Original subtitles

MAYA RUDOLPH: This is a love story...

about the bond between Angelenos and their cars.

Your car has seen you cry, scream,

spill piping‐hot coffee all over the front of your pants.

It's a safe haven,

amidst all this traffic.

[horns honking]

Which is just fine because in this city,

some of the best meals are made to be eaten on the road.

♪ "Chain Reaction" by Cobra Man playing ♪

♪

‐ Oh!

♪ serene music playing ♪

MAYA: People put their cars through a lot in LA.

So they got to treat 'em right, you know.

They got to keep those whips clean.

♪

This place looks like a car wash, right?

That's because it is.

At least until the clock strikes 6:00.

♪ techno music playing ♪

Look at this.

This is a party.

You got kids dancing, blasting music.

This is a total scene.

But the star of this "American Graffiti" fever dream

is the spicy fried chicken.

When the sun goes down,

this Northridge Car Wash in the Valley is transformed.

♪

Serving made‐to‐order Nashville hot chicken,

smothered in pickles,

creamy coleslaw,

and saucity sauce‐sauce.

MAN: Like, I told my mom, I was like, I'm gonna go get chicken from a car wash.

And she's like, "Yeah, you do you, honey. Just don't die."

ANTHONY: Mikayla? MIKAYLA: Yeah.

ANTHONY: Here you go. MIKAYLA: Oh, thank you.

ANTHONY: No worries.

MIKE: When we started this,

we didn't expect that many people to come out.

I wanted to cry, but I didn't. So I looked cool.

MAYA: It's okay to cry, Mike.

Before opening their own place,

Mike and his friends had to drive hours on the 405

to get their hands on Nashville hot chicken,

which has picked up some serious steam in LA these last few years.

Finally, they tapped into that LA ambition,

made their own recipe,

and marketed their spot on Instagram.

Damn, you guys are making me hungry.

[woman laughs]

‐ We've been waiting three months.

‐ We've been, like, stalking the Instagram just, like, looking at the pictures.

‐ What makes us stand out is definitely our recipe.

But when you throw in a few hundred people outside,

you have Lamborghinis pulling up,

it's just‐‐ it's just the vibe.

GEORGE: We have a lot of people here that are just as passionate about cars,

as much as they are food.

So when you get love and support like this on a nightly basis,

it's pretty easy to go through a bunch of chicken.

I mean, we sell, you know, more than my actual body weight.

MAYA: As the head of the kitchen,

George is in charge of getting that bird cooking right.

GEORGE: This is the love sauce. This is what we dip the tenders in.

This is what gives it its love.

MAYA: So what's in there, George?

‐ It's our secret. [laughs]

MAYA: Love is the message.

Love is the draw.

Every order of chicken tenders is marinated,

seasoned, breaded, and fried.

Then generously dipped in that "ooh, it's a secret" sauce,

before romancing a toasted sweet Hawaiian roll.

Season,

fry,

love,

serve.

♪

MAN: Mmm.

MAN: Oh!

MAYA: But you have to be careful with what you order.

Hawaiian hot chicken has five spice levels,

and they are not messing around. [evil laughter]

GEORGE: Level one and two is, you know, your traditional chili powders.

But once you get into the three, four, and the fives,

that's when you start messing around with ghost pepper,

habanero, Carolina Reaper, not for the faint of heart.

‐ I think it's torture.

‐ You have to sign. You have to sign a waiver.

‐ I did try the level five once, probably worst idea of my life.

‐ Oh! Get!

MAYA: Level five, Kilauea, is named after the volcano.

So, that says enough.

[man moaning]

‐ I was in pain when it went in,

I was in pain during the process, and I was in pain when it came out.

So... [chuckles] possibly the whole day.

♪ "I Feel Good (Upbeat)" by SATV Music ♪

MAYA: Hawaiian hot chicken is a celebration of this sprawling city,

bringing all kinds of people together,

from drivers of exotics

and just regular dailies,

to do two of LA's favorite things,

eat food

and flex.

♪

[engine revving]

MAN: Jesus Christ.

[laughs]

♪ serene music playing ♪

MAYA: In this city, you gotta fortify yourself for the morning commute.

