Where I go to something called a "Bob Evans"

A few months ago, Dinerwife Antoinette and I went to Florida for a vacation with her family. I found one diner that was less than a 30 minute drive from our hotel. We arrived and discovered that they had just stopped serving breakfast. This was crushing since I had my mind set on something involving syrup.

We looked at the lunch menu and I honestly said "I don't want to eat here." It was a lot of pasta dishes--which made sense as the place had only recently gone from being an Italian restaurant to presumably a diner. We got up and left and drove to the place we saw right off the highway: Bob Evans.



I had never heard of it before but apparently it's a chain--like a BIG chain. It just does not have any locations on the west coast. I don't review big chains--a place with two or three other locations? Sure, but not CHAIN chains.

My stance on chains is not that the food is terrible or the experience lacking. It is that a chain is going to default to being "safe." That's the comfort of chains. You know regardless of where you are in the world, walking into a Dennys, a McDonalds or an Olive Garden (shudder), whatever you order is going to taste exactly the same as the last time you ordered that same dish at that same restaurant halfway across the world. I like surprises; I like taking that chance. I'm a food gambler at heart, baby. And by gambling, I'm helping in someones struggle to make their own way, not fill the coffers of a corporation. And with this blog I like to think I'm helping encourage others to take the same chance. That's why I don't like chains.

But here--in Florida--I was at a chain restaurant that I had no experience with.



A place with such great food pron pictures of pie can't be that bad right?

Something I noticed was that the menu and the offerings represented a very different sensibility than what I am used to. For instance, biscuits are their base bread. If you want regular toast, you'll have to be sure to say something.


They are very proud of their biscuits. They have them baking in a huge bread over at the front o the restaurant. They ever have biscuit bread bowl breakfast.

The appetizers read like a list of food you will find available at this Summer's state fair: apple fries, fried cheese bits, tater-tots!



The bed of lettuce is a nice touch.



They also bake their own bread. We ordered the Blueberry Poundcake for the table.

Did I mention that I gained like 5lbs on this vacation?

There were five of us there, so I can't really go into much detail about what each of us ordered, but below are the pictures.



Veggie Omelette with onion, spinach and diced tomatoes. It tasted very fresh.



Corn Meal Mash! You know when I saw that on the menu I had to get it. Ever since I first tried it at Stox, it is that weird thing I have to try at each place that has it. It was pretty good-- but not as good as Stox. I also got the hash browns, which were decent, and the sausage and cheese biscuits and gravy.

....what I said earlier--I take that back--it was more like 8lbs on this vacation.



The turkey bacon melt, could have been more "melty." Otherwise, it was decent.



Sausage Omelette with swiss cheese. The country sausage was good, while the swiss cheese did seem like Kraft singles swiss.



The real winner was Antoinette's Pot Roast Hash. A little salty, but pretty awesome. We were stuffed toward the end of our meal, but we kept eating as much of the pot roast as we could.

...It was 10lbs on this vacation. Definitely.

We left Bob Evans satisfied. I think this was a pretty typical experience from a chain restaurant. We had good service. Our food was overall good. I certainly appreciated their bottomless refills on just about all drinks (even the Caramel Mocha). I'm just not the person who is going to get excited about a place like this, but it was a interesting change of pace.


Food: Good.
Price: $5-$9
Service: Good.
Pie: Yes.

Bob Evans
Visit their website to find a location near you.

Ozzie's Diner --Not just for truckers.

Tony, whom you first met in the Pann's review, came up to me and said "There's this place off the 5 freeway. It's really hard to see but it's right off the exit. I can't remember the name but you have to go."
"Is it south, like around Bell Gardens?" I asked.
"Yes."



Ozzie's Diner. Already on my list.

We made plans to meet last Sunday morning for breakfast. I was running behind and got there about ten minutes late. As I walked in the front door, I took in the delightful cuteness of the diner; overstuffed turquoise booths, long counter and formica table tops. There was a kitchy 5o's theme going on with the standard Presley-Monroe-Dean (lots of Dead) triumvirate in effect. I scanned the restaurant for Tony. No Tony was to be found.

I was greeted warmly by a waitress as I craned my neck around looking for my friend. For some reason, as I was answering her question about the number of people in my party, I realized I had left my wallet at home.

"Twoooo? Umm yeah." I said, realizing that I had no money on me that didn't jingle.
She looked at me strangely and said, "It will just be a minute."

