MAIN ATTRACTIONS : Garden Grove’s Original Downtown Still Has Much to Offer

Historical Main Street in Garden Grove is easy to miss but difficult to forget. It’s a quiet, cobblestone thoroughfare less than a quarter-mile in length, restored of late with replicas of turn-of-the-century street lights and hanging flowerpots. This was Garden Grove’s original downtown.

Main Street today is lined with antique stores and boutiques. It’s easy to spend all day here if you’re a dedicated browser, and many people do just that.

10:00 to 10:15: At Barry’s Trains, it’s possible to relive childhood. Barry Linger has everything for the hobbyist wishing to design his own train layout: thousands of miniature train cars from more than 200 manufacturers, power packs, scenery, even a gray-plaster mix for making artificial rocks. The giant train layout in the window is HO scale, and it will make your head spin.

10:15 to 10:30: Zlaket’s Market is the oldest family business in Garden Grove, founded in 1927 by Leo Zlaket, father of the current proprietor. You might call it a specialty food shop; there’s lots of wine, cheese, exotic snacks and unusual candies that you won’t find in many other places around here. Owner Leo Zlaket Jr. is mighty proud of his gourmet gift baskets, but he’s even prouder of his custom meats department. Want that lamb leg for the recipe you saw in Gourmet magazine? Zlaket’s will customize it to suit your needs.

10:30 to 11:00: “This Isn’t a Museum. We Want to Sell This Junque.” So proclaims the sign at Garden Grove Mercantile, an indoor swap meet of collectibles. Most of this “junque” is sold by individual entrepreneurs who rent space in this spacious building, where you’ll find such things as baseball cards, old pictures of Marilyn Monroe, antique jewelry, tins and American crafts galore. There is enough in here to get lost with.

11 to 11:30: L.C. & Sallys is a bit more upscale, since all the collectibles are well-organized and showcased in fancy French cabinets or ritzy glass cases. The real specialty here is art glass--you know, Laliques, American crystal and something called cameo glass, with carved patterns on the outside. This is also a place where you can find sterling silver in velvet boxes and leave a good bit of your own silver behind.

11:30 to 12:15: Sometimes simple, quiet restaurants such as Pon Lai, a Chinese restaurant named for a lake in Taiwan, can be surprisingly good. Pon Lai is a bit dark, but the food here is tasty, authentic and cheap. Lunch specials start at only $3.50 and include soup and fried rice. Try the spicy noodle soup, the twice-cooked pork or, if you’re really adventurous, chewy chunks of sea cucumber in brown sauce.

12:15 to 12:30: Darlene Snelling’s boutique, Private Collections, is the most kittenish shop on the street--pure cream and Victorian charm. Snelling likes to call it a boutique of affordable elegance. Items are amazingly international: clothes from Morocco, accessories from Greece, a men’s corner featuring leather goods and silk ties, plus a variety of hats, Tiffany-style lamps and dolls.

12:30 to 1:00: This last one is for ladies only, and the name conceals a real stinger. It’s called the Compulsive Woman. The shop is actually a specialty store selling used clothes on consignment, with remarkably low prices. The proprietors have a simple philosophy. “Clothes are not collectibles,” they say, therefore the bargain-basement prices. I saw one woman buy a newish looking pair of jeans and an attractive top for less than $7. Wow! Talk about blowing out the big department stores.