The Brief

Highland Park is famously walkable, with a rich history. Combined, it creates the perfect conditions for a slew of sandwich spots that combine novel experimentation with old-time tradition.

Initially a landing spot for 19th-century Italian immigrants, the neighborhood later became predominantly Latino before evolving into today's hipster hot spot. All those influences can still be felt in eateries along Fig and York.

Luca Servodio (left) Gab Chabrán (right) consider their sandwich choices

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Luca Servodio

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LAist

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I used to live there and still have an affection for the area. And I have my favorites to head to for a great sandwich when I’m hungry and nearby.

I'd also heard there were new spots emerging that were getting acclaim for their sandwich offerings, so I enlisted the help of Luca Servodio, host of the L.A. Food Podcast and the galaxy brain behind the social media account L.A. Countdown. 

Last year, he wrote for LAist about eating 100 L.A. sandwiches over 12 months, so he knows his stuff. Since he also lives in the neighborhood, I asked him to take me on a sandwich tour.

Jeff’s Table (Jeff’s Special $15.50)

The "Jeff's Special" made with hot sliced pastrami on seeded rye, sauerkraut, Russian dressing, melted Comté cheese and a gruyère crisp.

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Gab Chabrán

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Luca:

The sign on the storefront may read “Coldest Beer in Town,” but the deli tucked away in the back of Flask Fine Wine & Whiskey has become a mainstay for making some of the hottest sandwiches in the neighborhood since 2019. Owner Jeff Strauss describes the out-of-the-box offerings as the natural byproduct of fusing his upbringing as an East Coast Jewish kid with more than three decades living in the City of Angels.

And while you can indulge in something creative like the Kold Kimcheezy (comprising smoked ham, house-made kimchi, Manchego, and salted plum mustard, among other things), we opted for Jeff’s Special — a meticulously crafted reuben famous for its fall-apart house-made pastrami and a crunchy gruyère crisp tucked away amidst the tried-and-true combo of sauerkraut and Russian dressing. It's pure decadence between two slices of griddle rye.

Delicias Bakery & Some (Vegan Milanesa Torta $12)

The vegan milanesa made with cashew cheese, beans, avocado, lettuce, and purple cabbage

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Gab Chabrán

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Gab:

Family-owned Delicias Bakery & Some screams neighborhood like no other place in Highland Park; the sheer fact that it’s stayed in business for 30 years by constantly adjusting its menu to attract a new customer base is a perfect example of its staying power. In the 2010s, they began creating vegan versions of everything, becoming, they claim, the first panadería in L.A. to serve vegan pan dulce.

We tried their vegan Milanesa, made with their telera bread, a flatter, softer, and rounder version of bolillo. It's packed with a breaded patty made from soy protein and topped with beans, purple cabbage, onion, tomato, and chipotle mayo. It may seem like a heavy mouthful, but I was surprised at how much of a light bite it was, with the flavors and textures intermingling, serving up a heavenly dish.

Galco's Old World Grocery (The Original footlong $14.99)

The Original from Galco's Old World Grocery

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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Luca:

I was excited to try this sandwich, especially since I wasn’t even aware this storied soda shop sold sandwiches. I’ve had approximately a gazillion Italian sandwiches (check my spreadsheet if you don’t believe me), and very few are characterized by their restraint. More often than not, they end up looking like a game of deli-case Jenga.

However, there’s a “less is more” quality to Galco’s version that I sincerely appreciated. It’s meat, cheese, pickle, and sauce. That’s it. And while you’ll never find anything like this Italian sandwich in Italy (sandwiches in Italy are famously austere, consisting of merely bread and meat), Galco’s feels like a spiritual ancestor, not unlike the iconic “The Sandwich” at Roma Market in Pasadena.

El Huarache Azteca (Pambaso $8.50)

Pambazo at El Huarache Azteca

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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Gab:

Much ink has been spilled about El Huarache Azteca, including by Jonathan Gold, who included it in his 99 Essential Restaurants 2008  for the L.A. Weekly. Its namesake dish, made of an elongated masa, named after the Spanish word for sandal, is nothing short of spectacular.