You've got to get a breakfast burrito,

the pride of Los Angeles and a primo car food.

Unlike eating an acai bowl while driving,

which requires both hands and is dangerous for everybody,

a breakfast burrito is a much safer driving food.

Oh, that's cute. You little burrito.

[cooing] Mwah.

There's a place in the city, actually a bunch of places,

where you can get a cheese‐wrap breakfast burrito

to start your morning right.

You just have to know where Matt parked his car.

MATT: When I first got started,

I was working at a breakfast burrito restaurant.

I had about two grand saved up, I think ,

and I said, "Well... screw it, I'm done."

MAYA: Matt here is a genuine hustler

and the owner of Lowkey Burritos,

a pop‐up food joint he runs out of his minivan.

MATT: After my second kid,

I was kinda wondering, like, "I need to do something with my life."

I wanted to do a pop‐up , and I quit my job.

I told myself, I'm going to give it about six months

and it kind of all happened, just snowballed from there.

‐ That'll be it for you? $11 please.

‐ Oh, there it is.

MAYA: When the breakfast rush hits,

Lowkey Burritos can get low‐key hectic.

MATT: Quickly, quickly, like faster than you've ever done it before.

MAYA: Matt handles it with grace.

‐ Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate you guys all hanging tight with me.

MAYA: He can't help it that everyone wants a bite of this perfect burrito,

stuffed with charred onions and peppers,

egg, crispy taters,

all snuggled under a blanket of molten cheese.

Imagine the crackling texture of an egg roll,

but the taste of a melted pepper jack.

MAN: There we go, baby.

What is life without this?

[crunch]

MAYA: On a good day, Matt flips, folds, seals,

and serves 70 breakfast burritos in just a few hours' time.

‐ We started getting, like, tourists, people from neighboring cities.

GIRL: It's really good. ‐ It's really good, really crunchy.

‐ I just saw the commotion, so I pulled up.

‐ This is bomb.

His creativity when it comes to the food, it's something else.

You see him cooking, he looks happy.

It gives it a better taste.

I'm telling you, you guys got to try this, bro.

MAYA: Oh, man, save me a bite of that.

Best part of starting early

is that Matt can be home by lunch to hang with his family.

MATT: We only have this time.

So it's really important to do what you want to do

and I wanted to make sure that I had time to spend with my kids and my family.

Some people just like to jump all in it, and go get a big fat loan or something,

but... that's not the way that I want to do it.

It's not easy, but it's not supposed to be easy, I guess.

I know I keep saying it, but thank you guys so much.

I really appreciate you coming by.

‐ Uh‐oh.

That's some bullshit. My cheese crust fell.

MAYA: Oh, I hate it when that happens.

♪ upbeat music playing ♪

Now, LA isn't all cheesy burritos and hot chicken.

It's a city that's constantly changing and growing.

Sometimes at the expense of its communities and cultures.

But George's, a 50‐something‐year‐old Boyle Heights establishment,

is working hard to keep its neighborhood happy.

‐ That's good.

‐ ♪ Oh yeah, baby ♪

‐ Every morning we make our patties fresh.

We start with a couple hundred pounds of meat and then we roll them out.

MAYA: After many changes of ownership,

this former drive‐through has fallen into the right hands.

‐ I really wanted to kinda bring this back

to what I remember it being in my younger years.

‐ ♪ Yeah ♪

ARMANDO: Just this place that people can come back to

and remind themselves of those places that you'd go to as a kid.

MAYA: This is not George.

Meet Armando, an East LA native.

Couple of years ago, he and his buddy Robert bought George's.

ROBERT: A lot of friends I went to high school with come in here.

I had one guy come in here the other day.

He's like, "You're working at a burger stand?"

I was like, "Yeah, I'm working at a burger stand."

MAYA: Robert's being humble. He owns the burger stand.

He also oversees the pastrami program here.

ROBERT: When I get into something, I fully submerge myself into it.

Like, I was into RC airplanes for a weird second

and got, like, really deep into that, into fish tanks.

MAYA: Hold up. Did he say he was into fish tanks?

‐ There's burger stands like this all over LA.

