Melting Pot Artwork

Signs can tell you a lot--even beyond the obvious. The fact that Jim's is advertising tacos, pastrami and burgers may seem random at first, but it's signalling the historical/cultural makeup of Boyle Heights, where the restaurant is located. The area was among the city's most diverse beginning in the early-to-mid 20th century, a place where Hispanics, Eastern European Jews, Asians and African Americans lived side by side during a time of rampant housing discrimination elsewhere throughout Los Angeles. Food brings people of diverse cultures together, and restaurants can act as an entry point to explore the unfamiliar and the exotic. Of course, today no Angeleno would consider tacos, pastrami or burgers exotic in the least. But the fact that most people are indeed familiar with all those foods is indicative of our great melting pot at work--in this case quite literally--bringing together cultural traditions and adding them to what we now readily recognize as the typical American culinary experience. Micha Wexler, co-owner of standout Wexler's Deli and L.A.'s "pastrami king," opines on this culinary phenomenon: "It is uniquely Los Angeles-style, and when researching [for my deli], this certain type of place kept popping up, the little stand with tacos, burgers, pastrami, sometimes yakitori. And always named something like Tom's or Jack's. It's part of the LA food journey, very representative of who we are as a city." "Melting Pot" 36 x 36 x 2.5 in. Acrylic, cotton rag mat, vintage Los Angeles street map, 99.9% pure silver leaf, 24k gold leaf, resin, on deep-cradled wood panel