RESTAURANT REVIEW : Pine Avenue: Home of American Cuisine

A jovial, bearded guy, who looks a little like Santa Claus in a T-shirt, is handing out photos of himself and a bird, possibly a hunting falcon, which is perched on his shoulder. According to the T-shirt, he is running for mayor of Long Beach.

And to think there are people on the Westside who say Long Beach isn’t colorful.

About two years ago, deep restaurant thinkers announced that the next big thing was going to be the Return of American Cuisine. Long Beach, of course, might well ask where American cuisine ever went, but the question is academic now. The Long Beach mayoral hopeful has chosen a full-fledged American cuisine nostalgia place called the Pine Avenue Grill as a key spot for his T-shirt politicking.

Long Beach turns out to do a somewhat more respectable job with this American nostalgia stuff than the Westside, where American cuisine typically means diners, all campy and semi-tacky so you get to mock them a little bit while you secretly enjoy the reassurance of the old-fashioned food and setting.

The Pine Avenue Grill, however, is utterly straight-faced about its nostalgia; it usually gets things right. It’s modeled on the old-fashioned businessman’s lunch place with dark wood booths and brass coat hangers. The waitresses wear black uniforms; the waiters wear bow ties. There are magazines in plastic folders to read if you have to wait for your seat (no reservations).

And the place does get a lot of things right: Breakfasts, of course; that’s pretty easy. Hamburgers are a little harder--real 1947 burgers, thick, medium-rare patties with a sweet taste of freshly ground beef in plain, no-sesame buns.

Entrees are usually charming old-fashioned things, such as a baked double pork chop with a meaty and mild bread-and-sausage stuffing. The items from the rotisserie (a ‘50s word, if you ask me) include a leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic, but these Greek-sounding touches with the herbs are barely detectable. Basically this is lamb with mint jelly.

Nevertheless, the Pine Avenue Grill doesn’t serve what it calls “traditional cafe fare” in every instance. There are ‘80s-style buffalo wings, quite good ones, as a matter of fact--rather peppery and with a high-quality dressing full of chunks of blue cheese. And, though I suppose it depends where the traditional cafe of your youth is, I didn’t grow up on meat loaf with “Cajun sauce.” Still, the sauce is pretty good, a thick garnish of red and green peppers, tart and a little hot. As for the meat loaf, for once the virtue of a dish is that it doesn’t conceal the flavor of the sauce.

The list of appetizers is rather short. The best items, after the buffalo wings, are the “barbecued” short ribs (apparently baked rather than barbecued, very tender and meaty with a sauce of some authority), and the “brave gringo chili,” whose name is enough to indicate that this rich, meaty chili is one only a real tenderfoot need fear.

The best dessert I’ve had is a real strawberry shortcake with big, ripe strawberries and old-fashioned biscuit-like shortcake instead of the insipid sponge cake we usually get. The other desserts seem pretty good, though I have my doubts about the eggless bread pudding, and I’m kind of afraid of the incredibly rich banana cream pie. The most unusual item is “red bull shake,” a delicate cousin of the root beer shake made with birch beer.

But the big seller of the restaurant’s bakery is the sticky bun. It’s about half-a-foot in diameter and thickly covered with pecans. Incidentally, it’s baked by a man named Bunn. That’s right, the baker at Pine Avenue Grill is named Bunn. Just try to tell me that Long Beach isn’t colorful.

Pine Avenue Grill, 100 W. Broadway Plaza, Long Beach; (213) 432-PINE. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Full bar. Street parking. American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $19.90 to $41.70.