Downtown Eats

After taking in the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown, a friend and I wandered over the the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles.

At his suggestion we went to, Wurstküche. The two and a half month old restaurant bills itself as purveyor of exotic grilled sausages.

You place your order in a small trapazoidal room which houses the grill, a deli case and beer taps. You can eat along the wall in that room, at a couple of tables outside or in the expansive dinning room. The dinning room features a long bar along one side.

I had the duck, bacon and jalapeno sausage with caramelized onions and hot peppers ($7.75). My companion had the alligator and pork with caramelized onions and hot peppers ($7.75). The sausages come with your choice of two free toppings. Options include caramelized onions, sweet peppers, spicy peppers or sauerkraut. Additional toppings are 75 cents. The sausage comes on a hearty white roll that stands up to the juice from the sausage and toppings.

My friend opted for a beer, of which they have over thirty to choose from. The beers are mainly Belgian and German, though they do have PBR. The guy who took our order apologized because he didn't have the correct glass for my friend's beer and said that they will eventually have all the correct glasses i.e. a Chimay glass for a Chimay. For my beverage, I stuck with self service water, which they put cucumber in. I was new to cucumber in my water but it was quite refreshing. They also have a cucumber soda. We split a klein (small) order of Belgian fries ($3.50) and got the chipotle aioli dipping sauce. One sauce is included with the fries, additional sauces are 75 cents.

I topped my sausage off with dijon mustard at the self service counter. Both the sausage and the fries were excellent. The aioli was so good I could have eaten with a spoon by itself. The only detractor is that according to my friend they don't make their own sausages which seems like a shame to me but I can overlook that, Wurstküche has been added to the rotation.

Here's a Wurstküche review from the LA Times.

An emporium for the encased is ensconced

Read the Times while you can, I think it's going under within the year. They recently decided to eliminated the California section. According to LA Observed, the Times publisher has opted to, "- fold local news inside the front section — which will be reconfigured to downplay national and foreign news." Downplay national and foreign news!?! This after cutting 150 people from the news gathering staff and reducing the size of the paper earlier this year. The LA Times is owned by the cash strapped Tribune company. Can you imagine Los Angeles without a major daily newspaper?