Open Market\u2019s new cookbook disappeared nearly as fast as the cafe\u2019s daily sandwiches.<\/p>\n
The Koreatown restaurant and wine shop known for its L.A.-inspired recipes turned five this month, and released a hardcover cookbook to celebrate. \u201cThe Open Market Recipe Book, Vol. 1\u201d details some of its best sandwiches through the years, with each recipe hand-illustrated \u2014 and it sold out in less than three hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good time capsule of the last five years,\u201d said chef-partner Andrew Marco, who spearheaded the writing. \u201cWe weren\u2019t expecting to sell a lot. It was more for the customers who really liked us and have followed us for a while. It\u2019s like a keepsake for us, because five years is a nice little milestone to hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
When husband-and-wife team Brian and Yoonna Lee partnered with chefs Andrew Marco and Ralph Hsiao in 2021, they envisioned a modern corner store and bodega for and by Angelenos<\/a>. The chips and pantry products came from regional makers, and Open Market hosted artists, pop-ups and other ways to spotlight locals. <\/p>\n Open Market\u2019s five-year anniversary cookbook includes recipes for some of the cafe\u2019s most popular sandwiches.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Over time, the bodega shelves emptied to make way for bottles of worldly wine and beer, but the love for the city remains five years later \u2014 as do those signature sandwiches. <\/p>\n The sandwiches derive their names from the city\u2019s streets. The Normandie combines gyudon with a classic French dip. The Kenmore is a Korean take on tuna salad. The Hill Street special riffs on the salt-and-pepper pork chops found at Chinatown\u2019s Full House, here reimagined into a quasi-katsu sando. <\/p>\n There are plump breakfast burritos and sweet-salty miso cookies to be found at Open Market, but the stars will always be the sandwiches.<\/p>\n Some of Open Market\u2019s most popular stacks rotate on and off the menu via the Friday special, but with the new cookbook \u2014 which restocked at the cafe last Wednesday \u2014 you can now have them at home.<\/p>\n The recipe book began with the drawings: Open Market tends to announce weekly sandwich specials with hand sketches on butcher paper, and over the years they\u2019d amassed dozens. Some of this art was used to decorate the space, but to one friend of the owners, it seemed like a good idea for a coffee table book or a cookbook. As the team neared five years, they remembered the suggestion and dove in.<\/p>\n This was Marco\u2019s first attempt at writing a cookbook, though as a self-taught chef he owns countless titles. These and online tutorials taught him how to navigate cooking alongside his friend and business partner Hsiao, first in their Filipino pop-up dinner series together, then at Open Market. <\/p>\n The \u201cOpen Market Recipe Book\u201d is full of stories and the inspirations behind each sandwich. The recipes are entirely metric-based \u2014 be sure to invest in a kitchen scale before attempting.<\/p>\n Sandwiches, Marco said, are a universal and democratized way of eating: So many cultures offer them, and in a culture-crossing city like Los Angeles, they can be a way to embrace, taste and discover so many new flavors.<\/p>\n Given that Open Market\u2019s new cookbook is pointedly called \u201cVol. 1,\u201d will there be another edition released for a future anniversary? According to the team, maybe so. But they\u2019re taking it one sandwich and day at a time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were playing around with calling it \u2018Vol. 1\u2019 and leaving it be, or maybe just putting a year time mark on it,\u201d Marco said. \u201cI think for us, it was more like: If we put \u2018Vol. 1,\u2019 then it\u2019ll force us to have to do \u2018Vol. 2\u2019 one of these days.\u201d<\/p>\n Try your hand at one of Open Market\u2019s most popular sandwiches, the K-Town Cowboy, with this recipe from the new cookbook. Then stop by the cafe to pick up a copy, and maybe a sandwich or three.<\/p>\n Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes<\/a> to get our restaurant experts\u2019 insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they\u2019re dining right now.<\/p>\n Open Market\u2019s K-Town Cowboy<\/p>\n Arby\u2019s wishes it could make a roast beef sandwich this good. By using quality ingredients \u2014 including slow-roasted boneless rib-eye steak and a homemade spin on thick, gooey cheddar sauce \u2014 Open Market\u2019s take on the fast-food icon is everything you wish the Beef \u2018n Cheddar could be. The real kick comes from Marco and Hsiao\u2019s version of horseradish sauce, which is also packed with crushed red chile flakes, Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder for an umami-bomb base. (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You are reading our Cooking newsletter Sign up to get a taste of Los Angeles \u2014 and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[51804,51810,4462,51808,51805,2882,51803,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,5463,51809,51807,38221,51806,315],"class_list":["post-287453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-caribbean-recipe","tag-curry","tag-dish","tag-good-caribbean-restaurant","tag-hot-sauce","tag-hour","tag-jerked-catfish","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-minute","tag-restaurant-expert","tag-scotch-bonnet-pepper","tag-spice","tag-spice-courtesy","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777250958_187_.jpeg\")
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Get the recipe.<\/a>
Cook time: About 3 hours. Makes 4 to 6 sandwiches.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777250959_453_.jpeg\")
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