stretchy pants & fanny packs

It all started with pastrami.

A couple of intellectual foodie types—but grad students, mind you, so cheap intellectual foodie types—decide to meet up for a regular nosh. Decision time: where to start in a sprawling city pocketed with delicious neighborhood enclaves and a serious mainstream food culture bred on ambition and novelty?

Call us difficult, but we decided to start with a test of the City of Angels, rather than go for its strengths. We had our doubts that LA could do pastrami up right (the fabled Dupar’s? Blech. Johnnie’s Pastrami? Don’t get me started), but having heard that Langer’s had pastrami to rival NYC, we decided to see for ourselves one Saturday afternoon.

Like a classic pizza joint in Brooklyn, the Langer’s experience comes with a long wait in line outside and a seriously retro interior:

We were delighted to discover EGG CREAMS on the menu!

J and I went for the classic—nothing but pastrami on rye, no distracting mayo or mustard or cheese, those two crucial half sours to balance it out, and a chocolate egg cream each.

The verdict? I wouldn’t call it the world’s best pastrami, as they do on their website, but still, Yum! I felt the pastrami was cut a bit thick, but the overall experience was definitely worthy of a return visit. You done good, LA. (Now just stop making bad pastrami everywhere else within city limits. Please?)

Langer’s Pastrami
704 South Alvarado Street
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 483-8050