Sunday, December 29, 2013

Roast Beef and Frozen Custard: Top Round


Top Round is a new roast beef sandwich/frozen custard spot on Olympic and La Brea.  The sandwiches, which you order outside, are Arby's style roast beef sandwiches with various condiments and toppings, but none of them matter so much.  What you should do is get one of the sandwiches with extra beef and then slather it with their horseradish sauce, which had an awesome kick to it.

Then get some curly fries.  Fried in beef tallow, the fries come plain, or with one of a number of toppings: home made cheese whiz, beef ends and drippings or "dirty" with gravy, cheese and caramelized onions.  All of these were great except for the beef ends and drippings, which needed a little something else (cheese?).

When you finish your sandwich and fries, go inside and order a frozen custard concrete (sort of a flurry-type concoction).  The custard here is by far the best I've had in LA, smooth, rich and creamy with a clean vanilla taste.  The toppings are nothing special, but getting the concrete whips up the custard to a great, smooth consistency.  Usually when you see frozen custard in LA, it's soft serve.  This is the real deal and the true highlight of this place.  Sandwiches are good, custard is fabulous.

One of the owners of Top Round is Anthony Carron from 800 Degrees pizza.  Carron is a St. Louis native, and this place definitely has a St. Louis feel (my wife's a St. Louisan and I lived there for a year).  You can get provel cheese on your sandwich, which is a God forsaken processed cheese loved only by those who grew up in St. Louis.  And the frozen custard is a clear homage to St. Louis' great Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard stand.  But while St. Louis natives will undoubtedly love this place, so will everyone else.

Check it out!

Top Round Roast Beef
1000 South La Brea (SE corner of La Brea & Olympic - and there's a parking lot!)
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 549-9445


3 comments:

Tim Read said...

For this St. Louisan, their frozen custard is the only in LA in the last decade that even passed the laugh test. Bonus points for having the decency to sell concretes.

Anonymous said...

Sku-

What year did you live in St. Louis? I too met my wife there (and we too left soon after...) In 1997-2000, it was a great place to collect whisky...several places sold A. H. Hirsch 16, Springbank 21 and Springbank 12 year 100 - all for $100 or less. Few weeks go by when I don't wish I'd bought a case of those Springbanks...oh well.

A lot of St. Louisans are busy peddling Ted Drewes knock-offs, just look at Shake Shack.

Thanks for criticizing Provel...it deserves UN sanctions in my book.

Yuk,

-A

Dan D. said...

And while Ted Drewes is justifiably great, the roast beef seems to be a bit of an homage to Lion's Choice, another St. Louis institution.