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Vagabond Inn
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6 reviews for Vagabond Inn
When I'm driving back to the Ojai area from Los Angeles and I feel hungry, I normally mull over all of the possible places I might stop to get dinner. There are so many possibilities along the 101 that your brain can "lock up" in analysis paralysis. When this happens to me, restaurants will pass by as I miss successive off ramps. When I'm near Ventura, I have to decide.
It is in these periods of indecision that I'll often choose the Vagabond Inn for a couple of reasons.
One is that they have a counter. This allows them to easily cater to a single diner.
But more importantly, the Vagabond Inn feels like family. The waitresses are old-school (they refer to you as "honey" and so on). They always seem warm and willing to engage in meaningless chit-chat, all the while working their butts off to try to keep the place running. A couple of days ago, I was watching the short-order cooks do their job, and they were really humping, very quickly, carefully and determined, because the Ventura Fair was on and the Vagabond Inn was packed. I marveled at their ability to simultaneously cook and manage the intense information flow.
This menu has retro, 60s-style coffee shop faire such as meatloaf and chicken-fried-steak. Salads have dressings that go back to the dark ages, including Thousand Island which seems to me to be so dated it makes me laugh. And if that isn't enough, the salads come with a "beet" slice, seriously retro.
For me, the big draw is the New York Steak dinner, which is an unbelievable bargain at only $12.95 (8/3/2008). The dinner comes with salad, vegetable, bread and potato choice (I prefer mashed/gravy). Steaks are USDA choice and they cut and trim them at the restaurant. I order mine with a side of teriyaki. They know that these are a seriously good deal, and I've joked with the waitresses about how you can spend much more for the same thing at a specialty steak house.
I am so impressed with this seeming "loss leader" pricing that I once asked the manager whether they were hurting given our current economic downturn. She assured me that they weren't, and that they could sustain this pretty much indefinitely, which is good news.
The Vagabond Inn is a very, very good coffee shop. They do a great job and I recommend them highly.
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This place could have been so much better.
The room itself was clean and looked as if it had been remodeled within the last few years. Our room had two queen-size beds, a refrigerator, coffee maker and small microwave. The bathroom looked clean, also. So far so good. My wife said the sheets in one of the beds had blood stains on it, though. Ack! But that wasn't the worst part.
The room cost only $98, and unfortunately that's cheap enough for our fellow travelers who have all the social consideration of drunken hillbillies and crackheads. Apparently one was so proud of the subwoofer in his car that every time he came and went between 10:00 PM and 3:00 AM he played it so everyone could hear. It literally shook the room walls. And his companion who got out of the car to go to the room had such a hard time hearing he had to yell back to the guy in the car to request last-minute details or otherwise publicly air his thoughts at the time. Following Senor Subwoofer were a few fishermen who stomped down the hallway around 4:00 AM, and they must have been so deafened by the car stereo that they had to yell to each other, also. If that weren't enough, at almost exactly 5:45 AM one of the first food service trucks backed slowly and loudly into the parking lot below our room. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! went its backup warning so the crackheads and drunken hillbillies staying there wouldn't get crushed under its wheels before it could unload its delivery to the attached restaurant.
After our sleepless night we stumbled into the front desk area to take advantage of the continental breakfast. There were small danishes, bagels, fruit, coffee, and juice available. Not bad. But as I waited for the bagel to toast the little girl standing behind the counter with her mommy as mommy conversed with the desk clerk wandered over to peek into the clear plastic dome protecting the danishes. As her mouth lined up with the access hole through which guests could use the sanitary tongs provided and extract the danish of their choice, the little girl let loose a staccato volley of coughs right into the dome. HACK! HACK! HACK! HACK! HACK! When the germs were safely out of her system and confined in the danish dome, she went back behind the counter to rejoin mommy.
Hoping the little patient hadn't made an earlier visit to the bagels, I gathered my toasted bagel, cream cheese, coffee and juice and retreated to my room. Only after I finished and took my morning walk did I notice the nicely dressed old folks enjoying their breakfast at the Best Western right next door. D'oh! That motel right next door had fewer rooms and gentler looking guests, so I imagine I would have slept better and enjoyed my breakfast more had I stayed there instead of the Vagabond. Oh well, live and learn.
If the Vagabond Inn could somehow keep out the noisy rabble, change the sheets more often, and buttress the danish dome's defenses, it would be a great place to stay for the price. As it was, my wife said she'd rather pay another $50 per night to stay at a hotel in which we could get a good night's sleep and not feel uneasy about the cleanliness.
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The Diner gets 5 stars alone.
I love their diner. I eat breakfast here every time I stay in ventura. this is the most kickass greasy spoon place with a plethora of crazy characters coming out of the bunkers and shacks of ventura and beyond. you could not ask for better writing material than this place. if only i were a writer.....
the Inn.... well, it's cheap.
i might have caught a disease from the hot tub.
my suggestion: stay next door at the best western and eat at the diner.
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Long beach has a vagabond inn, but do they have a diner? I think not. To the average passerby, the vagabond may appear as nothing special. But I encourage you to take a good smell of them roses - there's more than meets the eye.
I have an overpowering appreciation for old establishments and this diner was probably introduced sometime in the early 60s (and running strong). Some of the waitresses are OG - many of them in their 60s and 70s. And all the "newbies" are at least 50. Old gals with wrinkly, faded tattoos on their serving hands and forearms - these babes are the real deal! Straight smiles and straight service is what you'll get - no bullshit. There's just something about dropping by your local diner and being treated like the grandson you never were (tear).
I've definitely had better breakfasts in Ventura, and there are plenty of other options (some worthy of five stars). I dont necessarily recommend this place to anyone stopping in Ventura for the first time... maybe I don't recommend it at all. But if you're up for a change of pace, check it out. Maybe you'll fall in love too.
Regular picks:
$7.99 lumber jack's breakfast (requires post-breakfast nap)
$4.99 pancake sandwich
I left out a star b/c I've noticed over the years they've lost some of my favorite gals and they seem to run a little short staffed these days. My last visit was a real bad one. My parents may never return b/c of it. But i forgive them.
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i should maybe let my wife write the review for the vagabond inn, since she insists that we go there everytime we are in town to visit the family....but here is my 2 cents.
what's not to love?
like GM said, its radly 60's in the architecture and radly 60's in the menu.
also, i feel comfortable ordering chicken fried steak there...
where as i could never do that in san francisco because i am too scared because who knows how long / mystery / ? its been since someone ordered it off the menu and various other factors.
it's just that people in SF dont eat chicken fried steak like texas/okla/ark oilfield worker decendents(myself included) of ventura/kern county area do.
plus i can ask for pepper plant sauce and they have it.
f**ckin A!
the waitresses have been there for ever and always keep your coffee cup full... i could go on and on.
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When I was young, my mom was a waitress at the Vagabond. I used to sit there and do homework and drink so much coffee that I turned into cornholio. I even had thanksgiving dinner there once when I was 9 or 10. They have/had a biorythm machine which is always fun. But the greatest thing about the diner is the architecture which is radly 60's.
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