Maple Block Meat Company
3973 Sepulveda BoulevardOur week in Southern California was wrapping up and, honestly, I didn’t get to any of the restaurants I was hoping to. We were pretty confined to downtown L.A. on our trip and while we had a car, we just didn’t get time to go explore very much. I had never been to L.A. before and the only touristy thing we got to do was spend an hour walking the Hollywood Walk of Fame and looking at the hand prints at TCL Chinese Theatre.
Saturday was our last day of actual work in Los Angeles. Sunday was a travel day so we had to button everything up. I had borrowed some equipment from a firm in Culver City that I needed to return before we really go in to our workday on Saturday. I had an 11:00 AM meeting set up with them that I didn’t need my co-worker for so I left him at the hotel to work while I went to the meeting.
It was a quick, five-minute kind of thing where I just had to drop something off and thank them for their help while we were there. Before leaving I asked about places to eat. Without hesitation, they mentioned a nearby BBQ restaurant.
BBQ? In Los Angeles? I was skeptical but when I looked it up, it had great reviews. I figured I should give it a try and BBQ sounded really good.
Maple Block Meat Company is on Sepulveda Boulevard north of Washington Place near The 405 in Culver City. The building was an Italian place before Maple Block came in in 2015. Read more…
Master Burger #4
1001 S. Broadway- Los Angeles, CA 90015
- (213) 536-5039
- No Known Website
- Menu
Friday in Los Angeles was a pretty easy day for us. We still worked twelve hours but we weren’t as stressed and running around as much as we had been for a few days.
When we were out driving around downtown earlier in the day, my co-worker pointed out a restaurant that was right down the street from our hotel. The advertised burgers, pasta, and pizza on signs outside. When it came time for dinner, he asked if I’d be interested in walking to get some pasta.
The restaurant on the corner of Broadway and Olympic in downtown Los Angeles is Master Burger #4. The #4 comes from being the fourth in a small chain of burger joints. The original is in Vermont Square southwest of downtown.
Carl’s Jr. (Olympic Blvd., L.A.)
106 E. Olympic BoulevardHow funny is it that I just ate at a Hardee’s in Niles a couple of weeks ago and here I am doing a similar blog post after my trip to L.A. To most people, that’s not funny…..but I’ve honestly never been to a Carl’s Jr. and there was one close to my hotel, so why the heck not?
Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s are both owned by CKE Restaurants and they look really, really similar. Their logos are similar as are there menus. CKE kept the Hardee’s branding in the east and Carl’s Jr. branding in the west….which is why I’ve never been to a Carl’s Jr.
I’m sure there are a couple Carl’s Jr. in downtown LA, but the one closest to me was the one on the corner of Olympic and South Main on the bottom floor of a parking garage.
Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizzeria (Downtown LA)
657 S. Flower StreetThere are probably a lot of high end pizza restaurants in Los Angeles. Heck, I think we even passed a few in our daily travels, but sometimes, the carry-out counter service pizza is just what sounds good and after three days in L.A., that’s exactly what sounded good to us.
Our workday got over a little after 8:00 local time. We started to head back to the hotel when my co-worker said he just wanted pizza for dinner. I pulled out my phone and started looking for a quick carry-out kind of place. It wasn’t too hard to find something in downtown L.A., but if we were going to do a chain, I wanted to at least do a regional chain.
We picked Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizzeria on South Flower Street near Willshire Boulevard in the heart of downtown. The restaurant is on a busy street and parking was an issue. I didn’t want to pay $15 at one of the nearby lots just to pick up a pizza so I drove around the block several times until I found an open meter only to find that meter reverted to a 5-minute loading zone from 6 PM until Midnight. I decided to chance it because it was raining and we were only going to be about ten minutes. My gamble paid off.
Tacos Mexico (Broadway Theater District)
913 S. BroadwayTwo things I love. Tacos. And 24-hour restaurants. I’m a night owl. I like being able to grab something to eat at 11:00 at night that isn’t McDonalds.
When we checked in to our hotel in downtown Los Angeles, one of the first things I noticed was a small taco joint just on the other side of the valet. As we were walking to dinner one night, I noticed the 24-hour sign.
Tacos Mexico is a regional chain of tacos stands that got it’s start in the 1970’s as a food truck. The first brick and mortar store came along in 1980 and that just happened to be the location that was next to my hotel. It’s sort of located in a parking lot next to The Blackstone Building on Broadway Street south of 9th. The building is a walk-up taco stand with a couple of tables on the sidewalk nearby to sit and eat. Read more…
Umami Burger (Downtown L.A.)
