Mediterranean is a word that covers three continents and about twenty cuisines, and in most American neighbourhoods it has narrowed to mean one thing: hummus, falafel, grilled meat, a wrap. Silver Lake does not have that. What it has is genuinely more interesting and slightly harder to search for — four separate rooms, each drawing on a different part of that coastline, none of which would describe itself using the word at all.
None of these four rooms calls itself Mediterranean, which is why a search for it comes back thin here. Tell Karpo what you actually feel like eating and it will find the right kitchen rather than the right label.
Persia, on Sunset
Azizam at 2943 West Sunset Boulevard is a daytime Persian café with a patio. The dish it is known for is the kofteh tabrizi — a grapefruit-sized meatball built with walnuts and dried barberries — and the dessert is a Persian mille-feuille. Persian cooking is the herb-heavy, sour-fruit, slow-braise end of this tradition: barberries, pomegranate, dried limes, enormous quantities of fresh herbs treated as a dish rather than a garnish.
It is a daytime operation rather than an evening one, which makes it the right answer for lunch and the wrong one for a late dinner. The patio is the other reason to go — shade is the scarcest resource in this neighbourhood at midday.
Spain, on Silver Lake Boulevard
Bar Besito at 1710 Silver Lake Boulevard is built around conservas and tapas — tinned fish served straight from the tin, including mackerel marinated in yuzu koshu. Good conservas are a preserved product in the way a cured ham is, made to be eaten from the tin rather than as a substitute for fresh fish, and a bar built around them is doing something specific rather than something cheap.
This is also the most weather-appropriate food in the neighbourhood. Cold oily fish, bread, and something acidic is the correct meal on a hot Los Angeles evening, and it requires no kitchen at all.
Italy, on Sunset
Ceci's Gastronomia at 2813 West Sunset Boulevard does focaccia sandwiches built on thin, crunchy bread, with a sidewalk patio under yellow umbrellas. Italian rather than Italian-American: the bread is the point, the fillings are restrained, and the whole thing is designed to be eaten outdoors in the middle of the day.
It sits within a few hundred metres of Café Tropical at 2900 West Sunset Boulevard and LaSorted's Pizza at 2847 Sunset Boulevard, which makes this short stretch of Sunset the closest thing Silver Lake has to a Mediterranean corner — three different traditions, all counter-led, all within a two-minute walk.
France, in a courtyard
Café Stella at 3932 West Sunset Boulevard is the long-standing French room, arranged around a grungy courtyard that is considerably better than that description makes it sound. Steak au poivre, a frisée salad, and a sorbet served inside a frozen lemon — southern French rather than Parisian in feel, and the courtyard does most of the work. Reservations are recommended rather than required.
How to choose between them
Ask what you actually want from the meal. Herbs, sourness and something slow-cooked: Azizam. Salt, oil, bread and drinking: Bar Besito. Something in your hand, outside, quickly: Ceci's. A table, a bottle and two hours: Café Stella. If what you specifically wanted was hummus and falafel, none of these will provide it, and the honest answer is that the Levantine cooking in this part of Los Angeles is concentrated further west toward Little Armenia and East Hollywood rather than in Silver Lake.
Practical notes
Addresses: Azizam 2943 W Sunset Blvd; Bar Besito 1710 Silver Lake Blvd; Ceci's Gastronomia 2813 W Sunset Blvd; Café Stella 3932 W Sunset Blvd; Café Tropical 2900 W Sunset Blvd; LaSorted's Pizza 2847 Sunset Blvd. Azizam is a daytime café. The Sunset Boulevard addresses cluster together and are walkable; Silver Lake Boulevard is a separate cluster requiring a short drive. Metered parking on Sunset is at its worst between noon and 2pm at weekends, and the residential blocks behind it carry enforced permit restrictions.
Tags: #MediterraneanFoodNearMe #SilverLake #LosAngeles #Azizam #BarBesito #CecisGastronomia #CafeStella #SunsetBoulevard #Persian #Conservas #EastsideLA #Restaurants #LAEats #TinnedFish
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Ask Karpo first
None of Silver Lake's Mediterranean rooms use that word, which is exactly why the search comes back empty and the food is there anyway. Ask Karpo which of these four is open right now, which has shade at this hour, and where to go instead if what you actually wanted was falafel.
