Best Organic Greengrocer in Los Angeles: Cookbook

Cookbook

1549 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026

(213) 250-1900

If you live on the Eastside, the tiny neighborhood greengrocer Cookbook is where you go if you're craving responsibly grown bell peppers or a slab of grass-fed, hormone-free, pasture-raised beef. Owned and run by master gardener Marta Teegen, Cookbook sells simple, elegant food that harkens back to a time before giant corporations took over food production. There are seasonal, organic fruits and vegetables grown by small-scale, local producers — heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, cute little Persian cucumbers, kale, melons, fingerling potatoes, bags of arugula and bunches of herbs. There's Straus Family Creamery milk in the fridge, and an assortment of dry goods, jams and freshly baked breads on the shelves. The meats, which are never frozen, come from a farming cooperative called Marin Sun Farms — Teegen picks the stuff up on Thursday night, and has it fresh in stock Friday morning. Oh, and in the deli case find prepared food that Teegen makes from a different cookbook each week (there have been more than 50 cookbooks featured so far). If that isn't high-concept enough, she also stocks the ingredients necessary to make the recipes in the featured cookbook. 1549 Echo Park Ave., Echo Park. (213) 250-1900, cookbookla.com. —Gendy Alimurung

Source: LA Weekly