Home Kitchen stops cooking
Home Kitchen at 309 E. Foothill in Pomona closed recently. I'd never been there but passed by frequently over the years. Then in January I noticed all the letters were gone from the face of the building. Yep, it's closed.
"No lease," explains a message on a whiteboard that directs diners to Ho's Silver Spoon at 150 S. Grand Ave. in Glendora, which is owned by the same people.
Click on the thumbnail photo at right for a larger view of the message and full directions. What a public-spirited fellow I am. Ho's gets decent reviews on Yelp.
Some of you may recall that circa 2000, the Pomona building had a Winchell's on the other end where you could watch them make the donuts. It was an experiment and didn't last long. Home Kitchen was in the other half of the building probably since the beginning. Nothing ever replaced Winchell's. Now the entire building is vacant.
Incidentally, in the small patio area when I visited a week ago, the H from the Home Kitchen sign was lying face-down on a table, as if someone couldn't be bothered to haul away the last letter.
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A journalist for more than two decades, David Allen has been writing a column for the Daily Bulletin since 1997 and blogging since 2007.He lives in Claremont.
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The Rockin' Baja in Montclair has also closed unexpectedly. We were meeting a group of people there to celebrate my wife's birthday and had to shift plans to the Chili's in the same parking lot. So disappointed.
Actually there have been a few restaurants in that building. Originally it was built for two different but related restaurants -- I think Brannigans was one, and the other might have been Coco's, I can't really remember. There was an inside door/opening that allowed you to go easily from one to the other. I think this might have been in the early '80s?
[Oh, OK. I was convinced (not sure why) that the building was built especially for Winchell's, but maybe it was just a drastic remodel. -- DA]
Deb is correct about the Brannigans/Coco's interconnection. You could eat at Coco's then go into Brannigans for drink & dancing.
The food and service at Home Kitchen was good. I ate breakfast there once a week. My favorite was the pastrami & onion omelette. I hope they removed the Koi from the indoor pond before they locked the doors. The Glendora location has the same menu, but it is difficult to drive past Flappy Jacks.
It was a very DRASTIC remodel several years ago -- one of the ugliest buildings on Foothill. The street should be prouder than that.
Doug and Judy McGoon are leasing the building in order to rent out "certified" kitchens to people who want to cook with Board of Health Approval.
[Thanks for the information, everyone. -- DA]
I could certainly be wrong, but I think that when the building was first built, it was shared by Coco's and Reuben's (the latter was later converted to Brannigan's). At one time, the same parent company owned a whole menu of restaurants -- such as Coco's, Reuben's, Carrows, Snack Shop, and a few others. By the way, another local Reuben's was located in the Mountain Green Center in Upland, just north of Seventh St. on the West side (I think it is a Mexican restaurant now).
Don't they have a location on S Mountain Ave in Ontario?
[Joanne's. But apparently it's not theirs anymore. -- DA]
Hey Tad, great memory. The original owners of those establishments was Marriott Host, which also owned Tibbie's Music Hall in Newport Beach way back then. When you see the commercials for Coco's now that show a very nice blonde executive chef named Heather Gardino...well, she is a REAL person and I used to sell beer to her at Coco's/Tibbies back then because that was her test kitchen. Also, about a mile away was Don Callender's test kitchen (Marie's son) and I saw him finally get his pot pies done right.
Sorry, it was Host Marriott...the same company that runs the food court at the Mills. And Brannigans was HOT back then, especially for us new divorced guys...