Clifton's Cafeteria

Last night I experienced the wonder that is Clifton's Cafeteria. Clifton's is an old school cafeteria style dining establishment that has been a part of downtown LA since the 1930s. The wild west style dining room is full of green fake foliage, stone boulders, lagoon pools, waterfalls and mounted deer heads. There is speculation that Clifton's was the inspiration behind Adventure Land at Disneyland and after visiting, it seems totally possible. Clifton's is a spitting image of Adventure Land if it were to crammed into a restaurant, the only thing missing are the Country Bears and the Tiki Room.

So in the pouring rain, Tony and I drove to downtown LA and walked through the jewelry district until we hit 6th and Broadway. One we walked through the front door, we felt as though we entered a time warp. Guests are greeted by a host stand next to a mini waterfall and a brief photo history of Clifton's, it's founders and their promises to their customers. After taking in a brief history of the establishment, we walked back to what seems like a huge cafeteria line straight out of the 50's. Full of steel counters and a white tile floor, we selected our trays and wandered through a sea of retro comfort food favorites. They had a huge assortment of salads, soups, hot entrees, dessert and gelatin products. I chose a meal of lentil soup, bean salad, hard boiled egg, mac and cheese, ambrosia salad and chocolate pudding. Tony selected green salad, fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing and for dessert tapioca pudding and strawberry pie. Our fully packed trays only cost of $29 and of course we selected way more than we could eat.

Once in the dining room we chose a table on the 2nd floor so we could do some people watching. Clifton's is filled with an assortment of characters. I'm sure back in the 30s, 40s and 50s, the cafeteria was filled with business men, families and police officers. The current patrons at Clifton's ranged from young church groups, and large families to the homeless and crackheads who had just wondered off skid row. One of my favorite guests was a woman sitting below us in her late 60s wearing a hair net. She had a tray of dessert and a cup of coffee and repeatedly dosed off to sleep, nearly burying her face in her banana cream pie.

Overall, I LOVED Clifton's. The environment is fun, uniquely themed and a one of a kind experience. On top of that, the food was delicious and the price unbeatable. Plus, the people watching is phenomenal. I also saw on our way out that if you host your birthday party there, they will give you a whole cake for for free. I'm thinking 27 will be celebrated with the help of
Clifton's.

A Film To See....

After hearing weeks of hype, I finally went to go see Juno. I was trying to pretend I didn't hear all all the great reviews so I wouldn't build the film up too much and then be disappointed. I wasn't disappointed at all, it was a deliciously witty and wonderful film. The characters were all wonderful and quirky and I really got attached to all of them. If you are toying with the idea of going to see Juno, do yourself a favor and see it. You will walk away feeling happy, nostalgic and grounded.

Take that Ebert and Roeper!

PS. She has a hamburger phone in the movie that is rad. If anyone has a hamburger phone lying around, I will happily buy it off you.

"New Year's Day is every man's birthday." ~Charles Lamb

Ah yes it's that time of year again. The time of year where everyone returns from their various holidays, recovers from week long hangovers and stews over the big question in life of "what is really important?" Or at least, that is what I do.

Over the holidays we packed up the car and headed north to see my family. We spent several days in Napa and a few in San Francisco. It's always great to leave LA and get back to normalcy a bit. Everyone in San Francisco is so friendly and normal and it always takes a few days for me to get use to LA again. For example, when we returned to LA, I went to the grocery store to replenish our fridge and I was instantly shocked at how put together everyone was there. All the woman had a full face of make up, leggings and obnoxious and unnecessary sunglasses in doors. All I could think of was..people are so weird here. But I'm sure after another week it will all seem totally normal.

Basically, the nice long break made me stop to think about what's really important in life. My answers are family, friends and balance. It's so easy to get caught up in the ever going stresses of work and life which I definitely do. And all that BS doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Realizing this made me think, we should just pack up all our crap and move to San Francisco or Portland or some city where there is life and culture without ridiculous unessary things like seven series BMWs, Louis Vuitton purses and low carb bread. I was day dreaming of working for a small environmental firm in San Francisco, or working for Nike in Portland. These are all far fetched day dreams (for now anyway)but it was fun to dream. Don't get me wrong, I do like my job and co-workers and I love my friends. I even like Los Angeles a whole lot, but sometimes it's easy to forget that outside of this bubble there are real people who when bring up the subject of music or movies, they just want to talk about the really awesome base line of their favorite song, or their favorite quote from a film, not about the how the actor in the film they love is sleeping with a friends assistant, or how that bands manager is a huge coke head.

Anyway, long blog short....having realized all this.. these are my "Goals for 2008."

