Breakfast @ Phillippe's

I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to meet Christine downtown for breakfast. I've been lunching with Christine for about a year now every Thursday. We work across the street from each other and we both knit and crochet, so we've formed a mini-Stitch 'n Bitch at work. Sadly (for me), Christine has relocated employment to the Valley, which is good for her, since she lives there. I met Christine through Crazy Aunt Purl. Christine showed up at one of Auntie's yard sales. Being extremely outgoing and Southern, Auntie invited Christine to a barbecue at her home. That's where we met and hit it off immediately.
Christine and I are going to attempt to see each other often, even though we don't work near each other anymore. We wanted to choose a location half-way between our homes, so we decided on Philippe's for breakfast.
I've been eating at Philippe's all my life, but never for breakfast. The breakfast menu is huge. I decided to have The Combo: Choice of two halves of French toast, dipped in cinnamon egg batter, or two pancakes, choice of one sausage patty or two strips of bacon, two eggs any style, and your choice of any small juice or coffee...$5.75. Christine had eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, biscuits, coffee...about $4. We ordered a baked apple to share.

Ellen's Combo



Christine's Classic

Everything was simply prepared and delicious. We sat in an old wooden booth in the Clown Room which features clippings, photos and memorabilia of all the circus folks who have eaten at Phillippe's over the years.

Clown Room @ Phillippe's

For an early Saturday breakfast, Phillippe's is perfect....not rushed, not too crowded. We spent lots of time in our booth visiting without feeling like we had to give up our table to people waiting. I'll definitely go back for breakfast to try the corned beef hash and eggs

The Grills of Santa Monica

My office moved from Century City to Santa Monica just over two years ago. Our company is located at the east end of the City in a large office 'campus.' The restaurant selection 'on-campus' is limited. We have a food court consisting of 3 fair fast food places, Tully's Coffee and The Daily Grill. In the office complex across the street there are a few more fast food places, Mrs. Winston's salad bar and Cafe Bizou. A block or so away there are more fast food places: La Salsa, Quizno's, Roll & Sushi, Starbucks.

Needless to say, we get rather tired of fast-food and the hustle and bustle of these types of places. Once in awhile, we just want to go back to our roots and eat at a down-home, one-of-a-kind grill! Individuality is not dead in Santa Monica. You can still find family-run restaurants and cafes.

One place we really like is the Sunset Grill on Ocean Park Blvd. & 17th Street (1701 Ocean Park Blvd, 310/450-7546). There is a small parking lot in the mini-mall where Sunset Grill is located, a few outside tables and about 10 tables inside. There's a beautiful display of freshly made salads. You can order sandwiches, burgers, lasagna, homemade soup and even some entrees. They carry divine baked goods too. They also serve breakfast. The other day I went for lunch with two of my co-workers. We each had salad combos. Christina had the pesto pasta and tuna-salad stuffed avocado; Renee had a tuna sandwich and the roasted eggplant with pine nuts; I had the salmon-salad stuffed avocado and a marvelous salad with mango, avocado and tomato. The service is friendly and fast. Each salad plate is served with delicious piece of sourdough bread which I suspect is from the Normandy Bakery in Mid-City L.A. The clientele here are office workers from the nearby business park, moms with kids in strollers and ladies who lunch. Lunch typically costs from $8-$12.

Christina's Lunch

Renee's Lunch

Ellen's Lunch

Sunset Grill - Counter

Big Jo's (1955 Broadway, 310/828.3191) is another grill here in Santa Monica. The initial Big Jo probably sold the place years ago, but the original menu is still intact with the addition of a few Asian dishes. You can get the gooiest and most delicious Philly cheese steak sandwich here. I'm not an aficionado of cheese steaks, but I like the hart-clogging version they serve at Big Jo's.

Big Jo's

There are no tables inside this greasy spoon, just some picnic tables in a garage-like area, or you can eat in your car in the ample parking lot. When my NEW CAR was delivered last month, Mr. Larry and I ordered cheese steaks here and tailgated for lunch. It was such a beachy-Santa Monica thing to do. The clientele here seems to be workers from nearby offices and small factory-type businesses and people in a hurry. Lunch generally costs from $3-$6.

Today, my office-mate, Aileen and I went to the Tulip Cafe (1319 Colorado Ave., 310/394-1537) for lunch. We've been driving by this place for two years.

Today, we finally ventured inside to find a very nice, vintage little coffee shop. The menu is standard: Burgers, sandwiches, some Mexican and Asian dishes. They do have daily specials 5 days of the week that look good. Tulip also serves breakfast. Aileen had the fish and chips. I tried the avocado, bacon burger. Both were tasty.

Aileen's Fish, Chips & Coleslaw

Ellen's Avocado Bacon Burger

Tulip Cafe Counter

The service was good. There were decorations up for Halloween. The place was filled with workers from the offices and small factories nearby. The cost of lunch will run you anywhere from $4-$8. We will definitely go back to try some of the specials.

Jolly Food at Jollibee

Last Friday was a cold, rainy night in Los Angeles. We wanted to go to the art opening at Thinkspace Gallery in Silverlake, but needed a quick meal beforehand. We remembered the bright and cheery Jollibee on Beverly Boulevard near Vermont. Perfect! Jolly food on a dark and dreary night!
The best thing about Jollibee is the Jolly Bee statue.

