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Busy Bee Market

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stvchin
stvchin
First Reviewer
5 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
5
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Busy Bee Market

  • August 9, 2006
  • Rated 5 of 5 by stvchin from Tustin, California
Busy Bee Market

The plain outside of the Busy Bee Market doesn't suggest much. But come lunchtime and the long lines of hungry people spilling out the door tell a different story. I've heard lots about the Busy Bee from the locals, from cops, firemen, mailmen, and anybody that likes a really good sandwich.

The Busy Bee Market is at the corner of Walker & 24th Street in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles. I arrived just before lunchtime, beating the crowds. The inside has a cashier counter at the front, the sandwich counter at the back, a few shelves of foodstuffs in the middle, and a bunch of branded drink coolers along the sides with probably every bottled drink imaginable, including alcoholic.

I wandered around to the back where the sandwich counter is at. There is a nice display of all sorts of meats and cold cuts and cheeses. The menu board is pretty self explanatory with all sorts of hot sandwiches, cold sandwiches, and individual items, such as containers of freshly cooked BBQed sausages, BBQ chicken, meatballs!

I ordered a hot roast beef and pastrami sandwich for my friend. I got permission to step behind the counter and watch the employees make my sandwiches. They sliced open a nice foot-long roll of freshly baked bread and piled on plenty of avocado and provolone cheese. Then very generous portions of roast beef is piled on from a steaming bin of hot roast beef immersed in au jus sauce. The sandwich is topped off with a nice red pasta sauce (you can request it without if you like.) The pastrami is pretty much made the same way. The hot pastrami is fished out of the steaming bin of sauce and thickly piled onto the roll.

The sandwiches are wrapped up in butcher paper and handed over. I took the sandwiches and a few drinks I got out of the coolers to the counter. The total bill came out to $12.

There's no place to sit and enjoy the sandwiches, as this is pretty much a cash and carry out type of place. By now, more people had arrived and a line had started. I noticed that while some people grabbed a sandwich, chips, and drink for themselves, others ordered a bunch of sandwiches. There were many regulars, as the managers and employees greeted them by name.

I finally had a chance to eat my sandwiches, and they were excellent! The pastrami is very flavorful and juicy. The roast beef with red sauce was quite savory. The bread was nice and soft and held the juices of the meats quite well!

I'd definitely recommend the Busy Bee Market to anybody looking for a nice big satisfying sandwich! They're open from 9 AM to 6 PM Mon thru Sat, closed Sundays. From chatting with the managers, they used to close around 3 PM, but due to requests from many who want a sandwich for dinner, they now close at 6 PM.

From journal Good Eats in the LA South Bay

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