February 2010 Archives

Friday's column about Bethel Church of Christ's history and bell tower had a nifty photo gallery by my colleague Jennifer Cappuccio Maher. Here's the link to the 28 (!) photos.

Rokuan, 14230 Chino Hills Parkway (at Grand), Chino Hills.

Chino Hills is home to Ojiya, a Japanese restaurant well above the norm for the 909. Yelp led me to Rokuan, another Chino Hills Japanese restaurant that, like Ojiya, gets great ratings. I tried Rokuan out Tuesday evening with three friends before "Lost."

Located in a small shopping center with a Stater Brothers market, Rokuan's sign says only "Sushi" ("Rokuan" appears on the door.) The interior is less generic. It's small, dimly lit, with five dark wooden booths, without padding, that would each seat eight; there's also one standard table and a nine-seat sushi bar. A sign warns the parents of noisy children.

Most of the crowd that night was Asian, likely a good sign. Our table got teriyaki salmon with spicy tuna rolls ($20.95), a chirashi bowl ($16.95), a beef teriyaki bowl ($10.50), and assorted sushi: white tuna ($5), scallops ($5.25), squid ($4) and salmon skin cut roll ($5.95).

All four of us were impressed by the quality of the ingredients, their freshness and their taste. Rokuan doesn't skimp on the fish, either: The cuts were generous. Service was attentive, if perhaps too eager to remove plates as they emptied.

Chino Hills isn't easy to get to from my home in Claremont or my office in Ontario, but it's now my favorite city for sushi.

Reader Bob Given alerted me to the existence of a vintage LP by organist Larry Seibert, recorded live at the Sage Hen Cafe in Claremont. The Record Robot blog has a picture of the (almost blank) cover and a wry writeup that begins like this:

"Should you have been traveling on Route 66 through Claremont, CA in the late '60s, and the smell of manure hadn't affected your hunger pangs, you'd have maybe stopped in at the Sage Hen Restaurant to dine sumptuously on glazed ham and a delicious fruit ring mold. If you were really lucky, Larry Seibert would be jazzing up the place on his Gulbransen Rialto Organ (with Gulbransen Select-A-Rhythm attachment) while you ate. And if you were really, really lucky, perhaps he'd autograph a copy of his album, Larry Plays Again!, for you, as he did for the fortunate soul who owned this copy before it became mine."

Read the rest here. Given says he wants a copy of the LP regardless. Anyone own one?

The Korean tacos (?!) everyone raves about have been showing up around L.A. County via taco trucks, with the location available via Twitter or website. Foodies show up in droves to stand in long lines for what are said to be excellent tacos with Korean short ribs and quesadillas with kimchi. (See menu here.)

Former colleague Dustin Lehren alerts me that the truck will gingerly cross the very edge of the Inland Valley on Saturday. The truck is scheduled to park at Valley Boulevard at Temple Avenue in Pomona, at the edge of Cal Poly, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and then will be at 1317 S. Diamond Bar Blvd. in Diamond Bar from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Can the Claremont Colleges be far behind? In the meantime, let's welcome Kogi to the 909 -- and pray it doesn't rain.

I spent Saturday afternoon visiting a friend in Eagle Rock, the town west of Pasadena.

We had lunch at Auntie Em's Kitchen, a funky breakfast-lunch bakery that's on Jonathan Gold's LA 99 list of notable restaurants. Getting a table required a 40-minute wait on the sidewalk, but the experience was worth the time. I had the skirt steak sandwich on foccacia and got a chocolate cupcake to go. (I'll have to return for the french toast and the meatloaf sandwich and...)

We followed up lunch with a visit to Galco's Soda Pop Stop in adjacent Highland Park, a family market that now devotes three aisles to bottled sodas and also has a large selection of candy bars. I picked up seven sodas and three candy bars. Which I haven't eaten -- the very rich cupcake took two days to finish.

Here's a treat. This note came in a while back from ex-Claremonter Debra MacLaughlan-Dumes:

"My husband and I like to watch DVDs of old TV shows from the 1950s-1970s, often with the hope of seeing some local scene in the background. We watched an episode of 'The Fugitive' last night called 'Echo of a Nightmare' which aired Jan. 25, 1966."

