Open Market Serves Los Angeles’s Best New-School Sandwiches Out of a Koreatown Office Plaza | Eater LA

"Tucked in the back of a concrete Koreatown plaza, this neighborhood cafe and sandwich shop serves inventive takes on nostalgic deli classics while doubling as a market selling natural wines, jars of Mejorado salsa from Burritos La Palma, locally made makgeolli, black truffle-flavored potato chips, and a small selection of home goods. In a city with sandwich shops on practically every corner, it carves a place for itself as a reflection of Los Angeles’s diverse flavors between two slices of bread. The Normandie, named after the neighboring street, pays tribute to Philippe’s French dip with Creekstone Farms brisket on a chewy baguette with provolone, mustard mayonnaise, ginger pickled radish, and scallions, with au jus on the side. The Kenmore translates Korean tuna gimbap into a sandwich, piling radish- and gim-studded tuna salad onto toasted, fluffy brioche topped with a thick slice of salty American cheese and a minty-herbal perilla leaf; if only summer camp tuna sandwiches tasted like this, maybe the sandwich wouldn’t have such a bad reputation. Fridays bring one-day-only specials available starting at 11 a.m. — past hits include a shrimp po’ boy and a kimchi jjigae dip — that sell out quickly and often don’t return; sandwiches are available at 11 a.m., while breakfast runs all day (the outstanding breakfast burrito wraps up when lunch starts). Best for lunch with friends for under $25 a person, daytime laptop warriors who want good food and coffee while they work, and picking up affordable bottles of wine to impress any dinner party, with a handy free lot around the corner on Catalina under the 3333 sign." - Rebecca Roland