Bagel Nosh

*Post by Mark.

Like most cities not named New York City, Los Angeles seems to suffer from a relative void when it comes to good bagels. Sure, maybe it's that perfect pizza/bagel-making holy water that flows like manna from the pipes of New York City that does the trick. I won't deny the magic capabilities of New York City's drinking supply, but I do think part of the great bagel dilemma comes from a lack of freshly baked options, plain and simple. 

My first time at Bagel Nosh involved a little embarrassment. Stepping up to the counter, I had ordered a 'toasted bagel'. "Toasted?" the employee scoffed back at me. The bagels were fresh from the oven. He wasn't kidding. A plume of steam greeted me as I opened the two halves of my bagel. It's certainly been a while since I've made that pleasant discovery. I spent two years looking for a decent bagel in D.C. (okay, I may have been doing other things in addition to that, but you get the point) but my efforts turned up only bunk. 

Okay, so yes, this salted bagel (below) is clearly toasted. Subsequent visits have returned bagels that were further removed from the cooking process, so I've settled for the toaster. Yet there's still something to be said for a bagel that hasn't had to journey through all of Middle Earth just to arrive in a plastic basket on my table. In the age of Starbucks, I've nearly forgotten how amazing a freshly-made bagel tastes. That's not to take a knock at the coffee conglomerate, even the most well-meaning cafes have their bagels outsourced.

On my last visit, I had to convince Angela just to try one. She's not exactly the bagel enthusiast that I am, but someone had to keep my company while I scarfed down two of their warm, golden bagels. 

Angela sprung for a bagel sandwich with sausage and pepper jack cheese. While her sandwich earned obligatory points for freshness, the combination of ingredients came off surprisingly bland. The plain bagel could've used a little more salt, and even the pepper jack seemed lacking in seasoning. But there's no denying the tastiness of the bagel itself.

I may have had better bagels (namely in and around New York City) but gotta give Bagel Nosh credit for doing it right. If it isn't fresh, it's just a dried out waste of carbs. Anyone have a favorite bagel in Los Angeles? A place where I can satisfy my cravings at the source. I've noticed that Salt's Cure has freshly made bagels in their window every morning. If they're as good as everything else we've had from their kitchen, perhaps that will make for a future post. 

Porto's Bakery & Cafe

*Post by Angela.

Last month, before all the crazy holiday stuff really started up, Mark and I got to spend the day with V, one of my oldest friends (we've known each other since I was about three). V treated us to a wonderful holiday afternoon performance by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. We got there a couple of hours early to check out Porto's Bakery & Cafe, a staple of Los Angeles dining founded by the Cuban Porto family.

Despite the dreariness of the weather outside, the cafeteria-style bakery was absolutely slammed with people, and V mentioned that it is pretty much always like that.

As we waited in the chaos that was the "line," Mark's eyes were glued to the sweets on display. No wonder - Porto's originally took off on the strength of matriarch Rosa Porto's baking skills.

We were suddenly shoved unceremoniously to the front of the line, and, caught off guard, our ordering became a little frentic. In fact, I'm pretty sure our order got a bit mixed up with the person ordering next to us, because instead of the medianoche sandwich we ordered to split, the pan con lechon sandwich, with slow roasted pork, mojo garlic sauce, and grilled onions, on grilled Cuban bread and served with crispy plantain chips (below) arrived at our table. It looked really good, so we just tore into it. And it tasted as good as it looked. The flaky and crusty bread was a great vehicle for the wonderfully tender and flavorful pork.

We also ordered a number of the yummy meat pies, including the ground beef and pickle, the chicken pie...

and the chorizo pie. All were equally tasty, flaky little accompaniments to the sandwich's shining star, and I'm hard pressed to say I liked one more than the others, although the chorizo pie's slight spiciness may have given it an edge.

Another victim of our frenzied ordering was Mark's dessert. I'm not sure what this was, but it was not what Mark ordered. Nevertheless, it was pretty good, though a little rich for my liking. I'd like to come back and try some of the other endless pastry offerings displayed.

The food was pretty darned solid, and the best part? I'm pretty sure our check came in close to $10. I can absolutely see why the bakery was packed with families on a rainy Saturday afternoon, and has been successful enough to support two additional locations in Burbank and Downey - it's hard to pass up such cheap, filling, tasty food. While the line and service are a slight deterrent, next time I'm in Glendale, I may just stop in again, if only to try Porto's infamous potato balls.

All About The Bread

*Post by Mark.

All About The Bread. Those are words that I live by. Words that might even wind up on my tombstone when I die (surely from eating too many Italian subs or overloading on creamy burrata). In fact, All About the Bread - whether intentional or not has a bit of a double meaning. In the first instance, we're declaring the importance of having good bread - as in, 'When making the perfect sandwich, it's all about the bread'. In the second instance we're exclaiming the degree to which bread excites us - as in, 'sure, the mortadella is nice, but I'm all about the bread.' 

At All about the Bread on Melrose, both instances apply. One might say I'm a connoisseur of good bread - one who has berated many a deli for failing to serve their sandwiches on fresh, quality bread. I was nervous that the deli's name was establishing expectations that wouldn't be met. But once I stepped inside the spacious deli and got a whiff of their fresh bread baking, (even at 3 in the afternoon, they were still baking fresh bread every half hour) I started getting a warm, fluffy feeling rising in my belly.

Offering Boar's Head meets and cheeses (below, left) in their sandwiches, as well as for purchase, All About the Bread also pairs their hearty sandwiches with a case-full of side dishes. I supplemented my meal with a side of the apple-raisin salad (below, right) and a Rat Bastard root beer.