The main focal point is the pastramis and the burgers,

but the outside of the menu kinda varies around the community.

And I think our menu represents Boyle Heights really well.

The history of George's had a lot to do with that car culture of LA.

And a lot of people from the neighborhood

have been coming here since they were kids in high school.

[laughs]

MAYA: An establishment like George's attracts all kinds of customers

at all hours of the day.

♪ rock music playing ♪

‐ The clientèle is really representative of Boyle Heights.

It's just a mixture of different cultures.

[growling]

‐ You know, I've seen a lot of stores come and go, man,

but George's is still here. It's crazy.

[speaking Spanish]

Cheeseburger, double egg, con pastrami.

‐ All right, brother.

‐ We like to slice it to order so it's really fresh

and then we dunk it into a beef broth au jus that we make here.

Give it a little flavor, heat it up.

MAYA: Los Angeles is obsessed with pastrami

and Boyle Heights has been the center of the love affair

ever since the turn of the last century,

when thousands of Westward‐bound Jews arrived in the neighborhood

bearing those fine shaved slivers of beef.

ROBERT: That's pastrami on pastrami action.

♪ upbeat music playing ♪

‐ What's that, Mr. Hamburger? You want me to eat you?

Dude, this is off the chain, bro.

MAN: Yeah, man.

‐ We got it on now. ‐ Mm‐hmm.

‐ Did we forget our drinks?

Damn.

[all laughing]

MAYA: Some Angelenos use their cars as dining rooms,

while others turn them into mobile offices.

[phone ringing] MAN ON PHONE: Hello.

AIESHA: Did you hear back from the architect

about adding the additional unit on top of the garage?

MAN ON PHONE: Yeah, it looks like we can use two‐tandem parking.

‐ Awesome. Okay, sweet. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

There's a house in El Sereno that we looked at yesterday.

I've never been to a busier open house in my life.

It pretty much looked like a rock concert.

[laughing]

MAYA: Aiesha is a real estate agent and remodeler

and knows LA neighborhoods inside and out.

‐ Angelina Heights,

it's one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

It's just a plethora of different styles. Victorian to Art Deco.

MAYA: The business is in her blood.

She comes from a line of women who were property owners in Guyana.

AIESHA: Original finishes.

MAYA: When Aiesha isn't showing handsome houses

and helping people make LA their home,

you can find her on the road.

AIESHA: I 'm in the car all the time.

I might get supplies, walk properties, talk to lawyers,

and you just never know where you're going to be.

Being able to eat on the go is just a big part of my life.

What I'm always looking for

is a place I can grab something and then take it back to my car

and do work and make sure my blood sugar doesn't plummet.

♪

My go‐tos are Triple Beam Pizza, the falafel sandwich from Dune.

It's hard to find good vegan options,

but luckily there's this new flatbread place

in Glendale that was vegan and really car‐friendly.

MAYA: Welcome to Zhengyalov Hatz.

They sell only one thing,

a supple football‐shaped flatbread

with 15 kinds of minced greens and herbs.

JANA VALLIANOS: It's a perfect vegetarian and vegan food.

We didn't realize it will get so popular in all different nationalities.

MAYA: They're a specialty of an Eastern European region

called Republic of Artsakh, right on the Armenia‐Azerbaijan border.

But you can also hit up Glendale.

JANA: Zhengyalov Hatz, its herbs are 12 different types,

beetroot leaves, cilantro, dill, and actually a few more,

but we don't like to tell everyone, sorry.

MAYA: So many secret recipes in this town.

‐ It's family secret. We have to keep it.

It's a good takeout food. It's healthy.

People come like, "Could I get one? I'm driving. I need to go someplace."

AIESHA: Really, that looks good.

MAYA: It's sort of like a hand‐held salad.

‐ Mm!

It's like super flavorful, a little bit of tang, easy to handle.

This will definitely be a new spot to add on my route.

MAYA: If you want to move closer to this place, I know an agent.

♪ Aiesha ♪

Whether you're eating in the cab or buying a burrito from a trunk,

automobiles play an integral role in getting folks what they need.

Delivery trucks, specifically,

if you can buy it, delivery truck brought it there.

