Sardine Stunner Perpetuates My Lust for Local 1205

I am not a huge sandwich person. It’s not that I don’t like bread but if I am going to waste my calories on bread it’s typically pulled hot and crusty from a loaf pre-dinner dredged in oil, butter or vinegar and not as a bed for other items that could surely be eaten alone. But for months I had been eying a particular sardine sandwich on the menu at Local 1205 – one of my favorite local foodie haunts on Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach.

I’ve written about Local 1205 before. It’s where I get my weekly smoothies that actually are made from scratch, my dose of gluten-free goddess brownies when I am on a dark chocolate craving twitch, and my Chakwave sacral chakra tonics when my orange energy center needs a swift kick. I had tried to eat their sandwiches two times already but because the store is stocked daily by deliveries from local farms and growers it’s been hit or miss. Sometimes products don’t arrive in time and sometimes they simply run out before I can get in to make an order. 

Recently I met a good friend and her baby there (good place for kids as it is a non-pretentious open air type market with plain wooden benches and chairs amongst the bustle) and finally got to try the sandwich that had been catching my eye.

I am madly in love with this now and wake up in the middle of the night craving it. It’s so bad that I remember the days when I was pregnant and would crave potato salad on top of cheese quesadillas. It’s that kind of full body smarting, tart and addicting dish that seems implausible but that I can’t deny and I am already dying to get back home at the end of the summer just so I can get my fix.

It’s simple. Toasted rye-style white bread with hard-boiled egg slices, sardines packed in oil laid down, flimsy and tangy dill pickle slices, watercress, and lemon-spiked aioli. The oil from the sardines sops the bread and you can’t get away with using less then four napkins while eating it. I want this again and again for the rest of my life and plan on making it at home now whenever I get a chance.

They also serve salads by the pound made fresh daily and we enjoyed a sampler plate of watermelon feta, kale and carrot, and creamy cole slaw.

For dessert, I had a vegan crepe, which was nothing more than a date fruit roll up stuffed with peanut butter, nuts, and cacao nibs which was great but I walked home still unable to wipe the taste of that spectacular sandwich from my brain.