West Hollywood Italian Deli Mamie Makes LA’s Best Paninis | Eater LA

"To fully appreciate the schiacciata at Mamie, a five-month-old Italian sandwich shop in West Hollywood, you need to know that owner Mikael Choukroun handmakes the bread several times daily using his Italian grandmother’s recipe: a dough of equal parts water and flour fermented for 72 hours and kneaded similarly to focaccia but yielding a distinct crunchy crust and light, chewy center, with olive oil and flaky salt folded in repeatedly. The schiacciata provides the foundation for the panini and rectangular pizzas, and Choukroun sums up his relationship with the bread: "You can’t control the schiacciata. The schiacciata controls you." He selects D.O.P.-certified cured meats (prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, salame Toscana, bresaola, guanciale) and composes each sandwich with a single meat so its texture and flavor can shine, imports ingredients like artichoke hearts, stracciatella, and confited lemons from Italy while sourcing vegetables (wild mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini) from local farmers markets, and applies the same care to pizza toppings. Signatures include the Rosselini (salame Toscana, sautéed wild mushrooms, truffle cream, arugula), the Diva (mortadella, stracciatella, chopped pistachio, baby arugula), and the Cardinal (turkey with artichoke heart cream, oven-dried tomato, Comté, arugula), with house spreads such as gorgonzola dolce, pesto, crema di limon, and Calabrian spicy chile; there are also simple salads with warm schiacciata crostini and sometimes 48-hour marinated goat cheese, a coffee bar brewing Kimbo and offering Lurisia lemon and blood orange sodas, and a small market with Italian specialties like Gentile pasta and Cafona artichokes. Choukroun’s stated intention is to offer fine-dining quality ingredients in a casual, unpretentious, European-café–style setting where diners can sip frothy cappuccinos and absorb the pulse of the city." - Andrew Watman