I sat quietly, hoping Tony would arrive sometime soon, and before a table opened up. I could be innocuous and perhaps just slip out the door if need be if he wasn't going to show. No such luck. The waitress called me over to a freshly cleaned table.

"You want anything to drink? Coffee? Juice?"
"Uhhhhh--Water, please."



I couldn't even float a coffee with the change in my messenger bag. I sipped water and spent my time perusing the trucker advertisements on the menu. I was seated in between the counter and the main dining room. This meant all the waitresses had to pass by my table. I had to deflect several inquiries as to my need for anything else.

This limbo allowed me to take a lot of time deciding what I would theoretically eat if the opportunity arrived--and all of this examination just made me hungrier. They have a large selection of what they call "Trucker Omelets" which are made with "four fresh eggs and served with a side of either Ozzie's Potatoes or hash browns, toast and jelly OR biscuits and gravy and a GOOD MORNING!" Each is named after some highway or trucking terms: "The Peterbilt," "The Interstate 80," etc etc.

Something to mention--There's an old saying that if you are on the road, you should eat where the truckers eat because they know the best places. Yeah, nothing could be further from the truth. Trucker's eat where they can park and at whatever is close to the freeway. If a place has garbage for food but it has a big parking lot and it won't take more than a minute to get there after you exit the freeway, THAT's where they are going to eat. If you find a place that caters to truckers and the food is good, consider yourself lucky. Ozzie's is in an industrial area and has a large parking lot, but inside I saw it crowded with families and regular folks. I felt pretty safe that this was going to be at least decent.



I liked that they had blue plate specials that were actually specials and not just what they wanted to push that day. Bread pudding with every special was also a nice touch.

Looking through the different sections of the menu, I was also tempted by the "Armenian Sandwich." It included turkey or roast beef or ham served on Armenian bread with Swiss cheese, green chiles and a homemade au jus. That sounded very intriguing and a definite "must get" next time I go.

Luckily my bearded messiah arrived before the sights and smells of the delicious breakfasts and burgers and menudo parading by my table made my stomach fold in on itself. He was stuck in traffic, of course. When I sheepishly revealed my lack of funds without missing a beat he offered to cover me. He's a stand up guy that Tony. A stand up guy with a massive beard.



We both went with the trucker omelets for breakfast. I ordered the "Interstate 80" and Tony ordered the ominous sounding "Run-A-Way." I got the biscuits and gravy and he sprung the extra dollar to upgrade to a side of pancakes for his bread. We both questioned whether or not we'd be able to pack away that much food.

After a decent amount of time, our food arrived.



Whoa...the omelet was small. I expected some massive loaf of egg just exploding with meat. It was a TRUCKER'S omelet. This was downright REASONABLY sized. Maybe the idea is that truckers take a lot of amphetamines and don't really eat that much. The omelet was sort of a mixed bag. It very nicely made; layers of egg neatly folded over a thin layers of pastrami. Unfortunately, it was topped with what I believe was processed singles of Swiss cheese. It almost ruined the whole thing. The Ozzie's Potatoes were amazing. They were spicy home fries mixed with extra crispy shredded hash browns.



The biscuit and gravy was also great. The gravy was very smooth and peppery and delicious. I generally prefer a denser biscuit, but this was good.



Tony's Run-A-Way omelet was also reasonably sized. He had ordered egg-whites only but that didn't happen. Like mine, his was very well put together with a good mix of avocado, sour cream and green chiles. His cottage cheese tasted a little odd to him but he couldn't place what was wrong with it.



Tony's pancakes were soft, chewy, and fluffy. He said he could have eaten them plain without any syrup. Ozzie's does something with their syrup that I can't even remember the last time I had; they serve it warm. Warm syrup is a little touch that can make a big difference.

I should mention that there were two separate tables that got up and walked to the counter in order to request drink refills. I guess good service was the perk of being seated on the main route the waitresses take; we never waited for refills.

The odd flavored cottage cheese and questionable use of processed cheese were the only negatives that we could find at Ozzie's. I would go back any time. They had some fresh looking pies in a case above the counter that I'd like to try, and I'd love to take a shot at that Armenian sandwich.

Do note that they only serve breakfast until 2pm on weekends and only until 11am on weekdays.
Food: Good. UPDATED: Uneven.
Service: Friendly. UPDATED: Friendly, but not all that good.
Price: $5.99-$9.99
Pie: Yes.