The episode was filmed in downtown Claremont!

Going above and beyond, MacLaughlan-Dumes e-mailed screen shots of various freeze-framed images that showed recognizable Village landmarks. For the sake of comparison, I took photos in the same locations 44 years later.

The photos are paired below (to the best of my sizing ability), reading left to right. Click on any photo to see a larger version.

1) The first two are on Harvard Avenue looking south from Bonita. At least mine is; I think that's where the original is oriented. I declined to stand in the middle of the intersection for my photo.

2) These two are shot from the SE corner of Harvard and 2nd. My version depicts today's Boon Companion toy store (SW corner, to the left in photo) and City Hall (NE corner). What was on the SW corner in 1966?

3) Speaking of the SE corner of Harvard and 2nd, that's the lovely Post Office. If you've never been inside, go in and look at the Milford Zornes mural that wraps around the lobby.

4) This is the sidewalk looking north from in front of the Post Office toward Shelton Park on the NE corner. David Janssen (1931-1980) was unavailable, but a Claremont fixture, the little old lady, wandered into the frame.

5) The NW corner of Harvard and Bonita had the Sugar Bowl, a soda fountain and candy store. Today it's Unique Jewelry and Gifts.

And here's an interior of the Sugar Bowl, unduplicatable today. Anyone seen this episode, remember the filming or want to reflect on any of these places?

You may be aware that the Daily Bulletin has "Now" blogs for most local cities: Pomona Now, Rancho Cucamonga Now, etc. I'm thinking we should expand the blog lineup. Also, that the names should rhyme. Ideas:

* Meow Now: for cat fanciers

* Cow Now: dairy blog

* Sow Now: pig blog

* Dow Now: stocks tables

* Howe Now: devoted to the hockey family

* Pow Now: boxing

* Now Now: manners

Your turn: What possible blogs did I leave out?

The "Says You!" syndicated radio game show taped two episodes at Claremont's Bridges Auditorium on Saturday. Yours truly was there. Read about the show in Wednesday's column.

While checking a few facts about the Pomona College trivia referenced in the show's questions, I found this fun links page from the college about various bits of "Pomoniana": the mystery of 47, the sagehen mascot, Ski-Beach Day, etc. Check it out.

This blog hit 4,000 comments this morning, with fellow blogger Meg (from M-m-m-my Pomona) remarking cogently, as always, on the "Farewell to the Foothill Cities Blog" post below. Thank you, Meg.

Meanwhile, we're at an even 350 Facebook fans -- at least until somebody defects.

Round numbers are fun, aren't they?

I hadn't checked the FCB for a while, since it's been mostly dormant for months, but I thought to do so Monday. I was greeted by a fresh post from last Friday that the blog is shutting down. Headline of the farewell post: "The End."

The blog began in late 2006 and covered Pasadena to Claremont, linking to or excerpting news articles and presenting rumor and opinion. Its founders, who were anonymous, called themselves Centinel and Publius, after the writers of the Federalist Papers. (Eye roll from LA Observed here.)

The blog kicked up some controversy. Accusations about the then-Pomona city manager led the city attorney to try to shut down the blog by sending a cease-and-desist letter.

FCB was popular, claiming in April 2008 to have received 10,000 comments -- with one of mine the 10,000th.

I wrote: "My blog recently topped 1,000 comments, so the FC Blog must be 10 times better! Congratulations on the milestone." (Co-founder Centinel promised to "find some way to reward Mr. Allen," but never did.)

FCB folded in late 2008, a demise blamed on a server meltdown, then returned that December. Centinel wrote: "...we're back in action and ready to do what we do best: make unfounded accusations, piss off local officials, and imply that local government is going to hell in a handbasket."

But the return quickly fizzled. By mid-2009, FCB promised to resume daily posting in mid-August, which never happened.

In Friday's post, referring to the blog's long-absent founders, contributor The Real Zajac notes that "the enigmatic Centinel and Publius no longer return even my email. Technological problems with the server software impare even my power to post this goodbye. Were I an administrator I could continue this struggle myself. But, as I sit, I deem it time to throw in the towel once and for all."

A moment of silence, please, as the towel flutters to the ground.

