Monthly Archive

My beautiful wife turns 29 today (Yes, she does look 20) and getting closer to that big 3-0 seems so strange.

On a last minute note, I call just a handful of people to meet up at a place called the “Pantry Cafe” (http://www.pantrycafe.com) in downtown off of S Figueroa by the Staples Center. People have been talking about this old town LA restaurant and how great their food is. We have passed by on one occasion on a Sunday morning and the line was very Very long. So we figured the “hype” must be true (although we all know that 90% of things hyped is just that: hype). All these people in LA cant be wrong, right?

Well, we all know that the day was hot! Over 109 in the Valley! At 9pm in downtown, it was probably a “cool” 92 degrees. Since half of the people coming were running late (Alice, Paula, Methuse and I) decided to take a walk down 9th St. Took some photos and drooled over the new lofts getting built.
Now, we know LA is in interesting place but people had their eyes on us like we were from Mars (Granted we looked like a bunch of tourist but everyone on the streets looked like tourist). So when that got old, we started to head back to the restaurant to meet everyone else.

When we got inside, it looked exactly like what I’d expect an old restaurant in LA to look like. We went over the menu and two people ordered the Rotisserie Chicken, Fried Chicken Steak Dinner, Pancakes, French Toast and Philly Cheesesteak for me.
Let’s just say that the first group that got their chicken dinners looked like eating a bowl of dog food off the streets of downtown LA looked more appetizing than their meals. Gail tried really really hard and it truly was a good effort but we knew that it was humanly impossible to eat more than a bite of it. Alice said that the next day she was still mad about the food. Paula just squinted her eyes (that’s a really bad sign).

The second group (breakfast and sandwich) weren’t that happy either. The pancakes were eh, the french toast was ok and the Philly was alright… and that’s a stretch. How is it possible that people can talk about a place like this as if this was the Mecca of breakfast food in downtown?

(yes that face on Cathy was the exact same face we all had at the end of our dinner service)

Anyways, here is a big thumbs down to you “The Original Pantry” and to all those who speak of its “glory”.