The Hot 10 2014: Grand Central Market, Los Angeles (No. 10)
What in the world is a 97-year-old food court doing on this list? Let me explain. Over the past year, Grand Central Market, much like the rest of downtown L.A., has seen a remarkable renaissance. When I first started going to GCM a decade ago, it was for tacos and a glimpse into a world much different than what you’d find in, say, Malibu. It was authentic, if a bit gritty. Some of the food was good; much of it wasn’t. But now, with new stands joining the fray, it’s great. An egg sandwich is just an egg sandwich, you say? Not at Eggslut, where kids in Supreme skate gear wait an hour for the ultimate version. At Belcampo Meat Co., you can chomp into one of the country’s best burgers (grass-fed beef, no less). Or you can just grab a stool at Sticky Rice and tuck into the made-to-order Thai papaya salad. So many options! Yet it’s not just these new ventures that make GCM the most compelling of all the food halls popping up around the country. Long-standing Latino vendors like Ana Maria, with its cartoonishly overstuffed gorditas, are crucial to the appeal; it’s that rich and varied diversity that makes the market—and Los Angeles as a whole—unique. Click through this slideshow for (more than) a few of our favorite vendors—plus a video documentary on the history of the place.
Kyle Johnson1/23G&B Coffee
So G&B does this thing called fizzy hoppy tea. It’ll change your life. A cold-brewed blend of Yunnans gets dry-hopped (think beer) and carbonated.
Kyle Johnson2/23Horse Thief BBQ
The succulent pulled pork and fork-tender brisket are smoked 15 hours and sold by the quarter pound (so order both). To drink, pick from a dozen craft brews served at the walk-up bar. To sit, you can’t do better than its patio.
Kyle Johnson3/23DTLA Cheese
Heaven must be this stand’s grilled cheese sandwich, perfectly browned and oozing German Butterkäse and two ages of cheddar. And good luck resisting all those West Coast treats filling the deli case, from Three Jerks filet mignon beef jerky to Three Ring Farm’s Sunset Bay, a soft-ripened goat cheese streaked with paprika.
Kyle Johnson4/23Ana Maria
Gorditas as God intended them: hot off the griddle, bursting at the seams with juicy pork and crispy-cool fixings, and so huge you practically have to unhinge your jaw to take a bite.
Kyle Johnson5/23Belcampo Meat Co.
The burger is the thing to order at this butcher shop–cum–dinette: dry-aged, pillow-talked beef smothered in caramelized onions, blanketed with cheddar, and sandwiched on a squishy bun. It’s unreal.
Kyle Johnson6/23Tacos Tumbras a Tomas
Three bucks gets you an obscenely generous portion of chewy carne asada heaped over corn tortillas at this 19-year-old stand. Lime wedges and extra tortillas come on the side, making it enough for lunch and dinner.
Kyle Johnson7/23Wexler’s Deli
Bagels are crusty, chewy, and totally delicious paired with hot-smoked sturgeon and a schmear of cream cheese. At lunch, the O.G. pastrami sandwich is the way to go.
Kyle Johnson8/23Sarita’s Pupuseria
Legions of fanboys come here for the namesake dish: a Frisbee-size pupusa overflowing with cheese and fillings. Our go-to is loroco, a Central American flower.
Kyle Johnson9/23Sticky Rice
Live-fire street food gets its due in the form of gai yang: tangy Thai barbecued chicken served with sticky rice and som tam, a green papaya salad mashed tableside with a giant mortar and pestle. This is one counter worth sitting at, if only to watch the artful choreography of the chefs bumping around like pinballs inside the nanoscopic open kitchen.
Kyle Johnson10/23Villa Moreliana
Hawkers extend samples of carnitas, hacked to smithereens and rolled up in a warm corn tortilla. They’re made Michoacán-style, which is to say 14 nose-to-curlicue-tail pig parts cooked in lard till the meat melts together and develops a nice caramelized chew.