Giant truck rims, delivery.

Wholesale beans, delivery.

Your daily bread. It's delivery, baby.

This driver in particular is delivering Bub and Grandma's bread

all throughout Los Angeles

to places like Konbi

where they depend on their cloud‐like Japanese milk bread

for their egg salad sandwiches

and Pizzeria Mozza, co‐owned by carb icon Nancy Silverton,

where Bub and Grandma's three‐day fermented dough gets pizza‐fied.

And Bloom & Plume Coffee, which serves avocado toast

complete with spiced chickpeas, tomatoes, and radishes

on thick slices of Bub's house country loaf.

MAURICE: I had been to a couple of restaurants

and I was like, "Oh, my God, this bread is so good. Where is it from?"

And every time, they were like, "There's this bakery Bub and Grandma's."

And I was like, "Whoa, I have to have Bub and Grandma's bread."

MAYA: Bub and Grandma's pizza dough and 24 types of bread

are all gently nurtured by their loving bakers.

Like little babies,

they're kneaded, fermented, swaddled, sung to sleep.

There's nothing as fundamentally satisfying

as fresh warm bread.

You could just curl up and give it a little... give it a little cuddle.

♪ peaceful music playing ♪

ANDY: Bread is extremely difficult, but a lot of it's just effort.

Effort is the key to any of this stuff.

You can figure out how to make anything at the highest levels of quality

if you just work on it.

The East Coast/West Coast bread thing,

like people saying that there's a hard and soft water issue,

it's all bullshit.

MAYA: Andy runs Bub and Grandma's.

He started making that good, good dough

as a way to escape his life as an advertisement and TV writer.

‐ I was progressively hating myself more and more for about 10 years

and I just quit and committed to baking bread every day for a year.

MAYA: And that's how Bubs was born.

ANDY: It became much more crazy than I anticipated

and it hasn't stopped since then.

[laughter]

MAYA: And now that he's got half of LA

depending on him to deliver the goods, he takes his hiring very seriously.

‐ We hire the people who want to be here.

Bobo, coming through. [laughs] ‐ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

ANDY: You know, we have this crew here

who's just been with us for a really long time.

When you commit to doing this job, you have to really love hustling

and it's hard to get everything done

and make sure the product is consistent every day.

You know, we have a dozen drivers here like Nate.

Nate's been with us for a while. He's handling the pizza dough.

As soon as you remove the pizza dough from the walk‐in,

we don't have any refrigerated vans right now.

So it's imperative that the vans get loaded quickly

or else it becomes, you know, a pancake.

‐ I've been doing this seven months, but I do music.

Oh, I'm trapped. [chuckles]

So I guess I consider myself a singer, kind of, first and I write songs.

MAYA: Nate delivers the fresh bread lovingly made at Bub and Grandma's

to restaurants all over LA.

Nate might be the only person who doesn't stress out over LA traffic.

NATE: I mean, the stereotype of LA, it being like a nightmare to commute in

and the traffic, I mean, that's all true, but when it's your job to be in the car,

it, like, somehow changes your perception of being in it.

Like, it's not a bummer. Like, I'm on the clock. You know what I mean?

If I hit traffic, it's okay. I'm being paid to be in the traffic.

♪

So my delivery route today starts off with Mozza

which is kind of the most complicated one.

You park in the alley behind the restaurant.

Enter via back right of parking lot for Pizzeria and Osteria.

So it's, like, two different spots.

Pizza dough goes in the cooler and pastry kitchen.

Pizzeria bread goes to Pizzeria kitchen.

Hey, doggie.

The next spot we're going to,

the notes are, "Deliver via loading dock on Gary Street."

That's my favorite kind.

MAYA: For Nate, driving gives him time to sit with his thoughts,

soak up all that Los Angeles has to offer.

NATE: If somebody says, like, "Oh, I hate LA," or something,

I'll be like, "What part?" You know?

Each neighborhood is so distinct. When you drive around town,

you realize there's so many different experiences happening.

And, like, all the different lives you can have is pretty wild.

Hey, how's it going?

All right, thank you.

Thanks, man. Take it easy. Have a good night.

I actually really love this job.

