March 2009 Archives

This vacation is paid time off, btw. I'll be off all this week on a road trip to Arizona. (Road trip!!) Unless my motel has a computer room, which it probably won't, I'm unlikely to have Internet access, so don't freak out if your comments don't get posted for a few days.

[Update: They have a computer here in the lobby of the Super 8 Motel in Tempe, so here I am at 9 p.m. Monday, posting your comments!]

Check back here, because a Restaurant of the Week will pop up here later in the week. And I've managed to slap together three columns to run this week. You'll hardly know I'm gone.

Adding to my near-omnipresence, look for me sometime this week on ABC Channel 7: Consumer reporter Ric Romero interviewed me Friday morning in my living room (!) for a piece on digital converter boxes.

The station had contacted me after finding my February column online. That column was partly about my post-conversion inability to get Channel 7, until learning ABC was also broadcast on Channel 53, which does come in on my TV.

Romero didn't know when his piece would run, but probably this week, on the nightly news. (This is what the news biz has come to: Journalists interviewing other journalists.)

Of course, if it runs this week, I may miss the whole thing, but maybe it will be online.

The Daily Bulletin's fabulous lineup of blogs, most of them with "Now" in the name, has just added Music Now.

This blog will round up concert listings in the 909 and present other material as well. A bunch of us music obsessives in the Bulletin newsroom will contribute, including yours truly.

I kicked things off by posting an introduction and the first concert listings for Pomona's Fox Theater.

Check out Music Now at www.insidesocal.com/musicnow.

Have you noticed my blog's home page (which you're looking at) has links over to the right for the Bulletin's "Now" news blogs? That's a recent addition, long in coming, and welcome.

"Now" this, "Now" that...let's just hope no one decides this blog should be renamed David Allen Now. And imagine if Joe Blackstock did a local history blog: Our Past Now. The mind reels.

This week's restaurant: Nancy's Cafe, 9759 Arrow Route (at Archibald), Rancho Cucamonga.

Crucial note: After I finished a version of this Restaurant of the Week piece Thursday afternoon, a cook at Nancy's phoned to tell me the restaurant is closing for good FRIDAY, a victim of the economy. That's TODAY, for most of you reading this. This is a hard blow, and a surprise, because Nancy's used to always be packed. [UPDATE: I tried to go in for breakfast Friday but at 7:15 a.m. the place was locked and dark, with no sign of life or of explanation.]

Nancy's was a modest gem, a just-folks diner serving up breakfast and lunch from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. The setting was a small, slightly rundown strip mall behind a Jack in the Box, although the non-Jack restaurants are a foodie's delight: Guido's, an Italian deli, and Los Jalapenos, a taqueria, both among the city's best.

I've been eating at Nancy's for years -- infrequently, true, but Nancy's was always there when I needed it. The cheery interior was stuffed with kitsch, some of it '50s-themed, much of it related to pigs. There was a tiny pig figurine on a tiny swing suspended from the ceiling in the waiting area, more pig figurines at most of the tables, pigs on the walls, pigs at the cash register.

Breakfast had all the standards, served in big portions. The french toast combo ($7) was especially good, as was the french toast covered in brown sugar and oats, dubbed the Annie Oatley ($7.75). I was also an admirer of the lemon pancakes ($7.75). The sausage here was above-average.

Red Hill Coffee Shop, Brandon's Diner, Kickback Jack's and Nancy's make up the shortlist of Rancho Cucamonga's best breakfast spots. I like 'em all, but Nancy's was my favorite, with the ambience a big plus.

For whatever reason, I'd never tried Nancy's for lunch until Wednesday. They had a variety of hot and cold sandwiches, salads and even barbecued ham and chicken. I got the meatloaf sandwich ($7), on toasted sourdough, with tomatoes, lettuce and onions, and it was a pretty good version.

My colleague Joe Blackstock advised me to get a burger ($7.25) and ask for it on grilled sourdough. I wasn't in the mood for that much meat on Wednesday. Oh well.

I thought Nancy's would always be there for me. But let me salute Frank and Nancy Clark for years of good food, friendly service and goofy kitsch. I'll miss 'em.

Anyone have memories of Nancy's to share?

The original Pioneer Chicken location in Echo Park closed recently after four or five decades in business, according to the Eastsider LA blog (via LA Observed). The fried chicken stand took its name from the Pioneer Market that originally stood next door.