Geico doesn't seem to know it, but these "I'm here in Rancho Cucamonga" billboards are both placed miles from Rancho Cucamonga in Ontario.

The one at left is on Mountain Avenue between I and J streets (note the Mountain Avenue Car Wash sign), the one below on Vineyard Avenue at D Street. Thanks to reader Amado Cervantes for the tip.

Would you buy auto insurance from a company with such a poor sense of direction?

Here's an interesting piece from the NHRA about the history of a La Verne restaurant institution near the site of the Winternationals. Did you know El Merendero used to be a burger stand known as Elly's? I didn't. Thanks to reader JMac for the link.

Roady's, 160 W. Bonita Ave. (at Monte Vista), San Dimas.

Roady's is an old-fashioned diner in downtown San Dimas. It was introduced to me years ago by reader Gene Harvey and I've gone back a half-dozen times since then. I even had a birthday lunch there with friends a couple of years ago.

This time I invited blogger Mike Tanner of the Dinerwood site to meet me there. I'd never met him, but I like his stuff and he's proved he's willing to drive out here, producing reviews of Flo's, Brandon's, Red Hill Coffee Shop, Stevie Dee's, Joanne's Cafe, Corky's, Mission Family Restaurant and maybe even a few other local staples among his usual L.A. fare. He was game and we met at Roady's last weekend.

I asked Mike his definition of a diner. "First off, It has to have a counter," he told me. It ought to have breakfast all day, or at least through lunchtime. It ought to have pie. Whether newfangled or original, the diner ought to have a certain diner vibe. And there can't be any seafood, Tanner said, unless it's fried, or unless it's on the menu but no one orders it.

Roady's meets all his definitions. There's a counter when you walk in, and a pie case. Breakfast is served all day. With the comfortable booths, giant windows, wood paneling, experienced waitresses and American Indian art, the vibe is near-perfect. As for fish, I wasn't paying close attention, but I'm pretty sure no fish escapes the kitchen unbattered.

I ordered a patty melt ($6.85) with cole slaw as my side. The vinegary slaw was above average, the sandwich superior as well: burger, rye, grilled onions, cheese, pickles on the side. Mike had the chuck wagon breakfast ($6.45), two biscuits atop two scrambled eggs, gravy on top and, riding shotgun, two pieces of bacon and two sausage links. He liked it.

For the day's pie selection, Roady's had apple, cherry and lemon meringue pie. Mike had a slice of apple and I had lemon meringue ($3.45 each). Darn good pie.

It was a hearty lunch, a chance to exchange views with another blogger, make a new friend and, for a few moments, share the self-consciousness that comes with snapping photos of your food.

If you dote on diners, Roady's is a must. And so is Dinerwood. Here's Mike's piece on Roady's; we timed our reviews to coincide. Synergy and pie? Wow.

Unpersuasive press release for a thriller touted as "provacative" (sic):

"Dear Mr. Allen,

Valentine's Day is approaching and many singles are in desperate need of a diversion from the reality of their lack of a plus one on the romantic holiday. Nothing takes your mind off your troubles like devouring a new book that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. To that end, the reviews are pouring in over Gerald Deshayes' debut novel 'Gene,' a story about a paraplegic who undergoes head transplant surgery and his life afterwards."

Gong!

I finally got around to photographing Claremont's second (who knew?) air raid siren. Click here to see the updated "Air raid!" post. And thanks to the readers who brought it to my attention. Clearly I don't spend enough time west of Indian Hill...

Here's the portion of Greg Nelson's letter that I saved for its own post, a few lines about the secret, and possibly dangerous, places near Pomona that kids of the '50s and '60s liked to get into. Take it away, Greg:

"As far as tunnels under Pomona goes, there were real tunnels, but they were the storm drains, and we used to break into them in Ganesha Park and travel miles around the town underground. My pal Phillip O'Brien was always talking me into going down there with him. I heard he died in a hang-glider accident somewhere around San Dimas Canyon years ago. I remember his parents were fanatical Catholics. They said a rosary together as a family every night. If you spent the night at his house you had to do it with them.

"Those storm drains were a forbidden place, and we stopped going once we saw the movie 'Them' about the giant bees that built nests in the Los Angeles storm drains.

