The Best New Restaurants 2012

Photo by: Esquire

Bäco Mercat, Los Angeles

It's not about the sandwiches. Although this guy makes one hell of a great sandwich. A bäco is a freshly baked roll, like a soft taco or pita, and in its original conception here, Texan chef-owner Josef Centeno filled it with fried pork belly, carnitas, pickles, and a sauce of tomato and almonds called salbitxada. Variations followed fast - crispy shrimp, sriracha, and chive; beef-tongue schnitzel with

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Photo by: Esquire

Bäco Mercat, Los Angeles

It's not about the sandwiches. Although this guy makes one hell of a great sandwich. A bäco is a freshly baked roll, like a soft taco or pita, and in its original conception here, Texan chef-owner Josef Centeno filled it with fried pork belly, carnitas, pickles, and a sauce of tomato and almonds called salbitxada. Variations followed fast - crispy shrimp, sriracha, and chive; beef-tongue schnitzel with harissa, smoked aioli, and pickles. But really, it's not about the sandwiches. Centeno has a menu of singular dishes that would garner raves at more deluxe dining rooms than his storefront in low-rent downtown - deeply satisfying food, crunchy, tender, spicy, each item different and novel, like blistered okra with tomato, mint, and basil. "I wanted a neighborhood place," he says, "and it's downtown because that's my neighborhood."

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