There are said to be a few lingering Pioneer Chicken restaurants, including one in Silver Lake, but most were sold off to Popeyes in the 1980s after the chain slipped into bankruptcy, Eastsider says.

The above-pictured Popeyes on the corner of East Holt and San Antonio avenues in Pomona is a former Pioneer Chicken. Dig the floor to ceiling glass -- very mod. (Photo shot from my car window Thursday after lunch at a better chicken stand, Donahoo's.)

These images may bring back memories: a photo of a Pioneer stand and the chuckwagon logo.

Anyone want to share memories of Pioneer?

Some 10,000 people turned out in Pomona on Nov. 12, 1932 to see President Herbert Hoover, whose train stopped in Pomona for a few minutes. Hoover had lost his re-election bid to Franklin Roosevelt a few days earlier. Here is what Hoover had to say, in full:

"Friends in Pomona:

"It is very difficult for me to find phrases to express my appreciation for this spontaneous reception. I would almost think I was still running in a campaign from this reception. But what I do know from this reception is that it is a reception from the heart and from your friendship."

It was kind of Pomona to be so gracious to a big loser.

Now, how do we know what Hoover said?

A neat website exists called The American Presidency Project, courtesy of UC Santa Barbara and found at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/

This was one resource used by the Pomona Public Library staff when I asked which presidents had visited Pomona.

The library's Bruce Guter explained the website to me like this:

"This site compiles electronically all the papers and public documents of the Presidents back to the founding of the Republic. (In the 'old' days -- before the advent of the internet -- this information was released in book volumes which libraries accumulated year after year, after year, and searching was done through lengthy indexes at the back of each volume).

"The database is so current that it already has the text of Obama's remarks from his March 19th Pomona visit.

"But a search of this database confirms in effect that no sitting President since Hoover had come through Pomona and made public remarks until last week."

Explore the archives yourself by clicking the link above. You can type in any city in which you're interested and see what citations come up.

For families that like to shout across the dinner table, a "dinning" room set would be perfect. I walked past this East Holt Avenue store after seeing the president last week -- and did a double-take.

Boomers is the name of the former Upland Family Fun Center, a fixture along 7th Street in Upland since 1972. The miniature golf course abuts the 10 Freeway, and the property also has go-karts, batting cages and a kiddie restaurant, the Boomers Cafe.

(The restaurant was Bullwinkle's until Boomers took over in 2002.)

In the 12 years I've been at the Bulletin, most of them spent commuting between Claremont and our Ontario office, I've driven past the golf course thousands of times. I've always secretly wanted to go there.

And so, a bunch of us from the newsroom went there on a recent Friday night, the day before my birthday, to celebrate by playing a round. I have very patient friends.

Turns out there are two 18-hole courses. We played the one with the school, the windmill, the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, among other obstacles and features. It was a lot of fun, despite being breezy, dark and chilly. (Why couldn't my birthday be during a warmer month, or at least after springing forward?)

The other course has a Spanish Mission. Oooooh. I'll have to go back and play it sometime.

When we were playing the schoolhouse hole, in which you try to hit the ball through the open front door, a friend reminded me that the schoolhouse used to be painted the traditional red with white trim and have a peaked roof. A few years back, it was painted a softer color and the roof lopped off, for unknown reasons. Further evidence that nothing is sacred.

The Boomers main building, where you get your clubs, is a sprawling place with air hockey, arcade games (some of them very old and charming) and even indoor "cosmic" miniature golf. Another reason to go back.

Anyone have personal experiences with Boomers, Bullwinkle's or the Upland Family Fun Center? Please post away.

An anonymous reader submits the following:

"Here's a tip you might find interesting. Sometime during the past few weeks, a mistake has appeared in Google Maps: The place name 'Paramount' has appeared on the west side of Pomona. I've lived in this part of town for more than 50 years, and Paramount has never been a local name. It should say Westmont if anything. I contacted Google Maps, but so far there has been no change."

He or she is right. View the map here.

"During the same period of time, the name Narod and Sunsweet also appeared near Ontario. I do believe those are actual names from history, denoting freight train stops. If someone was trying to include historical names, there are a number that should be added, such as Spadra. However, as far as I know, Paramount has never been a name associated with Pomona.

