New Famima!

The new Famima!! store expansion puts the phrase "super convenient!" to good use, opening its 5th location at the corner of Wilshire & Hope.


Famima, 700 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles.

With a location just 2 blocks up the street, and another location on its way around the corner next week at the Roosevelt Lofts, this location may be pushing saturation. I guess it depends on your point of view. If you are any one of the thousands of downtown workers in the area or live in nearby South Park, your Famima!! options must seem limitless.. In some cases, a quick cup of coffee or a "whole lotta banana" fix may be as simple as an elevator ride down to street level, or a walk around the corner.

In comparing Famima!! options, this particular location is a bit smaller than its 6th & Grand counterpart (or the location at 8th & Fig). However, it does have a floating coffee counter in the middle of the store, and a seperate checkout along the wall. The cold food is in the cooler to the left of the checkout and you'll find your beverage choices are in the coolers along the back wall. The same product lineup is there, just in a different location than you may be used to at another location.

some of the fun to be had at the Grand Opening:

Super Famima! with face cutouts for posing.

There was a raffle to win various prizes:



various prizes could be won from the little 'bingo' type spinner, anything from a Famima! tshirt, beverage, or snacks like the very popular Pocky or an individual Famima! branded packet of tissue.

If you missed out on the fun today, be sure and check the Downtown News for your free frozen Famima!! Freeze (page 3) and head over there tomorrow.

They're open daily:
6am-Midnight Mon-Friday
7am-Midnight Saturday
7am-11pm Sunday


Now if they want to be really "Super Convenient" maybe they should put a Famima!! on Spring or Main in the Historic Core. Just an idea..

Sunday at the Sausage Kitchen

Wurstküche


pros: great sausage selection, fries are omg! good
cons: price point on the sausages are a little much if you are on a recession budget, no diet coke, limited topping selection
overall: good for a treat now & again. the fries are the winner here.


Wurstküche is one of those places that I've seen developing in the Arts District over the past year & was looking forward to its grand opening. The owners are restaurateurs from San Francisco that wanted to bring their idea for a gourmet sausage restaurant to LA. They've worked hard on refurbishing this location in the Arts District over this last year. When their November opening arrived, I was happy to hear about it, but I wasn't spending as much time meandering around the Arts District and put off going there.

I kept hearing good things about it though, and so while trying to figure out where to try something 'new' Sunday, it was decided Wurstküche would be the place.


First thing I want to say is that I'm not a hotdog fan. These aren't hotdogs though, these are gourmet sausages. It's not Pink's (thank goodness) but it's not Jerry's Dogs either.. In some ways that's better and in some ways, it's not.

For those not familiar with Jerry's they have a limited choice of sausages (and regular hotdogs too) and a gazillion topping choices.. their gourmet coupling is the homemade potato chips. Good stuff and filling.. So they have a limited number of items and do it well. They're also in Orange County which is like.. far away if you don't have a car.

Getting back to Wurstküche, their niche is the gourmet sausage. You can exercise your curious palette with some 20 different sausages from standard Italian to the more exotic rattlesnake & rabbit, or a duck & bacon sausage.


you can see what your meat options are before you order..


The price point on your sausage varies on creativity.. While the Italian will run about $6, a mango jalapeno will run $6.75 and the more adventurous "exotics" are $7.75 and regardless what you order, you get a 2 topping option. That's it. If you're going for the more exotic, you may not want to cover up the flavor with onions and peppers though. If you want mustard, they have at least 5 kinds.


I've heard the best thing to do when you want to see how someone does it, is to go with what you know is good.. In other words, I like brats and are familiar with them, and so comparing apples to apples I think is good for a first visit. I chose grilled onions and 'spicy peppers' for my 2 toppings. They do have sauerkraut as an option but I wasn't craving it for whatever reason.

SeanYoda had the Louisiana Hot with grilled onions and sweet peppers. Along with the sausages, a large order of Belgian Fries and a couple sodas rounded out the order. The lunch total with tax (not including tip) came to about $30.


Reed's Spiced Apple Brew and the Fentimans Ginger Beer

Louisiana Hot and the Classic Bratwurst with aforementioned toppings.

You get a number and take your drink to your table & wait for them to grill your food and bring it out fresh & hot. There's a small counter in the order area, but if you go down the hall the larger dining room has abundant seating available.

We noted someone working on their laptop, and so when our food was delivered I inquired about wifi. While wifi is not available, if you happen to pick up Little Tokyo Unplugged.. well, you're lucky.

