Andrew "Andy" H.'s Profile

I brought in a bike that needed a new shift gear mechanism, and Owen was extremely kind, courteous, and fair minded.

They have a large selection of bicycles, and accessories for serious biking (shoes, lights, gear, helmets, locks, hardware, etc.)

What a pleasure to find a cool place like this one.

I was shopping for a new phone at Radio Shack, a process that these days takes as long as buying a new car, so I stopped off at Honeybaked (right next door) afterward.

If "Mad Men" needs anymore intact interiors from the early 1960s, they should consider filming here.  A dark, wood paneled room illuminated with tin lanterns, the decor is strictly Middle-American goyishe. Which is great for a non-kosher outlet that specializes in pork.

I don't know if it's Toluca Lake or just the "folks" who work here, but everyone is very friendly and the place is overstaffed with at least six workers who tend to the potato salads and the construction of the ham sandwiches. More people work here than at Radio Shack, so I assume business is very good.

And the three guys on duty that day were all handsome in their own distinct way. The one who made my solid ham sandwich on rye with mayonnaise and mustard and cranberry sauce on the side, was an outgoing, good-looking Latino.   His "boss" was a lantern-jawed Irish looking guy with a mouth of white teeth and a clean shaven face. They were joined by a broad-shouldered, junior wrestler guy who looked like he just came from the gym.   They were a gregarious, enthusiastic and helpful bunch who seemed to consider their jobs of piling salads and meats on plates to be as important as, say, selling cars.

The merchandise, consisting of mustards and vaguely Germanic looking wines and hams, sits on shelves and seems to have been last arranged when Zenith and RCA were the only TVs anybody owned.

Even the menu is retro. There is a sign for a "secretary's sandwich" which consists of a half sandwich an side salad.  "Those girls need to keep their figure so they can still fit into their girdles and get home to make dinner for their man when he comes home at 5:30pm."  

Put some Brillcreem in your hair, get into your Dodge Dart, and take your best girl to lunch in this time-warp restaurant and retail store.

You would think that a place with this name might be pure kitsch, but it serves surprisingly fine and well made Chinese (unknown province) cuisine in a dark walled, leather boothed room with high gloss geometric paintings. Genghis Cohen's design, is rather gracious in a Pico Boulevard deli way, evoking the late disco era stripped down minimally by Calvin Klein.

I had not been here since Ellie Baer performed here in the mid 1990s.  My friend, born in Malaysia, and of Chinese descent, ate here two months ago and raved about it.

We ordered two dishes that sounded cliche and ho-hum: General Tsao's Chicken and the Mongolian Beef.  

They arrived very soon, quite hot, and with a large platter of brown rice.  The chicken was moist, perfectly cooked with red peppers, and very ungreasy and delicious.  The beef was tender, hot and tasty.

There are a variety of people who come here, with a large contingent of smiling, boisterous and very amiable locals. On the night we ate there we saw and overheard aging, 50+ music industry people, a man discussing his "Million Dollar Movie" and several tables of long haired dudes with facial hair and frisky girlfriends.  One table conversed about their old workplace (EMI Music) . Other bejeweled and cosmetically preserved firecrackers of thirty years ago were probably pioneers in LPs or the first to import tanning beds into Los Angeles.  Lots of schmooze and booze poured around us.

They serve liquor (we didn't order any) and desserts. The only non-smiling part of the dinner was the check: $30 for two dishes that might have cost half as much in the San Gabriel Valley or Chinatown.

This is a very good, reliable, clean and civilized old white man's Chinese food. Your grandmother would love it, and so will you.

I stopped here for a drink last night.

What I love about this space are the large, open windows which look out onto the street.

I ordered a Coney Island Freaktoberfest, a nice cherry colored seasonal lager, and grabbed a cushioned bench seat right at the corner, near the door.

From this vantage point, I could see a passing parade of pretty people, mostly under 30, seemingly well educated, athletic, happy.  There were candles burning. And the glow of the setting sun, illuminating the room and fooling my eyes with its seductive glow.  If I had any worries, about money, unemployment or relationships, they slowly melted away as I sipped on that delightful craft beer.

The best time, I think, to come here, is just before the sun sets. The obnoxious hordes, the pick-up artists, the hungry poseurs, the gum-chewing girls, the slick cellphone talkers, the testosterone fueled armies of hard-ons hunting for pussy...they probably come later. This cocktail hour is reserved for something delectable, sublime, relaxing...a transitional moment to sit and converse and think and wander.

Visiting SF and taking a drive to Oakland today, I wanted to try a restaurant I had read about in the LA TImes: "Pizzaolo".

Well, we drove up Telegraph Ave., after touring the gleaming and gorgeous Paramount and Fox Theaters in downtown Oakland and came upon a very crowded outdoor restaurant with real ironing board tables set up on the sidewalk. The place had no name, but we didn't see Pizzaolo either, so we walked in here. We are so glad we did.

Arrayed in front, in a glass case, were the most delicious baked cookies, fresh strawberries, and an thriving, busy and infectiously friendly place where they served enormous fried chicken sandwiches with chopped lettuce and spicy green chiles.    

I still didn't know the name of the place, when I paid for two lunches with iced tea and sandwiches which only cost $19.  I still didn't know the name when I went outside, along a thriving and still up and coming once downtrodden neighborhood, now desirable, because it is being reclaimed and revitalized with good eating places.

When I went back inside, to bring back my dirty tray, a beautiful young woman handed me a container of fresh strawberries with whipped cream and sponge cake. She gave it to me for free and with a smile!

This is a great place and I finally learned that it does have a name: Bakesale Betty.   And I still want to try Pizzaolo.