"This link can be used to complain to Google Maps about mistakes. Perhaps your readers would be willing to help make the map more accurate."

That would be http://local.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=mbug

Photo courtesy of Joanne Boyajian

Lotsa videos on YouTube and elsewhere of the president's visit. Here are a few of the best:

* The president's motorcade can be seen traveling Holt here and here, leaving the Edison plant here and traveling on residential streets here and here. You can find even more here on the YouTube search page.

* The president's speech can be seen in two parts, here and here.

If you're curious about the president's route through the Inland Valley, the comments of the Neighborhood Watch blog in Pomona say it went like this: the 10 Freeway east, exiting at Towne Avenue and heading south, then east on San Bernardino Avenue, south on San Antonio Avenue to Holt, then east on Holt to Hershey.

He returned on the same route, exiting the 10 west at Fairplex Drive to get to Brackett Field in La Verne. News to me -- did he take a chopper to L.A.? A plane? *

Well, anything to beat the traffic, I guess.

The full text of the president's remarks, as transcribed by the White House, can be read by clicking below.

* He took his official helicopter, Marine One; thanks to Joanne Boyajian for the photo.

This week's restaurant: Everest Drive-In, 430 N. Central Ave. (at Arrow Route), Upland.

Emulating its namesake, Everest rises majestically along a quiet stretch of Central near Montclair, next door to a vacant lot.

It's another of those burger palaces that has a zillion items on the menu, sort of the spiritual opposite of In-N-Out: not only a dozen styles of hamburger but pastrami and other kinds of sandwiches, basic Mexican items, salads, breakfasts, even an "old fashioned Sloppy Joe" ($2.99).

I had a burger combo there a while back with fries and a soda ($5.49). The char-broiled patty is topped with Thousand Island, lettuce, tomato and red onion. Good stuff. The fries aren't bad. One nice touch: Ketchup is on the tables in glass bottles. The restaurant interior, however, is bland, beige and uninspiring.

Not having had a chance to write about Everest at the time, I returned recently for two more meals. I got the Mediterranean chicken sandwich, again as a combo ($8.58); it comes on a wheat bun, with red and green peppers and feta cheese. A for effort, although the sandwich was better conceptually than as a physical object. Oh well. A week later, an a la carte BLT ($4.19) hit the spot for dinner.

There are other Everest locations in Altadena and La Crescenta. But if you're going to explore Everest, why travel farther than Upland?

The president is scheduled to tour the Edison International Vehicle Electrics Plant, 265 N. East End Ave., at 10:30 a.m. Students from Village Academy School, which Obama mentioned in a speech last week, and who will be the subject of a "20/20" report on ABC-TV on Friday, will be brought over to the plant to meet him.

Now that's a field trip. (The school, btw, is literally across the street from the plant.)

The event is not open to the public and only pool press will be allowed in. That means I'll be on the sidewalk or across the street, craning my neck like everyone else. See you there?

David McNew/Getty Images

This photo of Rancho Cucamonga is from a Boston Globe slideshow titled "Scenes From the Recession," consisting of 35 photos from all over the world. Powerful stuff.

The caption for the above: "Storm clouds hover near unfinished home lots during a break between storms after the dwindling new home sales market brought construction to a halt at a new home development December 16, 2008 in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Home construction took its biggest dive in 24 years in November to reach a record low."

Photos 27 and 35 are from Riverside. Photos 26 and 30 have personal meaning for me as a newspaperman. You'll probably find your own favorites if you take the time to look.

Today's column has a rundown of the visits made by four sitting presidents to Pomona: Benjamin Harrison (1891), William McKinley (1901), William Howard Taft (1911) and Herbert Hoover (1932). Here are more details about Taft's appearance, taken from a Pomona Progress article unearthed by the Pomona Public Library (bless 'em); they also contributed the photo above.

Taft spoke at the Pomona depot downtown from the rear of his train on Oct. 17, 1911. He was given a key to the city, baskets of fruit and flowers by the Ebell Club, B.P.O. Elks No. 789, the Board of Trade and the Ohio society, and a basket of grapes from the Unitarian Church. It seems that the Senate chaplain, the Rev. U.G.B. Pierce, had been the Pomona First Unitarian pastor for six years.

