\u201c\u200aHere, the idea is anybody that wants to cook on the fire, can,\u201d said Rose Previte, founder of Maydan Market. \u201cIt’s sort of the equivalent of our well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Rose Previte, founder of Maydan Market, LA’s newest food hall, which is also home two one of her two restaurants, here and in Washington, D.C., both named Maydan.<\/p>\n
Maydan Market has big ambitions. It hopes to reinvent the way L.A. restaurants do business, even as it pays homage to Previte’s travels across the world \u2014 inspired by the souqs of the Middle East, the night markets of Mexico and Seoul. It also houses the second location of Previte\u2019s flagship Washington, D.C., restaurant, Maydan<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerica just got sidetracked and like usual, did something a little off track and made the market a food court in a mall,\u201d she told LAist. \u201cI’m trying to bring us back to the OG way of doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Maydan matters<\/p>\n Restaurants provide a window onto the culture of a place. And in L.A., they’ve long served as a connector for the different communities who call the city home.<\/p>\n Maydan Market<\/p>\n Location: 4301 W. Jefferson Blvd., in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles But, in recent years, this landscape has become fragmented.<\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic followed by the Hollywood strikes have led to the shut down of food institutions across the region \u2014 over 150 in the City of Angels alone. These shutdowns come as the result of consumers shifting to food deliveries and the high cost of running a restaurant \u2014 produce, rent, labor … it\u2019s all adding up.<\/p>\n Enter Maydan Market, where all the restaurants share resources.<\/p>\n Breads bake up on the walls of a common, circular oven located at the heart of the marketplace.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Ashley Randall<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Maydan Market<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe share labor, we share a lot of the things that break businesses, utilities in California are crazy expensive,\u201d Previte said. \u201cThis way, possibly we all might be able to do just a little bit better by helping each other.\u201d<\/p>\n In a city like Los Angeles, where you’d have to brave traffic to get to your destination and then drive some more looking for parking, Maydan Market offers a microcosm of the many cultures that call Los Angeles home \u2014 all in one place.<\/p>\n And the central fire plays into that notion.<\/p>\n Read more: Food fight \u2014 Here’s why I think Orange County has a better food scene than Los Angeles<\/a><\/p>\n Inspired by Previte\u2019s upbringing<\/p>\n Previte grew up in a small town of about 3,000 in Ohio. Neighbors, she said, would stop by unannounced with vegetables from their garden that would be quickly cooked into dinner. This, Previte said, was reminiscent of her later travels to Syrian villages on the Turkish-Syria border on a \u201ckebab research trip.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI went to multiple villages where there was a shared oven,\u201d she said. \u201cAs Americans we take for granted that everyone just has large appliances to bake.\u201d<\/p>\n By sharing resources, Previte said, she hopes Maydan Market will offer a different business model for running a restaurant, \u201c\u200awhere it’s not so competitive\u201d \u2014 but there’s still plenty of room for success.<\/p>\n Deau Arpapornnopparat is chef and owner at the Thai barbecue restaurant Yhing Yhang BBQ, located within Maydan Market.<\/p>\n Deau Arpapornnopparat is chef and owner at the Thai barbecue restaurant Yhing Yhang BBQ<\/a>, inside Maydan Market. Running a restaurant is hard work, he said, and often newcomers do not find the support they need to navigate challenges. Maydan Market is an \u201camazing\u201d chance for restaurant owners to share the space, including the kitchens, the fire and even table, chairs and cutlery, he said.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201dEveryone in L.A. should come and take a look and then experience for yourself,\u201d Arpapornnopparat said.<\/p>\n Why it’s L.A.’s newest ‘central square’<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think twice,\u201d chef Alfonso \u201cPoncho\u201d Martinez of Lugya\u2019h by Poncho\u2019s Tlayudas<\/a>, also located inside Maydan Market. Martinez ran the Oaxacan street food pop up in South Los Angeles for nearly 10 years known as Poncho\u2019s Tlayudas,<\/a> which has now evolved into a permanent fixture within Maydan Market.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout fire, you can\u2019t live,\u201d Martinez told me while standing by the hearth watching as staff carefully prepare giant, thin tortillas folding them atop the smoldering heat.<\/p>\n Alfonso \u201cPoncho\u201d Martinez of Lugya\u2019h by Poncho\u2019s Tlayudas, where the tortillas are fresh \u2014 and enormous.<\/p>\n And that fire is the heart of the \u201cmaydan\u201d or the center town square. Previte picked up the term from her travels to Ukraine but the word \u201cmaydan\u201d also appears in the Arabic, Farsi and Hindi languages.