Cafe 50s, Santa Monica Blvd

This is Cafe 50s on Santa Monica Boulevard. I remember going here when I first moved to Los Angeles, before Bugita and I met. She and I went at least once in grad school, but it's only since we moved to the neighborhood that we've gone regularly.

The idea, obviously, is that it's a '50s style diner, filled with era-appropriate stuff.  The walls and ceilings are covered with movie posters, ads, etc.  

This time we sat in the front room.  There's less to see, and we felt funny taking a whole bunch of pictures with everybody at the front counter watching.  Another time we'll sit in the main room and take some pictures of the stuff on the wall.

Knickknacks for sale behind the counter.  There are old Eisenhower/Nixon campaign buttons.   The only especially good one was "I like IKE and DICK."

There are playing cards stuck to the ceiling, some with names written on them.

With the condiments and menus there's a kind of newsletter.  I forgot to look at it this time.

Pretty extensive menu, but all we ever get are burgers.  I used to sometimes get reuben sandwiches but I think I'm over reuben sandwiches in general.

Today bug wore here Reeses shirt.

I had a cherry Coke, she had a Coke.

Bugita had the California Burger, I think, with sweet potato fries.  She really really really likes sweet potato fries.  One reason we go around to a lot of different burger places is to try all the sweet potato fries.  One time they were out and Bugita maced the waiter.

I had the Super Burger.  This is two patties with a bunch of cheese and avocado and stuff, including bacon.  It's basically not possible to eat it the way you eat a burger, it's practically a cube.  But cutting it up doesn't really work either.

My finger, for scale.  I don't have really small hands, either.  I can only fit the first third of the first joint of my index finger into my nose, and I have a big nose with big nostrils.  So this is a pretty big burger.

Eating it is really a tremendous mess and I look completely disgusting eating it.  It's like something you would see in a really cheap sideshow.  This is what the plate looks like after--half the toppings fall out.  That's good, though, because the second phase is eating the french fries with big handfuls of onion and avocado.  

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Big Tomy's, corner of Sawtelle and Pico

We've been passing by Big Tomy's on Pico for about ten years and never tried it. Today we decided to walk over. Luckily, it turned out to have an A rating from the health department.

A burger each, and fries to share. Usually we get two orders of fries because I am EXCESSIVE, but I ended up glad we only got one this time, since the burgers were substantial.

I had the pastrami burger. I think I was expecting a few pieces of pastrami on top of the patty, a la "bacon burger," but it was more like a pastrami sandwich that also had a cheeseburger in it. It was an impressive amount of meat.

Bugita had the Super Burger. Bacon, avocado, and cheese, I think. It was big, too.

Pastrami burger, half eaten. You can see there's a lot of meat. The pastrami was nice, not fatty or overchewy or dry.

This is a weird little building in the parking lot. There were some men sitting at the next table with no food, talking, and when they left they went into this building.

Another view. I wondered if the buildings around here predate the overpass; Bugita thinks they probably do.

The view of Pico. It's blurry, but across the street is El Super Taco. I want to eat there sometime, mostly because of the name, but also because it's another place we've been driving past for ten years and never gone into.

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