Los Angeles90029
When a place calls itself Sunset Junction Coffee Shop, there is an expectation that it will be a…well…coffee shop. But when the place is over on LA’s hipsterville Silverlake, all rules of normal society are thrown out the window. Rather than a local Starbucks, Sunset Junction Coffee Shop is more like an upscale diner; with booth, shiny white tables and menu to match. But unlike most diners, the menu doesn’t read like a book and was mostly dominated with sandwiches and salads.
As an unvegan, I usually shy away from falafel. It’s not veggie-based, but it’s also not meat and I would typically rather fill my stomach with schwarma when I have the opportunity. Yet, in heading out to Falafel Arax, I had heard they had the best falafel in the land of Los Angeles and I knew I would end up getting some. The place resides in a little corner strip mall in a strange part of town east of Hollywood that I usually wouldn’t find myself in, but the temptation of having amazing Lebanese falafel was enough to get me there. Oh, and before I go any further, I should mention they are cash only. With that said, let’s get on to the food.
Although Restaurant Week has just concluded, I once again took the opportunity to try out a couple new places that I wouldn’t ordinarily visit. The first was Malo in Silverlake, which is a Mexican Cantina. Their menu wasn’t exactly exciting for me, but I still thought the place could surprise me. The reason the menu wasn’t exciting was because there was really only one good unvegan option for both the appetizers and entrees.
After a few days of burgers and wings, I decided I needed to have a meal kind of on the light side. To accomplish this, my buddy and I went to The Kitchen in Silverlake. The exterior of the place has a pretty cool mural and the interior has a nice vibe that is neither upscale, downscale or hipster. Basically, it’s the kind of place that should be in every neighborhood. At least by the looks. The menu was pretty simple and although their cheeseburger was tempting, I forced myself to order some chicken.
Where the mac and cheese balls from World Fare were my appetizer at the Silver Lake Jubilee, I still needed to find myself a main course. After a long stroll around the trucks, I found myself at a truck that I had never seen before, called Lee’s Philly. Lee’s Philly is born of the same vein as many of the Kogi-style food trucks. Their specialty is gogi beef, but while they have fused it with tacos and burritos, they have also created a Philly cheese steak out of the stuff. Wording on their truck claims that they have “LA’s Best Gogi,” but I took it upon myself to be the true judge of that.
So like any good food blogger, I headed to the Silver Lake Jubilee over the weekend. For an event that wasn’t solely for food, it was amazing how all I really heard about the event was that there would be 34 food trucks. I didn’t even know LA had 34 food trucks (not counting the old fashioned kind). This sounded all good and well, but these sort of events seem to attract a butt-load of people and I was a little worried there would be a hassle for parking, getting in and then food. When I got there, though, I found no hassle at all. It was five bucks to get in and right off the bat I was bombarded with foodery. A long row of food trucks lined the center of the jubilee, burning up tons of diesel and serving up some interesting food.