A couple of the post-shopping delights Costco has to offer.
While most people associate Costco with huge quantities of products, I like to think of it as a great place to grab a quick bite to eat.
Beyond the free samples, Costco actually has somewhat of a restaurant, offering a few cheap meals, from chicken bakes to pizza.
By far, the best deal to be had is the hot dog combo, which is a 1/4 pound Kosher beef dog, with a drink for $1.50, but sometimes that isn’t enough. On my most recent trip to the Costco in Manhattan Beach, I also helped myself to a huge slice of pepperoni pizza. These deals are not just available to Costco members, but to anyone from the unvegan world.
You know it’s family-style because the bread is crustless.
On a recent lunch excursion from work, I found myself at Mandy’s Family Restaurant in El Segundo. Off of the main strip of Main Street, Mandy’s is a little gem tucked away into the corner of a strip mall.
As I walked in, I saw a sign proclaiming the lunch special of the day, a hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes, gravy and a soft drink. I kept this special in mind as I sat down and perused the massive menu. Everything looked good, but I remained intrigued by the turkey sandwich. My friend had mentioned that the seasoned fries were amazing, so I asked my waitress whether they were better than the mashed potatoes and she agreed with my friend. I made the substitution and awaited my meal.
Despite all of my kicking and screaming and my best attempts to avoid it, I found myself stuck at Whole Foods Market in El Segundo with some colleagues for lunch.
If I ate fiber, the very concept of Whole Foods would go against every fiber of my being. It takes seemingly untouchable products like potato chips and makes them healthy (tasteless). This Whole Foods in particular jumped to a whole new level of anti-unvegan, offering all sorts of food cooked-to-order. I got chills as I walked by what I believe was an entire olive bar, but I was afraid to make eye contact for fear of burning my retinas. I shuddered as I walked past the multiple salad bars and finally made it to what seemed like a safe haven, the Mexican section. The Ranchero Burrito, with carne asada, looked like a decent unvegan choice, so I ordered mine with cheese, salsa, rice and beans, being careful to avoid the Pico de Gallo and potentially dangerous greens.
Another LA landmark restaurant that has managed to evade me since I have lived here is Canter’s Deli, located at Fairfax and 3rd Street. Canter’s is a good old-fashioned Jewish-style deli, heavy on meat and character.
Their menu is immense, but the best way I know to judge a Jewish deli is the pastrami. As goes the pastrami, so goes the deli. Canter’s offers a hot pastrami sandwich, which I promptly ordered after the waitress told me it was simply pastrami and rye, without any wasted add-ons.
Tucked into the corner of Sepulveda and Washington in Culver City lies one of LA’s best-kept secrets: Cinco de Mayo. Although overshadowed by the incomprehensibly more popular Tito’s Tacos, which it happens to sit right next to, Cinco de Mayo has much more to offer.
The menu spans the walls of the restaurant and offers just about every Mexican dish one could imagine. On top of that, they also offer hamburgers and other random American things like fries.
On a typical visit to Cinco de Mayo, I will order the Mexican Nachos, which contains some of the greatest ingredients known to unvegans (carne asada, cheese, guacamole, salsa and enchilada sauce). On this particular eve I wasn’t feeling too hungry, so I ordered a hard-shell chicken taco, without lettuce. The perfectly-fried culinary concoction came quickly, served with a nice helping of chips. I bit in and my unvegan senses yelped in glee.
In the past few years, Chipotle has burst onto the Mexican fast food scene. The layout of the restaurant and apparent freshness has quickly made even the most healthy forget that it was created once owned by McDonald’s.
Luckily, the unvegan in me has not forgotten this and I embrace the unhealthiness of Chipotle with the voracity of a reckless child with the metabolism of a horse.
Last time I had Chipotle, I went to one in Culver City and ordered their signature meal, the burrito. One of the beauties of Chipotle is their assembly line style of burrito-making. They have certainly come a long way since Henry Ford.
This is what a hamburger looks like when it comes from an apple pan.
Although few and far between, old-fashioned hamburger joints still exist in LA. One of these is the Apple Pan, which opened in 1947, so you know it’s good.
When I walked in, the place was packed and every seat at the boardroom meeting-style counter was taken. There was no waiting list, so we had to find a couple diners to stand behind in the hopes that they would leave soon.
Our gamble paid off and we were soon able to take our seats. The menu is a pretty basic one, and my friend suggested the hickoryburger, which sounded good, if not mildly 19th-century presidential.
Pink’s is one of those places that you have to experience in Hollywood. It has been around since 1939 and is a staple. If you live in LA, you know what Pink’s is. If you visit LA, there’s a good chance you’re going to drive by Pink’s and be intrigued by the constant line emanating from the place. With that said, it took me over a year in LA to finally stop and see what it had to offer.
When I arrived, the line didn’t seem too long, but it wound and wound for a good 20 minutes until I finally made it to the counter. Along the way, I stared at the menu on the wall that should have had a disclaimer reading: “Do not eat if you are pregnant, have a history of heart conditions or are on a pacemaker.” In other words, just about everything looked amazing to an unvegan.
This is what Mexico and Korea should look like. Don’t worry, that green stuff is cilantro.
Over the weekend, a friend of mine enlightened me to the existence of Kogi BBQ, a Korean taco truck. The very concept of this blew my mind, in a good way. The truck’s whereabouts can be tracked via Twitter. Now I’m not entirely sure what Twitter is (perhaps a polite way to say twister without offending people with lisps?), but we found out that the truck would be outside of a bar called The Brig on Abbot Kinney that night.
We set off, and although most of my friends were looking forward to the bar, I really only cared about the taco truck.
When choosing where you’ll go, you should think about the nature and needs of your business, and whether your budget can stretch to that office location you’ve got your eye on. If you’ve currently got a home-based business and you’re expanding, you’ll need a more professional location where you can welcome clients and suppliers, and have much more space for your employees or to store stock.
However, this all comes at additional costs in terms of rent, insurance, utilities and transport. You’ll need to balance these costs against the added value you think permanent offices will bring to your business. It can be a major leap when it comes to finances, so if you’re not quite ready there are alternatives.
Rather than going straight from your home to permanent offices, it might be worth considering interim measures such as a short office lease, moving into a co-working space, or hiring meeting spaces by the hour as and when you need them.
BUDGET: If you can’t afford a new office right now, think about the alternatives?
How do you plan for growth and office space?
When you think about future growth, you need to consider what that will mean in terms of your staffing levels. If you plan to sell more products or services, will you need more sales staff, more technical staff or more customer service staff, for example? Always save a monthly budget for office supplies, personally I found these cougar paper deals perfect.
Also, the speed of your growth is also essential in planning for the type of premises you’ll need. If it’s gradual, you might not need a big, new office. If, however, you’re going on a recruitment drive, then you’ll need to ensure there’s room for all of your new recruits.
How do you decide where to buy office space?
When you’re buying office space, location can make a big difference. As with all markets, the most popular office locations will command higher costs, so you’ll first have to consider what your business can afford.
When considering an office location think about the practical impact it’ll have on your business. If you have employees, think about how they’ll get there and whether it’ll provide a positive working environment. Are there good road or public transport links and places to get lunch, for example? This sort of thing can have a real impact on your employee / office morale and might even impact staff turnover.
Think about the impression your location will have on clients and business contacts when they visit. You should also consider the availability of important services such as fast broadband, telephone, heating and security.
