Resurrecting Good Old Days of Atwater, Village Within City : Chocolate Shops, Clothing Outlets, Ethnic Restaurants Are Reviving Blue-Collar Community

The sign is gone, but the village lingers on.

“Twenty or 30 years ago, there was a sign that said: ‘Welcome to Atwater, the Village Within the City,’ ” Bill Hart said. “It was in the median strip of Glendale Boulevard near San Fernando Road.”

Hart, a former Air Force fighter pilot, bush pilot and fund raiser, heads the recently revived Atwater Chamber of Commerce. His territory includes--among other things--Mexican, American, Chinese, Philippine and Peruvian restaurants; an American chocolate factory and a Belgian chocolate distributor; some of the best bargains in clothing to be found outside the garment district; a man who makes fishing poles; a golf course, and a neighborhood market that sells ham-and-cheese sandwiches for half a buck.

Atwater is largely a blue-collar community. Its merchants have seen better days, and Hart wants to bring those days back again. He’s not quite sure yet how to do it, but he’s encouraging the merchants to band together, advertise outside the area and get the message out to residents of the community to buy in Atwater rather than cross the borders into other parts of Los Angeles or nearby Glendale. And he’s working to resurrect that sign welcoming folks to “The Village Within the City.”

From a visitor’s point of view, most of Atwater stretches along Los Feliz and Glendale boulevards between the Golden State Freeway and the railroad tracks no more than a dozen blocks eastward. For a few things, like mirrors with a likeness of your lover on them, a Philippine meal or a Mylar balloon, a visitor will have to stray a bit north or south. But the detour will be short because Atwater remains a small village within a large city.

San Fernando Road

A--Conwin Carbonic Co., 5420 San Fernando Road West, (213) 245-2842, Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. This factory fills fire extinguishers, distributes massive amounts of dry ice and sells a wide variety of Mylar balloons with imprints ranging from “Happy Birthday” to a picture of the A-Team. The balloons, inflated with helium, run $2.75 each, or you can buy a floating bouquet of a dozen ordinary, latex balloons for $10. If you’re a do-it-yourself type, pick up a kit of 144 latex balloons and a tank of helium for $44.42, but you have to return the tank.

B--Levitz Furniture, 5375 San Fernando Road West, (818) 240-1400, Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Levitz is a furniture store, as its name indicates. What its name does not indicate is that Levitz also is a spectacle. To reach the 1.6-acre display of furniture, you walk through a fraction of the three acres of a hangar-like warehouse. Drivers, strapped to lift trucks like telephone linemen strapped to poles, scoot around on robot-like contraptions that rise and fall about 25 feet to hoist couches and chairs, desks, beds and other furniture of almost every imaginable description. Whether you buy anything or not, you are unlikely to forget a visit to this otherworldly, apparently endless universe of furniture.

C--Mirror Man, 5331 San Fernando Road West, (818) 500-7303, Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Bring a black-and-white snapshot of your favorite man, woman, dog, company logo or anything else to Demetrios (Jim) Sophos, and he’ll blow it up and silk screen a perfect replica on the back of a mirror; then every time you look at yourself, you also see your favorite whatever-it-is. If you want to look at yourself and your favorite, you’ll need $65 for a 9-by-12-inch mirror ($10 for each additional copy) or $120 for a 12-by-18-inch edition ($15 for each additional copy).

Chevy Chase Drive

1--Mi Lupita, 4105 W. Chevy Chase Drive, (818) 247-6474, Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Since 1968, Manuel and Maria Montes have owned this Mexican restaurant where they also cook, serve food and clear the tables with help from their daughter-in-law and niece. The most popular menu items are the $2.50 deluxe burrito, filled with rice, beans, cheese, pork and a chili relleno, and a $5.75 combination plate with one taquito, one enchilada, one taco, one tamale, rice and beans. The weekend special is a $3 bowl of menudo--a soup containing tripe, corn and chili.

D--Barrio Shop, 4109 Chevy Chase Drive, (818) 242-9967, Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Five years ago Antonia Betancurt was ironing and sewing clothes in a factory. She decided it was better to sell clothes than to make them and opened this little store where women’s and children’s clothing are available for low prices.

