cinnamon restaurant: a metro-accessible vegetarian option
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As the pain of high gas prices puts a crunch on the Angeleno lifestyle, I decided to make an effort exploring places that are Metro-accessible.
Vegetarian restaurants are difficult to come by in Downtown, but who would have thought Highland Park as home to a comfort diner-style veggie haunt?
Enter Cinnamon Restaurant, a Spanish-Mexican vegetarian eatery serving up good, rustic, meatless fare. While their menu lists items such as “chicken burger patty” and “jumping shrimp cocktail,” the manager assured me these are all made with meat substitutes.
Soy chorizo, anyone?
Cinnamon Restaurant is located a short walk from the Highland Park station on the Metro Gold line. OK, so Highland Park isn’t exactly the most glamorous neighborhood, but you will find Cinnamon a cheerful oasis with modest furnishings and decor.
Once you sit down you might scratch your head wondering what to order from the menu, as I did. It’s not very descriptive so I asked a few questions about their offerings, finally settling on the house horchata and green sauce salpicon.
What is salpicon? The manager explained it’s a wheat protein, so I imagined it is similar if not identical to seitan. What the hell, I’ll give it a try.
As you can see from the picture above the portion size is generous. Look a little more closely and you’ll notice I sucked down most of the horchata before my meal arrived. The horchata is sweet, satisfying and hearty (yes, an unusual way to describe horchata). I even detected a hint of cardamom. Delicious to say the least!
The entree’s green sauce was a tangy concoction of tomatillos, bell pepper and onions with diamond-shaped morsels of salpicon stewed within. The salpicon had a light and bouncy texture and soaked up the flavor of the sauce. I felt full very quickly even though everything was light and fresh. The black beans had a unique flavor- perhaps it was cooked with cinnamon? The smoky and spicy house red sauce goes great with the beans. Ask for extra red sauce if you dare.
My entire meal was less than $13 and the service was fast, friendly and helpful. Cinnamon Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner five days a week (closed Tuesdays). While they’re not open early enough for a quick pre-work breakfast, Metro commuters might consider stopping in for dinner on the way home.
Antigua Bread Bakery and Cafe is a couple blocks up the street from Cinnamon Restaurant. Based on this short Metromix write up, I had an image of Antigua Bread bursting at the seams with fresh-baked bread a la La Brea Bakery. In this respect I was sorely disappointed. Antigua offers pastries, espresso drinks and sandwiches, but not in the volumes I had imagined.
The cafe seems to be enjoyed by locals as a place to hang out, work on the laptop or read a book. Free wifi is available, and everyone likes free wifi. However, I found their brownies overly sweet and tasting like it came from a Duncan Hines mix. My personal opinion is Antigua Bread has nice atmosphere, but I’ll pass on the food.
The highlight of my trip to Highland Park is this little slice of heaven I ran into walking to Cinnamon Restaurant. A delicious smell of freshly-baked pastries enveloped me and before my brain knew what my body was doing I had walked into Delicia’s Panaderia.
Delicia’s is a treasure trove of goodies. Tall glass cases filled with racks of assorted sweet breads and sheet cakes made my eyes pop. The store attendant didn’t speak much English, but was able to communicate to me the triangular pastries were filled with crema, apples or peanut butter. The refrigerated case on the opposite wall was stocked with tres leches cakes, flan, rice pudding and jello. Are you drooling yet?
The entire store was tidy, well-organized and well-displayed. They also have a small section of dried and canned Mexican foodstuff. Apparently Delicia’s Panaderia specializes in Mexican and Salvadorean tamales but I only had eyes (and nose) for the sweets.
It was hard deciding between tres leches cake or flan but I walked out of the store with flan, an apple pastry and block of buttery yellow cake (total spent=$4.50). You know it’s really good when you can see butter oozing out of the paper bag!
Delicia’s Panaderia is open seven days a week from 6:00am to 9:00pm. Their baked goods and tamales are advertised as all natural and preservative-free.
Highland Park also has a certified farmer’s market on Tuesdays from 3:00pm-8:00pm in the parking lot directly opposite the Metro station.
And for all you soda-loving freaks out there, Galco’s Soda Pop Stop on York Boulevard is worth a mention. I didn’t have a chance to visit, but I’d heard about them several years ago. It’s not close to the Metro station so a friend of mine suggested hopping a bus to get there.
There are a few eateries, an old movie theater and discount stores along North Figueroa near the Highland park Metro station. You could spend your idle weekend hours walking up and down the street and possibly run into more little gems.
