Death of Clifton’s Owner Probed

The turkey was carved, the mashed potatoes were awash in gravy and the penny-filled water fountain flowed Friday as it always has inside Clifton’s Cafeteria.

But the suspicious death two days before of the woman who was part owner of the Los Angeles restaurant cast a pall over the regulars and 60-member staff.

“We’re all sad,” Nestor Armendariz, a 15-year restaurant employee, said as she greeted customers with “How are you?” and handed them their change.

Jean Clinton Roeschlaub, 83, was found about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday in her unit at Monterey Island Condominiums, near downtown Glendale, Glendale Police Officer John Balian said.

Police have no leads in the case and minimal information to work with, but her death is not random, Balian said.

“You can’t get in [to her building] unless you have a key or unless a guard lets you in,” he said.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Friday that the case was on security hold and would not release any information.

Condominium staff said they visited Roeschlaub’s penthouse on the 16th floor at the request of her son.

Donald Clinton, Roeschlaub’s 79-year-old brother, who is co-owner of the cafeteria, confirmed Friday that Roeschlaub’s 53-year-old son, Bruce C. Davis, asked the condominium management to check on his mother because she had missed several appointments.

The door handle on Roeschlaub’s condo was not tampered with, condominium staff said, and nothing appeared out of place in the 16th-floor hallway, which serves a handful of other residences.

“We didn’t get past the threshold,” said the woman who found Roeschlaub; she declined to give her name. “I knew it was serious.”

Donald Clinton said that his sister had a pacemaker and that family members thought her death was from natural causes.

He said police asked him if his sister had any enemies, but he could not think of any.

Roeschlaub’s parents, Clifford and Nelda Clinton, founded Clifton’s Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles in 1931 during the Depression.

Customers became “guests,” the company website said, and none were turned away hungry, even if they had no money.

During one 90-day period, 10,000 people ate free before Clifford Clinton could open an emergency “Penny Cafeteria” a few blocks away to feed, for pennies, the 2 million who came during the next two years.

At its height, there were seven Clifton’s Cafeterias, with restaurants in Century City, Whittier, Lakewood, West Covina, Laguna Hills and downtown Los Angeles.

But Donald Clinton said increasing rent and expiring leases closed all but the one at 648 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.

Roeschlaub was a weekly fixture in the family restaurant, where customers came Friday for dishes concocted from the hundreds of recipes collected in every corner of the kitchen.

“It’s a really clean place, a nice environment, and the food is good -- not greasy like other places,” said Laura Rodriguez, 41, a 25-year patron of the restaurant who sat with her 19-year-old daughter, also named Laura.

Associate Manager Alfred Garcia, 60, who worked with Roeschlaub for 40 years, said she came by once a week to scour menus and plates like a hawk, ready to pounce on anything that was less than perfect.

But, he quickly added, the sharp woman always treated her employees like family.

“She always used to say hi to everyone -- to the dishwasher, the cook. Everybody,” he said. “She wasn’t feeling good, but she looked good -- always well-dressed and elegant,” he said.

People described Roeschlaub as pretty and beautiful and said she wore tweed skirts and had her hair styled weekly.

“She was very respected,” said Monterey Island Condominium maintenance worker Marcio Carvalho. “Who is not surprised?

“She was such a nice lady.”