A, B, Cs the Day

There’s a lot to “C” and do in La Habra--Cafe El Cholo, a children’s museum, a cigar factory and the Cat & the Custard Cup, for starters.

LUNCH 1

When you spot a bell tower and a serape’d, sombrero’d senor shimmying up a palm tree, you’ve found Cafe El Cholo.

The restaurant, which bills itself as “a taste of history,” traces its roots to Los Angeles circa 1927; the menu lists items with the date they were introduced. Green corn tamales (1927), served May through October, follow “Grandma Rosa’s early Arizona days.” Ingredients: masa (corn dough like the kind used to make tortillas), cheddar cheese and Ortega chiles.

El Cholo offers nine kinds of margaritas. Industrial-strength L.A. Lemonade and the 24-Karat Margarita, the latter priced at $24, are made with elite batches of reserve liquors and served in hand-blown glasses. A hangover recipe is painted on the cantina wall: 1 bottle Maalox, 1 can tomato juice and 1 quart tequila. Memorabilia for sale includes a 1923 chimney brick.

The cantina (Tia Tina’s Taqueria) serves 75-cent tacos from 4 to 8 p.m. daily. Mariachis play from 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Kids eat free on Thursdays.

EARLY AFTERNOON 2

A huge disemboweled doll named Stuffee greets visitors to the Children’s Museum at La Habra, which is housed in a restored 1923 railroad station. Beyond Stuffee (whose internal organs are pictured nearby) kids can hunt for fossils at Dino Dig, board Buster the Bus, ride a carousel, shop at a really mini market, dress up and perform on stage, tour a caboose (hourly), watch model trains (on the half hour) and meet taxidermied Mike the Peccary (a pig-like mammal with tusks), Bubba the Moose and Travis the Blesbok (a South African antelope).

The “Games People Play” exhibit (through Sunday) features amusements from around the world such as bilboquet, also called ring-and-pin; jacks, a.k.a. knucklebones; chung toi, a complex form of tick-tack-toe; and, from Egypt, hounds and jackals, no doubt related to chutes and ladders. “Math Magician,” which explores the mysteries of math and magic in rooms such as Smoke and Mirrors, and the Shape-Shifter Room with Tangrams, opens Sept. 21.

The adjacent La Habra Depot Theatre (311 S. Euclid St., [562] 905-9625) presents family fare. “West Side Story” opens Sept. 11 with Sunday matinees and evening performances on Fridays and Saturdays.

LATE AFTERNOON 3

Maybe drop off the kids, then swing by El Beso Cigars, where Gloria Gomez bucks the odds, working in a male-dominated industry at a time when smoking is socially incorrect.

A third-generation roller from Nicaragua employed for 20 years at renowned La Plata in Los Angeles, Gomez opened the modest factory and shop with her son and husband last year and has made some headway: El Beso supplied this year’s after-Oscars party at Chasen’s. In addition to its more traditional products, El Beso produces flavored cigars, said to be favored by women, including Vanilla Kiss and Kahlua.

DINNER 4

The proprietors at the Cat & the Custard Cup, who also happen to own Cafe El Cholo a few doors down, encourage cigar smoking on their idyllic patio. Chef Creed Salisbury, the owner’s son, serves up critically lauded California-Continental fare in a pretty-as-a-picture Dickensian cottage. Note the quail door handles, antler chandeliers and ceramic cats.

During dinner hours, appetizers start at $5.95, entrees at $16.50. Consider a grilled sea scallops starter with wasabi mashed potatoes, lobster sauce and tobiko caviar ($8.95), or a New Zealand red deer tenderloin entree with sweet potato polenta and Montmorency dried cherry Zinfandel sauce ($24.50). Given the restaurant’s name, creme bru^lee would seem in order, but the lemon tart with blueberry cream also comes highly recommended.

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1) Cafe El Cholo

840 E. Whittier Blvd., (714) 525-1320.

11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

2) Children’s Museum at La Habra

301 S. Euclid St., (562) 905-9793.

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

3) El Beso Cigars

205 W. Whittier Blvd., (562) 690-7707.

8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday.

4) The Cat & the Custard Cup

800 E. Whittier Blvd., (714) 992-6496.

Lunch served 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner served 5:30-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5:30-10 p.m. Friday, 5-10 p.m. Saturday and 5-9 p.m. Sunday. (Pub remains open between meals.)

Parking: There is free parking in lots at each location.

Buses: OCTA bus No. 41 (La Habra-Brea) runs along Harbor Boulevard, then Whittier Boulevard with stops at Stonewood and Euclid streets. Bus No. 37 (La Habra-Huntington Beach) runs along Euclid Street with a stop at 2nd Avenue. Bus No. 29 (Brea-Huntington Beach) runs along Beach Boulevard, then La Habra Boulevard, with a stop at Euclid Street.