No exaggeration. It's like one of my favorite jobs I've had.

[chuckling]

MAYA: There's nothing better than the satisfaction of a job well done

and the ease of a no‐stress environment.

‐ Oh! [clattering]

MAYA: Damn.

Oof, that's a spicy meatball.

‐ Oh, my God. Dude, what the [bleep].

This is like a watch‐people‐die‐inside moment.

All right, I'll just do a count of, like, what I lost and I'll let them know.

Shit. Like, it's fine.

Oh, shit.

♪ upbeat music playing ♪

MAYA: Look, driving can become a drag.

Home to work, work to home.

Traffic both ways, five days a week. Ugh, it's exhausting.

[car horns blaring]

But even though the car can feel claustrophobic,

it's the key to unlocking the city and finding your very own sanctuary.

In Downtown LA sits Hayato, a thoughtful Kaiseki restaurant

serving some of the most exquisite Japanese food in the city.

But with only seven seats, reservations are very hard to come by.

The takeout lunch is just as hard to get.

BRANDON: Traditional bento is train culture.

So we made it for takeout.

I always think about getting on the train

and all my attention being focused on this box that I had brought with me.

You know, it makes me happy.

MAYA: After studying molecular biology in college,

Chef Brandon's parents really wanted him to become a doctor.

But Brandon realized that food could be its own kind of medicine.

‐ Really close friend had a stroke and I took him a bento in the hospital.

He became very emotional when he was eating.

And I started thinking differently about food that you can take to somebody.

MAYA: Some people consider this bento a work of art.

JONNY: I used to be an architect

and so... I think there's something so powerful

about the way Hayato does the bento.

Everything's so precise and detailed.

In a sense, it's kind of like the most luxurious takeout box you can have.

MAYA: Well said, Jonny.

On top of being an architect, MIT PhD candidate,

illustrator, and comedy writer,

Jonny has achieved something truly incredible.

He managed to score one of these bento boxes for lunch.

JONNY: The way I always get them is by signing up for the alerts

and it'll tell you if a reservation gets canceled.

If you're fast enough, you can jump on it

and be like, "I'll be there in 15 minutes."

And then you just jump in the car from wherever you are and try to make it.

BRANDON: It's a two‐day process.

A lot of stuff has to be made multiple days ahead.

Like, the vegetables have to be soaked overnight in different stocks

and so cooking the vegetables, it upsets me.

You know, when we cook carrots,

the top of the carrot and the bottom of the carrot cooks at different speeds.

I mean, everything, every one of these beans is different.

Everyone's going to say, "Oh, this is perfect. Or this is undercooked."

But unless I cooked each one individually,

none of us are going to be completely satisfied.

But when you're talking about a certain level of precision,

I mean, that's the level we're looking for in the bento box every day.

♪ tranquil music playing ♪

‐ Wow, look at this. That's beautiful.

Everything fits together so perfectly and so thoughtful.

MAYA: Like a carefully designed mosaic,

the 17 distinct items of the bento box carry a diversity of flavors.

Citrusy, chrysanthemum greens.

‐ That's delicious.

MAYA: Wild Mexican shrimp shin jo.

‐ Mmm. That's really good.

MAYA: Mmm, mmm. Look at that. That's a tender sweet potato.

‐ Oh, wow. It's very decadent. Yeah. That's great.

LA rewards driving around

and finding the places you love for yourself here and just be present.

MAYA: In Los Angeles, every turn, street, and stoplight

reveals a new possibility for a place to eat.

This is a city where the best chicken comes from the car wash,

a pastrami sandwich can take you back to your childhood,

where dreams come true on the side of the road.

And a single soft slice of bread can help you see the world more clearly.

Your car is your freedom to do things your way.

[car horn blaring]

NATE: I mean, it can be a headache.

Like, I had a job once where the commute was an hour,

but that commute, like, was soul‐sucking.

Like, the traffic was so frustrating

because you're either running a little bit late for work,

or you just want to be home.

And then I was just, like, clenched. You know?

People aren't themselves behind the wheel. You know, you become somebody else.

You, like... You know...

That kind of, like, rage takes over and you don't become human anymore.

You know, parking spot's nice.