The Brief

Two years ago, I ate something that blew my mind. It was a basturma brisket sandwich, a version of Armenian pastrami, and lahmajoun, a flatbread, all prepared inside a tiny ghost kitchen in Glendale.

Even though it was a tiny, unassuming space, I knew I’d tried something extraordinary. When I went back to the office, I told my editor I’d found L.A.’s next best restaurant. The type of food that keeps you thinking about it well after the meal is over.

The legendary basturma brisket sandwich, now discontinued.

(

Carlin Stiehl

/

LAist

)

She’s learned to follow my instincts, even when they seem slightly overblown, and my resulting piece on Yerod Mas Bakery & Deli reflected my strong belief in what this place could become.

Over the years, word of its quality spread far and wide. In January it was successful enough to open a brick-and-mortar location nearby. And now it's just been named one of the 50 best restaurants in the country by the New York Times.

You heard it here first, folks.

The sandwich

Ironically, the basturma brisket sandwich had become notorious for another reason — its price: $38. Large enough to be shared with two people, it featured a thick-cut seasoned brisket and melted Swiss cheese, with house-made pickles and slathered with chaman spread, all served on aish baladi — an Egyptian flatbread similar to pita. It's based on a recipe from Grigoryan's Armenian grandmother, who grew up in Egypt.

But when you sell a sandwich for more than $20 in L.A., people start to talk — especially online. Negative attention from Reddit threads and TikTok influencers began to pile up for the small restaurant.

Arthur Grigoryan cooks outside his restaurant Yerord Mas.

(

Robert Haleblian

/

Courtesy Yerord Mas

)

"There was one evening where I only had six tables in my dining room, and four out of the six tables had their tripods out, just recording."

It was clear that many, mostly influencer types, were there just to comment on the price point and whether it was “worth it,” without much consideration beyond what went into the sandwich. At a certain point, the viral attention no longer felt worth the volume of negative attention tied to the sandwich's price.

In addition, building the sandwich from scratch was a serious undertaking for a small restaurant.

"Essentially 70% of our labor was just for that sandwich."

The Chi Kyuftah, available only on weekends, is a steak tartare dish made with bulgur, red onion, pomegranate molasses, Aleppo pepper.

(

Robert Haleblian

/

Courtesy Yeord Mas

)

Grigoryan made the decision to take the sandwich off the menu purely as a business decision — not simply to silence internet trolls.

While talking about the sandwich, it's apparent Grigoryan has complicated feelings about the place it holds in his restaurant's story.

"It was a blessing," he said. "But at the same time, it was also a curse."

The power of vindication

While Grigoryan battled it out online, often publicly reposting on his own Instagram, plenty of others weren't deterred. Positive reviews from both the L.A. Times and the New York Times came pouring in. It was then that Grigoryan realized he'd been internalizing too much of the negative energy the sandwich attracted online, admitting to himself that he was going too hard on himself.

What's next

These days, things feel different at the small bakery and deli, with this newfound attention. It feels much more like where they wanted to be when they first opened the restaurant, with the menu now consisting of a handful of rotating dishes, like a hanger steak kebab, the Aleppo-style kebab served with sour cherry sauce, and a seasonal yogurt kofte soup.

The fattoush salad at Yerod Mas, with heirloom tomatoes, watermelon radish, and pita croutons in a lemon-pomegranate vinaigrette.

(

Robert Haleblian

/

Courtesy Yerod Mas

)

The recent attention from the New York Times has clearly increased sales. Grigoryan says the hanger steak kebab sells out regularly, and on good days the restaurant feeds about 120 people a night, not bad for a restaurant that only seats 21 people at a time.

That’s all to say that Grigoryan and Petrosyan seem content where they are. They take pride in what they've built independently, with no investors — remaining a mom-and-pop spot that serves culturally significant dishes to their community and the rest of Los Angeles.

Personally, I feel extremely privileged to watch Yerod Mas get the attention they so rightfully deserve, especially having played a part in that. But the reality is, the food is that good. Go try it out for yourselves.

Long Beach Airport will hold an emergency preparedness drill Friday night that will include smoke, along with lights and sirens from emergency vehicles.

The drill, which will happen from 9 to 11 p.m. on Friday, is required by the Federal Aviation Administration every three years and “will test the speed and effectiveness of first responders” and airport staff in an emergency situation, according to the airport. As part of the drill, volunteer actors will play injured victims.

It will not take place near the terminal or the drop-off area, but may be visible to some people at the airport, said airport spokesperson Darrick Lee.

No roads will be closed near the airport, and the drill is not anticipated to impact any aircraft operations, Lee said.

A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s latest attempt to sideline the L.A. region’s lead homelessness agency from a $239 million federal funding process, clearing the way for the agency to complete an application due next month.

The three-judge Ninth Circuit panel denied the federal government's request for a stay pending appeal, which would have paused a lower court's order blocking its June suspension of LAHSA.

The decision Thursday allows LAHSA to continue to function and steer funding for local service providers who rely on that money to offer services and housing for unhoused people.

