What's the Oldest Restaurant in Silver Lake?

This article ran in the Los Feliz Ledger in 2019, but the demise of Café Tropical seemed like a good time to republish it. 

BY PAT SAPERSTEIN ON MARCH 28, 2019

What’s the oldest restaurant in Silver Lake? With rising rents and upscale options fast replacing old favorites, a handful of longtime spots remain.

Though it’s been through many owners and several names, Millie’s has operated as a diner in the same spot since 1926, so it would appear to be by far the longest-running restaurant in the area—though in Atwater, the Tam O’Shanter opened in 1922.

Not many locals remember Millie’s before its first hipster rebirth, when Paul Greenstein bought the diner in 1984. The Devil’s Mess—now its signature dish—is just one of the many names Millie’s has had over its long history and the diner recently opened its first spin-off in Pasadena.

Perhaps the next oldest is the Red Lion, which is seeking city permission to upgrade and remodel after opening in 1959 as a British pub—it switched to a German theme in 1963.

The year 1962 was a big one for restaurants in the area: Taix French restaurant moved to Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park that year, after starting out downtown in 1927. Also opened in 1962 were Casita del Campo, still going strong on Hyperion Avenue, and El Cid, which was a curious jail-themed restaurant in the 1920s before turning to flamenco dancing.

In the early 1960s, thousands of Cuban refugees settled in the Echo Park and Silver Lake areas, opening travel agencies, shops, bakeries and restaurants. Few of those spots remain, but Cafe Tropical, which opened in 1975 and and El Cochinito, in 1988, give a glimpse of what the area once known as “Little Havana” was like during that era.

From Ed Ruscha's Sunset Boulevard

Locals were worried when Cafe Tropical’s distinctively purple-painted building was sold last December. Manager Alfredo Morales says that although the building’s ownership changed hands, there are currently no plans to sell the business or change anything.The clientele no longer features cigar-smoking Cuban gentlemen like it did in the 1980s, but it remains a favorite for the flaky guava cheese pastries and cafe de leche, as well as providing a community space for numerous meetings each week for the recovery community.

On a recent weekday morning, longtime customer Robert Williams said he appreciates how Tropical is “welcoming to all kinds of people.” Williams said he was happy to find it nearly the same when he returned to Los Angeles after moving away for more than 20 years.

A recent visit to El Cochinito showed the 31-year old restaurant is still a vibrant gathering place for the community, despite upscale arrivals like Trois Familia next door. Families and friends pack the mini-mall restaurant for hearty fare including one of the best Cuban sandwiches around. Another standout is the giant plate of lechon asado (slow-roasted pork), with sweet plantains, black beans and rice.

Up until the 1990s, Sunset Boulevard used to be lined with burrito joints, pupusa stands and old-school Mexican restaurants including El Chavo, El Conquistador, Zamora Brothers and La Parrilla. Just a few are left. Yuca’s on Hillhurst opened in 1976, while Tacos Delta has provided an informal option in the Sunset Junction area since 1981 and El Siete Mares, which operates several locations, started out in 1968.

Gentrification and the influx of higher-income residents are affecting businesses across the greater Eastside, and it’s inevitable that some of these old favorites will not survive. So as always, think about supporting Silver Lake’s restaurant pioneers along with the newcomers.

 

Imperial Western Beer Co.: Before and After Photos of the Impressive Renovation of the Fred Harvey Restaurant

Imperial Western's cavernous main hall

Though I wasn't fortunate enough to get married there like some people I know, I've always loved the Fred Harvey restaurant at Union Station and hoped that someday it would re-open in its former glory. Designed by Mary Colter, the restaurant opened in 1939 and was the last of the Harvey Houses that operated across the U.S. at train stations and tourist attractions. The restaurant closed in 1967, so the re-opening as Imperial Western Beer Company comes 51 years later.

The vintage Powder Room

There were several attempts along the way to re-open the space, but the confusing mix of owners and the economics of running such a large restaurant in a spot that wasn't necessarily conducive to expensive fine dining made it challenging. But nightlife entrepreneur Cedd Moses came up with the smart idea of utilizing the vast and potentially wasted kitchen area as a full-scale brewery and making the atmospheric space into a kind of Grand Central Oyster Bar-meets-craft brewery, with a side of cocktails in the vintage Streamliner lounge.