Cinnamon Vegetarian Restaurant
5511 N Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90042
323-982-9480
Monday-10:00am to 8:30pm
Tuesday-closed
Wednesday/Thursday-10:00am to 8:30pm
Friday/Saturday-9:00am to 9:00pm
Sunday-9:00am to 8:00pm
Antigua Bread
5703 N Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90042
323-259-9345
Sunday-Thursday-6:00am to 10:00pm
Friday-Saturday-6:00am to 11:00pm
Delicia’s Panaderia
5567 N Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90042
323-259-9306
Monday-Sunday-6:00am to 9:00pm
9 comments
mmm cinnamon’s shrimp cocktails shake my tail feathers. I’ve been going to Cinnamon for a little while now, they had some bumpy service related problems, but by your write up, it seems all is better now. Soy Rizo, Mole, Tamales…..how can you say no?
Ira don’t give away too much. Highland Park is one of my guilty pleasures, its been cleaning up and “gentrifying” slowly but nicely.
Ira, Highland Park is a complete mystery to me. Bryan and I are planning on checking it out next weekend. Thanks for the great story!
So great (great!) to see Highland Park get some love on Angelenic.
Stephen and Bryan, here’s some other HP spots not to be missed…they’re all on Fig and walkable from Metro Gold Line.
- Little Cave: Great, dark, mexi-goth bar. Wednesdays are electro night. Lots of cute hipsters in tight pants.
- Highland Theater: $2 movies. A former movie place, (sadly) divided into 3 smaller screens but great for a CHEAP movie that you wouldn’t want to pay full price to see.
- Follierios: NY style pizza and pasta place.
- Las Estrallas: 24/7 walk up mexican food. Delicious, and in a groovy 60’s building. Check out the mural painted on the wall in the dinning area. It’s like Mexico on acid. This is the spot to get some food after Little Cave closes for the night.
I also have to give special mention to The York. I can’t say enough about this “gastro pub” in the style of Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City. It’s on York, so not walkable from the train, but worth checking it out for sure. It’s literally redefined the neighborhood.
Also, the Northeast LA art walk is the 2nd Saturday of every month. The scene on Fig and on York is fun to check out. More info here:
http://www.nelaart.com
AP, is Avenue 50 Studio still open? I drove by the other day and it looked like it was gone.
Stephen, check out the Southwest Museum. The station is neat. The museum building is in a dramatic location and has interesting architecture. I’m not big on Indian antiquities. But, it is worth stopping for a visit.
I used to work off of Figueroa in the Highland Park/Garvanza area. It’s one of my favorite places of the city - so green and historic. Plus it’s just a short hop away on the Gold Line.
My sister and I would drive around the hills for an hour, getting lost and talking and laughing. Good memories.
The renowned Judson Studios offers stained glass classes at its studio in Garvanza (near Avenue 64 and York). The numerous fruit vendors in the area are a great way to get a chilled snack.
Church of the Angels on Avenue 64 is always used as a film set… then further up Avenue 64 are neighborhoods where Spanish Mission homes, bungalows, Craftsman, Victorian and Mid-Mod all meet.
I’m pretty fond of My Taco on York, though they’ve kind of gotten a little “too big for their britches” lately and started raising prices. Try their potato tacos if you go.
Taco trucks throughout the area are a great way to eat on the cheap.
Thanks for your great write-up, Ira! I have much love for the Northeast.
Hello Ira. I’m a new poster here and I just want to give you praise for incorporating a burrito on your mini bio picture in the about section of this site.
These days it’s getting harder and harder to be “true to the burrito.” I mean it’s getting pretty disgusting trying to lay a decent photo of someone proudly displaying their lunch or diner in the form of that all mighty burrito. I pull out a camera at a Mexican restaurant and people want to display a peace sign, or pose with a cigarette in their mouth. What the hell is going on? What is this Japan? What is this Europe? When I saw your photo with you chomping on a burrito, blushing because an explosion of flavor was attacking your whole body, I lost for my breath for a moment, it was so beautiful. Us Americans should esteem our burritos high and pose with them whenever possible, and I’m glad there are people like you leading the charge. We are we so ashamed of actually?
I hear your a self proclaimed workaholic-yuppie-intellectual. I hear you. I’m a self proclaimed workaholic-scumbag-intellectual. We might not be exactly alike, but I can see why I dig your style.
Wow, thanks everyone for the additional list of places to hit up in Highland Park. It truly is an interesting, yet unknown, neighborhood.
LAstranger, I got a really good laugh from your post (even if you were just making fun of me). Thanks! BTW, that was a Tacos Mexico burrito. I loved them until I got food poisoning a few months ago. Haven’t been brave enough to go back. Yet.
he he, I was making fun of you sure Ira, in a friendly way. In all honestly though, that picture made my day the first time I saw it. When I think about it, I’ve never really seen a photo like that, it’s so original. The combination of the burrito (most important part), that approachable quirky embarassed expression on your face (the cutest part), setting and angle, plus that you where wearing blue (my fave color) made for a really memorable picture. Who ever took that picture, give him or her my compliments. If I witnessed that moment in real life, I probably would of stolen and married you.