<\/p>\n In Kyiv, the center square was known as Independence or Freedom Square, but everyone called it \u201cmaydan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it was so powerful there because people came there to mourn a national catastrophe. They came to celebrate something and they also came to rebel,\u201d Previte said. \u201cAnd I want all those feelings to exist in my restaurants all of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Maydan Market, she said, is her \u201cresistance\u201d as immigration enforcement ramps up under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re really proud of what L.A. is and all the communities that have made a home here and if we can do one little part in preserving that and protecting it, then we’re doing our job,\u201d Previte said. \u201cBetween my two cities, D.C. and LA, it’s two of the hardest cities right now for the immigrant communities that support us and make us survive every day that open the doors of this restaurant every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a closer look at the restaurant concepts you will find inside the marketplace \u2014 and a few of the things I ate on my recent visit there:<\/p>\n Maydan<\/p>\n The mushroom kebab dish of LAist Reporter Yusra Farzan’s dreams alongside the grilled halloumi topped with dukkah. <\/p>\n Possibly the best dish I have had all year was at the Middle Eastern restaurant here, Maydan<\/a>. The oyster mushrooms kebab was coated in a spicy zhoug sauce and then cooked over the central flames, perfectly charred and served on a bed of Kurdish tahini (the sesame flavor nutty and really coming through) and shatta sauce. Halloumi is typically a cheese I tend to pass over \u2014 blame the copious amounts I ate as a child growing up in the Middle East \u2014 but I couldn\u2019t pass up the chance to wrap a few bites topped with Egyptian peanut dukkah on tone flatbread (similar to laffa). It was a sweet, soft, spicy flavor bomb. These dishes were served as part of the tawle experience ($95 per person). Tawle meaning table in Arabic is a communal dining experience where dips, appetizers and a main are brought to the table in a set menu so conversation can flow and community can be built.<\/p>\n Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 5 to 11 p.m. <\/p>\n Lugya’h by Poncho’s Tlayudas<\/p>\n The tlayuda is smoky, earthy comes and brimming with Oaxacan cheese.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Kort Havens <\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Maydan Market<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Lugya\u2019h by Poncho’s Tlayudas<\/a> specializes in Oaxacan cuisine. I had never had a tlayuda before and was pleasantly surprised by how large the tortillas were \u2014 almost the size of my face! As I picked up the tasajo version ($25) \u2014 thin flank steak served alongside a large tortilla with black beans and quesillo cheese \u2014 Martinez quickly stopped me. The dish has lard and seeing my headscarf, he rightfully guessed I don\u2019t eat pork. Quickly, he whipped up a mushroom version sans the pork fat. Smoky, earthy and brimming with Oaxacan cheese, definitely a dish I will be going back for.<\/p>\n Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 5 to 10 p.m. <\/p>\n Yhing Yhang BBQ<\/p>\n Cooked until golden, with specks of dark brown, the chicken wings ($10) from Yhing Yhang BBQ, from chef Deau Arpapornnopparat of Holy Basil<\/a>, appear unassuming. But after one bite I was transported to night markets in Asia. Seasoned with hints of lemongrass and cumin, the chicken wings come paired with a basil leaf hot sauce. The star, however, was the chef’s take on a chili paste with an umami shrimp punch. Since this was a marketplace and a melding of cultures, I may have put that chili paste on every dish I had that evening (after I sampled them for the story of course!).<\/p>\n Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 5 to 10 p.m. <\/p>\n Mal\u00e9na by Tamales Elena<\/p>\n Pozole ($27), a hearty Mexican stew, is the star of the show at this coastal Afro-Mexican restaurant<\/a>. However, they all came with a pork base so my colleague Joshua Letona, who joined me on assignment, offered to do a taste test. After neatly piling the stew with jalapeno slices, crumbling cheese and squeezing lime, he dug in. \u201cPretty damn good,\u201d he said. Enough said.<\/p>\n Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. <\/p>\n Club 104<\/p>\n This space will offer a rotating residency to different chefs from across Los Angeles. Currently, Chef Mel of Melnificent Wingz<\/a> is serving wings and Southern food, such as buttermilk biscuits and macaroni and cheese.<\/p>\n Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. <\/p>\n Sook<\/p>\n Previte\u2019s Middle Eastern market<\/a> will offer grab and go lunch options such as a wrap or a salad. Patrons can also shop for products such as Lebanese olive oil, Palestinian za\u2019atar, Kurdish tahini and even skin care products.<\/p>\n Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. <\/p>\n Compass Rose<\/p>\n Another of Previte\u2019s offerings, Compass Rose<\/a> is a coffee and cocktail bar serving Georgian Khachapuri or cheese bread, breakfast sandwiches and pastries.<\/p>\n Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n
Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. But note that hours vary at different food stalls. Closed Mondays.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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