Malo (An improvised Cinco De Mayo meal or East Side Love is Living on the West End)

4326 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323)664-1011
Sun-Mon 6PM-10PM
Tues-Thurs 6PM-11PM
Fri-Sat 6PM-12AM (Bar open until 2AM)
Happy Hour: Mon-Sun 5PM-7PM

Lately I've been finding myself working much harder and getting up much earlier on the weekend. A deadly combination for a musician. I would say roughly that my weekends have consisted of me getting up at around 5AM... sigh. Shockingly though it has been to get to gigs, so I should never complain. Though a musician may have to work odd hours, he still can be successful as long as he is happy at what he's doing. I'm happy... most of the time. What's more important is that even when I don't have happiness I still have joy that can't really be taken away. My friends know what I mean.

I had 2 gigs on Saturday morning. One in Costa Mesa which went fabulously. I got to really let out a lot. Not to mention I got to see some very dear old friends of mine. The second one was in Rancho Santa Margarita and went well cause I was playing with an old friend of mine. The second gig got me getting back into LA around 5ish and starting to sit in traffic for the first time today which was incredible considering it was Cinco De Mayo and the De La Hoya fight was on that night. Me and Celeste called up our girl Ashley to see how she was doing. She was painting her place that day and so we swung by and helped her with some touchups. We then went for tacos cause "why not... it's Cinco De Mayo". We cruised Sunset when we passed Malo and Ashley was like oh we should totally hit there. Being that she live in Echo Park and she knows the owner cause she DJ's at the other two clubs that the owner owns (Spaceland and the Echo) we knew we could trust her.

When you walk in you're treated to a lovely view:

Love the goats!

They popped us down along the wall and we ordered up. We got a two 3-taco plates (one with tacos al pastor and the other carne asada), two different salsas (burnt habanero & creme and tomatillo & avocado), an order of oxacan shrimp, a side of rice and a side of black beans. The food came out quickly and we scarfed. The details: the shrimp was killer...big meaty shrimp that were saucy/spicy (on the addicting side), the tacos al pastor were awesome...plenty of flavor and super tender, the carne asada tacos were decent (a little dry but they were at least pretty tender), the salsas were both insanely good. The tomatillo was great with the carne asada and the habanero was sadisticly good. You want to eat more and more but the more you eat the hotter you get. Thankfully it was more of an after burn as all good habanero sauces are so that you can actually enjoy your food. We initially just warmed our mouths up with lots of chips and the salsas. So good!





Malo is a scene place. You go there with your friends and grab a quick bite but stay for awhile. Here's a shot of the bar side of the restaurant.

I'll be so glad when I move to Echo Park this year. When I came from the East Coast and was living in the projects it was still a community. Where I live now in my apartment complex it seems people make an effort to not know their neighbors and it's sad. Whenever I go to Echo Park or Silverlake I feel like I'm back home... minus the people who decided to use our back porch as a "get high spot". But even that had it's charms. Don't forget this Thursday night if you want to meet me and have some good burgers hop on over to the Mint at 8PM!

Free Drink Refills: Don't know, don't think so(but they put cucumber in their water... good for the cooling effect), but if you're into tequila they've got over 150 different types...psycho!
Entree Price Range: Taco plates are about $6 and entree ranges from $10 to $15