for its insanely inspired juxtaposition of Spam lightly caramelized around the edges, a perfectly fried quail egg, a ripe slice of deep red tomato and the inspired sauce that wove it all together on a mini brioche -- a soy mayonaise. If the cruise ship line that delivered Spam to the stranded passengers had served this unholy mashup of white trash staple with hautewich, those passengers would have had nothing to complain about.


Though it's probably the Spam sliders that will have me dragging my friends back for a taste, I'd also insist they try bar snacks like fried black-eyed peas and pretzel bites with maple mustard -- like a pretzel donut hole -- and several of District's terrific vegetable dishes like charred broccolini with picked chile or roasted squash with blue cheese. Oh, and chef Kevin Napier has also launched a new oyster bar, for a briny counterpart to the porcine decadence.
District on Sunset
6600 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood

Food + Lab: More of what Silver Lake wanted

It took years for Silver Lake to get a taste of the kind of fresh, casual modern food that was found in other neighborhoods. Venice got Lemonade, Downtown got Mendocino Farms, Third St. got Joan's on Third, West Hollywood got Food + Lab...and until Forage arrived, Silver Lake mostly got bupkus. Now the scruffy, spacy vegan place a few doors down from Dusty's has become the third outpost of Food + Lab, and it's a sleekly designed breakfast and lunch spot -- as well as a great chance to check out the stores that flank it, Sumi's and Gogosha Optique.
 
Soon, Food + Lab will be open for dinner until 10, and like Forage it's useful for takeout as well. There's no particular theme to the menu -- just quality organic products with European touches -- everything from organic eggs with Austrian speck for brunch to a proscuitto, fig and ricotta sandwich on raisin walnut bread and some attractive salads in the deli case. Meinl coffee from Austria comes cafe au lait style in big ceramic bowls or Austrian style with whipped cream.

Sandwiches are mostly in the $10 range, but I didn't need any dinner after my huge tuna sandwich on olive bread. Tapenade, apples and red onions brought lots of flavor to the sandwich, which comes with a pickle cup.
 
Chicken arugula salad with apples, grapes and candied pecans in a creamy dressing wasn't too mayonaisey for Kathy, although the very green servers didn't know what was in the dressing or where the nice-looking pastries come from. But so far Food + Lab is striking the right chord for Silver Lake -- now how about some good cafes near Rowena on the other side of the lake?
Food + Lab
3206 W. Sunset
323-661-2666

For 2011, it's all about the pie

I can't tell you how relieved I am that the tide seems to be turning from cupcakes to pie, which I adore much more. It's been said before, but 2011 is definitely shaping up to be the year of pie.
Here's a few slices of the pie scene:
On Thursday, Machine Project hosts a pop-up pie shop benefiting the L.A. Regional Food Bank. Julia Luke is art director, Sarah Williams is pie director. Yes, pie these days comes complete with art directors.
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Another commentary on the intersection of pie and art is Pielab, an Alabama community project born out of the art scene, recently profiled in the New York Times magazine.
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Simple Things, opening soon at 8310 West Third St., specializes in pie and sandwiches. The chef is Carrie Cusack, who's been bringing her Frankie & Tiny pies to the Silver Lake Farmer's Market and elsewhere for the past year.
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And some of my favorite stops at the recent Artisanal L.A. were the pie companies, including:
I Heart Pies, from Emily Cofrancesco, with an adorable octopus logo and pies ranging from peanut butter s'mores to maple walnut to strawberry fig.

pie in a jar from All Jarred Up

All Jarred Up pie in a jar company, which ships apple, grape, caramel, banana and more pies for around $6 - $10 each through Etsy.
Tartist.LA, which incorporates touches like pomegranate glaze on a fig tart or Persian honey-vinegar glaze on an apple tart for exquisitely-presented tarts (which after all are just fancy pies).
Where's your favorite pie stop?

Lazy Ox: Can it be all things to all people?

crunchy corn kernels with pimenton set the tone for the full-flavored menu

Little Tokyo's The Lazy Ox is one of those rare places that's both capable of snagging three stars from S. Irene and serving as an easy place to drop in for some beers and happy hour snacks -- whether you like the word or not, it's one of L.A.'s most ambitious gastropubs. I love how chef Josef Centeno incorporates spices like za'atar and influences from Morocco, Spain, the Middle East and sometimes Asia in his dishes without diluting the concept.

You must order the caramelized cauliflower, even if you're not always a fan

Nearly a year old now, Centeno's cooking seems to be getting even more wide-ranging, and while Animal gets all the nose to tail attention, the Lazy Ox is just as ambitious. Yet your squeamish friends, who would never touch a rabbit liver or pig ear, will be just as comfortable here, with a really solid burger ($14), imaginative fish dishes and a refreshing attention to vegetables. It's also a handy place for a business lunch, happy hour snacks like burrata crostini, a Belgian ale on tap, or comfort food staples like a giant veal chop or fried chicken. Nearly 50 specials are listed each night, and amazingly, they're mostly successful.

In summer, soft shell crab was fried tempura style with a crunchy crust

On arrival diners get a small dish of addictive corn kernels with Spanish smoked paprika. It's a flavor combo Centeno returns to repeatedly -- most dishes play off smoky, salty, spicy and acidic in satisfying ways. Other standouts include a salad of deeply flavored brick roasted tomatoes with luscious burrata and the unexpected addition of Japanese pickled plums; light and crunchy fried dishes from soft shell crab to ethereal yet rich battered bone marrow. A few dishes familiar from Centeno's previous stops are featured - there's usually a hand torn pasta with egg and cavatelli with rich sauce of oxtails or beef and pork ragu, and sometimes his bacos -- flatbread tacos topped with crispy pork belly and the like -- make a command appearance. The beer and wine list is ambitious enough to ensure return visits, with solid sake and shochu lists in a nod to the neighborhood and a rumored Japanese restaurant to come next door.

The hamburger is terrific, with housemade mustard and garlicky aioli

Is there a down side? They've done what they could to warm up the room, but it's tough to bring character to restaurants in brand-new office or loft buildings, and the space can also feel cramped and really loud. For my tastes, the menu is one of the most appealing in town, but at times it feels like every dish is dusted with smoky pimenton and lots of salt. But these are pretty mild quibbles -- just sit on the patio if you don't like the room and make sure to order a variety of dishes.
The Lazy Ox
241 S. San Pedro
Downtown Los Angeles
213-526-5299

Let them eat LACMA: Bitter melons, Spam, fish tacos and radishes on Sunday

All year long the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been featuring EatLACMA, where food meets art, performance and music in all kinds of bizarre ways. Sunday from 12-8 is the huge culminating exhibition across the entire Wilshire Blvd. campus. It's free with museum admission, and the events are too extensive to list them all. But there's exhibits from locals like Fallen Fruit, Machine Project (doing the electric melon drum circle), Islands of L.A. and Materials and Applications's Didier Hess doing a fish taco harvest and performances by Ann Magnuson, Anna Homler, Ronee Blakely, Karen Black and Phranc.
At 2:30 and 3:30, Jonathan Gold reads "Spam, the American Meat," written especially for the occasion.

Oh yeah, and also a watermelon eating contest, tomato fight, prison food tasting and much more -- see the full program here.