Wine: t's a contemporary little shop with a mission, a style and a selection that sidesteps most of what's wrong with wine, bars and wine stores these days. What's stuffy, smarmy or snobby elsewhere is funny, welcoming and educational at the Silverlake Wine tastings.

Wine: As their slogan goes, this Eagle Rock shop offers "wine for everyone."

Steak: This friendly, independently owned butcher shop is a mainstay at the bustling Farmers’ Market. Fresh, Grade-A meats shine red in the bright refrigerated case and the staff is happy to help you select the choicest cuts for whatever meal or barbecue you are planning. Happily Huntington Meats carries beef from Harris Ranch, which raises its cows with a hormone-free corn diet. Cuts and custom cuts include New York, porterhouse, T-bone, rib eye, Spencer cut, filet, tri-tip, prime rib roast, strip roast, skirt steak and whole briskets. Also available are lamb racks, chops and legs as well as fresh pork, Kruse ham, beef jerky, Moffett chicken pies, and a huge selection of hand-made specialty sausages including English bangers, spicy lamb and alligator andouille.

Sausage: An area classic, this butcher shop sells more than 20 types of fresh and smoked sausages including Italian, chicken, lamb and a wide variety of German varieties like bratwurst, bockwurst and weisswurst. Everything is made on the premises with all-natural ingredients and no preservatives. Also...

Fresh baked bread: When you're longing for carbs, scoop up the gorgeous crusty loaves studded with olives or covered with caramelized onions at La Brea Bakery (after more than 15 years still L.A.'s most beguiling bake shop). Don't forget the olives and extraordinary cheeses at the original store next door to Mark...

Cheese: That interesting stretch of 3rd Street between La Cienega and Fairfax now has its own eclectic gourmet food shop and take-out. A refrigerator case displays a small selection of carefully chosen cheeses, such as locally made burrata, English Cotswold, or a truffle-infused Boschetto.

Potato salad: It's as if a classic potato salad found its way into a smoker; the essence of smoky bacon infuses every forkful of red-skinned potatoes, mayo and green onion. $12.95 per quart

Cold cuts and pasta salads: This popular feighborhood deli and gourmet marketplace carries delicacies including bologna, salami, cheeses, pasta salad, antipasto, olives, salami, mortadella, capacollo, ham, prosciutto and olive oil.

Fresh salad ingredients: Located within the heart of the downtown Los Angeles historic district, Grand Central Market is the culinary center of Broadway. Dozens of stalls carry all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables at rock-bottom prices.

Desserts: Known for her floral wedding cakes, proprietress Jane Lockhart's Sweet Lady Jane bakery is cozy and quaint. Surrounded by Melrose Avenue's hip boutiques, it's a nice stop for coffee, tea and a bite of one of Lockhart's scrumptious desserts. A lunch menu of sandwiches and soup and salad of the day is available, but the assortment of pies, cakes, cupcakes and cookies are really its bread and butter (pun intended). Cakes are also made to order with mornings being the best time to place them.