Foxy's - It's Crystal Clear.

When we first saw the sign for Foxy's, we thought we were in for one heckuva classy dining experience. My God! They promote their crystal chandeliers on the sign! It wasn't until we pulled into the parking lot that we saw that Crystal Chandeliers is the name of the store across from Foxy's.



...I'm just surprised stores like this still exist in today's economy. Right next door is the Faberge Egg Outlet.



Once we entered Foxy's, it seemed that perhaps we still would be in for a classy experience, despite the lack of crystal. The vaulted ceilings and hunting lodge decor was not what I was expecting, but with the name "Foxy's," I guess you are either stripper poles and broken dreams or a hunting lodge vaguely shaped like an old IHOP.

Since it was very crowded that morning, they offered free hot chocolate to anyone willing to sit on the patio. It was still a nip of nippy outside, but we went for it anyway. Free. Hot. Chocolate.



One of those is a coffee, a very weak and burnt coffee. The hot chocolate was pretty good.

The menu was very dense--several pages and featuring a wide variety of dishes, but nothing too outlandish and nothing all that expensive. This combination made it hard to decide. Everything sounded good and the dishes that were paraded by our table on their way to their final destinations looked very appetizing.



I ordered the "Leaning Tower of Mexico," and understandably, I expected more of a tower than a mound. The mound was good, with a layered mix of everything you expect from a Mexican breakfast. I only kind of like avocado so I shunted a large part of the spread off to the side.



#1DC Antoinette ordered the "Light Eater's Breakfast." She inquired as to what kind of fruit would be included with the fruit salad. She was told banana, cantaloupe, etc., etc. When it arrived, no banana or cantaloupe. Why did our waitress feel she had to lie? Maybe she has some banana issues. I don't care to judge. Antoinette's English muffin was cold AND burnt. The eggs, however, were good.

Sadly Foxy's does not offer pie. They had a ton of different cakes and a cobbler, but no pie.

Overall, Foxy's was pretty decent. It is located in Glendale by the Galleria and Americana, so it offers a nice respite from awful mall food. That also means that it will shoulder some spill-over of awful mall clientele. We had to suffer through a party of ten middle-aged 'dudes' enjoying a breakfast while the "ol' balls and chains" did some shopping. Surely it can't always be that bad, but beware.

UPDATE- April 2010
#1DC Antoinette recently went back to Foxy's and got to eat inside. She had the shrimp wrap and I had the chicken salad croissant. The wrap was only okay but I really liked my sandwich. The croissant wasn't too buttery and the chicken salad was pretty good. The french fries were pretty outstanding. One thing that I missed on our initial visit was that they have toasters on the table's inside! No wonder Antoinette's English muffin was burnt when we sat outside--the staff have little experience with having to toast the breads.

Food-Decent to Good.
Service-Decent, except for the banana lie.
Price-Very reasonable.
Pie-No pie.


Foxy's Restaurant
206 W. Colorado St.
Glendale, CA 91204
(818) 246-0244

Dale's Diner: Coffee, pie and short skirts.

My first Long Beach review! Are you excited? I know I was.



Dale's Diner was found thanks to my GPS. You can look for local stores and restaurants by either name or type. They even have a category for Cafe/Diners. So early last Sunday morning, after going to the Long Beach flea market, I needed a break from trudging up and down the aisles of junk and antiques and decided to get some breakfast.

I was a little hesitant walking in since this was so overwhelmingly a '50's style diner' and those can be kind of gut-punching or surprisingly good (see: Stevie Dees). It wasn't blaring 50s rock n' roll but it had the jukebox and some pretty sweet classic car trunk cushion booths (there's gotta be a shorter name for that).





I would have liked to have taken more pictures of the interior but the fact that all of the waitresses looked to be under 18 and wearing alarmingly short skirts, I felt pervy enough from taking the few pictures I did. Hitting this place solo also limited my organic taking pictures opportunities, since it's hard to pretend that you just got this this new camera and are just playing around with it and amusing your dining companion, when you have no #1DC with you.
#1DC Antoinette and I have a system down of my pretending to take a picture of her but really taking a picture of something else and vice versa.