Los Feliz Boulevard

2--Betty’s Coffee Shop, 3207 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 669-9289, open daily 7 a.m.-7 p.m. “Breakfast is our most famous thing,” Betty Coonce says. “We have home fries with cheese and onions ($1.20 for a side order) that drive people crazy.” Don’t look for Betty’s--its only sign is an inconspicuous, once-neon affair that says “EAT,” and the neon is long gone. Instead, look for the Los Feliz Golf Course, where you’ll find the popular, often-crowded coffee shop with eight stools, four tables inside and three more outside. The salty creamed chipped beef (irreverently listed as SOS on the menu) is popular at $2.50; so are the homemade chili and the hamburgers with everything. Grab a free gumdrop as you leave.

E--Los Feliz Golf Course, 3207 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 663-7758, open daily 7 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (Last round tees off at 7 p.m.) This relatively little-used, nine-hole, three-par, city-owned course is “harder than it looks,” starter Louis Hankins says. “The average person who has played the big courses says: ‘Ah, this looks easy,’ but when they come back they say they got a little workout they didn’t expect.” The workout costs a $2 greens fee with a $1 charge for each subsequent round. Clubs rent for 15 cents each, and you can play the course with two clubs. You don’t need reservations. In fact, you can’t make them, but Hankins promises you’re not likely to have to wait to tee off.

F--The Sport Shoe, 3216 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 668-0709, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday noon-5 p.m. Runners jog in from Griffith Park and drive in from all over to buy a drink at Mike Bandoni’s health bar and to buy shoes, athletic clothing and exercise equipment (from a catalogue) at about 10% below suggested retail. Bandoni lets customers try out shoes by jogging down the sidewalk. He sells footwear and clothing for tennis, racketball, running, aerobics, weightlifting, cycling, hiking, track, soccer and football, plus “a little line of leisure shoes.”

G--James Reva Wholesale Boutique, 3206 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 663-9556, Monday-Friday noon-7 p.m., Saturday noon-4 p.m. There’s no name to identify this tiny shop that offers bargain prices on James Reva Concepts women’s clothing. Upstairs, Reva designs the clothes himself. Downstairs, he sells overcuts (items made in excess of retailers’ orders) or slightly damaged clothing. Prices for overcuts are up to 40% off retail, and damaged goods--which are clearly identified by a pink tag saying just what the damage is--sell below cost, Reva said. Prices for skirts, tops, dresses, pants and coats generally range between $25 and $75.

3--Swedish Table, 3179 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 666-8366, Wednesday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4-8:30 p.m., Sunday 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. You’ll get enough to eat here, because you can eat as much as you want and there’s plenty to choose from. Baked breaded cod, barbecued baked chicken and Swedish meatballs are favorites on the $4.40 lunch menu. Roast beef, served Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, is popular on the $5.50 dinner menu. A sign announces that the restaurant reserves the right to limit portions, but it’s a seldom-used right. “We expect people to take what they can eat,” said Barbara Thomas, who watches over the family-owned business. “If you take thirds and can’t eat them, there’s an extra charge. We charge for waste.”

4--El Tule, 3176 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 666-5637, Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Alicia Gonzalez opened her restaurant eight years ago, and still does “the shopping, cooking, cleaning . . . everything!” There’s a big selection of fresh fish (“We cook fish in garlic and butter, that’s it”) from $4.25 to $6.95, and Mexican dishes like carnitas at $5.95 and Oaxaca (named for Gonzalez’s home town) for $4.75, which is avocado, nachos, flautas and taquitos.

H--Woody’s Bicycle World, 3157 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 661-6665, Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Rent a bike for adults or kids from Bob Woodcock or his son, Skip, for $2.50 an hour or $10 for a 24-hour day, and pedal around Griffith Park, which is an easy, five-minute ride from the shop. Or, if you want to buy your bike, you can spend from $79.95 to $1,700. The more expensive machines are custom-designed by Skip.