Kyle Johnson11/23Eggslut
The hour-long wait on weekends says it all: There is no better egg sandwich in L.A. than an Eggslut egg sandwich. For a lighter fix, go with the Slut, a jar-poached “coddled” egg atop potato purée.
Kyle Johnson12/23Better Booch
If a Portland mixologist and a Brooklyn fermenter had a baby, it’d be an indie kombucha bar serving flavors like cucumber-mint and oolong-rose on tap, all of them organic, all fermented in small batches, and all dispensed by a hirsute “boochtender.” Well, they did, and it’s irresistible.
Kyle Johnson13/23Berlin Currywurst
German street meat meets the L.A. mini-chain. The menu is choose-your-own adventure; we loved the porky paprikawurst in a gingery sauce served with brown bread for mopping.
Kyle Johnson14/23A&B Coffee
The giant neon sign that reads “Mole Chiles Seco” tells you everything you need to know about this stand, which has been kicking around since 1969. The medium is moles, chiles, and spices, not to mention pints of hulled hemp seeds, towers of Café Bustelo, and Goya everything.
15/23Valeria’s
Get your bulk bags out. This long-running stand will bowl you over with its selection of dried chiles: chipotle, serrano, costeño, guajillo, ancho, árbol, puya, and seemingly a thousand others.
Kyle Johnson16/23Valerie at Grand Central Market
From cookbook author Valerie Gordon comes a bakery/café with the croissant to end all croissants. We’re talking buttery, flaky puff pastry twisted up with sticky caramel and flecked with crunchy fleur de sel. Also noteworthy: her ever-rotating selection of savory hand pies, like kale with ricotta, roasted tomato, and smoked chipotle.
Kyle Johnson17/23Press Brothers Juicery
The cold-press juicery is an L.A. health staple. The brothers behind this press recently expanded, adding smoothies and shots to their menu. Your best bet is still the throat-clearing Drop Acid, a mouth-rattling elixir of cucumber, apple, arugula, lemon, parsley, cilantro, ginger, and fiery habanero.
Kyle Johnson18/23Olio GCM Wood Fired Pizzeria
You’ll make room for pizza after glimpsing what Brad Kent is pulling from his850-degree oven. The Margherita Plus is a hybrid of Neapolitan and New York styles, with dollops of burrata and fragrant drops of basil-infused olive oil. And that crust? Whoa.
Kyle Johnson19/23Grand Central Liquor
Sure, you can act like a proper adult and order beer or wine from Horse Thief, Belcampo, DTLA Cheese, or Olio GCM. But it’s a lot more fun picking up a miniature bottle of Bacardi from this 45-year-old stand’s floor-to-ceiling shelves and using it to spike the horchata from Villa Moreliana next door.
Kyle Johnson20/23Jones Grain Mill
This family-owned health food stand has been a GCM staple for more than three decades. You’ll know it by the long-haired Angelenos in Pink Floyd shirts queuing for Tom’s toothpaste, organic flaxseed meal, and $2 blood pressure checks.
Kyle Johnson21/23La Huerta
A one-stop shop for rot-your-teeth sweets, including baked coconut lumps and pucks of peanuty marzipan. Ladle up some mango or pineapple chamoy (sauces and condiments made from pickled fruit) from the jugs behind the counter, or throw all your money at the dried goods, Turkish apricots and Japanese peanuts among them.
Kyle Johnson22/23Five Must-Buy Souvenirs
1. Fresh mole, A&B Coffee
Imported from Mexico, the superrich moles (from $6 for 1 lb.) include sesame, peanut, and tomatillo.2. Good Mix, Valerie at GCM
A trail mix so addictive, you’ll eat it before you get home. **3. Golden Valley Delight, DTLA Cheese
A nutty sheep’s-milk cheese ($14 for 8 oz.) delivered by the cheesemaker himself. **4. Stoneware mug, G&B Coffee
Silver Lake ceramist Ben Medansky throws minimalist-cool cups ($40) exclusively for G&B. **5. Purity juice, Press Brothers
After a GCM binge, do your body a favor with this cleansing blend ($6 for 12 oz.). **
