Armenian restaurants in Glendale are mad because they aren't allowed to grill kebabs outdoors according to the L.A. Times article Passions Flame over Kebabs. I'm sure that if the authorities allowed this, there would be a sudden outbreak of juicy, charred meats being grilled all over the city -- Why is this a bad thing exactly, other than the amount of salivating people it would attract? There's got to be a way to keep air pollution at bay while allowing people their rightful native kebabs.
By now you probably know that Beadle's Cafeteria in Pasadena has closed ... certainly sad, in an end-of-an-era way, although it's kind of easy to see why people don't really have a taste for steam table pot roast and multi-colored jello anymore. My mom used to be fond of the Clifton's in Century City, although I can't remember one thing I ever ate there. I was more impressed when Century City opened up something called a "food court" which amazingly featured food from several different countries, all in the same place! It seemed pretty cosmopolitan at the time, especially with the giant mod supergraphics on each stand. I know, though, I'm dating myself again...
For all you food science lovers, or those who are interested in all the conflicting nutritional claims attributed to certain foods, author Harold McGee has a blog. I was interested to find out, for example, that grass fed beef doesn't really have that much healthy Omega 3 fat after all. Well, healthy beef did kind of seem like an oxymoron.
4 comments:
This is actually a better write-up on Beadle's than what the LAT offered.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_4589099
I ate at Beadles in the 70's and again last month. It was sad what has happened. When I opened up Larry Parker's Diner in Beverly Hills, Beadles was on my mind. Originally Larry Parker's Diner was a cafeteria for just a few days when we realized we did not have enought seats. We instantly converted to table service which made sense with the small dining room. Beadles has made the new service to almost be table service. The baked Halibut was so good we tried at Larry Parker's. We ended up expanding to serve Breakfast, Lunch and dinner 24 hours a day. L. A. Weekly charged so much for the advertising that we worked out a barter agreement. We catered the production lunches in trade for our advertising.Larry Parker's Beverly Hills Diner was so nostalgic that it was really built in 1947. It served over 500 people per day. The city of Beverly Hills wanted it closed due to too many black customers. The sales were over $2,000,000.00 per year plus charitable donations of about $200,000.00 per year. L. A. Weekly chose Larry Parker's because of the food quality and variety. This is the reason they make 31 Flavors. Some people prefer Vanilla and some prefer chocolate. You can pour 8 cups of coffee from one pot and get reviews from the best to the worse. Shaq, Angela Bassett, Natalie Cole and Gil Cates were only a few of the 1000's of regular customers. Guy Starkman, Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Timothy Hutton, Charlie Sheen, Pat Boone, George Harrison, JFK Jr, L.L. Cool J, Sharon Stone, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Barbra Streisand, Chic Corea, Miles Davis Jr, Coltrane Jr, Ray Charles Jr, Mohammed Ali, Magic Johnson were just a few regular customers. Ask any other people what they thought. It was a public party every day. I worked there for 15 years and saw the happy customers every day. Tupac and Biggie Small, Craig Mack, Baby Face, Run DMC, Jermaine Dupre all loved Larry Parker's Diner. Snoop and Dr. Dre were planning on being partners with Suge Knight until break up of Death Row Records happened. Larry Parker's Diner was one of the most popular restaurants from 1982 til 1997 when Beverly Hills declared it the most dangerous problem Beverly Hills had, due to the large crowds late at night. The city did not want to pay for more police to monitor the hundreds of people in line after 11 pm.
Larry Parker is now Big Daddy and Son's Pizza on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.
I read both the pasadena star-news and LAT versions and agreed with ipse the former is better.
In many other major cities (NY and DC, for example) though, cafeterias are still vibrant and thriving--I guess it's just an end-of-an-era for the L.A. crowd.
Why is healthy beef an oxymoron? It's full of protein an iron.
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