Angela went for the Hot Pastrami (below), brimming with pepperoncini, pickles and mustard and boasting pastrami 'flown in from the east coast'. She's been on a pastrami kick of late, and the salty, juicy meat at All About the Bread, well-paired with the crunch and heat from the pickles and pepperocini, edged ahead of other recent contenders. 

I went for The Godfather (below), which stacks Italian meats like spicy capocollo, mortadella, prosciutto di Parma, ham, Genoa salami with provolone and shredded romaine. Like the name of the place suggests, the real show-stealer is in fact the bread. Crisp and chewy on the outside and moist and fluffy inside - this bread makes the sandwich.

So the bread here is not only integral to the sandwich as a whole, but it is so good that I'm daydreaming about sinking my teeth into it as I write this. Their sandwiches are all about the bread and I am all about them. Before we left, we asked when the next batch of fresh bread would be ready and took another loaf (below) home with us. We were all about that, too. 

Northside Social

*Post by Mark.

I'm a person who appreciates a cozy coffee shop. As someone who spends the better part of his week on his laptop, I often find it necessary to get out of the house and hole up somewhere with my headphones and a warm latte. It's become the only way I know how to get work done anymore.

While I love the set-ups of Tryst or Busboys and Poets, I can never shake the burning obligation to continue ordering food and drinks or to overtip my server as consideration for me taking up his or her table for half a day. It's certainly no fault of the server, nor is it any fault of my own, but these coffee-shop experiences end up reeking of awkwardness... at least for me and my cumbersome liberal guilt, thanks to which, three or four dollar ventures quickly give way to twenty-five dollar mini-meals and caffeine marathons.

When I first heard of Northside Social, a hybrid coffee-house, pastry shop, deli and wine bar in Clarendon, I was skeptical, thinking that I'd stumbled upon another awkward place for me to work where I'd end up spending entirely too much money for the sole service of a chair, an outlet and unreliable wifi.

Northside Social manages to play to all my quirks. Housed in what feels like a modern farmhouse, downstairs plays like a casual coffee-house, while upstairs is a slightly more formal wine bar. All of the sandwiches, pastries, coffees and wines can be purchased at the counter downstairs. There are no trolling servers and there's an abundance of casual seating to do, eat and drink as you please. It's brought to us by the same folks responsible for Liberty Tavern and the also-new Lyon Hall. It would seem that these restauranteurs are bent on taking over Clarendon, and I'm all for it if that means more food like we get from the kitchen of the Washingtonian-ranked Liberty Tavern. 

In addition to an assortment of baked goods, muffins, cookies and cupcakes, Northside Social also serves breakfast until 11 AM and sandwiches all day. I had to try the Crisped Pork Belly sandwich (above) which comes with broccoli rabe on an italian feather loaf. I was impressed with the quality of the ingredients and the accompanying potato salad for only $7. For only $5, my friend Stephanie got the grilled cheese with a fruit salad.  The portions were moderate, but she was really surprised by the quality of ingredients (mozzarella, cheddar and gruyere) that went into a five-dollar sandwich.

While the pastries were all pretty to look at, I wasn't overly impressed with my unsubstantial cupcake (above). The cake and icing were both so airy, I finished it off in about two crumbly bites. But, I left Northside Social completely satisfied with the diverse experience they managed to provide. It can be poisonous for an establishment to attempt to wear so many hats, but Northside Social seems to have found an identity that'll keep them bustling from early morning to late at night. Their trick is to let you pick your own poison... be it a chardonnay or a chai latte. 

You can check our Northside Social's complete menu here.

New York City: Katz's Deli, Veniero's

*Post by Mark.

On our final day in New York City, we tried not to think about the long drive home to DC and opted to fill the remaining nooks and crannies of our stomachs with more landmark New York food staples. A classic New York deli stood as one of the lone unchecked boxes.  

Our appetites found their way to E. Houston, where we were handed a ticket upon walking through the door of Katz's Deli. Don't lose that ticket, though, because everything you order in the deli gets written onto it. As you walk out, you pay for everything that your personal 'cutter' has scribbled on it. 

At Katz's they operate on something greater than the honor system. Thinking about conveniently losing your ticket? Malarky! No one's gonna believe that you walked into this delicatessen and didn't get the hots for a pastrami sandwich. 

Just look at this Chicken Salad Sandwich (above). I did some bad, bad things to that incredible sandwich (the restraining order is pending). As good as the Chicken Salad was, the Deli is famous for their Pastrami sandwich (not pictured).  That thick-cut pastrami was like nothing I'd ever tasted between two pieces of bread before. 

Sandwiches seem to run on the expensive side (around ten bucks) but we were happy to hand over our tickets and drop ten bones each for such a solid sandwich.

Our afternoon continued with some window shopping. Shopping for what? Maybe something sweet to wash down the chicken salad?

We found the perfect dessert courses at Veniero's, packed up several sugary treats and kept on the walking trail to see more sights burn off calories from our recent spree of gluttony. 

We perused a small farmer's market and wound up in Tompkins Square Park, where we watched a doggie birthday party (Seriously, I wish I was kidding...) and sat down to dig into some awesome desserts.

We dug into a chocolate-chocolate cannoli (below, right) and a miniature carrot cake (below, left).

And while our New York journey would soon come to a slow halt in the traffic of I-95, we made certain to savor the last few bites of the Strawberry Tart (below). It was, afterall, FiFi's 2nd blowout birthday bash.