Here is the full text of the president's remarks as taken from the Progress:

"Ladies and gentlemen of Pomona:

"I am greatly surprised and greatly delighted at your cordial reception as shown by the number of those who have done me the honor to come here to greet me. I am delighted to see the children. Are you glad to see me, children? (Cries of 'Yes, yes.') Well, do you have a holiday because I am here. ('No.') The little ones do, and I hope you will remember me by that.

"I congratulate the people of Pomona on having such a delightful place to live. I am told that there are no rich people in Pomona and no poor people, that you are all in that condition that enables you to look at life from a proper standpoint, that you have not accumulated a lot of money and are sitting on it just for the purpose of contemplating it and seeing it grow, but that you are able to enjoy life, to be philosophical, to do the best you can for the community and the country and to rejoice in the success of everybody. Now, that's a condition that calls for congratulation.

"Over in some of your neighboring towns I found great evidence of wealth that possibly combines with happiness, but I am glad to know that you have just enough and that you don't want anymore.

"As I go through this country and see all this beautiful fruit -- and I am a fruit eater -- I feel as if I would like to have a good deal bigger capacity than I have in order that I might carry away even more delightful recollections of Pomona. Good-by."

Good-by.

Isn't that something? Just days after he mentioned Pomona's Village Academy in a speech, Spider-Man's pal President Obama announced plans to visit Pomona in person.

On Thursday, says LA Observed, the president will visit the Edison International Vehicle Electrics Plant. Here's a USA Today story about the plant, although it's light on details.

I think while Obama's in town, the presidential motorcade should make a point of driving past Donahoo's Chicken to view Pomona's contribution to rooftop poultry art. Even better, he could stop inside for a box lunch.

Any other suggestions for the president's visit?

The new Disney sequel apparently has a sequence filmed at Pomona's Fairplex, although you likely won't recognize it.

One of the Fairplex exhibition halls was used as the site of a science fiction convention -- "UFO Space Expo 9" -- visited by Dwayne Johnson's cab driver character and two teenage fares who are more than they appear. Johnson weaves through attendees dressed in Stormtrooper and alien costumes, booths hawking geeky merchandise and a UFO karaoke machine after the teens wander away from him.

I imagine hijinx ensues. Anyone see the movie?

This week's restaurant: Toro Sushi & Grill, 1520 N. Mountain Ave. (at 6th), Ontario.

A couple of years back Toro moved from Chino to Ontario into the new neighborhood center at Mountain Avenue and the 10 Freeeway. It's a large, high-ceilinged place in modernist style, done mostly in black, with a few Japanese accents. But the prevailing spirit may be best symbolized by the Raiders plaque behind the sushi bar and a nearby sign reading "Macho sushi $4.50."

Toro seems somewhat bar crowd-oriented, but the food's not bad. I've had the salmon skin salad ($7.50) and liked it. This week I had albacore sushi ($4), yellowtail belly sushi ($5.50) and a salmon skin cut roll ($6). The fish seems fresh and the presentation is nice, if slightly flashy, with sauces drizzled across two of the three orders. Toro also has grilled seafood, chicken and steak entrees from $10 to $30.

I would compare Toro to Kabuki in Victoria Gardens or Sakura Ichi in Pomona as slightly upscale, untraditional takes on sushi -- not the best, but above average.

Toro should work on its motto, though. According to the takeout menu, its mission is to "touch and embrace our customers hearts and souls, as well as their pallets." Please take your hands off my flat wooden transport structure.

We've talked about Stinkey's here before, a still fondly remembered burger joint on the northwest corner of Foothill and Mountain back in the day. You can read those comments here.

Kelly Zackmann of the Ontario Library reports that, according to city directories, Stinky's first appeared in 1948, at 1214 W. Foothill Blvd. The later directories spelled it Stinkey's. There are no listings beyond 1968. It was owned by Jack A. Kermott.

Here's a fresh comment from Larry Hernandez, who e-mailed in response to my column on RoVal's to reminisce about Stinky's/Stinkey's:

"I loved the story on long-gone eating places that readers remember very fondly. This brings to my mind very vague, almost lost memories of a diner called Stinky's that used to be on Foothill Boulevard in Upland, west of Euclid.