Along with ample seating in the back is a bar where they have several bottled and draft options. The non-alcohalic drinks run familiar to classic soda drinks like Moxie and Fentimans. There is no Diet Coke or diet anything. They do, however, have bottled water. I opted for the Reed's Spiced Apple Brew, and Sean got the Fentiman's Ginger Beer.


I hadn't tried the Reeds before.. it was super sweet and had a fresh super crisp apple flavor that made me think of chunky applesauce. Sean said it made him think of apple pie. I highly recommend the Reeds. The Fentiman's was your classic ginger beer. Either way good choices. You may want to drink slowly though as each bottled beverage runs from $2 for bottled water to an average of $3.50 to $5 for bottled sodas.

As for the sausages, they were both good. $6 each for a couple of classic sausages I thought was a bit much. They tasted on par with my favorite place,Top Dog (in Berkeley,CA) but while Top Dog is also grilled & served straight off the grill the price point is a little more palatable. We were also a little disappointed they don't offer much in the way of toppings, the ones they do have are ok. I found 'spicy peppers' on my bratwurst to not be spicy, but rather mundane. It was still good, just not what I was expecting. The brat was hot and fresh and had good flavor.

As for Sean's Louisiana Hot, it was a nice spice blend but not what I'd call hot, unless they meant it was served piping hot off the grill (which it was). Still good stuff, just not "OMG! best sausage ever!" For classics, though, I can't complain.

While we weren't bowled over with the sausages, we did agree that the Belgian fries are what would bring us back.



Belgian fries are made fresh, sprinkled with kosher salt, and served in a paper bag. You get a choice of one dipping sauce for a small order, or 2 dipping sauces for a large. The next problem is choosing what two of the 10 different flavors do you want.

We chose the pesto mayo and the chipotle ketchup. While I had a little trouble making my mind up which of the two I liked better, I think the pesto mayo won out.

As for the fries they are good on their own, crispy golden on the outside and soft potato goodness on the inside. Not mushy at all, (but one would hope not with these thick cut fries). I don't salt my food, so the sea salt was almost a little too salty for me, but I think that most fries aficionados will find the salt just enough.

I've heard folks come here regular, and I can see why but I don't see myself doing it. I definitely want to come back and have the mango jalepino which was my first choice before deciding to do with something simple & familiar. I like aligator and I'd like to see how they do it.. but that'll be for another day as well. The price point doesn't endear me to sneaking off to eat here on my own. The fries however, could. =)

Wurstküche
800 E 3rd Street
(@ Traction)
Los Angeles, CA 90013
213-687-4444

EDIT: the rest of my flickr set is HERE

L&L I love you!

Glendale, CA

Yesterday, while hunting down a copy of Animal Crossing City Folk @ Circuit City (no luck), we instead spotted this great sign. I snapped it with the celphone on our way to Starbucks for some coffee.

If we hadn't had lunch at Wurstkuche (that's German for 'sausage kitchen' btw!) I don't think I would have been able to pass up a L&L opportunity! Aloha!

Full on Breakfast @ Weeneez

If it looks like all I do is go around the corner and stuff my pie hole then you could be right. Except that's not the case. I haven't gone out to eat since I had those great sandwiches at Weeneez earlier this week on Monday. Before that I think there was a trip to Rubios while at the AMC 30 on Sunday the day before that.. and at some point.. maybe a trip to L&L. These last two are chains and you can go there pretty much anywhere.. you don't need me giving reviews of McDonalds do you?? (L&L is definitely not McDonalds.. you get the idea though, right?).

So yeah, breakfast.. full on breakfast is served at Weeneez on Saturday from 9-noon. As I'm typing this it's a couple hours later & I'm still stuffed. SeanYoda ordered the body builder special which is: 2 eggs, 2 sausages (or slices of bacon or ham), home fries, toast & 2 pancakes.


forgot the camera so you get this poor quality celphone shot.

As for me, Julie was saying they were making some really good pancakes from scratch (and I was all set to have the "earlybird special" which is similar to the bodybuilder minus the pancakes).. Twist my arm!! (heh heh) I ordered the pancakes and a side of bacon.


omg these pancakes were huge! (the bodybuilder pancakes were normal sized) With two of the slices of bacon (I 'shared' one of my slices with Sean) I was stuffed. Actually I ended up having Sean eat like a 1/6th of my pancake. It was too good to not eat, but I was so full from what I already had.

I'm glad I ordered the pancakes, but they are indeed filling. Total for breakfast with 2 sodas not including tip was around 17 bucks.

Weeneez new sandwiches & new hours!

Remember Weeneez? Of course you do!

One would think I have forgotten about them since I haven't talked about them for a while. I admit I have a problem with mornings, I'm not so good at them. I'm good if I know I need to be somewhere, but without structure, I seem to slow down quite a bit.

