WHILE working on my final blog project for class, I took a trip down to the old Jewish district of L.A., a place where I visited a lot during my childhood. My orthodox Jewish grandmother, who moved to L.A. from Jerusalem after the death of my grandfather, rarely left the Jewish district, particularly the intersection of Pico and Robertson, so we were often forced to go to her. This gave me kind of a slightly skewed vision of L.A. and grew up thinking that all Angelenos wore black suits and floor length dresses and only ate at kosher delis.
Traveling back to this area for the first time since my childhood brought back a lot of good memories. I walked around the streets looking at all the small boutiques with their menorahs and Seder plates displayed in the window. Instead of the After-Easter Sales you see at so many other stores, storefronts displayed signs declaring “Passover Sales!” There were Jewish barbershops, a Jewish community center, a large temple, and numerous kosher delis.
But what I found the most interesting on the street, wasn’t all of the family owned businesses with their Hebrew signs, but the Subway Restaurant that sat in between them. Out of curiosity and hunger I went in and ordered a sandwich. Only when I went to ask for cheese on my turkey sandwich, they wouldn’t do it! It was a kosher Subway. I should have known. So I left with my cheese-less sandwich feeling slightly like a bad Jew.
But that’s the beauty of L.A., there’s a little bit of everything here. So for those Angelenos who prefer their meats and cheeses in the same meal, there are plenty of Subways ready to provide just that. But for people who prefer to keep it kosher, as Grandma Cohen would say, they can just head down to Pico.
-- Megan McMurtrey
(kosher symbols image via joyofkosher.com)
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