I sat myself as directed by the white board at the entrance. All four of the waitresses checked in with me. I ordered a coffee and a water to start with. The coffee was phenomenal: super strong and super hot and super good.


Mmm...homemade chili and beans.


Thing's weren't cheap at Dale's. Most dishes hovered around 8 dollars. I was intrigued by the different flapjacks they listed--Oreo cookie for instance. It turned out their list of flapjacks was pretty close to their types of pies (apple, blue berry, bannana, no oreo, etc.) I was sorely tempted, but in the end I went with the biscuits and gravy for only $4.50. I also warned my food-order-taking waitress- who was different from my beverage waitress, who in turn was different from my second beverage waitress-that I would order pie later.



The biscuits and gravy were decent. The gravy was a bit too thick and the sausage bits were too small and few to really matter. The biscuits were quite good. This might not sound appealing to everyone, but I like to describe them as "powdery."




Now, as I mentioned earlier, I warned my waitress that I'd like pie later. I sat a long time waiting for her return. I also sat a long time waiting for a refill on my coffee. When my refill came, I asked my beverage waitress for my food waitress so I could order some pie. She eventually came over and I got a slice of apple pie. The pie was very cinnamon-y and, as you can tell from that picture, it was more reddish brown than golden.


I had to wait a bit longer for my check. By that time the place had filled up with people saying things like "Oh our regular table is open." and "Oh, let's try something different this week." and "Whoa, those skirts are REALLY short on those underage girls."


As super pervy as it might sound, I liked Dale's Diner more than I expected. It was fun without being obnoxious. The highlight was the coffee and the pie. I learned on my way out that they actually offer day old pie for $1.99, which would imply they get fresh pie every day, which is nice. I can't imagine the rest of the food is going to be bad or better than good. Seems like a decent place with a local following, if you are nearby it would be worth it for the coffee alone.



Food-Decent
Service-Meh, high school girls.
Price-A tiny bit high.
Pie-Good pie.

Dale's Diner
4339 East Carson Street
Long Beach, CA 90808
(562) 425-7285

Tokyo 7-7 - Dining Japanese. I think I'm dining Japanese, I really think so.

You will have trouble finding it. Your GPS will insist, such as it does, that you have arrived at your destination and it will do so using that condescending British accent you've been meaning to change but you can't remember how and the manual has gone missing. Your eyes will scan the street and find nothing. You’ll decide to just park and find it on foot. You’ll park in the nearby parking garage and then through the iron bars of the garage you will see it:

Tokyo 7-7 Coffee Shop



....it's in the alley.

Tokyo 7-7 is an American Japanese Diner. Its alley location isn't so odd from the Japanese perspective of alleys being streets that cars don't drive down. Stores and restaurants are often found down alleyways. A few years ago, I went to Japan on vacation and most of my time was spent wandering down alleyways.

In America, where alleys are for hobos and murderers, it is an odd place for a restaurant.

Inside, it’s like going to eat in your weird uncle’s den: wood paneling on the walls,



really odd…things…sticking out at you,



and like every weird uncle has—an autographed cast photo of Full House.

#1DC Antoinette, along with Diner Pal Paul (remember him?), took the opportunity on President’s Day to try out Tokyo 7-7. We rolled in at about a quarter to twelve, disappointed that we missed the super cheap breakfast specials which ended at eleven.

Our waitress went from sweet ol’ lady to exasperated in no time as after three check-ins with us we still had no idea what we wanted. The menu isn't expansive, but everything was so cheap that we were looking for the catch somewhere on the menu. “Do they charge for water? How can they afford this? Is salt extra?”




Sorry if the picture doesn't sell it, but there are no items in the double digits, and nothing above seven dollars.