Suffice to say this post is benefiting in a way by my not getting my act together in time for breakfast. ;P So instead, it's an early lunch today at Weeneez. It's been long enough that there were a few changes:

NEW HOURS
Weeneez is now open Monday through Saturday 9am to 4pm. Breakfast is served 9am to 11am and is limited to egg sandwiches. Full Breakfast is served Saturdays from 9am to Noon.

NEW DELI SANDWICHES
Julie is now featuring fresh made Italian Sub and Roast Beef sandwiches..


Sound good?? YES!

So good in fact that we ordered one of each.


Roast Beef with Cheddar cheese and the mayo and horseradish mustard.



The Italian Sub.. lots of meat, a savory Italian flavor.

Speaking for myself, I had to take a "halftime" between the two halves as it was a very satisfying, filling sandwich. The sandwich served me well for both my breakfast and lunch.

Suffice to say I fell off the Weight Watcher wagon a few weeks ago, but this is easily a sandwich I would want to order yet again... I could have one half for lunch and save the other half for my dinner. It is quite filling.

Julie noted that she may be getting some fresh baked La Brea bread in the future. I found the sandwich fine regardless, but fresh La Brea Bakery bread would make an excellent sandwich even better I would think.

The total for 2 sandwiches and drinks came to about 17bucks, so still very affordable and very delicious.

Vegetarians need not worry.. there's a soy dog and a tofurky dog available on the hotdog menu.. and the breakfast has some non-meat offerings. With Ash Wednesday coming up it might be something to consider to stop by and I may try one of the soy dogs finally.

Time for the Oscars!

It's Oscar time.. have you seen any of the films? So are you ready for your Oscar picks?


Saturday we headed to one of the local AMC theatres that was hosting an all=day Oscar Movie Showcase. We probably got the best deal because we hadn't seen any of the five films nominated for Best Picture.

For $30 we got a refillable bag of popcorn and a lanyard which allowed us In and Out privileges so we could stretch our legs between films, (or in the case of the couple sitting next to us, leave to have a relaxing lunch while Benjamin Button was shown as they'd seen it before).

We ended up taking our dinner break before Slumdog Millionaire and were able to go back, settle in and enjoy the movie. My Favorite Films were MILK and Slumdog Millionaire. Benjamin Button was good but not as great as I was led to believe it would be.. Again any time someone over-hypes something for me I just end up getting disappointed. Still, it was nice seeing New Orleans if just from my movie seat.. and noting continuity errors in location. =)

Having seen all the Best Picture films... I'm pretty ready to settle in tonight with my low-fat bag o Kettle Corn and Cherry Coke Zero and watch the awards be given.

Do you have any plans for watching the Oscars broadcast?? Do you care or think it's just a waste of time (well it's definitely a time sink!) How do you (or don't) spend the night of the Oscars??

Have fun whether you watch at an Oscar Party or camped on the couch.. or whether you skip it altogether. I don't take these shows very seriously.. After all, it's just entertainment.

Onion Rings for Joe..

Bacon burger w/ onion rings from the Nickel Diner..

Back to the Nickel!

LUNCH TIME!

According to my "BriteKite" account, I haven't checked in at The Nickel in some 22 days.. That statement is meant to ward off the eventual comment that will come.. "The Nickel? AGAIN??!!!" Yes, again.. and I'm guessing you haven't been if you're asking why.


pastries & donuts (maple bacon was out by lunch)


today's featured desserts.. (no wonder I'm just gaining & gaining!)

Unfortunately, shortly after they started serving dinner there, (maybe a couple days after my last review) there was a personnel issue (the dinner cook quit for some unknown reason) and they are left short-staffed. So no dinner. However, lunch is still available. Yay! I made it over there for lunch today.

We got there near 1pm I want to say, still busy from lunch but the wait wasn't long. We got seated next to a very chatty couple who (unfortunately for us) talked loud enough to make eating lunch uncomfortable. The tables are so close together you can't help but make out bits of conversation. Unfortunately for SeanYoda he heard all of it (lucky for me they were sitting on my 'bad side' and I missed most of it except for when they got into some heated exchange about fast food and multi-vitamins. Too Much information people!)

Ok.. so now that you got the set up..


SeanYoda's Bacon Cheeseburger with French fries.

this closeup is especially for Eureka City Poz :

Yes, they were crispy!!


The Smac N Cheese:


Smac N Cheese closeup.. under a a thin layer of toasty bread crumbs is piping hot cheesy macaroni goodness!

