Scribbles

Let me preemptively acknowledge the irony of this posting and me being on detox right now.

After finding out from Column 1 of LA Times that the Nickel Diner was in downtown, I knew I was in for a treat. While everything sounded honky-dory in the article, nothing could quell the inner skeptic like a good outing.

Well, the first try was a strike. Good friend from SF was over on Friday night for a game at Staples Center and we wanted to grab a quick bite before hand. Silly me didn’t do my homework, otherwise I would’ve known that the place isn’t open for dinner yet. No problem, take two the next day for lunch. We had a late start and were famished. As we vultured for parking, we noticed a line out the door. Undeterred, by either the line or the lack of parking in downtown LA, I eventually settled for the paid parking lot across the street. Upon walking in, I immediately felt at home. The decor, the set-up was exactly as I expected, comfortable, cosy, and pleasantly busy. One of the owners, Monica, took down my name and seemed apologetic for us having to wait. No problem, we only waited 5 minutes before settling down in a nice booth in the corner. The attentive server quickly offered us drinks while we scanned the menus. What better start than having some fresh OJ.

Now the food. It has the typical diner items from hamburgers to entrees. What I enjoyed though, was the breakfast menu. I’ve been searching for a good brunch place a la NY for a while, and this place definitely brought it. A lot of choices, including pancakes, and vegetarian friendly dishes as well. Don’t be discouraged by the “vegan” chili, it totally rocked with their fresh salsa. We had that and their homemade blueberry sauce with an order of French toast.

After stuffing our faces silly, the other owner, Kristen came by with two plates. First a small dish of sample-sized puffs, which turned out to be their Peanut Salt, an amazing blend of salty and sweet, peanut butter and chocolate. The second, was a full tray of desserts, so many I can’t even recall all of them. There was a mystery muffin that Kirsten said she couldn’t tell us what was it was made of, other than we’d have to have the “balls to find out.”

We wimped out and went with the vegan tapioca. Did I mention that we were already stuffed? Well, it was delish – very subtle in sweetness and flavor, but cool and light. I loved it.

all photo credits to Dave Lee

We were quite delighted to have tried out the diner, with its charming character serving up great food in our gritty neighborhood. Needless to say, you’ll find me there once I’m off my detox.