"The other forbidden place to go was Walnut Falls, on the far side of Puddingstone, behind the dam. We loved to hike out there early on summer Saturdays and jump from the cliffs surrounding the pool created by the falls. In the summer there was just a trickle of water over the falls, and around noon the local L.A. Sheriffs would raid the place and chase us all away. It was too dangerous a place to let kids play, I guess."

Your turn, readers: What risky stunts did you pull as kids? Where did you go that you knew you shouldn't?

Walking on Spring Street in downtown L.A. a while back, I noticed the mural on the exterior of City Hall East, the secondary City Hall building on the east side of Spring. Wondering if the mural might be by longtime Claremont and Pomona artist Millard Sheets, and in no hurry, I stepped closer. Indeed it is.

The 28-by-60-foot mural, "The Family of Man," was installed in 1972 and envisioned as a way to celebrate diversity. Click here to see more images of the mural and read a short explanation.

Continuing a long streak, I didn't watch the Super Bowl. (However, having visited New Orleans post-Katrina, it was cool to know the previously hapless team had made the championship and had everyone there tossing around their giddy "Who dat?" catchphrase. I was happy to hear later that they'd won.)

I decided to take advantage of everyone watching the game to go to Ikea in West Covina.

There was noticeably less traffic on the 10, but to my surprise, Ikea's garage seemed as full as normal for a Sunday, and the store was thronged with shoppers. In the cafeteria, all the window seats were taken, the ones with the view of the 10 and the hills.

Several TVs in the store were tuned to the Super Bowl. Two guys were seated on a sofa in one of the living room setups, watching the game on a big screen almost as comfortably as if they were at home. (Hmm. Did the store replace its usual fake TVs with real TVs for the day?)

Perhaps the sort of people who shop at Ikea aren't (mostly) the sort who watch the Super Bowl. I dunno. As I maneuvered around all these non-Bowl watchers, I kept mentally asking them: Who dat? Who dat? Who dat?...

Alina's Lebanese Cuisine, 2250 S. Archibald Ave. (at Philadelphia), Ontario.

After a tip from the hungry folks at the Ontario Police Department, whose headquarters is nearby, I stopped by Alina's for lunch this week. It's just above the 60 Freeway in a small building fronting an office park.

The interior is a bit bare, pleasant but nothing fancy. You order at your table and pay at the register as you leave. Alina's has eight sandwiches, none more expensive than $5.69, and plate entrees from $7.99 to $13.99. It's all Lebanese food, including a few items I'd never heard of: makanek? soujouk?

I had a kafta kebab ($8.99), which is made of ground beef; it came with rice pilaf, fattoush salad, hummus, garlic spread and pita bread. It was all very good, and filling. I also tried a jallab ($2.49) drink, which was a taste I may not acquire, but drinkable.

All the food here is made fresh to order, down to chopping the lettuce and tomatoes. Don't expect your meal in five minutes, but expect it to be good. The dining room was almost full at 12:15 p.m., a healthy sign that Alina's, in business for a year, may be with us for a while.

The photo above of the Mayfair's lounge (I think?) is from a postcard loaned to me by reader Charles O'Cathey. There's no date on the image, and I couldn't find it on the Pomona Public Library's online archive of Frasher postcard images, but it looks plenty old, maybe the 1930s.

The Mayfair Hotel itself has been on the northeast corner of Third and Garey in downtown Pomona since 1915, first as the Avis, then as the Edgar and finally as the Mayfair in 1932. Clark Gable is said to have once had lunch in the hotel dining room.

The building is currently empty and awaiting renovation, but it's a subject of developer interest, especially with the Fox, on the southwest corner, back in business. The photo below was shot Wednesday for me by Richard E. Nunez, photographer about town.

Books bought this month: "Happy Days," Samuel Beckett; "Three Coins in the Birdbath," Jack Smith; "Baghdad by the Bay," Herb Caen; "The Lottery and Other Stories," Shirley Jackson.

Books read this month: "Waiting for Godot" and "Happy Days," Samuel Beckett; "A Study in Scarlet," A. Conan Doyle; "Baghdad by the Bay," Herb Caen; "Three Coins in the Birdbath," Jack Smith.

