This West Hollywood Italian Deli Assembles Paninis With the Precision of a Surgeon

Di Parma sandwich with prosciutto, burrata, pesto, truffled cream, chopped pistachio, and baby arugula at Mamie in West Hollywood.

To fully appreciate Mamie, the five-month-old Italian sandwich shop in West Hollywood, one needs to understand its schiacciata. The bread is made by hand several times daily by the shop’s owner, Mikael Choukroun, using a recipe by his Italian grandmother. The dough — made of equal parts water to flour and fermented for 72 hours — is kneaded similarly to focaccia but is distinct in texture, with a crunchy crust and light, chewy center. Olive oil and flaky salt are added to the dough several times after it is initially stretched. “You can’t control the schiacciata,” Choukroun says. “The schiacciata controls you.”

At Mamie, the bread provides the foundation upon which the entire menu of panini and pizza is built. The restaurant operates like a European cafe, a place where diners can absorb the pulse of the city while sipping frothy Italian cappuccinos or meeting friends for a bite. Mamie is the latest in a wave of Italian delis and sandwich shops taking Los Angeles by storm in recent years, including Ferrazzani’s in Pasadena, Bread Head in Santa Monica, Venice’s All’Antico Vinaio, Lorenzo California in Beverly Hills, and Ggiata Delicatessen with locations in Venice, Melrose Hill, West Hollywood, and soon Highland Park, among others. In a crowded sandwich market, Choukroun is betting that his schiacciata filled with thoughtfully sourced ingredients will stand out. “My intention is to offer fine dining quality ingredients in a casual way. I wanted my food to be unpretentious,” he says.

Mikael Choukroun.

Each sandwich only contains a single type of meat to allow for its unique textures and flavors to shine.

The schiacciata is made by hand several times daily.

The bread is made of equal parts water to flour and fermented for 72 hours.

Growing up in Paris, Choukron spent summers in Rimini, Italy, with his grandmother, known by him and his 36 first cousins as Mamie. (Coincidentally, the word also means “my bread” in old French, he says.) Choukroun didn’t speak any English when he moved to the Bay Area at 19 and remembers finding work by standing on the side of the freeway waiting for a construction company to hire him to paint apartments or perform yard work. After learning some English, Choukron worked as a restaurant dishwasher and eventually made his way into managing the front of house.

“My intention is to offer fine dining quality ingredients in a casual way. I wanted my food to be unpretentious.”

Choukroun moved to Los Angeles in 1996 and continued managing restaurants at places like the now-closed Patina, 208 Rodeo in Beverly Hills, and French Moroccan spot the Little Door. Though he appreciated the high level of cooking and quality ingredients found in these finer dining establishments, their environments struck Choukron as overly pretentious. When the pandemic hit in 2020, and the restaurant industry came to a halt, Choukroun took the opportunity to bring Mamie to life.

Every slice of meat found in Mamie’s signature panini is carefully selected by Choukroun and delicately placed on the schiacciata as if fine china. Cured meat options, including prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, salame Toscana, bresaola, and guanciale, are sourced from D.O.P.-certified Italian producers. Each sandwich only contains a single type of meat to allow for its unique textures and flavors to shine. (“When you have good products, keep it simple,” Choukroun says.) The relationships Choukroun forged with purveyors while managing restaurants have allowed him to source Mamie’s products affordably. While ingredients like artichoke hearts, stracciatella, and confited lemons are also imported from Italy, the bulk of the shop’s vegetables, like wild mushrooms, eggplants, and zucchini, are purchased from local farmers markets. Many of these same ingredients are used to top the shop’s rectangular pizzas.

Rimini sandwich with porchetta, crema di gorgonzola, truffled cream, spicy roasted eggplant, and baby arugula.

Viale sandwich with guanciale, fig jam, crema di gorgonzola, pistachio, and baby arugula.

The shop’s rectangular pizzas use the same schiacciata dough.

Choukroun’s memories of spending summers with family along the Adriatic Coast inspire the panini side of the menu. The Rosselini is made with salame Toscana, sauteed wild mushrooms, truffle cream, and arugula, while the Diva is layered with mortadella, stracciatella, chopped pistachio, and baby arugula. The requisite turkey option, the Cardinal, comes with artichoke heart cream, oven-dried tomato, Comté cheese, and arugula. Many sandwiches include a creamy housemade spread, like gorgonzola dolce, pesto, crema di limon, or Calabrian spicy chile. “Crema is part of every table in Italy,” says Choukroun.

In addition to its line of panini, Mamie prepares simple salads with arugula or butter lettuce accompanied by warm schiacciata crostini and sometimes topped with 48-hour marinated goat cheese. To drink, Mamie’s coffee bar brews Kimbo, the famed Italian coffee roasters from Naples, and imports lemon- and blood orange-flavored carbonated beverages from the Sicilian brand Lurisia. Mamie also hosts a small market with an array of Italian specialty products like Gentile pasta and jars of Cafona artichokes.

These days, as Choukroun is working the schiacciata dough or layering meats for sandwiches, he often thinks about Mamie and the summers he spent in Italy preparing food alongside her. “She would recognize herself here,” Choukroun says. “She would be home.”

Mamie is located at 7900 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90046, and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Choukron spent summers in Rimini, Italy, with his grandmother, known by him and his 36 first cousins as Mamie.