Restored front booth area                                                          (Credit: Wonho Frank Lee)

All the vintage details like Colter's parrot-patterned cement tiles and Navaho rug-patterned floor are cleaned up and glowing. The aqua glass tiles of the kitchen have been carefully replicated, and loads of character-filled details also remain in the Streamliner Bar, the Powder Room and in the small patio bar that adds outdoor seating to the mix.

Head brewer Devon Randall has a lot of vats to fill

Making the space accessible and affordable, with menu items all under $20, is the right thing to do as transit improvements at Union Station make the area into even more of a hub connecting all parts of the city. The menu is from the Hungry Cat's David Lentz, with dishes like fish tacos, crispy oyster po'boys and house smoked mussels, as well as ribs, fried chicken and a burger for non-seafood fans.

Ready to brew!

Imperial Western is named for one of the great train lines that services Union Station, as are some of the beers like the Super Chief IPA. Moses' 213 Hospitality opened Arts District Brewing three years ago, so they've had some time to work on their brews before opening Imperial Western, which has 18 beer taps, with mostly their house-made beers.

The cooler doors were retained in the patio bar area

The challenge with a room that holds 435 people is getting everyone served and fed efficiently and keeping up the food quality. It's a challenge that was apparently too much for another large, historic venue, Clifton's Cafeteria, which has abandoned the cafeteria idea and turned into a multi-floor amusement park of a bar.

Streamliner Bar                                                                                        (credit: Wonho Frank Lee)

The cozy Streamliner Bar off to the left looks much the same as ever. The Varnish's Eric Alperin designed the Streamliner's menu of cocktails that are served on tap, perfect for rushed travelers, with reasonable prices under $10 per drink.

BEFORE: Abandoned kitchen area

Back in 2012, I took some photos before the restoration at the L.A. Beer Week festival, so it's interesting to see how sensitively it has been brought back to life.

BEFORE: A beer seminar in the main room

BEFORE: Original ceramic tiles at the Streamliner Bar

BEFORE: Powder Room

BEFORE: Kitchen area

BEFORE: Front booths

BEFORE: Streamliner Bar

Celebrate 90 Years of Taix French Restaurant With a 90 Cent Chicken Dinner

Taix in 1956 (Courtesy LAPL)

It's not quite L.A.'s oldest restaurant, but Taix French Restaurant is certainly one of the city's most beloved. The venerable old-school French dinner house, which moved to Sunset Blvd. from downtown in 1962, celebrates its 90th birthday this month with a traditional roast chicken dinner for 90 cents.

On Sunday, Oct. 8 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Taix will serve soup de jour, salad, and Taix Roast Chicken with au jus. Of course there will be a big line, so consider celebrating this long-lived institution at another time when the full menu is available.

At a recent anniversary reception, owner Michael Taix, grandson of founder Marius Taix Jr., said he would recommend diners try the trout almondine, the frog legs, the boeuf Bourgignon when it's offere as a special, and of course the roast chicken.

Taix also reminded us that chef Laurent Quenioux continues to consult on the menu a few days a week, making sure the cooking is more authentically French than it has been probably for decades.

Taix opened at 321 Commercial Street downtown in 1927, serving chicken dinners for 50 cents. After the Hollywood Freeway was built, it moved to Echo Park where it has been ever since.

I love the slogan on one of the original menus that the family preserved: "Save time, no worry, no thinking. Leave that to us."

So what are L.A.'s very oldest restaurants? Philippe the Original and Cole's were both established in 1908, while Musso and Frank came along in 1919. After that, Barney's Beanery, Pacific Dining Car, Original Pantry, La Golondrina and El Cholo came along during the 1920s. Make it a point to try all these places while they're still going strong!

The Luau, the Brown Derby, and Hamburger Hamlet: Eating Around L.A. in the 1960s and '70s

The Beverly Hills location of the Brown Derby

I once sent a long letter to the L.A. Times about where I remember eating growing up, long before blogs and Vintage Los Angeles and Old L.A. Restaurants. Here's an expanded version of my L.A. eating memories of the 1960s and '70s.