The menu celebrates the cuisine of Mexico City or “Distrito Federal,” like their pambazo, a cousin of the torta, often sold on the city's bustling streets. Here at more-laid-back El Huarache, it still carries its vibes. Luca and I split ours while sitting at one of their many sidewalk tables. The saturated bread is fused with a potato and chorizo mixture that melts in your mouth.

Belle’s Bagels (Loxsmith with beet cream cheese $19)

The Loxsmith made with nova lox, crispy salmon skin, radish, pickled fennel, dill and beet cream cheese.

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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Luca:

I thought Gab was off his rocker when he suggested ordering The Loxsmith on pumpernickel. Who orders pumpernickel? (Editor’s note: this guy) Even the name sounds like something Germans use to de-clog pipes.

Alas, I could not have been more wrong. The bagel’s subtle earthiness danced in lockstep to the beat of the beet cream cheese, while its nuttiness was mirrored by the perfectly crisp sliver of fried salmon skin that gives the sandwich its unique texture. It turns out that pumpernickel isn’t just the best choice for Belle’s iconic lox-laced sandwich — it may be the only choice.

It’s about the size of a park bench and made of steel and wood. The bench’s arm rests are formed by the letters “L” and “A” in a design that’s unmistakable to any sports fan. But the welder-artist who created it says it’s not a Dodgers bench.

“This is about civic pride, L.A. pride. I made a design statement saying that it has nothing affiliated with the Dodgers,” said Steve Campos.

Campos grew up near Dodger Stadium, raised by parents who were die-hard Dodgers fans. So much, that they named him after Steve Garvey but that legacy doesn’t keep him from confronting how the Dodgers benefitted from the mass displacement of working-class people from Chavez Ravine after World War Two. That’s why he calls it an L.A. Bench, and not a Dodgers Bench.

The logo may be synonymous with the city's beloved baseball team, but the design of the interlocking letters was used by the L.A. Angels minor league baseball team before the Dodgers moved to L.A. in 1958.

“The monogram was here before the Dodgers,” Campos said.

A second-generation welder

Welding is the Campos family business. His father created gates and security bars for windows and doors for L.A. clients. That was the foundation for the work Campos has done for two decades since graduating from Lincoln High School, L.A. Trade Tech College, and enrolling in a summer program at Art Center in Pasadena.

The inspiration for the L.A. Bench came last year while he was playing around in his shop creating versions of the L.A. logo. A friend he hangs with at Echo Park Lake asked Campos to make him a piece of furniture.

“I was trying to figure out what my friend Curly wanted. He liked Dodgers and drinking and getting into fights, so I was like, 'Let me make something with the LA monogram,'” he said.

Welder-artist Steve Campos created whimsical steel sculptures with the LA logo.

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Courtesy Steve Campos

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It didn’t design itself. He said he had to lengthen the legs on the “A” and lean the back of the “L” in order to make the bench functional. In the process, he’s made a piece of furniture with a ubiquitous logo that he’s embedded with his own L.A. pride, as well as city history past and present.

LA civic pride travels to Japan

Campos vacationed in Japan the last week of April and took advantage of the trip to reach out to people who may be interested in the L.A. Bench. He was caught off guard by people’s reaction when he showed them pictures of it.

“They look at it and they go, 'Oh, Ohtani bench,'” he said.

For them, it’s still a bench embedded with pride, he said, but centered around Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, an icon in his native Japan.

Campos has made four L.A. benches and is selling them fully assembled, he said, for $2,500 each — taking into account his labor and how costly the raw materials have become. For now, he’s offering the metal parts as a package for $500, which requires the buyer to purchase the wood for the seat and the back — an easy process, he said.

While he has no plans to mass produce the L.A. Bench, he does have one goal in mind that shows how hard it is for him to separate L.A. civic pride and the Dodgers.

“I would love to get a couple of them installed at Dodger Stadium,” he said.