852 S. BroadwayOur first full day in Los Angeles was also our busiest. We got our start at about 9:00 AM and worked straight through until 4 PM. We didn’t even noticed we missed lunch.
We headed back to the hotel to work on some more things just after 4:00. Along the way, my co-worker asked about dinner. I figured we could take an hour break and still get done what we needed to get done and I noticed a restaurant just down the street from our hotel that I wasn’t going to miss on this trip.
Umami Burger is a Los Angeles based group of restaurants that specialize in serving amazing burgers. They call themselves a “group” and not a “chain” because the food is not designed to be the same from location to location. Each restaurant is supposed to be unique based on the location and the culinary team in place. There are locations with stores in California, Chicago, Las Vegas, and New York. The original location was on La Brea Avenue but has since closed due to the size and lack of liquor license. The flagship store is now on the corner of Broadway and 9th in downtown L.A.
Mikkeller DTLA
330 W. Olympic BoulevardEvery so often, an opportunity to travel for work comes up. I love taking the opportunity to go to places I normally wouldn’t go on my own but hate leaving my family home for several days at a time.
The most recent work trip was six days in Los Angeles. I had never been to LA before so I was somewhat excited about this one.
We got into Los Angeles at about 6:30 local time. By the time we got our luggage, our car and got to our hotel in downtown LA, it was a little after 8:30. Neither my coworker or I had eaten as we made our way through the airports so we wanted to find something once we got settled in our rooms.
Wouldn’t you know it. I’m in LA two hours and I found a brewery. It’s like I have a “Brew-Dar” or something.
Mikkeller DTLA is one of two West Coast bars for the dutch based brewery Mikkeller. The US-based brewery operation is in San Diego while there is another bar as well as a tasting room and bottle shop in San Francisco.
Mikkeller DTLA is on Olympic Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles at the corner of South Olive Street in a building that used to be a Discount Tire Center. Read more…
Gina’s Pizza & Deli
301 N. Clinton StreetJust like Niles in my last blog post, Albion isn’t a place I get to very often. In fact, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve gotten off the highway in the small town right before the Jackson County Line.
I had a work assignment in Albion recently with a co-worker from Grand Rapids. She met me in Kalamazoo then we drove the forty five minutes east on I-94 to exit 121. We accomplished what we needed to accomplish for the day then started talking about lunch. We didn’t have a lot of time and I noticed a familiar name in an unfamiliar location. I assumed it was the same shop I stopped at a few years ago but moved to a downtown location.
Gina’s Pizza & Deli is on Clinton Street just north of Michigan Avenue on the edge of downtown Albion. The restaurant is in the old freight house of the Albion Train Depot. The freight house was restored several years ago and became a sports bar called Davan’s, but that place went out of business about six years ago and has been vacant every since.
Hardee’s (Niles)
734 S. 11th StreetI don’t get to Niles very often so I’m not very familiar with the restaurant scene. One day last week, I got sent to Niles for a task. My co-worker had called in sick so I was on my own and I kind of drove around aimlessly for a little while looking for something quick.
I couldn’t find any sandwich shops or quick take-out spots and I was about to give up and just order something to go from one of the pubs. I probably should have just done that but then I noticed a rare fast-food chain in these neck of the woods.
I was heading south on 11th Street when a somewhat familiar red and yellow sign caught my attention. Niles had a Hardee’s.
Hardee’s is on 11th Street, which is also M-51 at Silverbrook Avenue in Niles just south of the downtown just across the street from Thomas Memorial Stadium. The fast food restaurant is in the parking lot of a Martin’s Super Market.
Latitude 42 Brewing Company (Oshtemo)
6075 W. Main StreetI love it when new restaurants open on the west side. It seems to be happening a lot lately. There’s some kind of growing boom on this side town. There’s a lot of empty land in really good areas so new businesses seem to be flocking to Oshtemo.
Five years ago, a new brewery opened in Portage and they did a really good job on social media of creating a buzz. We were there on opening day and have been back several times since. That brewery, Latitude 42.
Last summer, I was scanning through planning commission agendas for Oshtemo Township. We live in the township and I like to know what’s going on. I hate people that claim ignorance to things because they don’t pay attention to local government. I like to know what’s going on and I don’t have time to go sit through the meetings so agendas and minutes posted on the township’s website fill me in on what’s happening.
It’s always exciting when I see site plans for new businesses opening but one really got my attention. Latitude 42 was going to open a second location.
The Oshtemo location of Latitude 42 opened at the end of February on West Main (M-43) just west of the US-131 interchange. It’s a new construction building that’s designed very similarly to their location in Portage.
SW Michigan Dining 