My parents loved nice restaurants. They both grew up eating boring Illinois food -- in my father's case, his mother was a terrible cook who mostly mangled Jewish staples, and he felt liberated and excited to try pizza and spaghetti for the first time in the Army during WWII, though he never lost his taste for Hebrew National salami fried up with eggs and sardines with Gulden's spicy brown mustard on crackers. My mother grew up in a small town famous for corn and pork tenderloin sandwiches. The corn-on-the-cob was uber-fresh, but it was plain cooking, and she was dazzled by encountering artichokes and shrimp DeJongh when she moved to Venice Beach after high school, and later Manhattan and Chicago.

So when they came to Los Angeles, around the time I was born, they began taking me to restaurants right away -- or at least as soon as I could amble around visiting tables at the Brown Derby informing diners that "my daddy is a producer," as a vintage Hedda Hopper column noted. Of the Brown Derby, I remember the pumpernickel toast best, buttery, warm and slightly crispy, nesting in a cloth napkin-covered basket. There were also tiny hamburgers that I thought had been invented just for me, each with a separate sauce -- ketchup, sour cream, Russian dressing. When sliders appeared decades later, I wasn't too impressed after having moved directly from baby food to adorable mini-burgers at the Brown Derby.

The Luau in Beverly Hills

We went most often to the Hamburger Hamlet, usually the one on Rodeo Drive. We were friends with the owners, the Lewises, and I remember a gala event at their Beverly Hills house with the swimming pool covered by a temporary dance floor. Like everyone else, we adored Those Potatoes and were impressed with the variety of toppings on the burgers, a new idea at the time. There was another Beverly Hills burger place -- Hamburger Habit? -- that advertised even more toppings but we were loyal to the Hamlet, which is the only place I ever remember my father ordering a beer.

Ice cream was one of our family's principal food groups, and our usual spot was the Baskin-Robbins on Canon Drive where black and white murals of placid grazing cows lined the walls. My mother and I were mad about chocolate Mandarin orange sherbet, a flavor that doesn't ever seem to get revived but is fondly remembered by many. My parents took me there in my footie pajamas and we went after my cat Fido was run over, as ice cream was thought to salve all wounds. But just Baskin-Robbins wasn't enough.

Wil Wright's Beverly Hills location where Marilyn Monroe was photographed.

There were also Wil Wrights and Blum's. Blum's was on Wilshire, and was famous for crunch cake with pieces of sponge candy deliciously suspended in a whipped cream frosting. Wil Wright's was on South Beverly Drive (also in Sunset Plaza) and had refreshing frappes in exotic flavors like pear. My mother grew up eating at drugstore lunch counters, and liked the cherry phosphates and lemon cokes at the fountain at the big Owl Rexall at La Cienega and Beverly (still a drugstore, but no more fountain, alas.) This was of course across from Beverly Park, or Kiddyland as we knew it, where my divorced dad took me to kill a Sunday afternoon, but I also remember my mom taking me to a big discount Standard Shoes next to a pumping oil derrick where the Beverly Center now stands. Later, when we moved to Westwood, we went often to Swenson's Ice Cream, where the best flavor was a coffee-caramel-mint combo. 

My father found Mexican food fascinating, but it was way too early for most Westside white folks to try to find the real thing. We had to content ourselves with the blandly corporate Senor Pico in Century City (strangely, they still exist in places like Dubai) and a place on Santa Monica Blvd. near San Vicente. By the early 1970s, interest in Mexican food had started to pick up, so every Saturday we had lunch at the Sundance Cafe on Robertson, where modern Cal-Mex like fried tostada bowls was just getting off the ground.

It was my mother who somehow got the bug for ethnic foods, maybe because she had lived in Manhattan or because when she worked as a librarian for Playboy in the 1950s, her friends would take her to eat in Chicago's Greek and Polish neighborhoods. She never met a church food festival she wouldn't check out, so we traveled up Pico for a Greek fair, way out to the valley and wherever baklava or other ethnic forms of buttery dough could be found. I doubt I ever set foot in Silver Lake as a child, but if she had known about St. Casimir's annual Lithuanian festival, I surely would have.

