Just south of the base of Angels Flight was LA's historic Grand Central Market...
We'd never been and itt was nice to go so early in the morning when it wasn't crazy crowded yet...
Our first stop was for some much needed caffeine...
Grand Central Market opened in 1917 and will celebrate it's 100th year soon. The market is a microcosm of LA, offering all kinds of ethnics foods and goods. Many major cities have markets like these such as the Boston Public Market in Boston (duh), the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, Pike Market Place in Seattle and even the Byward Market in Ottawa, Canada and St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. After a brief perusal of their food stalls/eateries, we went to the outer edge of the market where G & B Coffee was located (G & B is named after the owners, Glanville & Babinksi). They offer single origin coffees, both hot and cold drinks, along with tea and a limited selection of pastries. They had no donuts that day but no worries since we had other dessert stops planned later on.
As you can see, Christmas decoration were still up (this was January 2nd of this year)...
My cold brew before and after adding sugar and cream.
This was before I graduated from the pussy drinks and started exploring the "hot" espresso based drinks later this year. I was still in my blended drinks/iced coffee phase. I have to say that this was a pretty $%#@ good iced coffee! Surprisingly Bert did not get a coffee here but I believe he was still good after having had some early in our road trip.
Here are some shots from some of the purveyors in the market. As this visit was during January 2015, there have been some changes to the market vendors (which I'm sure you can check out from the market's link at the end of this post). Some were still under construction. It seems that vendors change every so often here but there are some mainstays.
Later we took a break to check out some nearby historic buildings (that will be a future post), we wen back to grab some lunch for TC...
I'd heard of this place from Wandering Chopstick's visit (linked at the end) but skipped out on it since we could easily get pupusas in City Heights...
Dried chilis at Valeria's...
More food vendors:
This were the offerings at Ana Maria's Mexican Food. This was right before TC's vegetarian phase, as she and Bert shared a taco combo plate which had carne asada and pork meat. Their meal was quite hearty and filling.
Where we sat...
I know this place is popular, Eggslut, but since I am not a fan of coddled eggs (they are known for 'the slut', a coddled egg served atop pureed potatoes, cooked sous vide and served in a jar; how precious....sarcasm alert).
Later one, there was a long-A$$ line there. I'm sure their food is "great" but if I don't feel it, I'm not jumping on the bandwagon.
In all, we enjoyed seeing the diversity of foods offered here (probably more diverse now than during our initial visit), as they had Mexican, Jewish Deli, Asian, and Salvadorean.
They need some Filipino stuff here too! And don't forget Ethiopian or Jamaican!
Who else went to Grand Central Market?
Wandering Chopsticks - "Saritas's Pupuseria Salvadorean Food" November 2011 (this post also includes an update from 2013). She visited the second day of the the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's doctor who presrcibed the sleeping medication Propofol, which caused his death.
The Gastronomer - "Sticky Rice" January 2014 plus an older comprehensive post, "Discovering Downtown one bite at a time: Grand Central Market, Chinatown and Olvera Street" March 2012
and "A breakfast tour of DTLA's Grand Central Market"
Gourmet Pigs, March 2014 (she also went to G & B Coffee)
plus a few recent articles:
"Worth the drive - DTLA Grand Central Market Holiday Fun" OurVenturaBlvd blog, Dec 2014
"You need to take a foodie field trip to Grand Central Market" Localemagazine.com, Feb 28, 2015
Here's a short video about G & B:
G & B Coffee (located in Grand Central Market)
324 S. Hill St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(312) 555-5555 (I wonder if this phone number is a joke?!)
gandbcoffee.com
Ana Maria's Mexican Food (Suite C 9-10)
There is no website but here are the reviews from you know where
This short video highlights the market better than my photos could plus it includes interviews by some of the eatery/shop owners (I think the dude from eggslut is Filipino)
Grand Central Market
317 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 624-2378
www.grandcentralmarket.com
Although we didn't try out too many food vendors this visit, we hope to do a revisit sometime during the upcoming Winter Break.
2 comments:
This does look like a place we'd like to explore! I'll have to go visit it sometime. We are going up to LA soon but we'll be over at the Comickaze and probably won't have time for it on that visit. Eggslut is a hella funny name for a place though :)
Yes, I think you, Jake and T would have a field day here! there's so much to see and experience.
Personally, I don't buy into the "eggslut" craze but that's because I'm not into soft and mushy textures (mashed potatoes with coddled eggs makes me want to blow chunks).I also think the name is offensive but that's just my opinion.
the cool thing about DTLA, you can even get here by train (get dropped off at Grand Central Station) and walk to close by Chinatown, to the market, check out the historic buildings, and all that...Everything is walkable but some streets did seem kind of sketchy even in the daytime.
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