My favoriate Cubano lunch stop in LA closed up due to family infighting. Since then I’ve been on the lookout for a new place. I tried La Cubana on Glendale, but they are closed on Mondays, so I headed further down the avenue, to Baracoa, near the base of Glendale where it crosses the Los Angeles River. I’d seen Baracoa, a shaded one-room, of six or eight booths with a kitchen the back, and have wanted to try it. I got the avocado salad and the arroz con pollo and read Marcia Douglas’ beautiful novel, The Marvellous Equations of the Dread. It was good—the darkness, the novel, the rice—but the experience felt a little disconnected and a little lost in the dark.
Lunch in LA really should be exceptional.
Onwards! 