She hated driving and gave up her car before I was old enough to drive, so we took the bus all the way down Wilshire from the beach to Chinatown. We spent weekends scarfing pork bao and shrimp har gow decades before most people got around to it, usually at the Golden Dragon. We also took the bus to Little Tokyo (I can't really wrap my mind around people calling it J-town). I remember the red bean pancakes from Mitsuru Cafe being made in the same metal molds that are still in the window, though it was in a different location. I remember a tempura bar on First St. where we sat at a counter with our backs to the street, watching a man fry up course after course of battered shrimp and vegetables. It's no wonder I remain obsessed with fried seafood to this day.

When we still had a car, we drove in from Malibu to Santa Monica every Friday night, alternating between chicken pot pie at House of Pies and fish 'n chips at the Mucky Duck. (Again with the fried seafood!) Afterwards we walked the Santa Monica mall, where a very groovy tiki-themed coffeeshop called Horace Heidt's Java Time was one of the better places to eat, a step up from hot dogs at Orange Julius and the Newbery's dimestore lunch counter.

After Sunday school at the Methodist church in Beverly Hills, we would go to Nate 'n Al's for eggs 'n onions or cheese blintzes, although when I was almost too young to remember, the deli of choice was Linny's, a vast and bustling restaurant on Beverly Drive. All the smoked fish at the counter kind of intimidated me, with the scaly, gelatinous skin and sturgeon's eyeballs staring at me, but I loved going home with bags of brunch materials and constructing onion bagels piled high with cream cheese, chopped liver and coleslaw, even if I hadn't yet acquired the taste for lox or tongue. If you were lucky, you could pick out a Jewish candy at the cashier on the way out. I tried halvah and appreciated the chocolate-coated orange gels, but my favorite was the large orange and red fruit gel bar with a white stripe down the middle. Imagine my delight when I discovered pates de fruits in France a few years later that were much the same as the Joya candies, but with deep, true fruit flavors.

After deli food and and ice cream, Polynesian food was perhaps the next most important food group, and the Luau was my favorite. We also went to Trader Vic's and the Palm Springs Trader Vic's, but only the Luau had a gift shop and a lagoon with a bridge over it. My dad always ordered a pupu platter of sticky sweet spareribs, eggrolls and fried shrimp, then declared we were all full and didn't need to order more. But we always did -- I have no idea what the adults ordered but my mom had instructed me that "silver noodles with pork" were the best dish on the menu, and indeed this Americanized version of Filipino pancit was starchy and satisfying. I also got a virgin pineapple drink -- a whole pineapple filled with a juice "cocktail" and though the restaurant had an amazing array of zombies and other grog drinks, my family weren't big drinkers. Variety editor Peter Bart once told me the Luau bar was full of expensive call girls, but I had no idea about any of that -- I dimly remember a bar near the entrance, but much clearer is the strong licorice bite of the Sen-Sen candies they handed out at the cash register.

Even Before Clifton's, L.A. Had Crazy Themed Restaurants

Here's a story I did for EaterLA timed to the recent re-opening of Clifton's about some of Los Angeles' craziest early theme restaurants, from pirates to jails to questionable African fried chicken huts. Read the full story at LA.Eater.com.

The Jail Cafe on Sunset where El Cid stands now. (Courtesy LAPL)

Even before the woodsy Brookdale Cafeteria opened in 1932, theme restaurants were an essential piece of Los Angeles's dining culture. The city is famous for dining establishments shaped like tamales, hotdogs, airplanes, and doughnuts. Some theme restaurants enriched the experience with garishly costumed waiters and entertainment, though they seldom attempted to link the fare with their outlandish facades. 

Clifton's Cafeteria Re-Opens in Downtown L.A.: Don't Miss the Details!

The re-opening of Clifton's in downtown L.A. is one of the biggest events of the year, for everyone from tiki cocktail aficionados to historic preservationists to downtown revitalization advocates (ok, there's a lot of overlaps in those groups.)
Photos of Clifton's Cafeteria's wonderful restoration and re-opening after four years of rebuilding are everywhere. The stuffed bears! The rock walls! The giant tree!

