Tito's Tacos and Essential Chocolate Desserts

Tito's Tacos

and Essential Chocolate Desserts

Inside Tito's Tacos.

Notice they don't say what's in the taco...

These are the tacos?? They look like oversized Jack in the Box tacos. Ugh.

Normally a huge line. Mid-day + clouds + rain = finally not much of a line.

Essential Chocolate Dessert's last week in Culver City.

Pretty run-down space.

Duverger macaroons.

KC's Belgian chocolates.

Lapert's ice cream. I guess they only make the cakes and cupcakes in-house?

Huge ding-dongs.

Cool and windy day finally meant a manageable line at Tito's Tacos. I'm still not sure why this place is a big deal to some (or not), as it serves flavorless hard shell taco that is half-step above a certain fast food chain's, and they have the gall to charge $0.85 more for what is probably $0.05 worth of cheese?!

Definitely not worth the line and definitely not an authentic taco, but this place apparently has made its mark on the Los Angeles psyche.

Down the street, Essential Chocolate Desserts' last week with a retail storefront meant it was time to grab their giant ding dongs. It's another place I don't understand the love for, but at least they don't have crazy hype. As another local business being forced out by rising rents I do have a bit more sympathy for them, even if their cake pops were excessively sweet. The ding dongs, while successful in being ding-dong like (but higher quality), sadly aren't ambitious enough to keep them in business-- apparently neither is their ice cream or their resell of KC's Belgian Chocolates.