Market Grill at the Farmer’s Market

I have lived in Los Angeles for nearly six years, and I go to the Farmer’s Market, on average, about once a week. Until a few weeks ago, I had never even noticed Market Grill nestled in-between China Depot and Bryan’s Pit Barbecue.

Remember when you were a kid, and you would go to the pool during the long, warm days of summer vacation? When you got hungy, you sloshed over to the snack bar and ordered some chicken nuggets or a sandwich. Market Grill is that snack bar, except instead of a pool, it’s the Farmer’s Market.

I am a sucker for the simplest of foods when they are done right. Take the humble BLT for example. How hard can it be to make a sandwich with three ingedients? Hard enough, evidently, to stump most restaurants that try to muck with the culinarily-sound formula of toast, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. It seems like every time I see a BLT on a menu, it’s served with a schmear of smoked chipotle aeoli or other such nonsense. Either that or the quality of the fresh ingredients requisite for a competent BLT are sacrificed for the sake of speed, cost, or some other unknown. If you’re going to add anything, go the Market Grill route and stick to plain old mayonnaise.

The menu offers an array of other items like a tuna salad, a chicken breast salad, and open-faced steak sandwich, and an assortment of breaded/fried snacks (chicken nuggets, zuchinni and shrimp). I haven’t tried anything other than the BLT (yet), but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get around the other menu items. Now, make no mistake; this BLT is not the product of any fancy kitchen handiwork. It’s two slices of supermarket-loaf wheat bread toasted and dressed with mayo, ripe tomatoes, plenty of good crispy bacon, and crisp lettuce. It’s served with a side of a style of cole slaw that I love (crisp, thick, tangy, and slightly sweet) and a pickle.

And, at under six bucks, it’s a steal.