I finished mine all by myself and while my plate was getting cleared, Sean worked on that mountain of fries.. We discussed if we should get dessert to go. While we were eating a 2nd wave of lunch goers had come. Several groups came in to be seated as well. We knew we wanted dessert (but Sean had already had enough of the people sitting next to us and would have been ready to go if I had asked). We pondered and then finally the moment came..

Yes, we went ahead and ordered dessert! So which one which one??

The "S'mores" cake which I didn't order.. Kristin was saying they bring it to your table and light it up with a blowtorch right there.

We didn't order it though.


We got the Salt Peanut!!!



Total with tax was about $31.00 (not including tip).

Yes, next time I'll need to go farther afield and try one of their salads.. ;) Next time!

Urth Caffe

Thursday night after Kogi, we headed to Urth Caffe for coffee & dessert.

PROS: Pastry is good & they have wifi, & convenient if you are in the Arts District.
CONS: Pricepoint was a bit much, location wasn't that convenient, dining space was a little cramped, and there are no bike racks.
VERDICT: Nice but unless I have a reason to be here, I doubt I'll be coming back soon.


Ok.. so the following is the complete review if you'd like to read the details of our visit:


This was my most recent visit since Urth Cafe's ground breaking around this time last year (and the first time since they opened for business in December 2008).

My first impression was how incredibly small the seating area actually was given the actual size of the land used.


A photo I took on ground breaking day, you can see the sheer size of the space.. at several thousand sq ft.

This Urth Caffe houses offices and bakery, and only a small portion was actually used for a retail location.

The cafe is across the street from the Barker Block and was touted as a neighborhood friendly location, and indeed there are many folks who partake in a coffee at this location (I didn't run into anyone I knew this particular night.. oh well!)


The menu board is fairly easy to read and isn't near as pretentious as some of the other cafes Downtown. Still, I'm kind of spoiled with places like GroundWork Arts District which feels more like an old shoe than this food & drink location.

Yes, food & drink.. Urth Caffe serves sandwiches & salads as well as baked goods and coffee. So that could be a plus if you're looking for food.

We were just wanting coffee & a pastry.. and the staff at the counter were pretty friendly.


They have many pastries to choose from, and they all look pretty good. The price points might be a little surprising, however.


Louisiana Pecan Pie was about 6inches diameter. We of course split ours, but easily could have split it with a third person.

Coffee:
I ordered a Medium Cafe Au Lait and SeanYoda had a single French press. As you may be able to see, the pie was $6.25, so the total came to about $14.00.

After our purchase we got a number and then went to sit down. The immediate dining space to the right of the counter is a small, candle lit room with tables close together. Close enough for intimate dining, but a little too intimate in that your fellow diners are almost on top of you.


collage of images along the wall above the bakery/cashier area.

We didn't have our laptops with us, but I looked around to see how difficult it was to use an outlet if needed for the 'free wifi' and spotted one outlet on the wall and in another location high up on the wall, just as a review on BlogDowntown stated. I can't see anyone going out of their way to use that outlet unless they really had the need. Later before we left we finally spotted the "counter seating" to the left of the entry as you walk in. As far as where the outlets might be there, we never found them.

Eventually my cafe au lait was delivered, and a few minutes later SeanYoda's French Press arrived.


Cafe au lait from Urth Caffe. The (steamed milk is charged separate at 50cents)


SeanYoda's French Press arrived at the table already plunged.


There were a choice of about a dozen coffees to choose from and while SeanYoda can't recall which he chose, he said it was good.

NOTE:
While the coffee showed up pretty quick, we had to inquire a couple times about the pie. I would have thought it would take some time if we had chosen the option to have the pie heated, which we didn't.

So when Sean's coffee showed up and we still didn't have our pie, Sean inquired and we continued to wait. While we waited, we enjoyed our coffee, warming our hands on our coffee cups, and taking in our surroundings. It seemed some time had passed, and so finally I went up to the counter and inquired regarding the pie.

Being my first time, I was starting to wonder if we were supposed take the pie to our table when we sat down rather than wait for it to come out. I was advised that yes, the pie was to come out with one of the servers. So the fact that we'd been there about 20min and still had no pie, it seemed a little awkward.

PIE:
Once it got to the table though, we cut the pie in half an immediately dug in. The pecan pie was baked to perfection, firm and meaty. We were so glad to have our pie that I forgot to take photos once it got to the table. =) I would gladly try this pie again if I had opportunity in the future, despite the rather high-end price point.

The fact is though, I don't know when I would go to Urth Caffe anytime in the future. I don't get to the Arts District that often, and when I do at $14 for a couple cups of coffee and pie, I would rather go to GroundWork on Traction. It's a much more affordable 'every day' sort of location vs. Urth.