The Venice Boardwalk after sunset has generally been a no-go zone for tourists and locals alike, as the beachside bars and restaurants close on the early side and safety is often an issue. Now, a group of artists is out to bring some vibrancy to the creative neighborhood with a series of new installations that will include live evening performances – and even a “Venice Opera House.”

“Let's play with light and let's play with sound and give people a reason to come to the Boardwalk after sundown,” said artist and entrepreneur Stefan Ashkenazy, who is curating the project and owns the buildings housing them. “I mean, let's just be open 24 hours a day.”

The concept doesn’t have an official name yet, but he’s been calling it “See World.”

Artist James Ostrer's space looks out from a bed through the fence to the ocean at Venice Beach.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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William Attaway, a longtime Venice artist, created a gallery space filled with various paintings and sculptures.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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The pair of modern buildings on the Venice Boardwalk at Thornton Ave. – with their big balconies, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and seven open garage-style retail spaces – have sat mostly empty since Snapchat vacated their beachside offices in 2019. Ashkenazy recently bought the building and recruited artists to fill those front-facing spaces with creative work until a full-time tenant comes in.

Over the past several weeks the installations have been created in real-time, in public.

All of the projects are loosely along the theme of “home,” with each artist claiming a “room” in the two buildings that stretch across a full block on the Boardwalk. Several local Venice artists are featured, including William Attaway, whose intricate mosaic work is recognizable on the Venice public restrooms along the beach. Attaway’s space features a floating larger-than-life-sized statue and various works in a mini-gallery. In the next room is Robin Murez’s pieces, featuring carved wooden seats from her beloved neighborhood Venice Flying Carousel.

Ashkenazy is no stranger to wild (and wildly successful) art ideas. He’s the owner of the Petit Ermitage hotel in West Hollywood, a longtime haven for visiting artists, and the founder of the decade-old Bombay Beach Biennale, where artists install all kinds of work in an annual event near the Salton Sea. Many of the artists from that community are featured at the Venice project.

A "Venice Opera House" will host pop-up music events throughout the summer.

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Laura Hertfeldz

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny's paintings on the wall of his Venice space.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny and London-based artist James Ostrer have brought some of their work in the Bombay Beach Biennale to the Venice project. Their windows on the Boardwalk both speak to a child-like sense of wonder and creativity.

“I think it's just kind of exploring and playing a little bit, to have the freedom to be able to do that,” Haberny says of his imagined child’s bedroom space, which includes a fort made out of puffy cheese balls. “It's a big space, too.
It's beautiful.”

Ostrer is experimenting with a performance art idea where he sits in bed amongst a room full of his own artwork, which he describes as “happy art with an edge.” Looking out at the ocean from the bed, he’s invited passersby to sit and have chats with him about his work or anything else they want to talk about.

“It’s a very intimate space, so you have a different kind of conversation,” he said. “I use art to channel human creativity, and [talk about] dark things.”

While there are open fences that block off the spaces, they aren’t sealed up at night. Both Ashkenazy and the team of artists seemed open to the idea that anything could happen and that the installations are a conversation with the public – and with that comes some risk.

Greg Haberny (right) works with his assistants on an installation featuring kid-inspired graffiti art and a "cheesy puff" fort.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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“I don't really know if I [would] say worried, but I guess it's just the cost of doing business,” Haberny said. “I don't really make things to get damaged or broken, sure. But I have done [things like] burned all my paintings and then made paint out of ash.”

While he’s felt safe – and even slept overnight in the installation – Ostrer has been collaborating with a local female artist who performs in a pig mask in front of his installation some nights. Watching her perform, he said, has taught him about the vulnerability of women in public spaces like the Boardwalk. “I've started to, on a very fractional level, have seen how scary that is. Because I've sat in the bed behind her performing at the front here… the way in which men are approaching her and shrieking at her … it's shocking.”

Ashkenazy says he will keep the artists in the space, potentially rotating new ones in, until a fulltime tenant takes over.