Ozzie's Diner

7780 E. Slauson Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90040


Maybe the new owner will spring for real cheese.

UPDATE - 11/23

Antoinette and I ate there this past weekend with my sister and her family. Remember what I said about drink refills? Well THAT and the rest of our service was pretty terrible. I can't blame our waitress alone though, since a big part of it was that our food came out in shifts with a long time inbetween. One of my nieces was done eating by the time Antoinette got her food. It wasn't that the waitress didn't deliver the food promptly, the kitchen just hadn't prepared it all yet.

The food was also really uneven. My brother-in-law had the chicken fried steak and he liked it. I had pancakes that were very good while my eggs were not cooked to order and were pretty bad.

Be warned.

Bun n' Burger - Fun n' something that rhymes with "burger"

Bun n' Burger is a place I was really excited to try. It's right in my neighborhood and has a delightfully cute art-deco exterior.



I had read an article about this place in the Alhambra newspaper and the picture that was included only showed the main dining room. It's an all-around classic design with booths lining the storefront windows and an oval counter taking up the middle.

Until my folks and I walked in that morning, I had no idea that there was a full room just out of sight. A room that can only be described as...



...the most-insane-yet-somehow-adorable-dining-room-in-existence. It's like the world's coolest flea market threw up inside.

Not a lot of diners have firearms displayed. I don't even remember seeing one at Revolver, where it wouldn't have been at all out of place.

There's a series of these pictures hanging up on the wall. They have an R. Crumb meets Norman Rockwell quality that I really appreciated.

One of the things Bun n' Burger is well-known for is their menudo soup. It's only available on weekends so that makes it more special. If you haven't had menudo soup, it's a Mexican soup made from a tomato base with hominy and tripe. You can garnish it with onions and cilantro as they have done here. Menudo is my chicken noodle soup when I have a cold. I buy it in giant cans at the ethnic market. This would actually be my first time ordering it at a restaurant. Bun n' Burger's menudo was pretty good, but not spicy enough for me.

My dad ordered the ham, bell pepper and Monterrey jack cheese omelet. It was less omelet and more folded over scramble. It was also delicious. They use honey baked ham in it so it's unexpectedly sweet.

My mom ordered the waffle breakfast. It was a pretty standard waffle. Her eggs were good but the bacon was a little chewy for my taste. It was a good cut, but just needed to be crisped up a bit.

I regret that this is where the food portion of the review turns sour. I did not like my breakfast. Chilaquiles can go wrong. They can be mushy and bland and just outright gross. Sadly, these were the chilaquiles that I had this morning. The potatoes were no better; they were, in fact, worse. They were drenched in peanut oil and were equally mushy and bland. I barely touched them. My eggs were very good, though. They must have been cracked and poured simultaneously into a circular mold to get them to look like that and be cooked evenly.

Bun n' Burger was just so adorable and pleasant that I would go back again just to look at more of the weird stuff they have on the walls. Despite how disappointing my breakfast was, my folks' food was good enough. The staff was friendly and the coffee was good. Overall, it is definitely worth a visit.

Food: Okay* (see below)

Price: $5-$8. Cash only.

Service: Friendly.

Pie: Yes, several.

Bun n' Burger

1000 E. Main Street

Alhambra CA 91801

(626) 281-6777

Take a look at the menu:

*UPDATE 7-14-10: We have since been back to Bun n' Burger a few times now and our food has been either good or great, but oddly, I have yet to try the pie.

A word of warning though-- if you plan on going in the evening definitely call. They seem to be really inconsistent with their hours, which is not a good sign.

Chips--Something familiar.

I finally did it, after nearly three years of writing this blog. I finally made the trip to Hawthorne to visit the classic Googie restaurant, Chips. Dinerpal Paul and I celebrated our President's Day off work (actually Paul has been out of work for a year so he probably just thought it was a regular Saturday) and drove out to Inglewood. I can now say I've hit all of the titans of the LA Diner pantheon.

A recent review on Yelp claims that this was the location of the Pumpkin/Honey Bunny scene in "Pulp Fiction," but like most things on Yelp, it's wrong. This is actually a fairly common misconception, though. That scene was actually filmed at the Hawthorne Grill, which was located on the same street as Chips, but was demolished several years ago.

There's a lot of plants inside for some reason. They are really out of place and honestly distract from the retro decor. They didn't need plants inside in the 50s, they had plenty of oxygen.

