Eastside Market Deli

in 1990, I was working on a project in Chinatown with my friend. Well, it turns out that his family was one of the original residence of the area now known as Chinatown. He was half Croatian. Chinatown used to have not only a Chinese population but also a Croatian, Mexican and Italian population. One day, it was lunch time he said "you want to get a meat ball sandwhich?" We found our way to Eastside Deli, 1013 Alpine Street, 213-250-2646, (www.esmdeli.com) which is kind of hidden in the hill of Chinatown. It is still run by an Italian family and has some of the best Italian style deli sandwhiches around. Their eggplant parmesan is a favorite of mine too.

What I love about the place is the guaranteed quick but long lines, the tomato sauce on most of the hot sandwhiches and the old school rough and ready service.

A sandwhich will run you around $7.00 and you can be in and out of there in less than an hour. Which is great because a lot of government worker types are there for lunch.

I've been going there for over seventeen years now and I haven't brought anyone who didn't fall in love with the place. I even brought a Eastcoast friend of mine once who was so surprised he almost cried while eating his meatball sandwhich. He couldn't believe something like this exisited in LA and it made him homesick for New York. Sweeeeeeet!!!!!!!

Pictured is a recent shot of artist Jeffrey Mohr, ready to enjoy his Eastside Deli perfection. Go Jeff, go!!!!