“This ruling provides greater stability at an important moment for Los Angeles,” Stephanie Graves, chair of LAHSA’s governing board, said in a statement. “Most importantly, it gives our region the opportunity to keep people housed, help more people find a path home, and give people hope,” her statement continued.

The judges wrote in the latest decision that the federal government failed to adequately explain why an immediate suspension of LAHSA in June was necessary to protect the public interest.

That suspension was put on hold in August by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who ordered the federal government to restore LAHSA’s role in the region’s federal homelessness funding process while the case plays out.

Carter's injunction on LAHSA’s suspension is currently set to expire on Oct. 27.

The question of whether HUD’s suspension of LAHSA was ultimately lawful is still headed for trial, with a hearing before Carter expected in February.

What’s this fight about?

The legal dispute, at this stage, has focused primarily on who gets to control some key decisions about how $239 million in federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants are spent on housing and services for unhoused people in L.A.

The nationwide deadline to apply for that funding is next week, on Sept. 30, although HUD recently extended the deadline to Oct. 14 for L.A.-area applicants.

HUD’s rules require service providers and public agencies in places like L.A. County to form local geographic bodies called “continuums of care” and designate one agency to apply on behalf of the whole region for federal funds dedicated to solving homelessness.

L.A.’s regional body designated LAHSA as that one agency.

This year, LAHSA staff have been working since April with homeless service providers and other municipal partners to prepare a funding application according to HUD’s guidelines.

Then HUD’s June suspension of LAHSA stymied that process.

The appeals court said the timing of HUD’s suspension left the Los Angeles region in the lurch since the suspension came after a deadline to name another designated applicant had passed.

“HUD chose to suspend LAHSA at a time when it would leave the Los Angeles region particularly vulnerable,” the panel wrote.

Ben Kay works for a homeless services nonprofit and leads L.A.'s Continuum of Care Board. In a statement shared with LAist, Kay said "HUD’s attempts to impose its agenda on our community have created uncertainty and chaos in Los Angeles."

He said the Ninth Circuit ruling recognizes that there is a local legal right to set priorities for addressing homelessness.

Alternatives considered

HUD’s proposed alternative — allowing individual service providers to apply directly for federal funding — was “extremely difficult if not virtually impossible to implement,” the judges wrote.

That approach, according to HUD’s lawyers, would ignore much of LAHSA’s prior decisions about how to spend federal dollars.

“HUD, in the direct to HUD process, will not rely on any priorities set by LAHSA,” Weili Shaw, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney, said at a hearing in the case held Tuesday in San Francisco. “That's expressly what HUD wants, is not to have to rely on LAHSA’s allocation and prioritization decisions.”

Thursday’s court decision means that the direct-to-HUD process is off the table, at least for now.

On Wednesday, a regional homelessness body recommended that, in case LAHSA remained suspended, L.A. County departments could handle the region’s application instead. That body, the L.A. Continuum of Care, is also soliciting applications for organizations to take on LAHSA’s key federal roles beginning next year, including the annual federal funding application and the homeless count.

LAHSA has indicated it will not compete to keep those roles itself next year. Other local government agencies, including L.A. County’s Department of Homeless Services and Housing, have applied to take those roles sometime in 2027.

What LAHSA said in court

At Tuesday's hearing in San Francisco, the panel focused on the fast-approaching deadline.

Keri Curtis Axel, LAHSA's attorney, argued her client is the only entity actually prepared to make that deadline.

She also said dozens of local homeless service providers who rely on LAHSA to apply on their behalf wouldn't qualify to apply under HUD's alternative process, potentially cutting them out of guaranteed funding entirely.

Attorneys for the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, the regional body responsible for coordinating the application said that HUD never gave it a real opportunity to name a replacement for LAHSA for the process happening now.

Attorney Shayla Myers told the panel her client formally asked HUD whether it could designate a new collaborative applicant during a 30-day response window this summer. HUD never responded, she said, instead proceeding with plans for its own direct-to-HUD process.

The fight over LAHSA's suspension took on new urgency since the First Circuit Court of Appeals revived HUD’s controversial funding guidelines last week. That cleared the way for HUD to reopen this year's funding competition on a tight timeline.

Gita O’Neill, LAHSA’s interim CEO, said the agency “is moving full speed to finalize” the L.A. region’s federal funding application, due Oct. 14.

“Our priority has always been keeping frontline services running and ensuring that federal funding reaches our service providers,” O’Neill said in a statement.

LAHSA’s leader also said the agency will work with HUD to make sure that previously approved grant funding is promptly disbursed and will continue to prepare for January’s 2027 homeless count.

HUD has until Dec. 1 to announce this year's awards under a congressional deadline.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in a statement that it “stands by the lawfulness” of its suspension of LAHSA.

“The Department will comply with the Ninth Circuit's temporary order, which was made in part due to the quickly approaching deadline for CoC applications,” a department spokesperson said.

“HUD looks forward to seeing the Ninth Circuit's full resolution on the merits,” the statement continued.