Even though we missed the special super-cheap price for it, Paul ordered the French Toast breakfast. He liked the bacon and the french toast was pretty good.



Antoinette got the Portuguese Sausage and Eggs. The sausage was spicy. The eggs were okay. The home fries were rather boring; they tasted like boiled potatoes that were just kissed by the griddle.



I went in a different direction. I went East...FAR EAST! (Get it?!) I got the Tokyo 7-7 Special. Basically a Japanese breakfast with tamagoyaki (thin layered omelette), cha-shu (pork), sunomono (pickled cucumber), rice and miso soup. Everything was enjoyable at least. There's something about the way the Japanese prepare eggs that kind of disgusts me with the texture (wet and slimy), but it tastes pretty good. Clearly the Japanese dish was the way to go. It was also the most expensive of the three, topping out at--OMG--6 dollars!



Now a word about the coffee at the Tokyo 7-7 Coffee Shop. It's bad. It might have been the worst coffee I've had at a non-Starbucks. It took a lot of sweetener to make it through. The waitress was pretty good about refills...which wasn't necessarily a good thing.

Diner Pal Paul, insists that, on price alone, he'd eat there everyday. For the three of us, our bill came in at about twenty dollars. I would definitely go back if I ever happened to be in Culver City wanting breakfast. It's a unique little hidey-hole of a place. I felt comfortable there, probably because it reminded me of Japan and... my weird uncle.

Food- Good
Service-Good. She did get visibly annoyed when we didn't know what we wanted right away.
Price- Dirt Cheap. Remember, cash only.
Pie- No pie.

3839 Main St.
Ste B: Alley behind the street
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 204-5728

UPDATE- 12/21

I just learned that this place closed down last weekend. Special thanks to Diner Photog Charlie Chu for sending me the link. http://www.giantrobot.com/index.php/blogs/eric-post/tokyo_7-7/

Update to Dolores!

Dolores- Revisited.

Scroll down to the bottom for the new stuff.

Penny's Family Restaurant-- All Day Long, You'll Have Good Luck

You don't really expect to find a ol' fashioned American comfort food eating establishment in something called "Hong Kong Shopping Center," but that's exactly what you'll find in lovely West Covina (not to be confused with its rival, directionless Covina).



Penny's is a sweet little place surrounded by knock off 99cent stores, fast food Chinese restaurants, and video stores with signs in languages I cannot comprehend. On the Sunday morning that we went, Penny's was packed with what were clearly regulars. That, or the waitresses were Chatty Cathys with everyone. An elderly gentleman dressed like a cowboy with a penny stuck to his name tag and a belt-buckle made of nickels, coasted around the place filling up coffees. When we asked him a question regarding the food, he shrugged and said "Oh, sorry. I just pour the coffee."



For all that activity buzzing around the place, you'd think someone would have noticed that we were in the beginning of February and they still had fall and Christmas decorations up. Maybe they just didn't care, like your great aunt who leaves up the Christmas tree all year because "Eh, I like it like that way" and "Oh, the bother."

While watching television the night before, I turned to #1DC Antoinette and said "Man, I want some pancakes!" So guess what I ordered? No swerve, I ordered the pancake breakfast with sausage, found on the menu as the "3 by 3 Special."



I'm going to confess that I like things doughy. I eat raw dough. Not just cookie dough, but rather all dough--and I like my pancakes doughy. Penny's delivered moist and soft pancakes to my belly. They also delivered a ton of butter, although I managed to scrape those two mounds off the moment after I took the picture. I'm sure my arteries look like the river of slime in Ghost Busters 2. I would have loved something more exotic, but alas they only had the standard maple pancake syrup.

The sausage was unremarkable.

Not a review, but an experience I should share.

Took a month off from updating...but not from eating.

If I were the kind of blogger who gave ratings with cute icons...well, I'd be a different kind of blogger and this a different kind of blog. If either of those were the case, however, I would have had to come up with a whole new icon to relate my feelings about what happened to #1DC Antoinette and me two weeks ago.

