‘I’ll Have the Blue-Plate Special’

Coffee shops are places where the sweet perfumes of beef stew mingle with the yeasty scent of pancakes and a cup of good strong joe, where waitresses wear name tags and where writers like me while away afternoons at booths and counters, trying to think up a story angle.

From the postwar period on through the late ‘80s, L.A. and all of Southern California seemed to be the coffee shop capital of the world--if sheer numbers meant anything. But now, as we slither precipitously into the next millennium, we discover that many of our coffee shops are not what they once were.

Gone are institutions like Ships, where a faded chrome Sunbeam toaster awaited every customer, and Tick Tock, a 58-year Hollywood restaurant with almost 50 antique clocks and the best meatloaf in town. Also gone are the quirky dishes that once distinguished these places, the Monte Cristo sandwich being one notable casualty.

Pann’s, on La Tijera and La Cienega boulevards, is still the best example of the futuristic “Googie” style that typified the architecturally splendid Los Angeles coffee shop during the ‘50s. But Ben Frank’s, Tiny Naylor’s and even the mighty Schwab’s are no more, vanished along with the days when an agent could scout for his actors at those famous lunch counters.

Ben Frank’s on Sunset Boulevard is now a Mel’s Diner, and New Age haunts like Fred 62 in Los Feliz and the new and futuristic coffee shop at the Standard hotel on Sunset have taken the place of others. In coffee shops today, a new breed of customer orders Alsatian tarte flambee or a tofu scramble to go along with a burger and fries. Somehow, while we weren’t looking, coffee shops have morphed into a new genre. Fortunately, though, enough of the old-style or nostalgic retreads are around that there’s something for every coffee shop aficionado.

The good news is that I recently ate my way around the Southland coffee shop circuit without having a single bad meal. Here are seven restaurants that offer a cross-section of Southland coffee shops at the end of the century. I regret that I may have omitted somebody’s favorite from the equation and, at the same time, the fond memories such a restaurant would invariably recall.

Du-par’s

For the best buttermilk hot cakes, French toast and doughnuts around, no place measures up to Du-par’s. The Studio City location has lots of tiny booths for two, bright orange counter stools and waitresses who wear pointy little hats. It is as close as you can come, anywhere in the city, to warping back into the ‘40s.

The sour tang of the pancake batter is what makes a Du-par’s pancake great. I’ve always been partial to the nutmeg- and cinnamon-flecked cake doughnut as well, and the dense chocolate frosted crullers. The thinly sliced pot roast comes with crisp potato pancakes and flavorful brown gravy. You can also get a proper Welsh rarebit--that’s spiced melted cheddar cheese poured over grilled English muffins.

Pies, both sweet and savory, are Du-par standbys. The savory pies are delicious: English peas, coin-cut carrots, celery, diced potatoes and a thick gravy combined with a choice of either chicken, beef or steak and kidney inside a flaky short crust. Among the dessert pies, try fresh peach or apple, topped with real whipped cream served from an ice cream scoop.

* 12036 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 766-4437. Open 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 6 a.m. to 4 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Also in Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks and now West Hollywood.

Dinah’s

This always-crowded family restaurant just north of LAX opened its doors in 1959 and claims to have sold more than 100 million pieces of fried chicken since. I come here for oven pancakes like the Dutch baby or the banana walnut, but chicken is never far from my mind. No one in the city does it better.

Dinah’s serves Maryland-style fried chicken, lightly dredged in flour and spices, just enough so that the skin is bronze and crisp when the pieces are pulled out of the fryer. The meat bursts with juice when the skin is prodded, and accompaniments--hearty creamed spinach, real mashed potatoes with yellow gravy and delicious soups like chicken gumbo with okra and rice--are all first-rate.

For breakfast, there are terrific oversized frosted cinnamon buns, loaded with plump raisins. The banana walnut pancake is about 1 1/2 inches thick and spills over the sides of the plate, crisp around the edges and eggy in the center, glazed with real maple sugar. Monday and Thursday nights, there is an all-you-can-eat fried chicken extravaganza for $7.50. One night, my waitress boasted, a customer ate 26 pieces. Jeez.

* 6521 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 645-0456. Open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Fred 62

Enter this modest Los Feliz hangout and you immediately catch a whiff of cumin, malt powder and soy sauce. The restaurant has what I’d call a bland ‘50s look. Booths boast built-in car seats with ‘50s headrests. The sound system plays mostly world music, which suits Generation X’ers seated at the counter just fine.

Chef owner Fred Eric, of Vida and the long-defunct Olive fame, is talented. But even a three-star French chef couldn’t do much about the tap water’s metallic taste, the reason regular coffee here borders on the undrinkable.

One thing no one does better than Fred 62 is a classic chocolate malt. This version is thick and creamy, loaded with malt powder, but not so much that it masks the taste of the chocolate.

Most of what I ate here is fine. Matzo brie (“Jew French toast” on Eric’s menu) is very like what my Yiddishe bobbe used to make: chopped matzo pan-fried with scrambled eggs (except that here it is served with real maple syrup). Noo*Deli Bang Bang is a nice bowl of Thai flat rice noodles in a good lemon grass-infused broth. During evening hours, look for a spate of hearty entrees. Cedar plank salmon is excellent, and the spicy, guiltily delicious Mac Daddy and cheese is a ‘90s update on Kraft macaroni.