I grumbled a little bit when it took a while for our waitress to come over to take our drink orders. She returned with my coffee and Paul's iced tea. She also brought me a gigantic bowl of non-dairy creamer. Even if I did use that nasty stuff, I couldn't have hoped to use all of it in the span of a normal meal time. The coffee was pretty good.

Looking up from our table, I noticed this sign above the counter. I've seen it before and only about two weeks ago. Then I looked at the menu.

Peachy Peachy French Toast?



Hungry Charlie tuna sandwich?

This is the same menu as Rod's Grill! It turns out that they have the same owner. Manny (I'm assuming his name is Manny) has a Los Angeles diner empire.

Dinerpal Paul ordered the Mardi Gras Omelet. Why is it the Mardi Gras omelet? No idea. It has turkey, spinach, bacon, avocado, and jack cheese. I guess it's colorful like Mardi Gras? Paul liked it. He said that the spinach didn't over power everything else in the omelet.

Paul also wanted me to note that "the ketchup flowed easily" and that they also had sugar-free syrup, which to a diabetic like him is "like a dream." Sometimes I really appreciate when Paul comes out with me, sometimes...not.

My breakfast was great. The home fries were simple but crispy on the edges and soft in the middle. I did get the odd surprise off a small piece of chicken mixed in with my potatoes. I wouldn't expect that every time though. My eggs, over-easy, were perfect. The ham steak was a delicious cut of meat that was just a little crispy.

My pancakes were very dense. I had to use a knife to cut them. They were smaller around than what you usually see, but since this was just a side order, I could see them doing a smaller size than for a regular order. The syrup was really good. It had a hint of butterscotch flavor in it. I know this might be weird, but I actually poured a little into a cup and took a sip. It was really tasty on its own.

I asked our waitress about pie and she said they only had apple today. That was a little disappointing as I was really in the mood for a cream pie.

Chips's food was great and reasonably priced. I definitely would recommend checking it out.

Food: Good.
Service: Okay.
Price: $6-$8
Pie: Varies.

Chips
11908 Hawthorne Blvd.,
Hawthorne, CA 90250

310-679-2947

Pann's: A deserved classic.

Pann's was going to be the first place I reviewed even before there was a Dinerwood. Plans were made, plans fell through, and it took two years (I've been doing this for two years!) to finally make it there.

No doubt about it, Pann's is a classic. Just looking at the sign, you can tell this is a restaurant that "gets it." It has clearly 'kept up' but has stayed true to its origins as place to get good, quick comfort food. The sign and building are a marvelous example of Googie design which became popular in the 1950s. Inside, the design is second to none. There is no Johnny Rocket's or even new style Denny's phony retro-styling. It's straight legit. There's a reason Pann's is listed on LA Timemachines. The only style that has changed here in the last 51 years is the clothing.

Three friends and I came here at about 11 am on a Sunday, which is prime post-church time, but the line wasn't too bad. We were seated in no more than ten minutes.

The menu had a decent amount of variety, pulling a lot of influence from southern cooking, as well as traditional diner standards. I was really surprised by the extensive milkshake selection. Although personally I thought it too early in the day to order one, I did ask our waitress which one she preferred. She recommended the blueberry shake. For me, the oatmeal raisin cookie shake sounded awfully tempting. It's just some oatmeal raisin cookies smashed up and poured into a vanilla milkshake--and those of you who know me well know that I am a firm believer that everything is better when smashed up and put in a cup with milk.



Rachel and Charlie both ordered the Rena's Favorite (named for the co-founder): chicken and waffles and eggs. The chicken was incredibly juicy while the waffle was unspectacular but good. The eggs were tasty. They appreciated the melted butter. You don't often see that on the table unless someone orders lobster. I usually don't go places that serve lobster (and if they do, you should never order it--like ordering salmon at House of Pies) so I never see melted butter.

Tony ordered the Louisiana Omelet with a side of fresh fruit. He ordered it egg whites only but when it arrived, it clearly was not. They didn't charge him for it and he didn't care that much, but they did get it wrong. Inside the omelet were three different kinds of sausage. The "Louisiana sauce" appeared to be a tomato base with just a little bit of heat.



I ordered the hot link and eggs. I was really surprised that the hot link was, in fact, hot. It was spicy, southern-style beef sausage. There was no taste of grease at all. I had my eggs over medium, which is becoming my new default, and they were very good. My country potatoes were simple; not bland, just simple.



