Thursday, October 18, 2007

Angel'Z- Yes.... a "Z"

Last Wednesday, I woke up and realized I had virtually no food in the house, just some fresh picked apples and a jar of alfredo sauce. This simply would not do. I have no recipes for apples with alfredo! I hustled through the morning shower and shave, tossed on my office attire and hit the streets. I thought of going to Millie’s again- a sort of return to that would be nice, then I remembered a place just three blocks from me. I always seem to miss their open hours but I felt confident that on a Wednesday at 8am, they would be open.

I was glad to see that Angel’Z on the corner of Hollywood and Western was open. The reason I always missed their open hours is because they close at 6 during the week and at 3:30 on weekends. They do open at 5:30 every day for you early risers.

Angel’Z, despite having the oddest name I could think of for a diner, is straight-up classic diner dining. This tiny place seems to be part of the Days Inn motel and shares a parking lot. I don’t know if it’s kosher to park in the Days Inn parking lot if you are just eating at Angel’Z, but my parents stayed there last time they were in town and their tv’s remote didn’t work so I figure the motel owes me something.

Booths are reserved for parties of two or more so I sat up at the counter. The kitchen area is completely open. You can see where they store their bread, the fridge with the meat and the massive grill where they do the cooking. For being only six booths, and twelve counter spots, they were well staffed with two waitresses, a busboy and the cook.

Angel’Z has probably the cheapest menu I have ever seen in a place without a drive-thru and a mascot. Most breakfasts are between five and six bucks. I ordered a porkchop and three eggs with hash browns and toast for 5.50. I hadn’t had a porkchop in years. My mom used to make them all the time on our electric griddle.

I loved watching the cook make my breakfast; cracking the eggs, flipping the hash browns, pressing the porkchop with a flat iron. When my toast popped up from the toaster he slathered it with butter. In a moment the waitress brought my breakfast sprawl out to me.

First of all the porkchop was delicious, juicy, seasoned and salty just like pork from a griddle should be. The eggs were a bit greasy but fine. The hash browns could have stood to be pressed on the heat a bit longer to get them crispier. Like I mentioned in the paragraph before the cook slathered the butter on the toast, which I could see some people not caring for. My doctor said my cholesterol is fine so slather away cook, slather away!

A minor note: I saw Mexican Coke in one of the display cases, so I assume you can order it. Mexican Coke is made with real cane sugar whereas Coke made in the states in made with High Fructose Corn Syrup. This interestingly comes from the whole “New Coke” fiasco from years ago. When regular Coke was brought back after New Coke failed, the formula for classic Coke was modified to include HFCS. Mexico never got New Coke so their Coke formula never went through a change.

Price: $5-$7
Food: Decent.
Service: Good. Could be faster on coffee refills though.
Pie: No. Packaged pastries is all you'll find.

At the intersection of Hollywood and Western.

UPDATE: Angel'z doesn't exist anymore, it's now called 54Twenty and looks pretty good -http://www.yelp.com/biz/54twenty-los-angeles-2

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where the hell did you get freshly-picked apples? I went to the farmer's market in Hollywood last week, and all they had were crappy fujis, galas, and red delicious. All of which are terrible, of course.

Damn you man, can a brotha get a Honeycrisp?

Mike Tanner said...

Glen Oaks Farms out east of Los Angeles has a horde of apple orchards. You should go! It's apple picking season! Pick like a migrant!