I--Ruby Begonia and J. Birds of Paradise Pet Shoppe, 3114 Los Feliz Blvd. Ruby Begonia, (213) 660-5208, Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Birds of Paradise Pet Shoppe, (213) 662-0848, Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. If you’re looking for the unexpected, step between the two big cacti and through the innocent-looking door of these combined establishments--and you’ll be in a humid jungle. Hanging potted plants swing overhead and at eye level, other lush greenery rises from pots on the dirt floor. Amazon parrots, green-wing macaws, cockatoos and other birds raise a general hubbub. Ruby Begonia specializes in house and office plants for medium- and low-light areas and indoor-gardening supplies. The store’s jungle for sale includes plants as common as philodendrons and as exotic as Hawaiian bonsai growing from lava rocks and selling for between $29.95 and $250. The nursery shares its space with the pet shop, which sells, among other items, those birds mentioned above, plus parakeets, canaries, cockateels, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, frogs, lizards, boa constrictors, hamsters, newts, tarantulas, crocodiles and a full line of pet supplies.

K--Unique Jewels by J. Philip Allen, 3111 Los Feliz Blvd., Suite 104, (213) 662-1038, Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. You’re not likely to notice this custom jewelry shop unless you know it’s there, and it’s been there for 21 years. Prices range from $50 to $35,000 for jewelry designed and made by Allen, who says: “There’s no ceiling on jewelry. Everything I do is gold and platinum. I stay away from silver.” Allen works alone, except for the commanding presence of his guard dogs, a huge English mastiff named Blossom, and her friend, a German shepherd named Sentry.

5--allen wertz candies, 3070 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 668-0123, Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The only factory for this well-known candy company produces 2,000 pounds of candies daily in Atwater, where it’s been for half a century. Manager Dolores King says the company is famous for its mint sticks and pecan patches, both of which can be bought in the retail store in front of the factory, along with about 60 other varieties of sweets made right there. Fresh seconds are available at 30% to 40% off retail price, because the candy’s shape is a little wrong or the chocolate isn’t shiny enough. When you buy a box of candy, you’ll probably get a free sample from the saleslady. Retail prices range between $8.50 and $9.50 a pound, but you don’t have to buy a whole pound.

6--La Strada, 3000 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 664-2955, Tuesday-Friday 6-11:30 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 6 p.m.-1:30 a.m. This restaurant is better known for its 45-minute operatic shows at 8 and 10 nightly than for its food, which manager Angelo Vernini says includes popular items like Scampi La Strada for $17.75. A la carte entrees run between $12 and $18.75.

7--Tam O’ Shanter, 2980 Los Feliz Blvd., (213) 664-0228, Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-1 a.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-2 a.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp opened Montgomery’s Country Inn 63 years ago. Today, still operated by the same families, it is Tam O’ Shanter, the oldest restaurant in the Lawry’s restaurant group. (The group’s name comes from Lawrence Frank.) Big salads ($5.25 to $6.95) and fresh fish ($6.25 to $9.95) are popular at lunch, prime rib ($14.95 to $17.95) and duck ($12.95) sell especially well at dinner. There’s a different-flavored souffle every night. Both the decor and the servers in the four dining rooms look very Scottish, though the menu is not.

Glendale Boulevard

8--Beach’s Market, 3104 Glendale Blvd., (213) 661-2589, open daily 9 a.m.-8 p.m. What’s special about this local supermarket is the people who run it. Ron Beach, whose family has owned the market for about 45 years, has no pretentions about his place. It’s an ordinary market, selling ordinary food. They just do the job extraordinarily well. Beach, who is 28, has worked at the store since he was a boy. Manager Orville Henderson has been around 37 years and knows his customers so well that “there are quite a few we could almost shop for.” Assistant manager Dave Stanger, 23 years at Beach’s, knows most customers by sight and many by name. All this familiarity has bred into Beach’s Market a sense of caring that is apparent from the moment you step through the door.

L--The Encore Shop, 3135 Glendale Blvd., (213) 663-3765, open Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. A decade ago, Mary Lou Kinney started her shop with a supply of used clothes. It only took a year for her to switch to new garments, Sizes 3 through 46, “junior and missy contemporary sportswear” at prices about half the norm, “some more, some less.” She can sell so low because once or twice a week, Kinney personally drives downtown and shops for overruns and manufacturer’s clearances. Most of Kinney’s customers are local, but every so often you’ll see a Mercedes from Toluca Lake or Los Feliz Hills parked outside the door.