I chose a biscuit as my bread option; it was homemade and good, with just a bit of powdery flavor and easily peeled in half. The sign of a good, moist biscuit is this ability for it to be split without breaking up or leaving too many crumbs.

Rachel also ordered a root beer float. She's appears to have really taken a licking to it--I mean a liking to it. I made a funny!

Pann's was built up in my mind as such a classic place that it might have been hard to match my expectations. Food-wise, it certainly did--not because it was amazing or anything. I just expected good food and Pann's delivered. Style and atmosphere is where it really made me feel like it was deservedly a Los Angeles legend.

Special thanks to Charlie Chu for taking the food pictures on this outing. He's a real photographer and hot damn he makes this food look even better.

Food: Very good.
Service: A little slow on refills but otherwise quite good.
Price: A bit more expensive than it should be. $9-$13
Pie: Apple and Cherry.

Pann's
6710 LaTijera Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Open Mon-Sat 7am-11pm; Sun 7am-10pm

Revolver- Eat like a pig. I mean, cop. Eat like a cop. What? I like cops.

I'm going to make you a promise in this review: I will not make any references to the Steve Guttenberg films.




My friend Dan, who you will remember from Eatwell and the oft-plugged Banana book, told me about the coffee shop at the Police Academy up by Dodger Stadium, and we decided to go for breakfast last Wednesday morning. It had been some time since he had been there and was a little foggy as to where it was located on the grounds. We parked outside and did just as I had learned from childhood Bernstein Bears books: when lost, look for a police officer to help. One was easy to find since literally everyone in a square mile of us was a cop.

The coffee shop is actually on the grounds of the academy. We were pointed in the right direction by some nice officers and proceeded through the stone gates of the academy. Ever hear gunshots at 7:30 in the morning? Lots of them? I lived in Glassell Park so that was nothing new to me, but the sheltered may find the continuous rapport of gunfire from the nearby shooting range to be a tad disconcerting.



We found the coffee shop right next to the swimming pool.



It has beautiful stone work on the outside and on the inside. The walls are covered in LAPD memorabilia: staff photos from different precincts, graduation photos and pictures of neighborhoods as they once were. You can make out the famous Norman Rockwell painting of the kid and the cop on the wall in the photo below. There is also a golden shovel on the wall commemorating... something. We didn't get close enough to read the inscription.



It was immediately after taking this picture that our waitress told me I was "breaking every rule" and there were no pictures allowed. What was she gonna do? Call the cops on me? Oh wait. Literally every other patron in the place had a badge and a gun...or at least a gun and was working toward getting a badge. I put away my nice digital camera. That's why there are only two more pictures in this piece. I had to be stealthy.

The menu has a lot of little cutesy cop names for dishes. "The Range Burger" and the "Academy
Special" (which is what I eventually settled on) are good examples, as well as more specific shout-outs with the "Bratton Burger" and the "Hollenbeck Huevos Rancheros." Everything was under eight bucks.

About two minutes after she admonished me for the picture-taking, our waitress came back to take our order. We asked for more time and got an incredulous eye roll. We wouldn't see her again for almost ten minutes. That taught us! Perhaps she was so used to regulars who order the same thing or know the menu by rote that we threw her off her game.

So the Academy Special was two pancakes, two sausages, two eggs and choice of potatoes (home fries or hash browns).



The pancakes were pretty good. I ordered my eggs over easy for a change of pace, and I realized that I don't really like over easy. The sausages were typical Jimmy Dean variety. The potatoes were good, but not really home fries the way I think of them from a restaurant--no onions and no peppers. They were what I'd make at home, just saltier.

Now, Dan ordered the Spanish Omelet. The picture I snapped of it didn't turn out. Rest assured it was as serviceable as my meal was.

A place like this caters to a very select clientele who, I imagine, want cheap and hearty meals. Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club delivers this in a convenient location for the local police. As a normal citizen, you are basically eating in the safest place in town. That's a really interesting feeling. I could whip out a wallet full of hundeys and flash it around and not worry about getting followed to my car and beaten. At least, I think so. Those waitresses did look a little shifty.

I was underwhelmed by the food, but it's definitely one of the most out of the ordinary breakfast spots in Los Angeles, and for that alone, I will recommend it.

Food- Okay.
Service-Grumpy.
Price- Cheap $6-$8 for most dishes.
Pie-No pie.

1880 Academy Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(323) 221-5222