“This is an experiment … and after acquiring the building, the intention wasn't, ‘let's open a bunch of public art spaces,’ he said. “It is kind of …what the building wanted and listening to what the Boardwalk needed. Let's play, let's have the artists that we love and appreciate have a space to play and engage and give the locals and the visitors to the Boardwalk something to experience.”

A new trail across the beloved natural area of Elephant Hill in Northeast Los Angeles is officially opening this weekend.

The route is years in the making, and it's a big milestone in the decades-long conservation efforts to preserve this local jewel in the community of El Sereno.

The hiking trail connects one side of Elephant Hill to the other — from the corner of Pullman Street and Harriman Avenue all the way across to Lathrop Street.

It's 0.75 miles in total, but packs a punch.

"It's a pretty straight shot, but because of the terrain — the trail is kind of twisty and curvy. There's switchbacks — and great views," Elva Yañez, board president of the nonprofit Save Elephant Hill, said.

People have always been able to access the 110-acre green space, but Yañez said the new trail provides a safe and easy way to navigate the steep hillsides.

The El Sereno nonprofit has been working for two decades to preserve the land. Illegal dumping and off-roading have damaged the open space over the years. And the majority of the 110 acres are privately owned by an estimated 200 individual owners.

Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) joined the efforts in 2018, spurred by a $700,000 grant from Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, in part, to build the trail. The local agency received some $2 million in grants from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to add to the 10 acres of Elephant Hill it manages and conserves. This year, MCRA acquired an additional 12 parcels — or about 2.4 acres.

And the spiffy new footpath — with trail signage, information kiosks and landscape boulders — is not just a long-sought-for victory but a beginning in a sense.

"We know that it means a lot to the community," Sarah Kevorkian, who oversees the trail project for MRCA, said. "We're wrapping up the trail, but it really feels like the beginning of all that is to come."

A hint of that vision already exists — for hikers traversing the new route, courtesy of Test Plot, the L.A.-based nonprofit that works to revitalize depleted lands.

"They're able to see at the end of the trail, at the 'test plot' — exactly what a restored Elephant Hill would look like," Yañez said.

Here's a preview:

A coalition of residents from across the San Gabriel Valley are mobilizing over a battery storage project and possibly more industrial development in the City of Industry they say could pollute communities next door.

A protest is scheduled today in neighboring Rowland Heights, targeting a 400-megawatt battery energy storage facility sited on about 9 acres that was approved by the City of Industry leaders in January.

Such Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are used to keep the power grid stable, especially as output from renewable energy sources like solar and wind fluctuate. But fires involving lithium batteries at some sites have heightened environmental and public health fears.

Because of the City of Industry’s unusual, sprawling shape stretching along the 60 Freeway, it borders on more than a dozen communities, meaning what happens there can have far-reaching impact.

“Pollution does not end right at the border,” said Andrew Yip, an organizer with No Data Centers SGV Coalition. “Pollution travels.”

Some local activists with the Puente Hills Community Preservation Association have challenged the approval of the battery facility under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Beyond environmental concerns, locals have also been frustrated with how decisions are made by officials in the City of Industry, a municipality that’s almost entirely zoned for industrial use and has less than 300 residents.

Organizers say they’ve struggled to get direct responses from city officials whom they say have replaced regular meetings with special meetings, which under state law require less advance notice.

A city spokesperson has not responded to requests for comment.

The so-called Marici Energy Storage System Facility would be run by Aypa Power. The fact that the battery storage developer is owned by the private equity giant Blackstone, a major investor in AI and data centers, has only fueled concerns that a battery storage facility would lay the groundwork for data center development.

A request for comment from Aypa was not returned.

Today’s protest is taking place at Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights across the street from the Puente Hills Mall, a largely vacant “dead” mall, which activists fear could be redeveloped into a data center and bring higher utility costs and greater air and noise pollution.

Yip pointed out that industrial developments make a lot of money for the City of Industry.

“But none of these surrounding communities receive any of those benefits,” Yip said. “Yet we have to put up with all the harmful effects and impacts from this city that does all this development without really reaching out.”