That Cuban Sandwich

Lately, I've been posting about restaurants.  I must be hungry.

On Friday, we saw "Chef," the new Jon Favreau movie.  The tagline is "A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family."  The movie was totally entertaining, even though I could NEVER see Sofia Vergara or Scarlett Johansson being interested in Jon Favreau!  The plot is a bit saccharine, but the movie is chock-full o' stars who turn in excellent performances.  If you like cooking shows, you'll like this movie.

"Chef" promotion poster

After seeing all of those delicious looking Cuban sandwiches that Jon Favreau and John Leguizamo turned out on their El Jefe food truck, Larry and I were dying to have a Cuban sandwich for dinner!  I could only think of Cuban places in Glendale and Burbank that served Cuban sandwiches, so I whipped out my trusty iPhone and did a search for a place on the Westside.  We ended up at the Havanah Sandwich Company in El Segundo.

Havana Sandwich Shop Mini-Mall, Main St., El Segundo

Havana Sandwich Shop

This is a no-frills sandwich shop in a mini-mall on Main Street, downtown El Segundo.  On a Friday night at the beginning of a holiday weekend, the place only had 2 patrons inside.  This did not deter us.  The menu is lengthy, but we decided to go for the classics.  Larry had the Original Cuban and I ordered the Miami Cuban sandwich.  Both were prepared beautifully and were delicious.  We each ordered the half-sandwich because the full-sands are huge!  We will definitely return to the Havanah Sandwich Company to check out more items on their menu.

I love downtown El Segundo.  It's a real throwback to classic, small-town centers.  I visit El Segundo once a month for my Knitting Guild meeting, so I'm a bit familiar with the downtown area.  Larry never comes here.  After dinner, at twilight time, we drove around downtown to see a few sights.  There are tons of cool-looking restaurants, shops, boutiques, parks and even an El Segundo Art Museum!  We saw the Purple Orchid Tiki Lounge, which we've been wanting to visit for years!  

There are tons of apartments, condos and unique homes too.  Hmmmm?  This may be a good place for our later years, especially if we want to travel.  It's near the ocean breeze, oil refinery and LAX.

Re-painting of El Segundo Water Tower

Quaint Downtown El Segundo