By now, the sandwiches at Angelo’s Italian Deli are things of legend, monstrous creations constructed to feed what must be utterly inhuman appetites. Try and take a whole one on and it’ll probably knock you out cold. But they don’t substitute quantity for quality here—these are expert sandwiches made with well-sourced Italian ingredients. There are [...]

At one point in its existence, the Milk Barn probably was a hidden gem, stashed behind a drive-through dairy in the Long Beach/Lakewood borderland. But long ago the restaurant lost any secrecy that may have surrounded it. That’s all the better for the Milk Barn, which cooks the kind of unquestionably hearty, vaguely Italian food [...]

New York by way of Signal Hill at Rocco’s Deli Italiano

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
There’s no dearth of delis around here. Above maybe all other foodstuffs, greater Long Beach loves its cured and smoked meats. But don’t go looking for matzo balls; our deli tradition is mostly an Italian one, evidenced admirably by Angelo’s Italian Deli, [...]

The Corner Store is all you need

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Nostalgia is a culinary commodity in constant demand, prized for its ability to drum up enthusiasm for the humblest, most homely dishes. It’s so effective that it can keep struggling restaurants on life support for years. Still, there are certain haunts that survive as a result [...]

Continue your coffee-fueled creativity at Sipology

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Little-known fact: this very paper was born in a coffee shop. Or to be more precise, conceived in a coffee shop and birthed in the living rooms of The District’s founding staff. We’ve long since acquired our own proper digs inside a cold office building—aren’t they always [...]

There’s no dearth of delis around here. Above maybe all other foodstuffs, greater Long Beach loves its cured and smoked meats. But don’t go looking for matzo balls; our deli tradition is mostly an Italian one, evidenced admirably by Angelo’s Italian Deli, Foggia Italian Market & Deli and Santa Fe Importers. If all went well, [...]

Serious sandwiches at Foggia Italian Market and Deli

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Sandwiches are the product of industrial circumstance, traditionally inexpensive meals of two-handed utility meant to be consumed in no more than a few hearty bites. Rarely does an expensive, decadent sandwich ever seem truly worth its weight—the humblest creations please the most. But there’s nothing [...]

Loosen your tie at Fresh Foods Café

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Hours in the office don’t quite suppress an appetite, but they sure stifle it—hunger blunted and bludgeoned by the electric hum of copiers and computers and fluorescent lights. By the time your brain sends out enough signals to remind itself that you’ve skipped breakfast and [...]

Nearly all of Busy Bee Market’s sandwiches can be served hot, and the turkey pastrami might be the perfect example. The sandwich starts with pastrami peeled away in delicate strips dropped in a hot pool of au jus. The meat is then fished out and folded, still steaming, into the sandwich with cheese, mustard and [...]

Believe in San Pedro’s Busy Bee Market

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
It’s always a crawl over to Busy Bee Market—engines whining their way up some of San Pedro’s steeper streets—but once you make that hungry hajj, it’s an event bound to become a fixture of your eating schedule. After all, the corner store inspires loyalty at levels [...]