How To Soak up Sun and Sample Sandwiches in Eagle Rock

Summer is officially here, bringing long days and (finally!) an end to June gloom. Whether you’re craving Baja style seafood, a modern take on American classics, or revamped Mediterranean street food, celebrate the arrival of the sun and the season with delicious al fresco dining at these inviting Eagle Rock patios.

Alicia Ramirez’s started as a humble, street-side, stand-and-order counter in Highland Park in 1988.  Food critics such as Ruth Reichl, Jonathan Gold, and Elmer Dills flocked to the Eastside, feasted on the Ensenada-style seafood … and fell in love.  Ramirez’s move to Eagle Rock helped put the community on the map; two decades later, the scallop tacos and shrimp and scallop burritos still draw crowds.

The best seats in the house are actually outside on one of Señor Fish’s double patios shaded by big, beautiful, spreading trees. The arched entrance with its iconic, sombrero’d fish, draws you in with humble fanfare, the greenery-laden fences screen out street noise, and the masses of thriving succulents and the rough, reclaimed wood painted in faded, sea-hued blues and greens make Senor Fish’s patio feel like a secret hideaway … even 20 years later.

One bite of Chef Andre Guerrero’s smoky-sweet pulled pork sandwiches at brings North Carolina barbecue to mind but as you settle under the palm tree-surrounded patio inspired by the classic "Googie" architecture of Fifties and Sixties-era coffee shops, you know you couldn’t be anywhere but Los Angeles.

Guerrero, whose resume ranges from cooking at his family’s restaurant to a stint at the Biltmore Hotel to helming his own restaurants Senor Fred and Max, arguably invented the “slow fast food” concept with The Oinkster, which appeared on Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold’s L.A. Weekly “bucket list” of “99 Essential L.A. Restaurants.” Guerrero has said that as far as he knows, he’s the only chef in the country who house-cures and smokes his own pastrami, using a recipe that took two years to perfect.

Add crisp-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside Belgian-style fries blanched first in beef oil and finished in rice bran oil, Guerrero’s made-in-house condiments including sweet catsup and ancho-lime mayonnaise, and a purple shake utilizing the ube: a Filipino sweet potato. The Oinkster’s only-in-L.A.’s melting pot combo is guaranteed to make you want to linger at the diner-style tables on the patio with its pebbled floor reminiscent of sun-kissed beaches and its just-right combo of sun-and-shade: Americana redefined.

Thanks to its butterscotch-yellow umbrellas and white-walled, bougainvillea-bordered patio, seems sunny even when the sky says otherwise, but at Eagle Rock’s doner kebab palace, outdoor eating really comes into its own come summer. Then again, it’s hard not to think heat year-round, given Spitz’s Turkish style sandwiches: lean half-beef, half-lamb meat carved from a rotating cylinder, wrapped in grilled lavash bread, and dosed with cucumber-yoghurt tzaziki and a spicy chile sauce.

Inspired by Spitz co-owner Bryce Rademan’s indulgence of Spanish doner kebab while studying abroad and started with Rademan’s fellow alum Robert Wicklund, the eatery’s signature offering was awarded “Best Sandwich in Los Angeles” in 2010 by Los Angeles Magazine.

The Eastside mecca for Mediterranean street food-inspired fare also has rabid devotees of its street cart fries:  regular or sweet potato fries smothered with fast-melting feta, peppers, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, chili sauce and garlic aioli, served with or without meat. 

Up the ante with super-spicy, Thai chili Sriracha and green Tabasco sauce; it will just give you (another) good reason to cool off on the patio with Spitz’s delectably creamy gelato. Whether shaded by umbrellas or sparked by the stars overhead, Spitz’s patio is cosy and romantic for lunch and dinner culinary indulgences.

Welcome to your SoCal summer.

Correction: We erroneously stated—and have since retracted—that Andre Guerrero of The Oinkster studied pastrami preparation skills with the late Al Langer of Langer's Deli.