A status conference in the original case — which will ultimately decide whether HUD’s suspension of LAHSA was legal — is currently scheduled for Sept. 30 in Judge Carter’s courtroom.

The Ninth Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments Oct. 19 on HUD's appeal of the preliminary injunction. The appeals court Thursday declined to pause the injunction while the case moves ahead, keeping it in effect. But the October hearing is where the judges will decide whether to uphold or overturn it.

If you're a fan of Indian food, there's a good chance you head to places like Artesia or Orange County when the craving strikes.

But there's a growing destination for Desi food you may not have heard of: Downtown Los Angeles.

Several Indian chefs have put down roots there in the past few years, and are doing their best to convince Angelenos there's more to the cuisine than the standard takeout or lunch buffet offerings.

Drawing on both street food tradition and a new confident creativity, they're producing dishes that arguably belong in a fine dining category.

Brick Lane

Take Brick Lane, a new Indian restaurant on the outskirts of the Arts District, near the 6th Street bridge, which opened earlier this year. The server arrives with a steaming plate holding what appears to be a large pie. The golden crust is topped with black sesame seeds; the server places it on the table and immediately begins carving a circle around its edges. Steam rises, and a rush of aromas and spices fills the air.

But it isn’t a pie; it’s dum biryani, a layered mixed-rice dish featuring marinated wild mushrooms, sealed and slow-baked, topped with a crispy puffed naan crust.

Executive Chef Sanjay Rawat at Brick Lane uses modern cooking techniques to execute beloved Indian flavors.

(

Courtesy Brick Lane

)

It’s the kind of dish that Sanjay Rawat, the executive chef, wants to showcase on his new restaurant menu. Originally from New Delhi, he left at 17 to train as a chef in Malaysia. Before opening Brick Lane, he ran Kahani at The Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel. In his Arts District space, Rawat is using a variety of techniques he’s picked up during his tenure, such as using his Santa Maria grill to prepare Malaysian-Indian branzino and offering his delicate take on dessert: Valencia-orange-cardamom tarts.

Cali Chilli

Tandoori Chicken Wings from Cali Chilli's downtown L.A. location.

(

Joshua Mejia

/

Cali Chili

)

At Cali Chilli, on the border of Little Tokyo and downtown, owner Parveen Nair and Michelin-starred chef-collaborator Manjunath Mural have carved out their own path. They opened their Long Beach location in 2022, and their DTLA location in 2024. Mural also leads Song of India in Singapore, which has held a Michelin star since 2015. The pair experiment with their menu, which they dub "unauthentic Indian" — a series of dishes rooted in traditional Indian cuisine and expanded through the lens of a street-food narrative. Think nachos and quesadillas made with tandoori chicken alongside butter lobster in a Thai panang curry.

Baar Baar

Baar Baar's tasting menu begins with pani puris, a popular Indian street snack made with tamarind, mango, yogurt mousse, and raspberry chat masala.

(

Gab Chabrán

/

LAist

)

Further west, a short walk from Crypto.com Arena, is Baar Baar, which has been open since 2023. Executive chef Sujan Sarkar’s restaurant portfolio spans the U.S., including a sister Baar Baar location in New York, Tiya, a restaurant in San Francisco, and Indienne in Chicago, which holds a Michelin star. Sarkar has built a career pushing the boundaries of contemporary Indian cuisine. Diners can take advantage of their $55 prix-fixe menu, including a dahi puri canapé (tamarind, yogurt mousse, raspberry chaat masala), Cauliflower 65 (a riff on Chicken 65, with carrot pachadi, peanut chutney, thecha) and beef short ribs in Madras curry.

Why DTLA

Speaking with Nair and Rawat, I found that each chef saw an opportunity in downtown’s changing character: a steady flow of travelers for Nair and a growing, still-forming community for Rawat.

“In downtown, we get 60% travelers and say about 40% ... from the neighborhood," said Nair.

He says the area’s possibilities sparked Cali Chilli's innovative approach: "There was a vacuum ... the idea [of the restaurants] was conceived pretty much at the same time."

A look inside chef Sanjay Rawat's open kitchen at Brick Lane in the Arts District.

(

Courtesty Brick Lane

)

Meanwhile when Rawat first visited the future site of Brick Lane, near the 6th Street bridge, he wasn’t sure exactly where he was. “Looking from the outside, it made me think, where am I going?”

But when he entered the space, he knew he’d found the right place. With high ceilings and surrounded by large windows, the interior is filled with natural light.

“It's such a beautiful space. Whatever food you put into this space, it's just gonna shine.”

Just a ten-minute walk from Crypto Area, Baar Baar offers modern Indian cuisine with a unique twist.

(

Courtesy of Baar Baar LA

)

He also appreciates the location, too. “Arts District is a beautiful community, which is growing. ... Plus, it's a destination too,” he said.

Still, the chefs understand they have their work cut out for them to make their menus seen as high-end dining, beyond the traditional form Indian food has taken till now.

It’s going to take Indian cuisine in L.A. time to continue to modernize, Rawat said, to a point “where it is acceptable by other cultural groups or even by Indian people.”