And if I lived in Oakland or even in nearby Portland, Oregon....I would drive, fly, boat, walk or bike here everyday.

It pains me to write a bad review about this place, because I have eaten here for years, and the staff is generally nice and courteous.  

But there is just something awful about their food nowadays.

They seem to specialize in oversized, bland, sauce covered portions of indistinguishable Chinese-American food. Chicken with broccoli. Chicken in garlic sauce. Kung Pao chicken. Shrimp with broccoli, shrimp in garlic sauce, Kung-Pao shrimp.

There is no imagination, no evolution of taste. It is the same year after year.  

And the decor is ugly and tacky. Too much. They need to remove some of the knick-knacks and the headshots, and the Buddha, and the candles and statues and plastic dolls. You begin to suffocate in here.

Imagine that much of their clientele works in entertainment offices nearby. They sit in cubicles all morning, and then emerge, to get into a car and sit in this restaurant for an hour, and then exit, into the blistering heat and sun and go back to their offices having digested egg roll, rice, iceberg salad, chicken in brown sauce, and egg drop soup.

I ate here yesterday after two other moderately priced Chinese restaurants that I used to eat in (in Studio City and Toluca Lake) were now closed. If Arunee House does not improve, it may just join the out-of-business, mediocre Chinese that once flourished in the not too demanding San Fernando Valley.

Everyone else is writing about the food, so I will just comment on the clientele.

This was my first time here.

When I walked in, there were two cops seated in the back corner. One was a very tall, handsome Latino officer. He was seated with a red-haired fellow officer.  The Latin crime fighter was so tall, that he could not fit his legs under the table, and he sat at an angle, reclining, arms folded, surveying the room with his gun in its holster and his eyes fixed on the waitress.

A dark haired server in short shorts, served me with a smile and a rapsy, sweet, affectionate voice. She sounded the way a girl sounds who smoked too many cigarettes the night before and just woke up before the sun rises, drowsy and headachy.

A large table was full of improbably handsome young people. There were three guys, each of whom was tall, well built, sullen and dark eyed.  There were three girls, one who looked to be mixed race, with luscious eyes, thick lips, soft and beautifully shaped breasts. There was an older woman at the table, blond and careworn, drinking a beer. The gorgeous girls didn't really talk to the good-looking guys, but everyone was desirable and sensual in their own unique way, and I would have made love with anyone seated at that table.  Josh, in particular, with his close-cropped hair, tight white cotton shirt, exploding lats and broad shoulders, was one of the best dishes served here.

I don't know what they serve here, but I do know, that on this mid-summer night, when the Valley was over 100 degrees, it was still cool and breezy and delightful to be near the Pacific Ocean, in the company of so many pretty people, enjoying BBQ and beers in the prime of their lives.

I went here for the first time last night.

If you are a displaced Chicagoan or New Yorker, and fondly remember those summer nights spent in revitalized old industrial neighborhoods newly renovated, you will feel a sense of deja vu.

You walk in and there is a line of mostly younger people waiting to order a variety of gourmet sausages, Belgian fries and imported beers and ales.   You will order at a counter, and then are handed a number printed on slickly sculpted red metal sign.  You will take that number and proceed down a dark, brick corridor that leads into a large room filled with long wooden tables, and a stretched-out horizontal bar.

It was hard to find seats, and the ones who were already eating, drinking and socializing were loathe to make room for two more people.  So we sat at the bar, and there we had a very courteous and pleasant experience eating and drinking more.

My bratwurst was perfectly cooked in a steamy bun served with sauteed green peppers and carmelized onions.  A generous serving of Belgian fries with two dipping sauces (one was like a thousand island, the other tasted like chipotle ketchup) were delicious.

Most of the beers are priced between $7-$11 dollars. You will spend a lot more than you think here, by drinking more than one beer.

But the quality is high and the place is basically a lot of fun.

If you have ever wandered the streets of NY, and just randomly found a place with modestly priced pastas of excellence and authenticity, and wondered why LA couldn't do the same, you need to come here.

Minestraio has freshly made well priced pastas, wines, salads and superb desserts.  A really handsome (out of Central Casting) manager, "Francesco" attended to our table with sincerity, elegance and.....great hair and smile.

I ate here last night and had Salsiccia Homemade Strozzapreti with Sausage Cream Ragu  ($12); others at my table dined on Capellacci Homemade Capellacci with Butternut Squash in Butter & Sage ($11.50);
and Agnolotti Agnolotti Filled with Veal Ossobuco ( $16).

Service was fast. The food was hot. The wine list is small,, yet well priced.

Desserts were absolutely fantastic. We ordered all of these:

Torta della Nonna  (Grandmother's Pine Nut Tart & Vanilla Bean Gelato)      6

Panna Cotta alla Vaniglia  (Vanilla Cooked Cream with Strawberry Sauce)       6

Tiramisu  (Mascarpone, Lady Fingers & Espresso)      6

Torta di Carote e Nutella (Carrot Cake with Nutella)     6

Affogato al Caffé  (Vanilla Bean Gelato Drowned in Espresso)       6

There are two drawbacks to the place that did bother me. One was the noise.  There are very high ceilings here that are not conducive to quiet conversation. The other thing is the lackluster decor.

But the people who work here are extremely nice, very attentive and if you need a convenient place to go to near the Beverly Center, this is where you might dine, breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I went here last night, for the first time, with a neighborhood friend.  We ordered yellow curry chicken, spicy catfish and brown rice.  

The meal was delicious, the service was friendly and very attentive and the bill was remarkably cheap: $20.

I would definitely come back.  Atmosphere is home made Thai decor, with the usual cheesy flowers, statues, posters, etc. but  it is obvious that this place wants to be liked and makes great effort to be accommodating and sincere.