A Charming New Takeaway Market and Cookbook Shop Cozies Up to Burbank

A new cookbook, dry goods, and takeaway restaurant and shop is up and running in Burbank, and it’s backed by a rather well-known catering outfit. Little Nelly is now open in the city’s Magnolia Park neighborhood at 3815 W. Magnolia Boulevard (just a block or so from the always-busy Porto’s), selling everything from sandwiches and breakfast burritos to hot sauces and popular titles from famous chefs and authors.

Little Nelly is the newest offshoot of under-the-radar catering outfit Whoa Nelly Catering, which has been managing private events in greater LA for more than a dozen years. The small, sunny shop is the group’s first foray into a truly public-facing business, and it comes as greater Los Angeles continues to see a rise in tiny spaces with big retail ambitions.

Unlike more pure grocery stores (like the Jon & Vinny’s owned Cookbook) or culinary bookstores such as Now Serving, Little Nelly is attempting to thread the needle by offering a daily menu of pre-made items like breakfast burritos with crumbled bacon, avocado toast, and a variety of grain bowls, salads, and sandwiches. Customers can also pick up breads, biscuits, and pastries, in addition to cookies and cakes by the slice. The shop will also sell goods made elsewhere, including pizzas from La Morra and burritos from Burritos La Palma, as well as cookbooks from names like Molly Baz, and of-the-moment brands like Graza olive oil. The cozy, wood-rich shop was even designed by Preen, the firm behind Lasita, Pine & Crane, and more. The opening takeout food menu is below.

Beyond Little Nelly, LA is becoming filled with small grocery takeaway shops that also offer an on-site food component. The equally hip Wine + Eggs in Atwater Village sells many of the same retail items and also hosts pop-up food vendors, while others like Sesame LA in Chinatown and Eagle Rock’s Parchment Paper (from the people behind Milkfarm) are known for being equally obsessive about food and branding. In Long Beach, the recently opened Kitchen Lingo promises new, vintage, and rare cookbooks and other food tomes, while also offering occasional live events and sit-down food talks that act as round-table discussions over a meal.

Burbank’s Little Nelly is now open at 3815 W. Magnolia Boulevard, Burbank, CA 91505, with service Wednesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.