Villa Park: Food and Pharmacy, a Family Operation

Walk into Rockwell’s Cafe and Bakery, and if they haven’t memorized your regular breakfast order, chances are they’ll already have it on the griddle the next time you come through the door. Make a few trips to the old-fashioned drugstore nearby and it’s likely that at least one of the six Brodskys who work there will remember that you’re partial to egg creams and maple nut fudge. Welcome to Villa Park, where the homes are big but the atmosphere is definitely small-town.

It’s funny that although Orange County’s smallest city (2.1 square miles, 6,500 residents) has only one shopping center, doubling as its civic center, the people don’t feel deprived. Maybe that’s because though the options are few, they often find what they’re looking for there, at the bend in Santiago Boulevard.

And if you’re looking to open a restaurant, what better way to decorate than with plates? That’s what Marty Colleary figured in 1987, when he and his wife, Wendy, were putting the finishing touches on Rockwell’s (17853 Santiago Blvd., Villa Park, [714] 921-0622). Colleary already had a collection of Norman Rockwell gilt-edged plates, as well as prints by the famed illustrator, so the restaurant’s name was a given. It all seemed a perfect way to evoke the homey air Colleary sought.

The attention to decor and atmosphere would mean little if Rockwell’s didn’t serve good food. Breakfast favorites include three kinds of eggs Benedict ($6.95 to $7.95), all with homemade Hollandaise sauce. Ingredients range from seafood and avocado to marinated chicken. The menu also features 10 omelets ($5.95-$6.95), with the grilled artichoke version offering a particularly enticing mix of mushrooms, bell pepper, onions and olives.

Rockwell’s is open Monday and Tuesday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Wednesday-Friday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Picking a store after which to model his fledgling pharmacy 28 years ago was easy for Jim Brodsky, owner of Villa Park Pharmacy (17821 Santiago Blvd., [714] 998-3030). He had a picture of his father’s drugstore in Wisconsin to use as a guide. What Brodsky assembled was a piece of Americana, a drugstore like those from previous centuries, with a candy counter, gooseneck soda fountains, a malt machine, swivel stools and wooden booths.

Brodsky’s son Bob, 32, is the pharmacy manager, and Bob’s twin sister, Shelly, works as a pharmacist on weekends. The youngest Brodsky kids--Jake, 11, and Shayna, 9--often spend summer afternoons pouring lemonade out front, while their grandmother, Sylvia Brodsky, 84, sells lottery tickets from a wooden cubicle that once served as a ticket booth for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. When he isn’t teaching pharmacology at USC, Jim Brodsky is also at the store, filling prescriptions and dispensing advice on natural remedies. The local doctors call him “Dr. Weeds and Seeds.”

Villa Park Pharmacy is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.

* Getting There: To reach the Villa Park Shopping Center, exit the Costa Mesa Freeway at Katella Avenue and go east to Wanda Road, which runs into Santiago Boulevard. Turn left, and the shopping center is a quarter-mile ahead on the right.

* A new Discover Orange County will run next Sunday in the Orange County Calendar.

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Villa Park

1. Villa Park Pharmacy

17821 Santiago Blvd., (714) 998-3030

2. Rockwell’s Cafe and Bakery

17853 Santiago Blvd., (714) 921-0622