The first and second floors will open (hopefully) this week including a cafeteria with much-improved food, seating area and bakery on the first floor and woodsy bar and cozy lounge on the second floor. Eventually there will be a tiki bar on the fourth floor with decor from the late Bahooka Polynesian restaurant in Rosemead, a sit-down steakhouse from chef Jason Fullilove and a speakeasy style bar in the basement, near the still-illuminated neon that was discovered during renovation and hadn't been turned off in decades.

"Edison" owner Andrew Meieran acquired the 1932 gem and has been laboriously restoring and redecorating for four years, but thankfully, he saved many of the vintage kitchen items that are now on display along with critters from the Natural History Museum and the giant tree in the middle of the restaurant.
 

Owned by a devoutly religious family since the beginning, Clifton's had never served alcohol, but a woodsy new bar on the second floor will now dispense classic cocktails from behind an antique bar with a burl wood counter.

When you go to sample a Moscow Mule and hand-carved roastbeef sandwich, don't miss all the period details that were kept and polished up, like the slicers, orangeade dispensers, art deco coffee urns and more. And don't forget to look down at tiled floors and ground-level dioramas, sure to be a hit with the kids. And finally, the jello. It's back, but in gourmet form, with lavender mousse and edible flowers this time around.

Idle Hour Rolls Out a Barrel of L.A. History in North Hollywood

The original Idle Hour is now restored to look much the same

There aren't many better restaurant backstories in L.A. right now than last week's opening of the Idle Hour on Vineland Ave. with a bar, restaurant and spacious back patio. Built in 1941 and made to look like a trio of giant barrels, the Idle Hour functioned as a bar in L.A.'s unique programmatic architecture tradition for years until it was converted to La Cana flamenco dance spot, with tacky aluminum awnings obscuring the barrels for many years. In 1984, La Cana closed, with owner Doris Fernandez retreating to live in the top of the barrel for the next 25 years or so, Spanish Kitchen style, while just a few blocks away NoHo restaurants and theaters were starting to flourish. She died in 2010, and preservationist and Los Angeles magazine editor Chris Nichols was able to help secure historic monument status for the dilapidated building. When it came up for auction, he recruited the Bigfoot Lodge owners Bobby Green's 1933 Group to restore and re-open the historic spot.

It's taken three years for a top-to-bottom restoration -- it basically had to be completely taken apart and rebuilt -- but last week I checked out the woodsy new bar, which is sure to be quickly packed with Valley dwellers who have only recently been getting some decent drinking spots.
The look: The interior is just like being inside a barrel, with curved wood-covered walls and a tall round roof. Outdoors is another surprise: the Bulldog Cafe from the Petersen Auto Museum, a smaller replica of the one that once stood on West Washington Blvd., has been relocated and can be rented out for parties. The rest of the patio is comfy with a firepit and picnic tables, and dogs will be allowed.

The drinks: There's a selection of draft cocktails (I liked the Maid with tequila, aloe liqueur, mint and lime), a few updated but fairly simple house cocktails and two bottled and carbonated choices, all $12. About 20 taps of California-focused beer include rotating choices like an autumnal Sonoma Bourbon Cider, Ladyface Red Rye and Smog City Porter.

The food: The casual menu is made to go with hoppy beers and stiff cocktails, and the pulled pork sliders, brussels sprouts with bacon, bbq chicken wings all hit the spot. Or try a pretzel with chipotle chocolate sauce.

Idle Hour Bar
4824 Vineland Ave.
North Hollywood

Historic L.A.: Tam O'Shanter celebrates 90 years with craft beer, carolers, trivia and rarebit poutine

Los Feliz Blvd. was a dirt road when the Tam O'Shanter opened in 1922.

There's no doubt that the Tam O'Shanter was way cooler in the 1920s, when movie set designer Harry Oliver gave it the look of a ramshackle fairytale house with a random Indian gift shop on the side. But the Lawry's-owned restaurant deserves plenty of credit anyway for sticking around for 90 years in the same location. If you haven't been, the holidays are a good time to go if you enjoy Christmas decorations and carolers in the bar. If not, wait till the madness is over and check out Trivia Night on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting up again in January for a fun reason to sample the Tam's expanded craft beer selection, Irish coffees and other traditional cocktails, and carving bar. Gourmet Pigs and I were invited to try trivia night and the bar menu, and I'm sorry to say that our small Team Cuisine was sorely whipped by some of the regulars.
So I recommend making sure your team of up to 6 players includes someone with sports knowledge and someone with movie knowledge. Plus, there's prizes of free drinks and swag. The Tam has a much better beer menu than I recall from last time I visited, with selections from Stone, Shipyard, Golden Road, Telegraph and of course a few Scottish brews. The bar menu includes hearty carved roast beef, turkey, pastrami and corned beef sandwiches as well as fish 'n chips, Toad in the Hole, and Scottish rarebit poutine, a giant plate of cheese-covered fries topped with bacon bits that's sure to soak up plenty of beer. Come January, I intend to return with a few friends and try to vanquish some of the regulars.

