Industry Cafe & Jazz...Ethiopian Culture meets American Culture

6039 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 202-6633
Sun-Thurs 11AM-Midnight
Fri-Sat 11AM-1:30AM

Being a musician, and more importantly a bassist, who plays both electric and upright, I find that it becomes an everyday occurence to see myself gravitating to people who share a love of the same things. Since upright bass is synonomous with Jazz, it's no coincidence that I've been to plenty of jazz clubs here in LA including all of the prominent ones that the big players get featured at.

In Culver City there's the blink-and-you'll-miss-it restaurant called Industry Cafe and Jazz that features great jazz, great Ethiopian food (as well as some soul food bites). The beauty of the place is that it's open pretty late. I find it to be a beautiful marriage of great cultures. It's been said that Jazz is the only true musical heritage we have. It was born here in America and is every bit American as the hard working people that it was birthed from.

I won't go into huge details here, but I'll tell you in a nutshell that the food is wonderful and is served by people who aim to please. The types of food are standard Ethiopian fare but don't let that fool you if you've never had Ethiopian. There's much to be said about their incredible culture and even more so their food! Rich in spices and textures, it's a foodie's delight!

Here's one of their standard but very well done meals all on injera (wouldn't really be Ethiopian without it). Shown are the collard greens on the left, salad on the right, lentils and chick peas on the top and bottom, and in the center are their lamb tibbs and chicken tibbs. The meats were super tender and mouth wateringly savory.

Just wanted to show you a little bit of a closer shot of the lamb tibbs. Why? Cause I wanted to give it an honorable mention amongst all the lamb tibbs I've had including in all of Little Ethiopia (where there happened to be a festival this past weekend...had to make a mention of it as it was an unexpected treat to walk through).

As for the jazz, you can't go wrong in LA and they get some great players popping in to throw it down. They also have poetry and some special events that support the community. Parking is street parking, and luckily if you go for dinner (after 6) all parking is free. Treat yourself to some culture soon...ours and theirs!

PS. I'll be back again soon to write up about the soul food if it's happenin'.

Free refills: No
Entree Price Range: $8-$11 for the Combos, $9 and below for everything else

Merkato...I agree with everyone else in LA

1036 1/2 Fairfax Ave.

Los Angeles, California 90019

(323) 935-1775

Everyday 11AM-11PM

Here's some cheap, amazing Ethiopian food in Little Ethiopia. If you haven't eaten Ethiopian you're in for a real treat. No utensils. You eat with your hands by tearing off a piece of buckwheat spongey bread called injera. The meal also comes out family style on a huge piece of injera. Lots of savory meats flavored in ways you forgot your mouth could taste.

Merkato is located in Little Ethiopia just south of Olympic on Fairfax. I'd have to recommend you trying the Tibbs (cubes of beef with onion, tomatoes and green chillies), the lentils which are seasoned to be a little spicy and tenderly flavorful, the Yedoro Wot (chicken stewed in red pepper sauce with an assortment of spices served with hard boiled egg), and the Yebeg Alicha Wot (mild lamb stew, delicately spiced with garlic, ginger and other assorted spices). These dishes are absolutely to die for and are healthy servings as well! Before I forget, they also have some great vegetarian dishes (of note are the cabbage dish and the collard greens dish both flavored on the mild side) that also satisfy the vegan in you who loves cows but not the way McDonald's does.

A story, if you will, about the first time we went to have Ethiopian goes like this... One day coming home from work we just up and decided to go have Ethiopian. We had passed by the area plenty of times on our way home and thought now's as good a time as any. We picked out Merkato just cause it looked friendly and was open. We went in, got our table and started looking over the menus that were... if you'll excuse the pun, very foreign to us. We ordered a couple of items, some veggie and some carnivore, to get the full experience. After a couple of minutes we see another table's dinner coming out... and the plate was basically what appeared to be large cubes of uncooked beef! We got a little worried cause we realized that we didn't check to see that our food was cooked... we just assumed it would be. It was nice that some of the people at the table saw us getting worried and laughed it up a bit as they chomped down on the cow flesh. Come to find out later that they were eating a dish called Tere-sega. If I'm ever bold enough to buy it I'll let you know my thoughts on it.

In the end I remind you that this place is cheap... really cheap. You can have a bunch of your friends out for family dining and all eat off the same plate with your hands just like when you were a kid and spent the night at your friends place.

Free Drink Refills: No (but once again I'll say try the Ethiopian beer with it...they pair very well together and I do beleieve they have their food in mind when they are creating it).

Entree Price Range: $7 to $10

P.S. They are attached to their own market so if you want to attempt such delicasies yourself you can buy the ingredients right there!