- Re-introduce myself to skills I once mastered (i.e. playing the violin, tennis, cooking, knitting etc.)
- Remain active and healthy and use any any extra time I have on weekdays to pick up one of the for mentioned former skills of my younger years
-Live as eco-friendly as I can
-Remember that above all, these are the things that bring me happiness..... my husband, friends, family, health, humor, the outdoors, cooking, music, a great cup of coffee, a good book, great film and great conversation

Now That's a Knish!

So I've been a bit busy and am way over due for a blog post. My apologies to all 5 of you that read this blog for the delay. So back to New York. New York was awesome but cold! I completely forgot how cold other places of the country get. I forgot what it's like to have a physical need for a hat, scarf and gloves and that people use them for function and not just fashion.

So on Saturday, my friend Beth took me out and about to show me a little glimpse of NYC life. We did some shopping in Soho and went to an amazing designers market in an old church on the lower east side that had all sorts of original pieces of jewelry, clothes and bags. I scored these awesome bracelets made out of vintage vinyl that I plan on using as holiday gifts. But really the highlight of my day had to be Yonna Schimmels Knishery. As we walked through the cold and damp streets of the Lower East Side, I grew tired , hungry and chilled to the bone. I think I must have shown my pain while walking as Beth kept asking me if I was okay and through my cold and icy mouth I would respond "oh yeah, totally fine..walking is sooo good for me." Beth promised the walk would be worth it and when we approached the small and paint chipped door of Yonna Schimmel's Knishery, I knew everything was going to be okay. We sat down in the tiny warm cafe and ordered two "Knish Platters" and shared them. This delightful lunch of $8.40 consisted of two GIANT knishes, a bowl of coleslaw and unlimited home made pickles. The Knishes were amazing and warmed every part of my frozen body. This place was truly a gem only something you would find in New York City. I texted my friend Jen who is a true New Yorker to the core (Queens to be exact.... and she would be mentally adding that if she were reading this) and told her I was eating a delicious Knish and thinking of her. She texted be back and asked where I was consuming this delightful Knish and when I told her where I was she replied with such enthusiasm "Now That's a Knish!"

View from my room


Yonna Schimmel's


Knishes... mmmm

Room with a View

So right now I am on a business trip in New York City. I really hate flying so I wasn't too happy about the 6 hour flight to get here but now that I on solid ground and in the city, the trip has been really enjoyable. My company is putting us up at this ridiculously wonderful 5 star hotel right at Central Park, and I don't know how I managed to get put on the 36th floor but I did and have a full view of Central Park and the surrounding NY Skyline.It's AMAZING!

Every time I come back to the room I just stare out the window at the tiny people walking on the sidewalks or I look at out and adjacent buildings and peer into peoples luxurious places that live in these high rises. Since the duration of my stay, I've been people watching a few people that are on similar floors I am on. I noticed one woman who eats dinner very late at a lavish dining room table. She has granite counter tops, modern fixtures and sub zero appliances but she's eaten alone for 2 nights. There is another apartment below where another woman reads every night on her couch surrounded by her two slumbering golden retrievers. I can't imagine how much these places I'm viewing cost to live in, but it must be nice to live that high up. There also seems to be people ice skating every night and every morning on the outdoor ice rink in Central Park even though it's freezing at both of those times of day. I wish I didn't have to go into the NY Office each day so I could continue to see this little glimpses into other peoples worlds. People watching is much better/more interesting from 36 stories up.

Blast From the Past

Then



Now
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Last night Tony surprised me with tickets to see Silverchair at the Wiltern. I was really excited as I use to love Silverchair, along with various other grunge rock genre bands from the 90s. I wasn't expecting much out of the show, I thought they'll play some old stuff, they're older, more mellow whatever but they were AMAZING! The boys are much more clean cut than in the old days and their newer songs definitely have a more mellow mainstream sound, but they sounded great! And when they played their old stuff it took me right back to the mid nineties at my parents house, listening to Fogstomp on my very large yet so cool portable boom box in my room.

Daniel Johns is truly an amazing performer. He got the crowd totally amped up, was rolling on the ground, jumping in the air, playing guitar with his tongue (the ladies in the crowd were loosing it at this point) laying on the piano playing with his foot. I was truly blown away with how great the show was. I was talking to Tony about how all music genres of the past are coming back. For instance, new wave is huge in the rock genre now, I wonder when someone will bring back the raw, edgy, heavy base/guitar sounds of grunge. I know it sounds nerdy, but I love grunge rock and I can't wait for someone to bring it back. So if anyone is a thinking of starting a grunge rock band, make it happen! I guarantee you will already have one fan!

Lazy Sunday

Today was my perfect Sunday and included the following things:

-Sleeping in.. plus bonus hour due to daylight savings
-Reading the magazines I never get to read during the week over a cup o' joe
-Not showering until noon
-Making Orange Chocolate Cookies
-Watching movies w/ my hubby and cat
-Not doing laundry
-Knitting part of Tony's never ending scarf
-Wearing Ugg boots around the house and not being ridiculed for it