"I cannot remember very much about the place but I can vividly recall how tasty and wonderfully smelly the hamburgers were when they came right off the grill. Being 51 years of age, I was a mere boy, perhaps 5 or 6, when my dad or mom stopped by to pick up a quick takeout dinner. I think we ate in the parking lot. My dad and mom never ate inside, perhaps a holdover from earlier times when Mexican-Americans hesitated to overstay their welcome in many local establishments, like the Ford Diner that used to sit on the southeast corner of Holt and Euclid.

"The place must have shut down shortly thereafter, because I cannot recall it being there when I passed by the spot in the late '60s and beyond.

"What I recall is a smallish diner, set back from the road, with lots of empty fields around it, and huge old eucalyptus tree windbreaks still in the vicinity, probably bordered with piles of 'Upland potatoes.' The parking lot may have been unpaved. I think it was on the northwest corner of Mountain and Foothill.

"What I cannot forget is the feel and taste of toasted buns off of the grill and the pungent odor and taste of the onions the cook placed over the beef patty. Stinky's hamburgers set the standard by which all other burgers are still judged in my mind. I don't know what the cook did with those onions, but I have never encountered the same again.

"Could you give a shout-out to other readers about their memories of Stinky's? Perhaps the secrets are hidden away in the papers of some family that had a connection to the owner or the cooks."

Wasn't that nice? I've alerted Larry that he really ought to visit this blog. But if anyone has anything to add about Stinkey's, feel free to post a comment below.

Books bought this month: "The Loved One," Evelyn Waugh; "Lies, Inc.," Philip K. Dick; "The Best of S.J. Perelman."

Books read this month: "Slan," A.E. van Vogt; "Slippage," Harlan Ellison; "A Graveyard for Lunatics," Ray Bradbury; "Nightmare in Pink," John D. MacDonald.

As in January, I finished four books, and in a short month too. Also, based on buying three books and reading four, I should catch up on my backlog in about, oh, 400 months.

The books I bought, btw, were from Second Story Books' closeout sale. Don't know when I'll get to them, but I'm glad to have them. What put the Perelman book over the top: Its intro is by (ahem) Sidney Namlerep.

"Slan" is a classic sci-fi novel about telepaths known as slans who are outsiders from society, hated and feared. "Fans are slans" was a longtime rueful saying among the outsiders in SF fandom. Van Vogt's writing (and it's pronounced "van Vote"; thank you, Dwain Kaiser) is propulsive, but kind of clunky. This one, while diverting, didn't quite live up to its rep.

"Slippage" is a collection of stories by Ellison, a much-lauded fantasist, published in '97, and is his most recent work. I went through an Ellison phase in high school, then moved on, although I've continued to add his books to my shelves -- they're usually out of print and notoriously hard to find, meaning you have to horde them. "Slippage" has a few clunkers, but mostly it's a very fine book, with many tones and voices.

"Graveyard" is the second in Bradbury's trilogy of loosely autobiographical novels about old L.A., this one about a Hollywood studio circa 1954, a dark secret, a cemetery and stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen. Trifling but enjoyable.

(I then went back and skimmed the first book, "Death is a Lonely Business," about a series of deaths and disappearances in Venice, Calif., circa 1940, which I'd initially considered plotless and purple-prosed. After the even looser "Graveyard," "Death" came to seem foggily atmospheric and even a bit grand.)

Finally, MacDonald's second Travis McGee mystery. McGee leaves his Ft. Lauderdale houseboat for NYC to pay a debt to an old army pal whose daughter's fiance died in a mugging. Or was it a mugging?

I have the feeling the 21 McGee books are going to blur together like James Bond movies, all of them enjoyable, none of the plots especially memorable. But the writing is fine stuff. A favorite passage comes as McGee muses to himself after a fruitful chat with a banker:

"...I suspected that he was annoyed with himself for talking perhaps too much and too freely. There is only one way to make people talk more than they care to. Listen. Listen with hungry earnest attention to every word. In the intensity of your attention, make little nods of agreement, little sounds of approval. You can't fake it. You have to really listen. In a posture of gratitude. And it is such a rare and startling experience for them, such a boon to ego, such a gratification of self, to find a genuine listener, that they want to prolong the experience. And the only way to do that is to keep talking. A good listener is far more rare than an adequate lover."

Being a good listener is half the trick of being a good reporter. If I ever learn the other half, you'll be the first to know.