Out for breakfast one Saturday morning, we cruised the neighborhood looking for something that might jump out at us. I suggested the Nickel Diner, but we decided it was a little expensive for our tastes that morning. I then suggested the Brite Spot. I hadn't been in a few months and never for breakfast. After that fateful morning, though, I may never, ever go again...

You will not see a lot of pictures in this post since it is not a review. I didn't go to the Brite Spot to review it. I went to get some breakfast, to strap on a feed bag and go to work. I was off the clock.

We walked inside, racing another couple to get a spot since we could see people piling up at the door. The Brite Spot is divided into two sections. On the right hand side I saw the waitress that I had had there a couple of times. She was clearing a table for us when I noticed my friend Dan (author of Banana) and his fiance sitting at a table on the left. We went over to say hello and they invited us to join them. They had just ordered so there shouldn't have been that much of a discrepancy between when their food and ours arrived.

The waitress in this section was a anemic blonde running at half speed--no--make that quarter speed. After a little under ten minutes, we got our menus and in a little under an additional ten minutes, we ordered. Our order was simple: oatmeal with banana for #1 DC and a breakfast burrito for me. We both got coffee as well and proceeded drink a lot of it. The refills came at a decent pace since another person entirely was handling that function. After about fifteen minutes, our friends got their food--at least most of it. Halfway through they realized they had never gotten their toast. After flagging down our waitress and reminding her of the toast, she paused for a few seconds and replied, "Oh, right." Then she moved on.

After about five minutes of our watching people who had been seated at the counter after us getting their food, our waitress brought the toast. "Umm, sorry.. it got all messed up. Better late than never."

Your waitress saying that about your food is just...wrong. It goes beyond terrible service.

We then reminded her about our food. " Oh, yeah.... it's coming." #1DC Antoinette suggested that we leave, but I don't walk out of places. I just don't. It's not something I am comfortable doing. I see it through.

At this point our friends were done eating. We talked for another ten or so minutes, waiting for the check to arrive. They finally had to flag her down again to get the check. She avoided eye contact with our side of the table. [Remember waiters: give the gift of eye contact.] Now, remember what our order was? Oatmeal with banana and a breakfast burrito. These take twenty minutes at home. We have now spent close to an hour at our table.

Our friends went up to pay and we said our goodbyes. After a moment, our food arrived. I took a bite of my burrito. Antoinette took a bite of her oatmeal. "It's cold," she replied. I jammed my finger into the wet mound of cereal and felt that it was, indeed, cold.

That was it. I had taken all I could take and I couldn't take any more. We got up and walked to the door. Our friends were still at the counter waiting to pay. As we walked past they asked what happened. "It's cold!" we announced and finished our walk out the door.

Dan said he watched the slow realization dawn on the face of the waitress when she looked over and saw an empty table.

This was such a bad experience that I did something I never do. I had done it only once before and that was at a Guatemalan restaurant that had stale chips and a wait staff who blatantly ignored us. I might go back to Brite Spot again someday; it's near where I live; it's near where I hang out; if I do decide to return, I will certainly refuse to sit in this waitress' section again.

All's well that ends well, however. We ended up having a delicious German brunch at the Red Lion Tavern on Glendale Blvd.

Avoid:
Brite Spot
1918 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 484-9800

Try:
Red Lion Tavern (only open for breakfast Saturdays and Sundays at 11am)

2366 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90039

(323) 662-5337

Silver Spoons: West Hollywood. - Closed

I don't do West Hollywood. It's a big 'ole hassle of a neighborhood full of parking permits, douchey stores, and crowded clubs where I don't like the music and nobody asks me to dance. I have no reason to ever go there.

While looking for a diner in Beverly Hills one Saturday morning, we found the google maps directions woefully unhelpful at navigating the ridiculousness of the area. We gave up and headed back to the east side via Santa Monica Blvd.

