Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Thicc Burger for breakfast.
This week, I get to the market via rideshare, saddled with a yoga mat and a bright orange bag of swag from a pilates class sponsored by a Korean skincare brand. Hungry, sweaty and greatly in need of a place to sit, I take a seat in the shaded patio area close to Bob’s Coffee and Doughnuts and Patsy D’Amore’s Pizza (est. 1946), which I’ll be revisiting today. Having already tried their pizza, it’s their pasta I’m after today. They serve ravioli, lasagna and meatball sandwiches, but I decide to keep it simple with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs ($14.95).
The employee behind the counter adds just one large meatball to my plate, but the generous dollop of meat sauce seems to make up for the overall lack of meatball action. Topped with a shower of powdered parmesan cheese, Patsy’s spaghetti bears little to no resemblance to the housemade pasta at Pasta Corner. Then again, it isn’t trying to: This is unabashedly Italian American cuisine, ladled from steaming silver vats. The meatball is well-seasoned, though it doesn’t hold a candle to the excellent meatballs I’ve had recently from Donna’s in Echo Park and to a lesser extent, La Dolce Vita in Beverly Hills. Then again, my lunch is $9 cheaper than Donna’s $24 plate of spaghetti and meatballs and $20 cheaper than the $35(!) version of the dish at LDV.
The pasta is fairly soft, but the texture works with the abundance of meat sauce and the chunks of the single meatball. Oddly enough, I enjoy my lunch more than the fancier bolognese dish I ate at Pasta Corner. Perhaps it’s because Patsy D’Amore’s isn’t attempting to be anything more than what it’s always been: A source of affordable carbs and tomato sauce. I still would skip Patsy’s pizza in favor of Friends and Family across the market, but if I was in the mood for a simple plate of spaghetti and meatballs minus all the frills, I’d come back here again.
Meals from Table at Third & Fairfax fall into three categories: Skip It, Worth Trying and Must Have.
Vendor: Patsy D’Amore’s Pizza
Order: Spaghetti and meatballs
Verdict: Worth Trying. If you’re looking for American-style spaghetti and meatballs on a budget, this place will hit the spot.