Most of my experiences in Los Angeles have been while visiting my wife Candice’s family, including my brother-in-law Izaac Meras, who moved to Los Angeles from Santa Maria several years ago to work for Film This!, a company that acquires proper permitting and notification for film and television productions looking to film in and around LA. The business takes Izaac all over the valley, offering him an extensive and unique take on where to go and how to get there in the sprawling and bustling metropolis.
Zooming along the backstreets on a recent and pleasantly cool evening in the City of Angels, Izaac darted down Avenue 26, passing under the 110 Freeway close to where it intersects with the 5. Tucked into a nook off a side street, floodlights and a beat blared from the Ave 26 Taco Stand. A trailer grill sizzled with different meats, all available in a $1 taco, and a card table stacked with freshly made salsas made up the entire 5-star Yelp.com reviewed location. Cars came and went with hungry and subsequently satisfied customers filled with asada, buche, and exquisitely fresh tripas tacos, some piled high with sautéed or picked onions.
As quickly as we arrived at the Ave 26 Taco Stand we left, on to our next fast-paced adventure. Riding passenger to an LA local is a white-knuckle experience, and our desire to get off the road led to a poor destination choice. We enjoyed a gutter ball-filled game of bowling at a bowling alley so funky smelling and tacky, the name defies memory. The alley’s redeeming factor was a drab charm reminiscent of The Big Lebowski.
Even during the day, no matter what hum-drum touristy attraction Candice and I drag Izaac to—like the La Brea Tar Pits or any of the museums that share the street with Hancock Park—his internal GPS works, carefully recalling the area’s culinary options or any other weird shop or live music venue nearby. Each visit becomes a whirlwind gastro tour of cultures from across the globe. Korean barbecue, new wave Ramen shops, craft breweries, historic sandwiches, and chic coffee shops all await our marauding family of foodies.
A perfect example is a place everyone should visit given the chance. Not far from the Los Angeles Union Station is Phillipe The Original, a historic restaurant that has served the French Dip since it opened in 1908. Philippe The Original claims invention of the sandwich, though Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet makes the same claim. There are more than a few things that make Philipe the Original unique and historic. The original practice of dipping the entire sandwich before it is given to the customer is a tradition unbroken there; so don’t make the mistake of asking for your au jus on the side. What you should ask for, though, is plenty of spicy mustard to add to the sandwich, for it’s a remarkable thing truly unto itself.
Every visit includes new places and visits to old favorites, like Tierra Mia, the artisan coffee shop with a lush Latin flavor. One of the benefits of my brother-in-law’s breakneck backstreet routes is also his encyclopedic knowledge of various locations in the iconic valley where films have been shot across the decades. A cruise down the busy city street become a kind of personalized Hollywood history tour.
Arts Editor Joe Payne is sorry that everyone doesn’t have such well-informed family living in the valley. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 2, 2015.