#1DC Antoinette's eagle-eye noticed the sign for "Silver Spoons." Because I was speeding by in order to get back into familiar territory, I had to flip the car around to get into the parking lot. Now, a dedicated parking lot in this area of town speaks to the length of time Silver Spoons must have been around.

Sorry about the lack of a photo of the sign for Silver Spoons. For some reason, the picture I took with the digital camera didn't turn out. The sign is pretty massive and cool and I must have driven past it dozens of times and missed it somehow. Instead, here's the title shot from the classic 80s sitcom:

Walking up to the building, I was full of trepidation. It was boxy and uninviting, almost built like a fortress. A canopy covered what I assumed was a patio that somehow served to make the building even more closed-off--like a turtle in a shell.

Once inside, the feeling immediately washed away as the first sound we heard was the hearty laughter of a man and background smatterings of lively conversation. Turning the corner to face the counter, we saw that the laughter belonged to one of the waiters who then approached us.

He had the look of a career waiter. Not passing time while waiting for pilot season and not broken down after twenty or so pilot seasons had passed. This man clearly loved being a waiter and he showed genuine care and friendliness.

Man, I look like crap in that picture. Anyway, the walls of Silver Spoons are adorned with movie posters and head shots. Head shots are fairly common in Los Angeles, but full on posters (most of them autographed) is unique. A lot the signatures are personalized to Silver Spoons, making me think this place is even more of a Hollywood landmark than I had imagined.
If you glance over my shoulder on the left, you'll see a poster for an Ice Cube movie. Remember Ice Cube from such powerful performances as "Boys in the Hood" and "Three Kings?" Also remember Ice Cube from such films as, "Are We There Yet" and "Barbershop 2: Back in Business?" He's all over the place in terms of quality, but that poster there represents a new low for anyone. That poster is for:

Now, too small to see on the poster is the name of the director. The director:

Fred Durst.

This was the snippet of conversation we overheard going on behind us when the patrons at the table located under that poster asked the waiter about it.

Patron: Like the Limp Bizkit guy?

Waiter: Yeah.

Patron: Did he do the soundtrack?

Waiter: No. He directed it.

Patron: He's a director?

Waiter: Yes. He just finished his second movie. He comes in all the time. He's a friend.

Patron:...Oh.

As we looked over the menu, nothing really jumped out at us. No moment of "Hmmm, that sounds interesting." Silver Spoons offers very standard fare--nothing you couldn't get at Astro Family Restaurant or a Spires or any number of other similar restaurants. The prices aren't going to kill you nor are they going to save your soul.

Antoinette ordered the patty melt with fries and coleslaw. The rye bread was really good, as were the fries, which even retained a hint of real potato flavor. Antoinette thought the onions could have been grilled a bit longer. I thought the patty melt didn't have enough cheese, while Antoinette thought it had too much...That probably means it had a perfect amount of cheese.



I ordered the "old fashioned sandwich," which is turkey, ham, and thousand island dressing. It was pretty good. The dressing was slathered on, but wasn't overwhelming to the point of not being able to pick up the sandwich.

Now the coleslaw; I first found it bland, but Antoinette noticed an odd flavor to it. It took me several tastes and some time, but I eventually realized that the coleslaw had the distinct flavor of old cantaloupe. It wasn't gross by any means; it was just weird.

The meal at Silver Spoons was decent. It's a nice, comfortable place with big booths, dark wood interior that makes you feel you're in a nicer place than you are, and a good staff to bolster that feeling. I'd recommend it if you are nearby and looking for American comfort food, or if you want to see some cool movie posters and maybe a celebrity. Here's a link to the "Seeing Stars" website page about the restaurant. Stalk away creepos!



Food: Decent.
Service: Hearty Laughter!
Price: A little high.
Pie: Check out the revolving dessert case by the front counter.

8171 Santa Monica Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90046

(323) 650-4890

UPDATE- Silver Spoons closed back in 2011 and is now a seafood restaurant.