Dinerwood friend Marc mentioned once that he used to go to this coffee shop in Pasadena on Colorado boulevard years ago. He wasn't even sure it was still open. He remembered that the sign was yellow. I must have driven past this place a dozen times, since it is across the street from a Michaels craft store that frequent. I guess I have just never noticed it.
I don't use the term "greasy spoon," that often, but this is totally a greasy spoon. I don't want to make it sound gross, but this place is a very lived-in kind of dirty.
The walls are decorated with some pretty standard classic Hollywood head shots but there are also some fabulous 50s and 60s era advertisements, like this Campbell's ad for soup and sandwiches.
The menu is very small and concise. Andy's is only open until mid-afternoon so there's no need to have any dinner options. Prices were a bit surprising. Everything seemed just a little bit more expensive than I wanted it to be. Considering the general state of shabbiness of the restaurant, I expected it to be cheaper.
I am a big fan of retro cooking and cookbooks and noticed a lot of sausage recipes called for multiple slices to the tops of the links. I had never seen it in practice until my breakfast plate arrived and I saw that Andy's did it with their sausage.
My basic breakfast was pretty good.The sausage was very thick but not too greasy. My eggs were cooked over-medium like I requested. The pancakes were deliciously chewy. I know some people don't like that, and sometimes I don't either, but on this day, I didn't mind.
Antoinette got the "Eye-Opener" breakfast, which included a choice of juice, grits or oatmeal, two eggs and choice of bacon or sausage. She ordered the eggs scrambled well. There's a fine line between "well" and "rubbery." These eggs were perfect. The bacon was fatty and delicious. The oatmeal was the only disappointment. It was a very soupy oatmeal, whereas she and I both prefer it more absorbed moisture in our oats.
I like that there is no pretense here. They just give you a beat up bottle of Aunt Jemima for the pancakes. I kind of suspect the bottle has been around for awhile and they just refill it using a jug and a filter.
Wandering over to one of the frames on the wall, I saw a collage of articles and set pictures from AMC's "Mad Men." A scene from an episode early in season 4 was filmed here. As a Mad Men fan, I got really excited. It's kind of silly, it's not like Elisabeth Moss is still hanging around and Jon Hamm wasn't even in the scene they filmed here, but it's a fun afterglow of fame.
Andy's was good, but in a neighborhood distinctly lacking in coffee shops with character, it seemed a bit better that it deserved. It's not a place we're going to plan on going back to, but definitely a place we might stumble into again.
Food: Good.
Price: $8-$16
Service: Decent
Pie: No.
Andy's Coffee Shop1234 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91106
UPDATE-
They got a new sign.