OVERALL:
I may want to try lunch here sometime but again, the price point puts me off a little. Also, I doubt I would use Urth as a wifi hotspot unless it was a convenient time, as the dining area didn't really lend itself to relaxation or a 'hangout' sort of spot. Perhaps a few more visits might change my point of view on that. I'll keep the option open.

I think it would be a good place to take friends for lunch or have a business meeting, though I can't imagine it being a good place to discuss any sort of sensitive information, rather a "closing" or "lunch break" sort of place.

Another downer,(and it's not something that is Urth Caffe's problem alone) is that there are no bike racks. It doesn't encourage such environmental commuting other than walking if you are in the area. If you are out of foot traffic range, it's a drive (with parking) or a walk from Hewitt & Traction. Then again, if you are stopping off at Hewitt & Traction, might as well stop at Ay Carumba! for lunch or GroundWork for your coffee and sandwich. The coffee is just as good (if not better at GroundWork) and the pricepoint at either location is more affordable.

Urth Caffe (arts district)
451 South Hewitt Street
Los Angles, CA. 90012
213.797.4534


located right across the street from the Barker Block

KOGI BBQ Taco Truck!

Tonight I want to do a double review.. first Kogi BBQ came to Little Tokyo's Japanese American National Museum (JANM)..

Here they are parked at First & Central, and the line as it extended out in front of the Museum.

They showed about 5pm and stayed til around 9pm, hopefully doing a pretty brisk business. Parking in this area is a little difficult before 6pm, so you'll do some walking regardless of whether you walk from home or park and walk.


Tacos come in four flavors and sometimes there are daily specials, but not this evening. That's ok. We have our favorites..

SeanYoda ordered one of each for himself (he likes them all!).. and I had 2 spicy pork tacos and a tofu taco. Here's mine:


The spicy pork tacos were rather zesty as opposed to spicy. Depending on your spice tolerance they may seem a little spicy or you may want to put some hot sauce on them. Be sure and try them without first though, because the taste is quite good alone. the meat is juicy and the sauce works really well. It's my favorite!




close-up of Kogi's tofu taco.. was rather sweet and you taste more of the flavor of the veggie fillings rather than the taco itself (in other words not a lot of flavor to tofu of course!)

We decided that we liked them all, but the tofu taco was perhaps the least of our favorites. SeanYoda likes the Korean beef shortrib taco best & as mentioned, spicy pork tacos are mine.


Big Thanks to the kindness of the folks at the Japanese American National Museum for allowing some of us Kogi fans to dine out of the rain. Here we were serenaded with some upbeat DJing and a movie on a big screen. The Museum Store was still open so we were able to check out the great selection there and as I mentioned on flickr, there was a book I was wanting that I was sure to pick up on our way out. Yay!

Ok..

Dinner total came to $14 (not including tip) and while your appetite might be different, at $2 a taco you can't beat that in these recession-filled days.

The Kogi folks are super nice and if you miss them on a particular night, no worries as they have a blog you can follow that gives updates about specials and planned locations.. They are on twitter as well, that fun mini blogging social networking site that allows you (either way) to inquire or give feedback to them.

KogiBBQ.com or "kogibbq" on Twitter.com. =)

Many of the places they go are Venice, Sunset Junction, UCLA, Little Tokyo and downtown in front of the Golden Gopher (where they recently started going every Wednesday!)

You can see all my KOGI BBQ pix I've taken so far on flickr HERE

After dinner we were pretty full but thought to get a hot cup of coffee at Urth Cafe (and maybe split some pie?) since it was a cool and rainy evening.. I haven't been there since GroundBreaking January last year.. so first time for both SeanYoda & myself.. that's coming up next I guess.. stay tuned!

Hail El Chavo!

Yesterday we were off Main St for an appointment at the Glendale Galleria Apple Store. SeanYoda's macbook hard drive had crashed last week and after visiting the Apple Store at the Grove it was implied that a possible hard drive replacement was needed. So after backing up his hard drive he made an appointment for Glendale (based on my previous positive experience) and off we went.

Rather than give you the review of the underwhelming experience (maybe later) that we had, I wanted to share the happiness I had at Target while we were waiting.. I'm a BIG Target fan and I've never seen these here despite many trips to various Targets..



It's El Chavo!!!

The endcap included easy 300piece puzzles, chunky chalk, dominoes and plush dolls.

I've not seen the El Chavo animated series but know that is who the blogger, El Chavo gets his name from..

Wondering.. is the cartoon El Chavo a vegetarian too?? ;)