Cookbook - Los Angeles

Cookbook is a small grocery and food shop in Echo Park and a sister to Cortez. It's tiny, but packed wall to wall with great stuff, including fresh bakery breads, Marin Sun Farms meats, fresh pastured eggs, and a selection of fruits and vegetables from local farms including leeks, kale, beets, meyer lemons, avocados, fresh herbs, etc. They also stock pantry goods like Rancho Gordo beans, Maestri pasta, June Taylor jams, Mast Bros. Chocolate, Sightglass coffee and Straus dairy and carry a small selection of prepared foods.

Originally, the idea behind the name was that they would feature dishes inspired by or drawn from different cookbooks each week - but it seems like that has fallen away in favor of the practicality of offering their customers what they want - such as the Beans and Greens made with Rancho Gordo's Good Mother Stallards (recipe here).
 They were especially well stocked with great looking produce on the day we were there.   On my last visit a few months ago the selection was not quite as good, so I'm guessing it varies from day to day.
 The best part is their prices are not overly inflated.  They charge maybe $.50 to a dollar more than Whole Foods or a farmers market for the produce and pantry items. By contrast, Broome Street General Store's prices are marked up about 30% across the board.
 Next door to Cookbook, there is a small boutique called Cookbook 2, where they sell a few home goods - primarily the clay cazuelas and pottery items that they use at Cortez.  There are also some solid wood bowls, Japanese spice grinders and paring knives.  It's not obvious that it's there - we wouldn't have known about it if our friends at Cortez hadn't told us about it that morning.  You have to ask them to unlock it for you and let you in.
 We all really liked these pottery tumblers that they use as coffee mugs at Cortez.   They not only look cool, but keep the coffee really hot.

I picked up some of their house made granola, a bag of Rancho Gordo cranberry beans, a package of Maestri bucatini and a jar of the avocado honey we enjoyed at breakfast at Cortez (which I just discovered they also sell at Whole Foods.) It was a good haul!

Cookbook
1549 Echo Park Avenue
Los Angeles
(213) 250-1900