Happy 60th, Langer's!

(Flickr pic by Sam Felder.)

Langer's celebrated its 60th birthday on Friday -- but as the L.A. Times wrote, it almost didn't make it even to 50:

He can joke about it now, so 94-year-old Al Langer was savoring the moment as Los Angeles officials praised him for hanging in there as they struggled for years to turn the neighborhood around. The street corner will be designated "Langer's Square" on Langer's 95th birthday, Jan. 23, City Council President Eric Garcetti announced.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky recalled a turning point when the Metro Red Line subway opened its initial 4.4-mile segment in early 1993 to link downtown Los Angeles to the MacArthur Park-Westlake station.

"I saw 500 people lined up to get into Langer's and I told Norm, 'It was worth spending a billion, 200 million to keep you in business,' " cracked Yaroslavsky.

A world without Langer's pastrami -- with cole slaw and Russian dressing? I shudder to think. Thankfully, the Los Angeles we live in still includes Langer's, which serves up arguably the best pastrami in the nation (among other things).


(Flickr pic by Ted Mills.)

Speaking of pastrami, LA Observed points to author Christopher Meeks' search for the perfect pastrami (and he's not a fan of the meat, making him a reasonably tough critic). He hits Pasadena's The Hat and the West Side's Johnnies, but (no surprise here) picks Langer's as the knock-out winner.