9--Rollin’ Pin Bake Shop, 3156 Glendale Blvd., (213) 664-8633, Tuesday-Friday 5 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 5 a.m.-4 p.m. On their pre-dawn way to the job, workers stop by for a Danish and coffee at this bakery, which “everyone knows as the Dutch-American Bakery,” said owner Guenter Dalichau, who is German. A baker for 30 years, Dalichau bought the shop 14 months ago from Art Sluis, who is Dutch. Dalichau says customers come from Pasadena and Santa Ana for his whipped-cream cakes ($9.75). Other popular items from the well-stocked display cases include 30- or 35-cent doughnuts and 50-cent Danish pastries, which you can eat in the shop, where 45-cent coffee is available.

10--Mon Tresor, 3153 Glendale Blvd., (213) 662-9904, Tuesday-Saturday noon-6 p.m. Fifteen months ago this store opened in front of a storeroom that serves as the sole U.S. distributorship for these Belgian candies of the same name. Two months ago, Mon Tresor won the 1985 award for best imported candy from the National Assn. for the Specialty Food Trade. Mon Tresor, which has no artificial additives or preservatives, sells here for $20 a pound and at most retailers for a couple of dollars more. Understandably, Mon Tresor translates as My Treasure. If you don’t feel like dropping $20 for a pound of candy, you’re welcome to try a single piece for between 45 cents and $1.25. Grand Marnier, almond and hazelnut creams are the most popular. There are 25 kinds of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate candies in the display case.

M--Miller Shoes, 3161 Glendale Blvd, (213) 665-3845, Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Adolphe Miller has about 15,000 pairs of shoes lining his walls, and all of them are “more or less half price, the higher the (original) price shoe, the more you get off.” After 22 years at the same location, Miller stays open only four days a week, because “it’s enough.” Men, women and children come from all over Los Angeles to shop at this store. In fact, Miller says, he has regular customers from San Francisco, San Diego, Australia and the Philippines, who come by when they’re in town.

11--Lau’s Restaurant, 3167 Glendale Blvd. (no phone), opens Wednesday and Thursday between noon and 1 p.m., closes at 7 p.m. Friday to Sunday, opens between noon and 1 p.m. and closes at 8 p.m. Most of the customers are Peruvians in this friendly, paneled restaurant, which seats about two dozen diners in red plastic chairs at Formica tables. For $5, you can get a bowl of parihuela, which is a delicious broth containing octopus, snails, cilantro, mussels, clams, shrimp and whitefish. It comes with incredibly hot sauce on the side. Another $5 favorite is lomo saltado, which is a mixture of strip sirloin, onion, tomato and french fries.

N--New Dreams, 3172 Glendale Blvd., (213) 667-2963, Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nidia Thomen opened her women’s budget clothing store as an “extra.” “Basically,” she said, “we do dressmaking and alterations. People bring us the materials and the patterns and we put it all together for them.” Her store sells tops from $3 to $6.50, shorts, skirts and pants mostly for $7 or less. Her stock “depends on what I can get when I go downtown.” Thomen set her prices low because “the neighborhood is not too rich. We have a lot of senior citizens and high school kids. Somehow we’re skipped in between.”

12--Coral Reef Seafood Restaurant, 3200 Glendale Blvd., (213) 661-7770, Tuesday-Sunday 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. When Dennis Lee opened his restaurant here 17 years ago, it was called Dennis’ Kitchen and seated 26 diners. Today, it’s the Coral Reef Seafood Restaurant, where 200 people can eat at once. Popular items from Lee’s extensive, eight-page menu include a delicate combination of scallops, lobster and shrimp “sauteed for an instant in a wok” with salt, pepper, sesame oil and rice wine ($11.75), sizzling shrimp ($9.25) and spicy shrimp with peanuts ($8.95). For the more daring, Lee offers a tank full of live catfish. For $8 to $15 (depending on the size of the fish), he’ll net the one you choose, bonk it on the head, clean it, cook it and have it on your table in 15 minutes.

O--Pacific Service Tackle, 3205 Glendale Blvd., (213) 665-1948, Tuesday-Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Harry Kasakoff goes deep-sea fishing every other Monday and sometimes in between. For him, it’s a busman’s holiday, because five days a week he makes fishing poles and sells fishing tackle. Starting with blanks of fiberglass or a combination of graphite and boron, Kasakoff will custom-build poles to fit a fisherman’s needs in terms of body size, strength and type of fishing. He’ll build you a pole, for between $45 and $250, for any kind of use from fly casting to hauling rock cod up from 800 feet below the ocean’s surface. Pole-making is a science and an art that Kasakoff has practiced for 18 years, ever since retiring from his job as an electrical engineer. He sells 10 or 20 poles a month and isn’t the least interested in expanding his business. “I want a small place,” Kasakoff says of his store. “I’m retired!”