Is rarebit poutine a thing?

Historic L.A.: Eagle Rock's Rite Spot was hopping before Cindy's

Bluffside dining in Eagle Rock at the Rite Spot, circa 1937

I was inspired by L.A. Observed's post on L,A. photographer William Reagh to go digging into the L.A. Public Library photo archives again for more historic restaurant shots. Photographer Herman Schultheis, for some reason, exhaustively photographed the Rite Spot cafe where Cindy's now stands in Eagle Rock. It looked like a hopping place, with tons of outdoor tables and a rustic setting near the Eagle Rock bluffs. Even more impressively, it's highly possible that it's the spot where someone first had the brilliant idea of slapping a piece of cheese on a burger.

Rite Spot exterior

Rite Spot was an offshoot of the Carpenter's chain, a group of diners with several locations including a fun-looking outdoor bowling alley in Glendale and a couple in Silver Lake. Here's what Cindy's looks like now -- it could well be the same original building as the Rite Spot, which looks like it was a lot more fun.

Historic L.A.: from Ansel Adam's Brown Derby to Senor Pico

Brown Derby on Wilshire, Ansel Adams

I'm still recovering from jet lag, so it's nostalgia time at EatingLA. I'm glad Ansel Adams took time out from Yosemite to shoot the Brown Derby. While searching online, I was surprised to find this letter to the editor I wrote to the L.A. Times back in 1994. Do any of these places ring familiar?

Thanks for your great section on restaurants of L.A. past. As a child, I too was taken to many of the places mentioned and several other favorites.
At the Brown Derby, my favorite meal was a plate of mini-hamburgers topped with various sauces, with plenty of pumpernickel toast for starters. My favorite meal of all was eggs Benedict and fresh raspberries with cream in the garden room of the Polo Lounge.
After Sunday school with Jimmy Stewart's children at Beverly Hills Presbyterian, we always repaired to Linny's Deli, the deli of choice in the dark ages before Nate 'n' Al's.
For my birthday, I usually wanted to go to the Luau and throw money in the lagoon. After downing a copious selection of fried appetizers covered in duck sauce, my father always joked that we didn't need to order anything else, but of course we always did.
In the 1970s my boyfriend, no doubt seeking to corrupt an innocent 16-year-old, introduced me to Nanki-Poo's on La Cienega. It was a "waterfall Chinese" place, as Jonathan Gold says, but its main attribute was its willingness to serve multiple daiquiris to teens out for a night on the town.
Another favorite spot was Chez Puce, a quirky creperie in a ramshackle part of Pico Boulevard (across from Santa Monica High). I seem to recall Madame Puce boisterously presiding over the kitchen, a generally raucous atmosphere, and a huge pan of free brownies at the door. Puce's crepes were enormously doughy things stuffed with garlic butter or ratatouille. Madame surfaced briefly at the Mayfair Music hall when it was still open, but where is she now?
--PATRICIA SAPERSTEIN
Los Angeles

Also, if you haven't checked out Facebook's Vintage Los Angeles group yet, do not delay, it's full of movies and photos of departed restaurants and wonderful street scenes.

The Pup Cafe in Venice

The Pup Cafe in Venice, originally uploaded by Gerard Van der Leun.

They just don't make them like this anymore. I'd eat a lot more hot dogs if they came from a place like the Pup Cafe on Washington Blvd. in Venice (or was it Culver City?) By the time I was born, there was only Tail 'O the Pup, and the Dog House in Santa Monica.
This photo was shot by Ansel Adams in 1940 and unearthed by Gerard Van der Leun.

