CicLAvia participants can make a pit stop at Guerrilla Cafecito for coffee drinks and one of L.A.’s best breakfast burritos.
(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)
Going to CicLAvia this weekend? 10 spots to eat or drink along the route
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- Try a Scandinavian-inspired cafe, Cajun and Creole cuisine or a coffee shop with one of the city’s best breakfast burritos.
- CicLAvia’s October “Heart of L.A.” route includes hubs in Boyle Heights, Little Tokyo, downtown, Chinatown and Echo Park.
Cars define Los Angeles as much as the Hollywood sign or the Pacific coastline, but that changes during CicLAvia, when sections of the city close to auto traffic with the intention of celebrating public spaces and community and encouraging good health. Sunday, Oct. 13, marks the nonprofit’s 56th open streets event, with a 7.5-mile route that includes hubs in Echo Park, Chinatown, downtown, Little Tokyo and Boyle Heights. There’s no starting or finish line and participants are invited to join via bike, skateboard, foot or other nonmotorized form of transportation, at whatever point is most convenient to them.
CicLAvia runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., so you have plenty of time to grab food or drink along the way. From a Chicago-themed dive bar to a historic food hall and a coffee shop with a cult-favorite breakfast burrito, here are 10 places to refuel along the route.
Showing Places
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Piknik
Echo Park American $$
The team behind the Lonely Oyster has opened Piknik, a Scandinavian-inspired cafe, at the Echo Park Lake Boathouse, with lakefront tables and plaid blankets that you can buy and spread out on a grassy hill for an IG-worthy picnic. The menu spans coffee drinks, cold-pressed juices, pastries, ice cream, quiches, salads and toasts topped with pickled herring, smoked salmon or roasted mushrooms, plus pork-and-Wagyu meatballs, schnitzel, pretzels and potato-and-cheese croquettes. Order ahead for pickup if you’re on the go.
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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Badmaash
Downtown L.A. Indian $$
| 2020
The genius of Badmaash is that it keeps you guessing. At a cursory glance, the menu trades in the ubiquitous, broadly northern dishes of most Indian restaurant menus: butter chicken, aloo gobi, Goan-style pork curry that nods to southern India, an aptly named “good ol’ saag paneer.” Chef Pawan Mahendro, who runs the restaurant’s two locations with sons Nakul and Arjun, blessedly cooks them with fresh-minded intent — he gives the classics life. He also is not afraid to be playful: For stress eating, I suggest the gravy-soaked chicken tikka poutine, an homage to the family’s years spent in Canada. Ultimately, the Mahendros toss rocks at the notion of stagnant culinary identity. Curried short rib braised in red wine holds the same merit as fluffy naan that spills white cheddar- and serrano-topped chili, and in their hands it makes a natural, wholly L.A. sort of sense.
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(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Grand Central Market
Downtown L.A. Eclectic $$
The name of downtown Los Angeles’ 104-year-old landmark, which has stood now through two global pandemics, feels entirely fitting. On weekends especially, you’re not so much walking among the vendors and neon signs as being swept along, like the surge through exits at the end of a Lakers game. It can make you high on humanity or trigger a panic attack. As ever, the market stands at the crossroads of what the city has been and what it is becoming. Grab a gordita filled with cabeza from Roast to Go, in operation since 1952, and pair it with crisp-creamy pupusas revueltas from Sarita’s Pupuseria.
As to the future, I direct you to the southeast corner of the building. Shiku, meaning “family” in Korean, comes from Baroo‘s Kwang Uh and Mina Park. The project revolves around an ever-changing selection of banchan and to-go meals like kimchi fried rice and bulgogi mandu. Next door to them is Fat and Flour, the pie shop (but also cookies!) from superstar baker Nicole Rucker.
As to the future, I direct you to the southeast corner of the building. Shiku, meaning “family” in Korean, comes from Baroo‘s Kwang Uh and Mina Park. The project revolves around an ever-changing selection of banchan and to-go meals like kimchi fried rice and bulgogi mandu. Next door to them is Fat and Flour, the pie shop (but also cookies!) from superstar baker Nicole Rucker.
