The Unvegan » larchmont

Living Large at Larchmont Wine & Cheese

The Unvegan — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:00:34 +0000

Sandwichy bliss.

The little area known as Larchmont in the middle of Los Angeles is LA’s version of Main Street America. Populated mostly by mom and pop shops, it features a few chains and also its fair share of shuttered establishments. In the middle of this strip of Americana resides Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. Though the place certainly has its fair share of wines, spirits and cheeses, the main draw is the sandwiches. The long, yet swiftly moving line is a testament to these sandwiches. They offer only seven select sandwiches and not one of them is extravagant.

An assembly line of delicious.

Yet, extravagance is not needed in a place like this, where only the highest quality ingredients are used. As is often unfortunate in sandwich shops, each features some sort of vegetable, be it arugula, tomato or mixed greens. But there is no pretension involved and they are happy to drop ingredients for you. Substitutions, on the other hand, might cost you extra.

The mozzarella layers will hypnotize you if you get too close.

For my sandwich, I chose the Imported Italian Prosciutto. This guy was composed of said prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, arugula, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Each sandwich has a choice of French bread or ciabatta, and I went with the ciabatta. It’s a pretty simple sandwich and even simpler without the arugula, yet the price tag of $9.00 might scare some people off. Let me tell you that price tag is well worth it. The prosciutto is heavenly and nearly melted in my mouth with each bite I took. The mozzarella just may have been the best mozzarella I’d ever eaten. The layers within it were so tightly packed that it offered an amazing texture. To melt cheese like this would have been a travesty. The simplicity of olive oil and balsamic did nothing to mask the flavors of the sandwich and were content to enhance the flavors and add some moisture. Finally, the ciabatta held it all together perfectly. Some prefer the French bread, but with this sandwich I actually prefer the ciabatta.

So, while parts of Larchmont seem to be changing, as long as Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese keeps pumping out amazing sandwiches, it is going to stay there as long as people in LA continue to enjoy good food.

Tasting Anger at the Avocado Grill

The Unvegan — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:30:30 +0000

Filled with anger.

Larchmont in Hollywood is a delightful little street that is a nice change from what you would typically consider Holywood to be. There are some great restaurants and shops that usually treat me pretty well. My most recent visit to that street, however, only led me to a meal of disappointment. This came at the hands of the Avocado Grill, a pretty simple Mexican place that reminded me a bit of places like Qdoba.

At first it seemed like I had come at a great time. They were still serving breakfast and Mexican breakfast usually pleases me. I was torn between their quesadilla and burrito, but ultimately made the mistake of ordering the burrito. This went against my better judgment because the quesadilla came with meat, while the burrito did not. Yet, neither came with vegetables, and I was looking for something light. I ordered my burrito, took my number and then took a seat to wait for breakfast.

When the burrito came, it looked just as I had expected, but when I bit into the thing, I nearly vomited with disgust. In my mouth were giant bits and pieces of tomatoes and onions, the core of pico de gallo, which was not listed in their ingredients! Afterward, I set dismantling the burrito to get all these unwanted invaders out, which was no easy task. I’d never seen so many tomatoes and onions stuffed in one little tortilla shell. By the time I finished, there was little left of the burrito. I suppose I got the light meal I wanted, but one much lighter than I had hoped. This was certainly a disappointment, and I left as one angry unvegan. I should have known better than to order the meatless breakfast, but I had no idea that it would turn out so poorly and leave me hungry for something so much better.

Pizza the Hollywood Way at Village Pizzeria

The Unvegan — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:49:55 +0000

It's like half of my pizza is dead.

Village Pizzeria in Hollywood is LA’s version of New York pizza. Located on Larchmont Street, it isn’t really a Hollywood-style place at all, which is pretty comforting to someone like me who doesn’t work in the entertainment industry. To test the place out, I went with a friend of mine.

Since we were unable to compromise on a pizza that we both liked, we decided to go halfsies. I got my half in the pepperoni style, while she agreed to the pepperonis, but also ordered a disturbing fungus called mushrooms. Unnecessarily worried, I also ordered some garlic rolls in the expectation that the pizza wouldn’t be enough food for me.

After about 20 minutes, our pizza was prepared. This thing was massive and I definitely didn’t need the garlic rolls. When I looked at the pizza, I felt as though there was a small-scale war unraveling on the cheese as the mushrooms were attempting to take over the pie. Luckily, I wouldn’t let this happen. I scanned the pizza for any straggler mushrooms, which are always a danger when a pizza gets multiple toppings. There were none, good for Village Pizzeria.

I started eating my giant pepperoni slices. The dough wasn’t anything amazing, but I did love the New York style of it. Maybe it really is just something in the water in New York. I was disappointed by was the relative scarcity of pepperoni on the pizza. Perhaps I wouldn’t have noticed this if there weren’t mushrooms, but the side with the mushrooms almost revealed no cheese, while my side seemed like a cheese pizza with a dash of pepperoni. The garlic rolls were actually quite dry, but powerful in garlic taste.

Eventually I finished the majority of my pizza and my garlic knots and was plenty full. I would have preferred some more pepperoni in my stomach, but at least the pizza was huge and not overly expensive.