P--The Racket Doctor, 3214 Glendale Blvd., (213) 663-6601, Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Randy Kramer worked in his first tennis shop when he was 12. He paid his way through college stringing rackets. A dozen years ago, Kramer, then 25, founded The Racket Doctor, a store where you can get your tennis racket strung in half an hour for $12 to $34, you can buy a new racket from among about 80 types for from $19.99 to $500, a used racket for from $15 to $250 and purchase court sport clothing and equipment. The store does specialty work, such as building custom grip sizes and fixing broken grips. Kramer’s regular customers range from well-known tennis pros to the California Men’s Colony prison in San Luis Obispo. Dorleen Kramer, who runs the shop with her husband, said stringers go through two-year apprenticeships before working on their own. “We start them at 14 or 15 so they don’t have any bad habits,” she noted, adding that stringers have to know about 200 types of strings and memorize stringing patterns on as many as 300 rackets.

Q--The Bath and Vanity Shop, 3218 Glendale Blvd., (213) 661-1189, Tuesday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. This long, skinny store has just about anything you could want for your bathroom, from a 30-cent chunk of scented soap through a $695 pull-chain toilet to a $2,500 water-jet whirlpool bathtub. It is a store full of faucets and shower curtains, sinks and toilets, soap dishes, toothbrush holders and gold-plated wastebaskets “guaranteed never to tarnish.” Gladys Pettibone, who owns the shop, has both a plumbing and heating contractor’s license and a general contractor’s license, plus membership in the International Society of Interior Designers and a husband who owns a plumbing business. She’ll design and remodel your bathroom, starting with the ideas and ending with the construction.

13--El Taco Loco, 3219 Glendale Blvd, (213) 664-4299, Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m. A salsa bar with eight kinds of salsa made fresh daily by owner Fred (Lico) Cameron is a feature of this small, fast-food restaurant where big sellers are $1.10 pork soft tacos and $2.20 pork burritos.

R--Soccer Unlimited, 3225 Glendale Blvd., (213) 668-2221, Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. “If it has to do with soccer, we have it. If it has to do with anything else, we don’t have it,” says Judy Agoston, who runs this store with her husband, Jozsef, who played semipro soccer for 12 years in Los Angeles. The establishment has the usual shoes ($10 to $82) and balls ($14.95 to $80), plus less common items like goalie gloves ($3.95 to $60) and neckties with soccer balls embroidered on them ($7.50).

S--Atwater Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, 3229 Glendale Blvd., (213) 664-1353, Monday-Wednesday 1-8 p.m., Thursday 1-5:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. With about 17,000 books, this is the smallest of all the city’s library branches. It’s also among the friendliest. Librarian Joan Avery and her staff welcome everybody, including children of parents who visit Atwater to shop. “But,” Avery notes, “we’re not a baby-sitting service.”

14--La Villa Taxco, 3280 Glendale Blvd., (213) 663-8275, Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-10 p.m. “Of course, our margaritas are the most popular of anything,” manager Gloria Garcia said, adding that favorite items include the beef taco and cheese enchilada for $5.55 and the $4.95 lunch specials and $5.45 dinner specials, which offer a choice from among six Mexican-style meals.

T--Camille’s Pet Supplies, 3330 Glendale Blvd., (213) 663-4646, open daily 10 a.m-6 p.m. The claim to fame at Camille’s is hard-to-get fresh horse meat. Neck bones go for 40 cents a pound, ground lean meat for $1.50 a pound, and for $2.75 you get a pound of fillet of horse. She also sells quail for folks who like the eggs, who want the birds for aviaries, or who don’t have time or desire to go hunting. At $4 a bird, co-owner Lynn Bohn says, her quail are “cheaper than Cornish rock game hen.” Bohn sells pet birds like parrots, mynahs, cockateels, love birds and parakeets, some of them from her own aviary, plus bulk bird seed, dog food and miscellaneous pet supplies.