* 1850 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 667-0062. Open 24 hours daily.

Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop

Ever since Susan Fine Moore took over this vintage coffee shop in the Best Western on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, the food has been top-notch, and it’s become both a celebrity hangout and tourist outpost. Fine Moore’s training in classic French cuisine apparently prepared her to put out comfort foods like waffles, cowboy chili and baked garlic chicken with panache. Good enough that celebrities like actors Vince Vaughn, Brad Pitt and Michelle Phillips have reportedly been spotted here. The closest I got to one of these people was a seat directly under a “Swingers” poster. Who cares?

I never come here without ordering the cowboy chili, which features freshly chopped beef and a touch of sweet Italian sausage in a rich, spicy broth laden with chopped tomato. One of the best new dishes is Kathy’s pork chop, thick grilled chops smothered with garlic and served with mashed potatoes and broccoli.

You’ll never pass that screen test if you drink coffee coolers all day or indulge in too many baked hot chocolates. Coffee cooler is a thick espresso milkshake topped with scandalous heaps of whipped cream. The baked hot chocolate is a cross between a pudding and a souffle, too many calories for anyone aspiring to a Screen Actors Guild card.

* 6145 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. (323) 467-7678. Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Jongewaard’s Bake & Broil

Long Beach is a coffee shop town; the institution is still thriving here. Chuck’s Coffee Shop by the Belmont Pier is always packed on weekends, a Tiny Naylor’s at the Beach survives on Bellflower Boulevard and in tony Belmont Shore there is the Shore House Cafe, a 24-hour restaurant that has been known to serve two dozen pieces of bacon with an order of eggs.

Me, I dream about Bake & Broil, a shrine to American comfort food in the sleepy Bixby Knolls area, about five miles north of the beach. This modest wallpapered room contains the best biscuits, pies, corn bread, coffee cakes and muffins in the city, all made from scratch. And the restaurant has been rewarded with a fiercely loyal clientele, many of whom wouldn’t even consider eating anywhere else.

Pulp still swims in the orange juice here, and the coffee is always piping hot. When I’m feeling indulgent, I order a square of the buttery, crumbly corn bread, so rich you practically have to eat it with a spoon. The apple pies come out of the oven around 10 each morning, followed by pies like pumpkin streusel and cakes like the red velvet, a devilishly red chocolate cake slathered with a thick cream cheese frosting.

At lunch, there are always homemade soups like navy bean and creamy tomato with bacon, juicy burgers wrapped in wax paper and pot roast sandwiches. Come supper, there are beef stew and hand-dipped country fried chicken, dishes that remain the backbone of a coffee shop town.

* 3697 Atlantic Blvd., Long Beach. (310) 595-0396. Open 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

The Standard

“Head for the bubble chairs,” the front desk clerk at the Standard Hotel tells my friend. “The coffee shop is just beyond them.” At this third-millennium Schwab’s, you eat world cuisine, a fusion take on coffee shop food. And as confusing as the menu seems, many of these dishes are terrific.

Waitresses sport perky yellow uniforms, and lanterns look as if they were lifted from the set of “The Outer Limits.”

One moment you are nibbling on Asian dishes like shrimp summer rolls, fresh eggroll skins wrapped around a delicious mixture of shrimp and vegetables or a Japanese-inspired chunk of black cod glazed with miso. The next, you have been teleported to the Caribbean, eating a glorious interpretation of arroz con pollo laced with big pieces of Spanish chorizo.

Burgers with fries may be the best in town, thick, beefy and fall-apart tender. Roast pork with caramelized apples and mashed potatoes is comfort food in any century, and this is one of the few places around where you can order a real Alsatian tarte flambee, a crusty pizza-like flat bread topped with white cheese and salty ham.

Desserts include a nice coffee cup creme brulee and a flaky cherry pie served a la mode. The house cappuccino is frothy and intense. “Blade Runner” never even hinted that replicant food would be this delicious.

* 8300 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. (323) 650-9090. Open 24 hours, daily.

Walnut Grove Restaurant

Despite the rapid growth that took place here during the ‘90s, things are slow to change in bucolic San Juan Capistrano. This rustic roadhouse has belonged to the Newhart family since 1946. It’s essentially a large wooden shack with a slanting beamed ceiling, a Western-style patio and a bare-bones but tasty cooking style, Americana personified.

Locals swear by this place for the home-baked cookies and cinnamon rolls, but the restaurant is best at breakfast, when serving flaky biscuits smothered with meaty country sausage gravy; hand-chopped, succulently spiced homemade sausage patties; giant Belgian waffles topped with whipped cream and strawberries; and a bottomless cup of American coffee.

At lunch, there is a fine cold meatloaf sandwich with homemade potato salad. Evenings, try the juicy old-fashioned pot roast or a fall-off-the-bone tender baked chicken. My waitress, Edna, told me that she started working there in 1958. She’s seen thousands of swallows fly away during the years, but her bread and butter, the American coffee shop, always seems to come back, too.

* 26871 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano. (949) 493-1661. Open daily, 6 a.m. to 9:45 p.m.