It's a new year, but numerically the reading goal for 2010 remains the same: 50 books. Other than that, there's no firm plan for the year, other than more literary fiction and a wider variety of books. Also, to make progress on my backlog, I hope to buy fewer books this year. Wish me luck on that score.

For January, my main goal was to avoid Ray Bradbury, a fixture of my 2009 reading logs; he was present in each of the 12 months. In that, I was successful, although I did sneak in a few stories. I also read three of the four books I bought in January. That was another strategy to get myself to slow my buying. They were all purchased at Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood, arguably the best secondhand bookstore left in the L.A. area.

I inched along my fiction shelf by rereading "Waiting for Godot" and buying and reading "Happy Days," both by Samuel Beckett. "Godot" is existentialist vaudeville and essential reading for the literary minded. "Happy" is an absurdist parable about a woman who tries to find the best in her lot as her options narrow in a literal sense, buried up to her waist in sand at first and later up to her neck, her beloved husband virtually invisible and uncommunicative. A proto-feminist work (1961) and one of Beckett's most touching plays.

"A Study in Scarlet" is the first Sherlock Holmes novel. I've been wanting to read/reread all the Holmes books -- I read two-thirds of them in childhood -- for years and the movie version, while it hasn't enticed me into a theater, put the idea on the front burner. There's an undeniable thrill in watching as Holmes and Watson meet and move into 221B Baker Street. We also learn in passing that Holmes is an excellent boxer, a fact the filmmakers ran with.

That said, a quarter of the book is a flashback to the establishment of the Mormon colony in Utah (!) and the pacing suffers as a result. It's perhaps not the best book to start with.

My plan is to read a Holmes book every month or so -- there are nine -- so look for more Holmes as the year grinds on.

"Baghdad by the Bay" is a 1953 book by longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. Caen can't have known every soul in San Francisco, but you can almost believe that he does, as well as every inch of its soil. This anecdotal account of his city is peopled by cops, judges, lawyers, hash slingers, bums, bartenders, tycoons, writers, doormen and dames, and his observant eye, lively prose and wordplay ("Skid Rowgues," "stuccommunity") keep his prose jumping.

"Every big city has its Skid Road, the home of the homeless, where pockets and hearts are always empty and pawnshop windows are always full" is a typical line.

Balancing out the California section of this month's reading log is the first book by Jack Smith, "Three Coins in the Birdbath." Smith may have been the quintessential L.A. Times columnist. This 1965 book is a collection of repurposed columns whose subject matter rarely strays from his Mount Washington home. Smith's quiet wit makes even the mundane sparkle.

Some may find this domestic stuff dull, and even a fan like me will say it's not a page-turner, but I liked it. (Chris Erskine mines similar territory today.) "Birdbath" is a product of what we think of as the classic period of L.A., when a home and a backyard represented the California dream.

Now, does anyone have a reading goal this year -- a certain title or author -- or a comment on any of the above?

1437 Gibbs St., where the Nelsons lived. Photo by Ren.

New reader Greg Nelson sent me a long, fond epistle a few weeks back about his childhood in Pomona. Warm, detailed, it's worth reprinting in full. I did cut one section for use at a later time. And now, take it away, Greg:

"I just stumbled on your blog and loved every picture and phrase. My family moved to Pomona in 1956 when I was 4, from New Orleans, and I didn't leave until I went to college. Our first house was at 1714 Calatina Drive. It was down in the south and right on the edge of the wilderness at the time. It got its name from the developer, who crossed the L instead of the T in Catalina. They decided they liked it like that. We moved uptown later.

"I graduated from St. Joseph's in 1966 and from Damien in 1970. During my first year at Damien it was still called Pomona Catholic, or 'PC.'

"We dated the girls from Sacred Heart and St. Lucy's, and occasionally from Pomona, Ganesha, and Fremont Highs.

"At St. Joseph's I served many a mass (more than a hundred) for Monsignor English, the 6-foot five pastor, who was a millionaire before he entered the priesthood, and built St. Joseph's with his own money. It was hard to serve mass there because the altar was a lot higher than at most churches because of his height. Sometimes we went to mass at Sacred Heart because they had a 7 PM Sunday mass.

"My best friend was Lloyd Purpero, whose dad, Carl, owned a pancake house called Breakfast At Carl's, and also a place called Perp's.