Today is my 12th anniversary at the Daily Bulletin. Yes, it was on March 10, 1997 that yours truly first reported for work. Nobody's told me to stop so I keep right on coming in.

Even though the fourth-graders I spoke to last week were stunned to hear I'd been at this newspaper longer than they'd been alive, it doesn't feel like all that long to me. And, y'know, I like to think I have a few good years left. With luck, the Daily Bulletin does too.

30 to 60 percent off shoes and feet? This Rancho Cucamonga closeout sale sounds like the economic equivalent of frostbite.

The Claremont Laemmle 5 this week has "The Class," an Oscar-nominated French film about a good teacher in a difficult classroom. I saw this at the ArcLight a few weeks back, assuming Claremont wouldn't get it. Highly recommended.

I saw it with a friend who's an LAUSD teacher and she said, despite it taking place in another country, the film felt very real to her. Educators in particular will like this film.

The Laemmle also is featuring "Che Part One" and "Che Part Two," Steven Soderbergh's extremely long Che Guevara biopic. And "Two Lovers," the Joaquin Phoenix/Gwyneth Paltrow drama, is in its second week.

As if all this weren't enough to keep cineastes busy, Claremont's Tournees Film Festival concludes tonight.

The series ends with a screening of "Persepolis" at 6:30 p.m. at Pomona College. This 2008 animated film from France about a young woman growing up in Iran during the Revolution was likewise nominated for an Oscar. I can also recommend it. (The creator, graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi, appeared at the Claremont Athenaeum a couple of years ago.)

See it at the Rose Hills Theater in the Smith Campus Center, 170 E. 6th St.

This week's restaurant: La Piccoletta, 114 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont.

Hidden away in a Claremont Village alley, La Piccoletta is in a standalone building between 1st and 2nd streets and between Indian Hill and Yale. These directions will be handy in case I ever want to find it again, because for years at a time I've forgotten precisely where it was until stumbling across it on foot.

The building, once a shop that made smudge pots for local orchards, has a trompe l'oeil mural of vines, a stone doorway and a window, but no actual windows. This deterred me for years, that and the no-lunch hours and set menu, which led me to believe (correctly) that as a solo diner I wouldn't be comfortable. I've also heard the restaurant's glory days were behind it after a couple of ownership changes.

Still, I was curious, and at last, I scared up a friend to accompany me. Reservations made -- it's a small place, and you'll need them -- we arrived and were seated immediately. A party filled the communal table and the half-dozen other tables were occupied too. The cottage-like interior reminded me of a mission or a monastery: rustic, dark wood, a stained glass window, thick wooden tables. A smudge pot perches on a shelf near the ceiling.

The menu is more complicated than under previous owners, I'm told. Instead of two pastas and two sauces for the evening, there were four sauces, plus several other entrees.

I got the penne pasta ($17) with a half and half of two sauces: aromi (cream, Romano cheese and tomatoes) and pesto. My friend got a filet mignon with balsamic reduction ($26), which also came with a small side of pasta. The entrees both came with a simple salad and a beverage.

My meal wasn't worth $17. As other friends have said, you could make the same meal at home. The sauces, while fresh, were bland. The pasta didn't taste homemade. The restaurant doesn't seem to be hurting for business, but $10 would be a fairer price for what they're serving.

That said, the steak was tender and flavorful, and worth every penny. It was that good. A berry tart ($6.50) was fine but unexceptional.

A basket of warm, crunchy bread contained only two small pieces. We soon asked for more and got two more pieces. Modesty forbid requesting a third serving, but two more pieces would have been nice. Service was friendly.

There are three other Italian restaurants in the Village, and you could probably get better Italian food at any of them. La Piccoletta's atmosphere, however, is unique and makes up for a lot of the flaws. But they really need to pep up the sauces.

One of the stops I made last week during my furlough was the newly reopened Cole's P.E. Buffet in downtown L.A. at 6th and Main. Cole's opened in 1908 and like Philippe's, it also claims to have invented the French dip sandwich. Unlike Philippe's, which settled into its current location in 1951, Cole's has stuck like glue to 118 E. 6th St. for 101 years.

The obscure Cole's is forever in the shadow of the perennially popular Philippe's, even if the sandwiches at Cole's may be slightly better. Another example of life's inherent unfairness.

