Lunch crowd at Langers
Langers Deli has reputedly the best pastrami in Los Angeles, and I wholeheartedly agree. At 7th and Alvarado, diagonally across the street from MacArthur Park, Langers serves exquisite pastrami on crusty warm rye bread with a home made mustard that is just the right degree of heat to tingle your tongue but not to scorch it. They roast their own pastrami and hand-slice it to perfection, and the portions are so generous that we always order one each and take half home for a nosh sometime later. It’s sort of an all-day meal … half for lunch and half later for dinner. I don’t know if Al Langer is still alive, but I found a review that said he was 90 in 2002, and still working in the restaurant he founded in 1945. If you live in LA or you’re visiting and you love pastrami, you must put Langers on your agenda. But don’t arrive later than 3. They close at 4
I love this! I just drew some old-guys-in-the-Golden-Corrall when I was in VA. Fun…
Love the washes!
I grew up in LA, is Langers better than the HAT?
Arty Velarde
They’re different but I’d say that Langers is better, yes. Although it partly depends upon what you like.
The Hat is like a French dip and pretty greasy with the drippings. (Although I can’t complain much - we go there probably once a month, more or less since we live adjacent to Pasadena.)
Langers is of the sky-high on rye genre - like the kind of sandwich you get at Nate n’ Als or the more recent Jerry’s delis or Art’s in the Valley. (Can you tell I’m a pastrami afficionado?) Langer’s is served on warm rye with a crisp crust - which is different than the dipped French roll of the Hat.
I’ve only ever had one really bad pastrami sandwich - served in a to-go sandwich shop in a highrise building. They didn’t know what they were doing and served it cold, on white bread with lettuce and mayo. Shudder.
Langers. Yes! I went there often when I worked downtown, but haven’t been there recently. When I went there I’d always get the hot pastrami and a creme soda. When I was downtown on Friday night, I was watching the ice skaters in Pershing Square. So many wonderful downtown places. Phillipes? La Frere Taix. And I remember a Russian place, now closed, that had all kinds of avante garde art on the wall. Do you remember that restaurant, Karen. Can’t remember its name. Have you been to the Water Grille? Too pricy for me, but I hear it is great.
Good way to recycle, by the way.
Gorky’s Cafe. We never got there before it closed, now I’m sorry I didn’t.
Philippe’s … ah yes.
I went to Taix when I worked at a large ad agency downtown. It was where all the media types took clients for lunch, and where the reps took the buyers.
No, I haven’t been to the Water Grille. We have had to avoid the pricy this year, maybe 2006 will be better.
I love when you show your journal entries on the page like this, something so appealing about seing the whole sketchbook, like the drawing!
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