What is street food? Street food is good food that's not fancy. It's a great meal you can order quickly, yet without feeling like you're supposed to leave fast. It's food the locals usually know about--food that you don't feel strange eating by yourself, but are always glad to reveal to a special friend. Street food costs less than $10 per person. You order it at the counter, or at least pay for it there.
Black Dog Coffee
Restaurant review by Richard Risemberg
Black Dog Coffee resides on the ground floor of an unspectacular five-story cube on Los Angeles's main drag, Wilshire Boulevard--you know, where the pharmacy would be if its home were a medical tower instead of a small office building. I've often seen, in my wanderings over LA's sidewalks, signs indicating that such-and-such café or coffee shop inhabited the warrens of whatever glasswalled monolith blocked the sun from that particular block, and I've often wondered whether some neglected treasure might be hidden behind those stern bureaucratic façades. Black Dog Coffee, thanks to its whimsical name and the happy fact that it is around the corner from my apartment--and that it opens directly onto the street--was the first (and so far only) of these semi-captive eateries to tempt me from my stroll.
Unfortunately, we didn't hit it off at first.
I stopped in about a year and a half ago, shortly after moving to the neighborhood, for breakfast with a childhood friend of mine who was visiting from New Zealand. Though we found nothing to complain about, we found nothing distinctive in the fare, and the service was a bit slow, though we were the only customers seated at the time. We came, we ate, we left, a bit fuller but not otherwise entertained, and so I in return entertained no further thought of visiting there for several months thereafter. Their practice of closing at 5PM--typical of office-building coffee shops, I suppose--further put me off, as I'm rarely around on the weekends, and am on my way to the office generally by their 7 o' clock opening hour on weekday mornings. But one Saturday I decided to take my son there for our weekend brunch, and I discovered that my earlier judgment had been altogether unjust.
Outwardly little had changed, and at first I wondered whether perhaps I had simply grown more liberal--but I immediately dismissed that thought, as I had been in rigorous training with my girlfriend, an exacting epicure with whom I have methodically been sampling the best of our city's restaurants. No, Black Dog had changed, like a gangly adolescent girl who has suddenly grown into her grace: she may wear the same clothes, but her posture is now that of a woman, and so behind the very same sidewalk tables and sparkling glass wall, there was now a sense of culinary authority, and a seductive playfulness in the menu. What began as a dutiful visit on my part became a habit.
The menu encompasses a variety of breakfast offerings--cereal, eggs, and such, inventively done--and a concise but intelligent array of lunch foods, including salads, wraps, pastries, a couple of soups, and their forte: magnificent sandwiches!
Now, Los Angeles is a sandwich-eating town, and sandwiches are serious business here, as a Thursday night visit to Campanile half a mile away for one of their fifteen-dollar grilled cheese sandwiches will show. Black Dog wryly jumps into the game by offering inventive California Cuisine concoctions that invite comparison with similar fare presented by some of the city's most breathtakingly expensive rooms. In a city that often judges a chef on what he arranges between two slices of panini, Black Dog's Brad Gold accepts the challenge--and walks away from the battle if not victorious, certainly undefeated. Because the sandwiches--modestly priced at around $5 each--are superb.
So far I've tried the mozzarella sandwich and the white cheddar--both well-made and richly-flavored, without any heaviness to them--but my favorite has been the goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and arugula. This is a little on the bold side for an office building sandwich shop, but let us be thankful for their temerity: it is exquisite, rich and creamy from the cheese, tangy and sweet from the tomatoes, with the arugula's hint of earthly bitterness outlining the flavors perfectly and revealing their shapes. Constructed in a seeded baguette from one of the many artisanal bakeries in the area, and lightly dressed, it was the finest sandwich I've had in a year of many sandwiches. Moreover, it was modest enough that afterwards I did not feel bloated. LA sandwich shops often believe they can dazzle you with quantity. Black Dog knows their sandwich satisfies with taste.
Aside from food, Black Dog Coffee offers, well, coffee: espresso drinks both hot and iced, and a tempting confection called Café Cubano, which is the most satisfying coffee I've had outside of Argentina (which has the best espresso in the world). The espresso is good--rich, hot, flavorful, bitter, as it should be; it is an excellent base for the flavored drinks. There are also smoothies and bottled drinks for the more laid-back among us.
All in all, Black Dog is an excellent lunch stop for anyone in the neighborhood during the day, and is in fact within walking distance of LA's Museum Row, which makes it a must-eat experience for tourists and locals alike.
Now, if only they would stay open till the wee hours, like a real coffeehouse….
Black Dog Coffee
5657 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036-3736
Phone: (323) 933-1976
www.blackdogcoffee.com