The place is certainly clean, tidy and modern. There were lots of choices on the menu. It's a chain restaurant from the Philippines. They are getting more popular here in the U.S. They have Yumburgers; chickenjoy; spaghetti with slices of hotdogs topped with cheese (yeah, that's one dish); Jolly-hotdogs, Jolly-fries; Jolly-steak and rice; and lots of really colorful desserts, beverages and Jolly-shakes.

I ordered the Chickenjoy. Yes, it's called Chickenjoy, not just fried chicken. It comes with rice and gravy. Larry ordered the Fiesta Palabok...noodles with shrimp, pork, onions, garlic and hardboiled egg slices in a sweet-ish sauce. We both ordered American soft drinks.

The fried chicken was very much like KFC or Pioneer, but not quite as spicy. I preferred the rice with my chicken to the usual mashed potatoes. Larry's Fiesta Palabok wasn't really a fiesta at all. It was a small plate full of slithery noodles with 6 teensy, tiny shrimp, some pork and that hard-boiled egg slice. This dish looks and sounds better than it actually is. It was just OK.

We spent much more time photographing the cheery place and having our photo taken with the human-sized Jollibee statue in front of the restaurant. The only reason I'd go back to Jollibee would be to have a soft-drink or re-photograph that darling Bee.

Mr. Bee and Mr. Larry @ Jollibee

The rain stopped. We made our way over to Thinkspace and had a lovely time checking out the killer art and hipsters.

Hipsters, Ted and Brit @ Thinkspace

Luna Park and Tar Fest

Last Friday night we attended the Tar Fest on the Miracle Mile with our friends, Beth and Larry. The Tar Fest encompasses film, music and art for an entire weekend. We wanted to check out the galleries along Wilshire. Lately, more galleries have opened on the Miracle Mile, along with the old electronic stores and wig shops.
We met Beth and Larry at Luna Park Restaurant on La Brea, just north of Wilshire. This is the restaurant in the old Mutual of Omaha Building, now the Samsung Building. We had visited this restaurant last July with Audrey and Jeff. It was the height of the summer heatwave and we tried their salads. All were excellent.
Luna Park was jumpin' on a Friday night. The music was booming, the crowd was loud and there was lots of action. The waitress immediately brought fresh sourdough bread with olive oil to our table...delish. We ordered our dinners: Beth: Grilled Flank Steak with French Fries and Salsa Verde; Larry A.: Breaded Pork Cutlet Stuffed with Mushrooms and Gruyere Cheese with Mashed Potatoes, String Beans and Apple-Cranberry Sauce; Ellen: Spicy Wild Boar Rigatoni with Braising Greens and Larry U.: Pan Fried Trout with Spicy Remoulade, Arugulita, Cherry Tomatoes, and Shaved Fennel. Everyone photographed their own meals, below. It was quite dark, so we needed to take a few practice shots.

Beth's Steak

Larry U's Pork

Ellen's Rigatoni

Larry U's Trout

Dinner was very good. It was difficult to visit though because of the noise in the restaurant. High ceilings combined with hard surfaces and lots of people makes for a loud space. We were probably the oldest people in the place and we all have rock 'n roll ears! All those years yelling and screaming at rock concerts and blues shows, standing in front of huge speakers have taken it's toll on most of my friends. What? What did you say? Also, we know we're old when we have to take out our little flashlights to read the menu! Oy! It was a relief to finally get out of the restaurant on to La Brea Avenue where we could finally hear and see each other again. I would suggest trying Luna Park on a quieter evening, unless you like that sort of din.
We proceeded west on Wilshire Blvd. to visit a few galleries. Galleries are popping up all along the street. We visited a few small places, then came up to the Korean Cultural Center. There was a group show upstairs. I remember this building being a bank before the Cultural Center took it over. On the lower level there was a show of the permanent collection of the Center...very beautiful masks, costumes and an entire historic room set up. Upstairs, the group show had many different artists represented from the Los Angeles area. It was a lively scene.

Korean Cultural Center Exhibit


Ellen and Beth @ Tar Fest

We crossed the street to the Desmond's building and the Ace Gallery. Sadly, the historic building was closed, but there was an empty storefront next door filled with art, more loud music and lots of activity. I read somewhere that this stretch of Wilshire Boulevard, The Miracle Mile, between La Brea and Fairfax has the highest concentration of Art Deco builldings.

Marble and Brass Entrance @ Desmond's

We stopped at a few more little galleries, then ended up at a wig display near the corner of Cochran and Wilshire. Larry A. took a great photo of us admiring the wild wigs!

L.A. Is My Beat - Restaurants

Ships Coffee Shop, Wilshire Blvd., Westwood

This is a sister-blog to go along with my main blog, "L.A. Is My Beat." Most of the posts here will encompass the restaurants that Mr. Larry and I visit throughout the City of Los Angeles. I will add past posts here too!

I will also try to categorize my posts, so that, in the future, there won't be too much yarn-talk mixed in with the restaurant reviews.

I do want to recognize restaurants from the past here too. I hope to write about the coffee shops of my youth in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Let me know if you've experienced a great place to eat in Los Angeles. I'm always looking for new restaurants to try!