The Unvegan

Once upon a time, a sketchy-ass hot dog and sandwich hole in the wall sat upon an uncomfortable and small lot on Venice in Culver City. I meant to make it there, because sketchy-ass usually means delicious, but I didn’t make it before it was replaced by Mad Dogz, a shiny hot dog and burger hole in the wall that seems to invite in customers rather than scare them away. Although it took me a little bit to make it there, I made sure to check it out before it went the way of its predecessor.

EDIT: This location is gone, but you can find Freebirds elsewhere, man.

Beginning in Santa Barbara back in the day, Freebirds World Burrito has recently been expanding all over the place. With a hippe/biker vibe (no, I have no idea how that came to be), Freebirds has taken Henry Ford’s assembly line to burritos, but offers more colors than just black. In fact, the options are kind of mind blowing. Multiple tortilla, meat, rice and bean choices, as well as a plethora of salsas and other add-ins.

Before attending an event in Westwood, my woman and I decided to see what the college town had to offer in terms of dinner. Sure, I had eaten in Westwood many times before, but typically with specific places in mind. This time, it was about walking around and picking dinner based on our gut, which led us to Noodle World. I had expected something like Noodles & Company, which makes dishes from all sorts of noodles, but Noodle World has a lot more options, while keeping its noodles Asian. No mac and cheese here.

With our original lunch plans spoiled by a champagne brunch, we found ourselves at the Marina Del Rey Fisherman’s Village without a plan. Off in the distance, we heard some classic soul music and wandered in that direction to find Sapori, an Italian restaurant. It had a nice view of the marina, with that soul music played by a live band in the courtyard next door and we decided to give it a try.

To get pick up some pies for a bit of a celebration, we popped into Thyme Cafe in Santa Monica. The place was more packed than any pie place had any right to be, and we added to their packed-ness by sticking around to grab their sandwiches for lunch. The menu boasted about ten different options and some of them were much more unique than I had expected.

EDIT: Umamicatessen has become Umami Broadway and is more or less now just a glorified Umami Burger from what I hear.

The word “Umamicatessen” is quite a mouthful. And I’m pretty sure that’s what the people behind Umami Burger were thinking when they put together a deli in downtown LA. They were thinking, “We want to fill mouths with delicious deli food, while preserving the Umami name.” To me, that’s quite the name to maintain, because Umami is still my favorite burger in LA. Plus, while LA doesn’t have the big name delis of New York, there is still some stiff competition from the likes of Langer’s.