{"id":32794,"date":"2011-07-11T10:46:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T17:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alleewillis.com\/blog\/?p=32794"},"modified":"2011-07-11T11:20:24","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T18:20:24","slug":"allee-willis%e2%80%99-kitsch-o%e2%80%99-the-day-%e2%80%93-my-saturday-drivefood-fest-with-charles-phoenix-torrance-and-inglewood-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/allee-willis%e2%80%99-kitsch-o%e2%80%99-the-day-%e2%80%93-my-saturday-drivefood-fest-with-charles-phoenix-torrance-and-inglewood-ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Allee Willis\u2019 Kitsch O\u2019 The Day \u2013 My Saturday Drive\/Food Fest With Charles Phoenix – Torrance and Inglewood, CA."},"content":{"rendered":"

.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we are oft to do<\/a>, Charles Phoenix<\/a> and I took another one of our kitsch spins around LA<\/a> and environs this past weekend. We were dressed smartly for the occassion, at least from the ankles down:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Our first stop was at Johnnies Pastrami on Sepulveda Blvd. in Culver City:<\/p>\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\n

Johnnies hasn’t changed a lick since it was built in 1952. Counter, stools, booths, jukebox, etc. are all original.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

This was confirmed by the man himself, Bob Bass,\u00a0who built and still owns Johnnies, and who has eaten lunch at his regular table every day since.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I’ve always loved restaurants that park a loaded pickle bowl before you as soon as you sit down.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Charles and I pondered the menu.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

But I always go for the same thing, the 1950’s-grilled-to-soda-shop-perfection cheeseburger:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The french fries snap when you sink your choppers into them.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The cole slaw, eternally shredded a tad long, drips with creamy sweetness.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Charles and I were perfectly positioned behind the pie rack.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

And although we stared at the bulging slices throughout the meal…<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

…we had to save room as we always make a donut shop stop on our driving trips.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Circus donuts are good…<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

…but I much prefer Spudnuts<\/a>. Which makes sense as judging from the drink station, I think lottery tickets may be bigger business for Circus than donuts.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Next we went deeper into Torrance and hit King’s Hawaiian Bakery on Sepulveda. King’s is not only spectacular for the entrance to the dining room…<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

… but because of what we go there to buy.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Here I am experiencing a moment of panic upon seeing empty shelves.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

You would be too if you knew this was what was inside of the packages we were looking for.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Thankfully, we got the last six loafs of the Rainbow Butter Bread.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

All day long we passed beautiful architecture:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"\n

I wish all Baskin Robbins still looked like this one on Crenshaw Blvd.:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Nothing great architecturally about this IHOP but it’s spectacular that a horse is used to sell pancakes.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Though I guess it makes as much sense as a bear selling wheel alignments:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

There was much beautiful signage along the way.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Although not as dramatic as the previous photos, I always enjoy a sign that employs peculiar use of quote marks:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

If “On The” are the two most important words you can spotlight about your burgers, I’m sticking to Johnnie’s. Also featuring two words is the name of this Thai joint:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

What a great day! Dinner, thankfully, wasn’t until 10:30 pm.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credits: Denny McLain and me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. As we are oft to do, Charles Phoenix and I took another one of our kitsch spins around LA and environs this past weekend. We were dressed smartly for the occassion, at least from the ankles down: Our first stop was at Johnnies Pastrami on Sepulveda Blvd. in Culver City: Johnnies hasn’t changed a … read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243,225,165,405,87,193,57,1075,999,281,261],"tags":[2798,2797,61,2791,2792,2793,2499,3232,3245,2796,2794,2795,2799],"class_list":["post-32794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-clothes","category-food","category-hats","category-kitsch","category-kitsch-o-the-day","category-los-angeles","category-sculpture","category-sign","category-transportation","category-travel","tag-50s-architecture","tag-60s-architecture","tag-allee-willis","tag-circus-donuts","tag-johnnies-hamburgers","tag-johnnies-pastrami","tag-kings-hawaiian-bakery","tag-kitsch","tag-kitsch-o-the-day","tag-mid-century-architecture","tag-phucket-thai","tag-vintage-architecture","tag-vintage-signs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}