Jonathan Gold tells the Culinary Historians: "Yes, there will be another Counter Intelligence...someday"

When eating with Jonathan Gold, crispy pig skin is inevitable.

For anyone still toting around a tattered copy of Jonathan Gold's "Counter Intelligence," do not lose hope. Gold told the Culinary Historians of Southern California that he does plan to update the book and this time will definitely include an index by neighborhood -- although he was vague about when we might actually expect it.
Gold gave the audience a tour of regional cuisines of the San Gabriel Valley via a rambling list of 25 or so of his favorite Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants from 1975 to the present. The laidback presentation was more fond reminiscence than some of the Culinary Historians' more scholarly subjects, starting with Gold's first dim sum east of Downtown at the restaurant that is now NBC. Just as I began trying to remember my own first San Gabriel Valley experience, he came up with what it was: Deli World, a cafe overlooking a supermarket that was one of the first places to serve soup dumplings. Harbor Village (also next on my list), Quanjude Duck, Tung Lai Shun...it was a test of memory to recall which ones I had also tried. Touching on Islamic, Hunan, Sichuan, Cantonese, Hong Kong cafes, Chiu Chow and Vietnamese places, he pointed to the cross-cultural influences at Boiling Crab as one of his favorite examples of melting pot L.A.Pork and shrimp balls topped with shitake caps were a new item to me.

After the talk, I biked over to meet some of the historians and Jonathan at Ocean Seafood. The dim sum was so-so, but getting to talk to Jonathan about Noodle Island, Earthen, Vietnam and some of his other favorite spots is always a good time.
Here are some of the restaurants he mentioned. Feel free to add your memories or ones I missed from his talk in the comments.

• Golden "something," where NBC is now
• Deli World, above the Chinese market -- eel with chives, soup dumplings - closed
  
• the noodle place that changed its name to Heavy Noodling because of the headline on Gold's review - closed
  
• Lake Spring, where Gold took Marcella Hazan for pork pump and she insisted on drinking Jack Daniels. Still open, but not what it once was.
• Harbor Village, the best dimsum of its time, as well as Japanese sun-dried abalone. Now Empress Harbor, right?
  
• Charming Garden -- one of the first places with real Hunan cuisine like strange-flavored noodles, stir-fried bacon, not "Hunan" as in the San Franciso restaurant -- many changes of ownership since
  
• Golden Deli -- still there and going strong
• Tung Lai Shun -- one of the first Chinese Islamic specialists - closed
  
• Noodle World -- appealing to young people with noodles of many countries
• Nice Time Deli
• The Other Taste
• Quanjude -- the famous duck restaurant was owned by the People's Republic - closed.
  
• Chicken Garden, Rowland Heights. Gold says he used to "think San Gabriel was as far as the moon," but now he finds himself going even farther to Rowland Heights
• Chung King
• Din Tai Fung
• Mr. Baguette
• Pho Minh
• Boiling Crab
• Northern Chinese restaurant, Rosemead
  

Historic L.A.: Senor Pico was Trader Vic's Mexican cousin

It was fun reading in today's My Favorite Weekend that Peter Bogdanovich used to hang out with Orson Welles at Senor Pico in Century City. I love that Boganovich "doesn't think it's there anymore." Yes, Peter, it was torn down probably around 1980 or so. As a Westside white kid, Senor Pico was one of the few "Mexican" restaurants available to my family until my high school friends started driving me to El Tepeyac. It was surely not very authentic, but I hadn't realized that Senor Pico, which was and still is owned by Trader Vic's, was quite influential in popularizing the Cal-Mex food that so many restaurants serve today. And Senor Pico survives to this day in Bangkok and I think Dubai or somewhere. I can only imagine what the Thai version of Cal-Mex food might look like.
Here's an excerpt from an article in Nation's Restaurant News about the history of Cal-Mex:

Another creator and popularizer of Cal-Mex food was Victor J. Bergeron, known as "Trader Vic," who in 1933 founded what would become his eponymous restaurant chain in Oakland, Calif. After several Trader Vic's outlets were up and running, Bergeron looked around for other possibilities. He later wrote that he'd had "a mad-on for Mexican food for a thousand years," but he found the real thing "primitive," "greasy, hot and not well prepared." Bergeron spent a couple weeks in Mexico and Texas looking for recipes that he could adapt to the tastes of mainstream Americans. He also popularized the margarita, a drink that likely was invented in bars in Mexico that catered to American tourists.

