Archive for the ‘Craptastic Cell Phone Photos’ Category
April 6th, 2011
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WHAT NOW?
The Sandwich Spot
(Nor-Cal sandwich franchise; Santa Monica satellite)
3101 Ocean Park
Santa Monica
WHY VISIT?
I’ve been to this joint more than a few times now, and at this point I will comfortably declare that the sandwiches are worth the slight sticker shock. I’m told the bread is flown down from upstate, on the daily. Further, very few things about the sandwich resemble the plastic mold (and taste) of a certain national chain’s $5 footlong (those are available three short blocks down Ocean Park). Westside lunchers, stop waiting in line for your MSG fix at Bay Cities Deli and get yourself over to Ocean Park for a Roseanne’s or Sandman with Swiss, with everything. “Crunch bread” advised. If you’re doing it right, the total cost should clock in around the same as your average curbside food truck meal – aka, just under one Hamilton. Note that this is a lunchtime joint more or less, but you might ask about the advertised “comedy night” if that’s your bag. (Personally, I can’t wait to flee this part of town once work lets out.)
WHAT AMBIANCE?
Comedy LPs ranging from Joe Piscopo to Bill Cosby adorn the walls. Clearly somebody’s a fan of the live prepared routine. Drink machine is self-serve. A mysterious black curtain beneath the drink machine will draw your eye; whatever you do, don’t peek behind the curtain. You’ll find a few sparse tables that will either be too large, or too small; no Goldilocks-approved tables in sight. You’ll find plenty of sunlight. You’ll find sidewalk foot traffic for gawking, while dining. You’ll find yourself being gawked at, through the glass, as you power through some sort of Sandwich Spot sandwich. You’ll find plenty of tatted-up sandwich makers trudging back and forth from the counter to the drink machine during the course of your brief meal. Importantly, you’ll find nothing that reminds you of Bay Cities Deli. But just what are you looking for, in terms of ambiance, exactly? Bring a board game or some cards, if you must. Several lunch bags are walking out the door, so enjoy the fact that it’s not too crowded, grab your too-big or too-little natural wood table, and dig in already.
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Above: People really, really wanted to see Death From Above 1979 at South by Southwest, March 19, Beauty Bar patio, 1am, Saturday night / Sunday morning. Who could blame them?
Hey gang. Just a quick note to let you know we’re still alive, parsing photos, missing the Texas weather as compared to California’s typhoon, and will be uploading SXSW content this week per tradition. The final three gigs I caught, personally, were (A) Odd Future storming off the Billboard Buffalo Billiards stage quite early at their “official” SXSW showcase gig, (B) Yoko Ono doing Ono things at Elysium, and (C) Death From Above 1979 working the crowd into a fence-tearing-down frenzy, Beauty Bar patio (pictured, above). So, stick around or something. More soon. Ryan
ABOVE: While writing up THE PLACE‘s truck and informing the driver he needs to move his vehicle, one of ten vying for westside lunchtime dollars on Pennsylvania Avenue, a motorcycled member of the Santa Monica Police Department is photographed today both by the woman with the DSLR camera and the telephone of the author, who looks on with a curiously sweet-and-sour emotional mix of glee and dismay while scarfing food from a competing and possibly soon-to-be-written-up-as-well truck.
Since we originally heard from The Green Truck more than one year ago regarding the shakedown and anti-truck sentiments occurring at that time near Museum Square, Wilshire Blvd, we’ve had various legislature handed down, we’ve had health grades approved, we’ve heard more than once that trucks are soon to be the way of the dodo, and we’ve heard more than twice that trucks are here to stay. The trucks do appear “here to stay”, of course, and with them comes the ever-present threat of a ticket by The Man, both a cost of doing business and a dependable source of municipal revenue for the cities in which both inhabit.
» LA Mobile Vendors Set To Carry Letter Grades (Eater LA)
» LAPD Officially Tasked With Throwing Fines At Your Favorite Truck (Los Angeleaouise)
» Food Truck Lot Closed Down by City of Santa Monica (Los Angelatinous)
» India Jones: Open For Business, Impounded By Po-Po, Back On Streets (Losanjealous)