If you’re going to eat at A La Beirut, you have to close your eyes and take a bite. This is according to owner Vartan Mouradian, who explains that it’s the only way to taste the love infused into their family restaurant's take on Lebanese street food.
Against the advice of their local friends and family, the Mouradians have brought their hand-pressed sandwiches and wraps to this desolate corner strip mall in the shadows of the larger Eagle Rock Plaza, a vestigial remnant of our country's peak-mall-mania past.
What was a forgotten corner of Eagle Rock is now home to a loving Lebanese-Armenian family, their contagious smiles, and their delectable sandwiches.
In Lebanon, street food spots, which provide a multitude of options, allow you to eat for 15 to 20 minutes and then be on your way. At A La Beirut, the focus is on Lebanese sandwiches and wraps made with ingredients that are expected to be unique and some that truly are. There are chicken and beef shawarma wraps, including chicken shish tawouk, which comes with chicken kabob and fries, cabbage-mayo slaw, ketchup, pickles, and garlic paste.
Among the sandwiches, it offers “rosto,” aka Lebanese-style roast beef. You can also find tender beef tongue, rich stewed chicken liver, maanek and sujuk (two kinds of Lebanese sausages), and the infamously pungent dried beef basturma. There's also a simple vegetarian-friendly sandwich spread with Lebanese labneh. Excepting the salt, cumin, and Aleppo peppers, 95% of their spices come from Lebanon.