U--Catchall IV, 3350 Glendale Blvd., (213) 663-0585. “Open always on Fridays (almost) 10 to 6, sometimes on Saturdays 12 to 3, seldom on other days.” As you can guess from the hours posted on his door, Jack Dye runs his antique and collectibles shop just the way he wants to: unpredictably and irreverently. He haunts auctions, garage sales and rummage sales and comes away with things like a 50-year-old cream separator ($35), a Philco floor radio from the 1930s or ‘40s ($150), vases made from World War I artillery shells ($40 a pair), and literally piles of other goodies including a hot-water bottle, an autographed picture of Lisa Kirk in her prime, a phonograph album signed by Nancy Sinatra, a hay hook, “the world’s biggest collections” of hand-operated food grinders and flower frogs, a Japanese fishing net float and a whole roomful of “Mexican funk,” which is Dye’s name for furniture, dishes, pictures and other artifacts that look Mexican but are not made in Mexico.

V--Atwater Antique World, 3371 Glendale Blvd., (213) 664-0274, Wednesday-Monday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. This building houses some 10 antique-and-collectible stores featuring items ranging from Oriental “furniture and art objects” through jewelry and china and a vast array of miscellany to “a little bit of Indian stuff and Early American,” said Martha Manos, who manages the building. One store sells and repairs antique dolls. Down the hall, at Paul’s Things, Paul Zwickham offers a 70- or 75-year-old, $450 Victor Talking Machine with a sound horn more than two feet long that blasts out a delightfully tinny rendition of “Wine, Women and Song” by Wayne King and his orchestra. Zwickham also has a $2,000 grandfather clock and, at the other end of the financial spectrum, a pile of 25-cent marbles. Nearby, at The Marco Pollo, Lois Moffett will sell you a $2 earring or a $3,200 blue, bas-relief ceramic vase from the K’ang Hsi period (1662-1722). And so it goes, in this building full of stores full of old typewriters, clothing, jewelry, silverware, books, paintings, glass wear, bric-a-brac and so on ad infinitum.

South of Glendale Boulevard

W--Pottery World, 3350 San Fernando Road, (213) 254-5281, open daily 8 a.m.-7 p.m. The yard in front of this huge store is a bargain-hunter’s paradise, filled with seconds and close-outs, most of which are useful, if imperfect. You’ll find big pots, tiny pots, pots shaped like animals and like fruits. Prices start at 49 cents. Inside is everything from a $480 mermaid on a half-shell fountain to wooden beads that cost $1 for 40. There’s a forest of artificial flowers and plants and miscellany like shells, macrame and ceramic cats, birds, fawns, tigers, witches and Santa Clauses.

15--Vince’s Market, 3250 Silverlake Blvd. at the corner of Atwater Avenue, (213) 669-9879, Monday-Saturday 8:15 a.m.-6:30 p.m. This place is much more than a good, small market and a place to buy a sandwich for half a dollar. It is an institution. Owned by the Caravella family for 45 years, Vince’s is a place where the customers and clerks know each other, greet each other and schmooze a lot. For two decades Vince’s has been selling 50-cent sandwiches, most of them ham and cheese. Today, the sandwich comes with two slices of smoked ham, half a slice of cheese, lettuce, pickle and mayonnaise, plus tomatoes and onions if you ask for them. Although the price hasn’t grown, the sandwich has shrunk some over the years, aficionados of the market say. Nonetheless, a sandwich at Vince’s remains a bargain, as evidenced by the sale of some 300 of the 50-centers daily, plus about 200 larger hot sandwiches for $1.79 to $1.98.

16--Ping’s Fast Food Restaurant, 2829 Fletcher Drive, (213) 666-4611, Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Until last summer, this Philippine cafeteria-style restaurant had room for only 31 diners. Then the Millari family, all six of whom work at the restaurant, took over the place next door and put in another 120 chairs. Entrees are $2.50 or $3, and generous. Big sellers include pancit (translucent noodles cooked in homemade broth) and salciado (a combination of pork, potatoes, peas and bell peppers). If you’re adventurous, try dinuguan (beef blood, hog maw and liver).

From time to time, Ruth Reichl, Times restaurant editor, and John Dreyfuss, staff writer, explore neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles to describe restaurants, stores and other highlights.