Los Angeles - Canter's

http://www.cantersdeli.com/home

In giving us a taste of Los Angeles, our guides thought of two pastrami places. Langer's was considered, but based on our schedule, and also a desire to sit down and relax, Canter's was the correct choice.

I have been unsure what to call it. I thought I was just looking for whether or not there is an apostrophe, and whether it was a restaurant or delicatessen.  Searching I found an apostrophe sometimes, but not every time, and that in addition to being a restaurant and deli, it is also a bakery, bar, and cocktail lounge.

It is all of the above. It can be viewed as the establishment belonging to the Canter family, or a place where multiple Canters might be, and it is all of those places associated with food and drink. We walked in through the deli entrance, where you can see cases loaded with meats, cheeses, and baked goods. You can carry out from here, but we were seated in the restaurant part. (We did not go into the bar and lounge, but I saw where they were.)

I was really pleased with how helpful the staff was. We were initially seated at a booth that wasn't really comfortable for us, and they quickly got us to a better table. Our waitress asked if we had been there before and guided us through the menu when she learned we hadn't, and she was really good about answering questions.

The food was very good. We started off with some latkes, and I only remembered to take a picture after they were mostly gone. I had the pastrami on rye, since that seemed like the most reasonable choice. There was an option to get both pastrami and corned beef. Actually, there are a lot of options; it is a pretty extensive menu.

Each sandwich comes with a large pickle, and that sounded good to me, but it ended up working out even better, because they sliced the pickles and brought them out on a single plate, which makes sharing much easier if some people like pickles more than others. (I do.)

We finished by sharing some chocolate babka. Sharing is a good idea because the portions are generous.

A friend had recommended it to us earlier, and looking at the bakery case I thought I knew which one it was, but it was actually something else. This was fine and the babka was good, but I want to make a point that looking in the deli case, there is a lot of stuff that looks really good. So it could be a very reasonable thing to study it before being seated, or to eat a good dinner and then choose dessert on your way out. Again, our waitress was good about answering questions, but we could have asked more.

We noticed the pictures of President Obama and Guns N' Roses, but if you look at the web site you can see a celebrity gallery with lots of famous faces. Still, the connection with Guns N' Roses seemed special, and a little digging found this:

http://www.laweekly.com/music/guns-n-roses-appetite-for-pastrami-2152404

Canter's is a good dining choice if you get the chance.