Cafe Crunch

The hardest place to get a table in Sherman Oaks isn’t Cafe Bizou or JoeJoe’s. It’s Jinky’s Cafe, a true joint housed in a nondescript corner mall and open only for breakfast and lunch.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, or at lunch any day of the week, the place is jammed to the rafters, with lines snaking out into the parking lot.

Jinky’s menu runs to omelets, pancakes, chili, sandwiches, burgers and salads. And though much of it is good, the wild loyalty this restaurant inspires stumps me, when there are other perfectly good coffee shops around, such as DuPar’s just down the street.

Jinky’s does use some good products. There’s always a selection of Jody Moroni and Bruce Aidell sausages on the blackboard, for instance, including an irresistible turkey, sun-dried tomato and chicken chorizo. (They like to split the sausages before grilling them; I happen to think that undercuts the flavor of a good sausage.) The place always stocks half a dozen homemade chilies from the excellent Chili My Soul, which was reviewed in this column last week.

One of the best breakfast items is an omelet called the Santa Fe Scramble. The menu description is a mouthful: “Jody Moroni’s chicken chorizo, diced tomatoes, blue corn tortillas, green onion and cilantro, scrambled with three eggs and served with sweet pea guacamole, sour cream and salsa fresca.” That doesn’t tell you that the dense, interesting pea guacamole is spiked with cumin and spices like an Indian fresh chutney, or how good the salsa fresca is (it’s really a pico de gallo).

There’s a nice version of French toast, rolled in corn flakes before frying to give it a crunchy crust. The pancakes have a firm, fluffy texture, and you can order them topped with fruits such as strawberries, blueberries or bananas.

One of Jinky’s specialty items is called S.O.B., or South Of the Boulevard. It’s a plate of pancakes with potatoes, onions and cilantro in them. Intriguing idea, but they’re gummy--the batter has too much flour and not enough potato. It’s almost worth ordering, though, just to get a crack at one of the side dishes, a wonderful purple onion marmalade.

By contrast with breakfast, the lunch choices are mostly unremarkable, except for the refreshing fact that the restaurant will cook your burger medium rare.

A sandwich eerily named “grilled vegetarian” is a reasonably good lunch choice. It’s grilled eggplants, zucchini, onions and bell peppers with melted mozzarella between thick slices of multi-grain bread. Any sandwich you order can be customized by adding any of about two dozen toppings, including exotica such as the onion marmalade and the sweet pea guacamole, for $0.65 a topping.

Jinky’s has no cakes, no pies, no ice cream--no desserts at all. Count your blessings. If people lingered over dessert here, you’d never get a table.

BE THERE

Jinky’s Cafe, 14120 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Open 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. No alcohol. Parking in lot. MasterCard and Visa. Breakfast for two, $11-$16. Suggested dishes: Santa Fe Scramble, $6.50; banana macadamia-nut pancakes, $6.25; classic hamburger, $5.50; grilled vegetarian, $5.95. Call (818) 981-2250.