Bergeron opened a restaurant called "Senor Pico" in San Francisco in 1964 and another one in Los Angeles three years later. By 1973 the Senor Pico restaurants sold more tequila than any other restaurant in the world. The margarita became a foundation stone of the Cal-Mex culinary tradition and a fixture in restaurants and bars throughout the United States.

(menus from the LA Public Library)

Historic L.A.: Fred Harvey restaurant in the Times

Fred Harvey restaurant interior photo from Hollywood Locations

It's good to see the Times keeping up the history articles in the face of shrinking editorial space, not to mention giving Steve Harvey something more interesting to do than the goofy signs beat. Today Harvey (any relation?) tells the story of the historic Fred Harvey restaurant at Union Station, closed since 1967. The headline, Business still booming for an old railway restaurant is kind of misleading, since it's only used for private events now, but at least it's well preserved.
A few years ago, after I went to a great Society of Culinary Historians presentation about Fred Harvey restaurants, which were generally located near train stations from the 1880s to 1940s or so, I made sure to try El Tovar at the Grand Canyon, one of the few still in operation. If you ever get there, I recommend the blue cornmeal pancakes with prickly pear syrup.
Have you ever eaten at a Fred Harvey restaurant?
Also, does anyone know about a recent posting soliciting proposals for another restaurant at Union Station? I can't remember where I read about that.

Historic restaurant locations in the Times

(LATimes photo)
I'm glad the L.A. Times has found something besides the funny signs column for Steve Harvey to do. Sunday's story Southland restaurants have past lives was a fun read, although that subject could easily be expanded into an entire book. The cheesy thatch hanging from the Darkroom facade kind of pains me, but at least it hasn't been destroyed.

Cole's: Re-do brings historic spot into the 21st century

I'm glad I got to see the old Cole's French Dip before it was re-done by Downtown nightlife impresario Cedd Moses with a menu update from Grace's Neal Fraser. Two years ago, it looked every bit of its 100 years old, in a cool but dusty way. But Moses was sensitive to fears that he would ruin the whole vibe, and wisely left the front room pretty much the same while subtly spiffing up the bar area. The main difference is that there's no more musty, kitschy back room -- it's now a swank separate bar, The Association, but more on that later. The menu is even simpler than Philippe's, which also claims to be the originator of the French dip. There's beef, pork, lamb and turkey sandwiches for $8; cheese toppings for $1 more, a few sides, and grilled cheese sandwiches for the meat-intolerant. A few German beers on tap are $6 and $7 a glass, and classic cocktails are $10 each. Matt tried the lamb with blue cheese, which is invariably touted as the thing to get at either Philippe's or Cole's, while I had a more purist pork with their spicy horseradish-intensive housemade mustard.Pork sandwich with au jus and coleslaw

What can I say? It's an American meat sandwich -- the meat is top quality, hand-sliced, no fat or gristle, but it's just -- plain, no matter how much mustard you slather on and amount of au jus you dip it in. Maybe it was too close to my revelatory trip to Cook's Tortas, but it's hard for me to get very excited about a pile of plain meat on a bun. The coleslaw side was a healthy portion but could use a bit more zing. Matt is more of an American food fan than I am -- he loved his lamb and blue cheese and his bacon potato salad too. I'd go back to Cole's again with my meat-loving son, and I'm glad it wasn't wrecked in the re-do, but I guess I like my sandwiches with more layering of flavors.
After dinner, we checked out The Association next door. It's dark, cavernous and atmospheric with a '70s feel, not to mention a dj spinning the likes of Elton John and Carly Simon. The cocktail list is full of things like lavender liqueur and absinthe; I asked for something citrusy with bourbon, and the bartender mixed me up a sour with hand-squeezed lemon juice; Matt had something like a mojito topped with a splash of champagne. Served in narrow champagne flutes, cocktails weren't huge but at $10, but seemed like a relative bargain for the quality of the mixology and juices. "This seems like it would be a great place to get drunk," Matt said, and I'd have to agree.