I remember a few years ago trying to find a good sandwich in Los Angeles was almost impossible. In other cities in America (ahem: big cities on the East coast like DC and New York City), sandwiches run from common to high end and are this food that branch all sorts of cultures and culinary ventures. There’s really nothing better than a good sandwich for lunch and, thankfully, the past three years have brought a boom in Los Angeles sandwich making. Potato Chips on Beverly popped up four years ago and helped to usher in this new wave of sandwich making. You often drive past it on your way to The Grove or Terroni or BLD but we finally stopped in after hearing oohs and aaahs about their sandwiches.

The space is this little white tiled and woody space that is very evocative of a deli. It’s nice but intentionally not-nice, stainless steel tables and chalk writing on doors legitimizing their casual cool approach to lunching. There’s not much to the restaurant: it’s sandwiches. There are some drinks. You can even get a beer or wine if you want. It’s simple, easy: it’s a mom-and-pop sandwich spot ran by hipsters.

We eyed the menu for some time and all the sandwiches appear to look exactly the same. This kind of threw us as only the meat differentiates each sandwich from the next. In this sense, it really, truly is very East coast and very deli, striving to give the feeling that you are in some old Italian Jersey man’s hoagie shop. However, that old Italian Jersey man is actually a band of hipsters and their shop is much cooler and nicer than anything in Jersey. (Sorry, all-my-family-in-Jersey!)

We went two different directions: a classic deli sandwich–the Sopressata–and a light-classic–The Turkey. Both arrived and looked exactly the same, the white of the turkey being the only distinguishing mark between the two. The Italian sandwich is a spicy, warm sandwich blessed in oils and vinegars while the turkey is a bit cooler on the palette and sophisticated by a nebulous but great “herb aioli.” The best part of the sandwich was the bread, which is not usually something I care about: it was fluffy, warm, and big yet small. They were great.

We did notice that other people had sandwiches with sesame seeds on them (I believe it was The Italian) and, while they looked great, we were perfectly content with what we ordered. We don’t recall there being any sides (aside from potato chips because DUH) or particularly eye catching drinks (aside from Coca Cola): it’s just sandwiches–and that’s the point. Potato Chips is a perfect lunch spot for the North Easterner who craves a good, subdued hoagie every now and then. Potato Chips keeps it real and indulgent with a mind for the Angeleno eater. Skip BLD and grab lunch here next time you’re in the area.