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(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Philippe the Original
Chinatown Sandwich Shop American cuisine
Phillipe the Original is famous for its beef dip sandwiches. Over the years, however, I’ve come to favor the beef dips at Cole’s, which, in addition to serving some of the city’s finest cocktails, uses excellent meat and a beautiful roll for its sandwich. It’s also a competitor for the title of inventor of the French dip. I’ve read persuasive accounts for each side of the debate, but the important thing is that we have two great L.A. restaurants, both founded in 1908, still serving history on a plate. For me, that comes in the form of Philippe’s hand-carved leg of lamb dip smeared with blue cheese and ready to take just enough hot mustard to wake up my sinuses. With it, I like an IPA on tap — Philippe’s is not just a daytime place — plus pickle spears and, of course, a hot-pink pickled egg.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Little Jewel of New Orleans
Chinatown Cajun and Creole $
Sporting the mack daddy of local Cajun and Creole menus, Chinatown’s Little Jewel is a true gem. The menu of po’ boys is one of the most extensive in the region, offering classic options such as fried shrimp, fried oyster and blackened catfish alongside surf-and-turf, BLT, ham-and-cheese and hot-sausage po’ boys — really, anything that you can stick on the fresh 10-inch rolls fully loaded with pickles, mayo, hot sauce, tomatoes, onions and shredded cabbage. Beyond the dozens of po’ boys, Little Jewel sells the iconic muffuletta sandwich as well as beignets, crawdad-topped mac ’n’ cheese, fried catfish platters, house-made hush puppies, red beans and rice, fried okra and daily specials such as jambalaya fritters and dark-roux seafood gumbo. Next door, the little market alcove is a treasure trove with shelves of hot sauces, jarred roux, Creole seasoning, dried beans, grits and other specialty ingredients.
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(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)
Guerrilla Cafecito
Downtown L.A.
The coffee shop sibling to Guerrilla Tacos, founded by Wes Avila and now run by managing partner and owner Brittney Valles, is open daily from 8 a.m. to noon and serves two impeccable burritos. Key to both of them are hash browns, fried as crackly as potato sticks, that form a ring around the rest of the ingredients. The proper breakfast burrito surges with scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese melting into generous amounts of mashed avocado and silken pintos. I’m breaking my must-include-egg rule by mentioning the second, which includes the hash browns, cheddar and cubes of grilled steak gilded with two salsas: avocado and chile de arbol. Egg or no egg, it tastes like breakfast and it’s wonderful.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Guerrilla Tacos
Downtown L.A. Mexican $$
The taco spot founded by Wes Avila and now led by Brittney Valles is an Arts District favorite for Mexican dishes with creative twists, like a poke tostada with crispy rice and a vegetarian taco with sweet potato, feta and fried corn, plus rotating specials from culinary director Crystal Espinoza and chef de cuisine Miguel Perez. The bar favors agave distillates, with creative cocktails such as Bachata, with banana-infused tequila, amaro and horchata, and Summer Nights in Oaxaca, with reposado tequila, cacao liqueur, mole bitters and demerara sugar.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Escondite
Downtown L.A. Bar
Homesick Chicagoans in L.A. often find their way to the Escondite, the downtown dive bar where the Malört flows freely, Cubs and Bears games play on the TVs, antler chandeliers hang over the bar, and that iconic red and blue neon sign advertises “Vienna Beef hot dogs.” If there’s any question you’re in the wrong place, just look for the taxidermied bear rocking a Cubs chain and shades on the wall, or the felt pendant hanging behind the bar that says, “As for me and my house, we will serve Malört.” When it comes to food, the Escondite serves the classics, no frills: a Chicago dog (“the Jermagical”), Chicago pizza puff (“the ‘High’ Nunez”) and the Italian beef (“the Escondite”), plus wings, fried pickles, burgers and other standard bar bites.
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(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Al & Bea's Mexican Food
Boyle Heights Mexican
Pick up a bean and cheese burrito at Al & Bea’s and the whole thing wobbles — sloshes, nearly — from the heft of its molten contents. The mix of orange cheese and refried beans that taste of patience and lard is utter comfort. You have a choice of red or green chile sauce. There is no wrong answer, though generations of Al & Bea’s fans have leaned green for its spicy zing. Albert and Beatrice Carreon opened their Boyle Heights stand on 1st Street in 1966; the business is now in the hands of their grandson, Albert Carreon. For either takeout or a quick meal at a shaded table, it remains a steady lunchtime destination for families and nearby workers. The menu reaches into taco, tostada and taquito territory, as well as burgers and hot dogs, but the compact, precisely engineered burrito is the true L.A. essential. Try variations filled with stewed shredded beef or bulked up with a chile relleno, though only after you’ve experienced the glory of the bean and cheese with green chile.
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(Jakob N. Layman)
Brooklyn Ave. Pizza Co.
Boyle Heights Pizza Bar Bites $$
This Boyle Heights pizzeria, whose name references the original name of Cesar Chavez Avenue, celebrates the surrounding neighborhood with menu items such as a mole pizza with stringy Oaxacan quesillo and papas in “Chicano gravy,” or crispy potato wedges drenched with beef chorizo gravy, queso fresco and cilantro. The spacious restaurant with a street-side patio, plant-lined entry and exposed brick walls gets busy with families during dinner, but lunch is refreshingly low-key. Order a guava-jamaica or pineapple, cucumber and mint agua fresca, perhaps spiked with tequila depending on how the day is going.
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Eat your way across L.A.
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