I'd been to Cole's once before, back in 2006, shortly before it closed for renovation. The operation, which is slightly below street level in the old Pacific Electric building, was charming in a down-at-the-heels way. The place was rethought and retooled when the building was rehabbed into lofts. The interior still has the wonderful saloon-like bar, a carving station, round lamps, bordello-esque wallpaper and vintage photos, but the sawdust is gone, as is the buffet service. You now sit at plush booths and order from a waiter off a very short menu.

A lamb dip ($8) comes with a dish of au jus, a nice touch. Good bread, good meat, good presentation. The spicy pickle wasn't to my liking. A side of purple slaw was good on its own or added to the sandwich.

On the whole, I'd rather eat at Philippe's -- how many generations of Angelenos have rendered the same judgment? -- because it's a livelier place and it has way more pie. Mmmm...pie. Still, devotees of old L.A. need to visit Cole's at least once. It's easily reached via Metrolink and the Red Line subway (Pershing Square stop).

* Steve Harvey (with whom I lunched) was inspired, as I'd thought he might be, to write a history piece on Cole's.

I've passed Casa Bianca Pizza Pie a couple of dozen times over the years, and even tried eating at it three times previously, but was always thwarted by its hours: no lunch service, closed on Sundays. The old-school neon sign, however, would not be denied, and neither would Jonathan Gold's glowing praise of Casa Bianca, founded in 1955, as L.A.'s best neighborhood pizza parlor. (His unattributed review begins with the section labeled "The Pie.")

Is it all that? I met up there last Friday with a friend recently transplanted from Rancho Cucamonga to Eagle Rock.

The place was bustling, with people crowded into the foyer and others waiting on the sidewalk. Celebrity photos, including a young Ed Asner and an old Ed Asner, line the walls. In the dining room, the tables have red-checked tablecloths. The atmosphere reminded me of Vince's Spaghetti, only cozier, and filled with the happy hum of conversation.

The pizza proved to be quite good, with a thin, crispy crust, the way I like it. The homemade sausage lived up to its hype. The other half of our pizza, done Hawaiian style, is said to have been a favorite of Obama's when he went to Occidental College. I don't normally deign to eat ham and pineapple on a pizza but have to say this version was impressive.

Service was exceptionally friendly and the tiramasu ($4.75) is worth getting.

Is this L.A.'s best pizza? As Gold says, someplace has to have L.A.'s best pizza. It could very well be Casa Bianca. Then again, the pizza may be just as good at San Biagio's in Upland, which is considerably more convenient. Casa Bianca does get the edge for atmosphere (Gold: "This is the pizza parlor all Americans have been conditioned to look for since early childhood"). And for sausage.

The time and temperature sign at PFF Bank in downtown Ontario flashed a possibly-telling message one night last week.

Oddly enough, a reader told me several years back about a PFF sign flashing a "con" message. It seems to be the default when the sign isn't working properly. Somehow it has a more subversive meaning these days.

This is the poem read at Monday's La Verne City Council meeting by its author, La Verne's official poet laureate (!), Cathy Henley-Erickson, in honor of retiring Mayor Jon Blickenstaff:

In his family tradition of public service
The shadow is long, cast by this man:
The green hills, protected now, welcome us all
The calm workplace supports and challenges
those who labor here.

Jon is more than numbers:
27 years as mayor
35 years in education
1934 and 1940 woodies

Jon is more than adjectives:
dedicated
respectful
fair
kind

Jon is more than accomplishments:
Gold Line Construction Authority
Casa Colina
Tri-City Mental Health

What Jon is now and will be next
depends upon where he turns, and what he chooses.

When the richness of life comes from giving,
from spending time
as if the bank account of moments
always grew,
interest compounded on interest,

Then, in the long line of life,
though any one of us makes only a smallish dent
in the pile of work that needs doing,
a purpose for life continues,
and we are secure.

I hate to say the Inland Empire housing market is in the toilet, but this sign for the former Trump Realty office in Rancho Cucamonga would seem to prove it. No ifs, ands or buts.

Regular posting resumes today. Yay! Last week was busy, with outings to downtown L.A. and Eagle Rock, not to mention Chino Hills, Rancho Cucamonga, La Verne and Ontario. Once the vertigo of being back at the office subsides, I'll share the highlights, some here, and perhaps some in print.

In the meantime, thanks for your patience and for your comments last week.