Clifton’s Cafeteria looks so absolutely unremarkable from the outside that many probably don’t even give it a second look.
But should the adventurous city traveler step through the door to be met by this arrangement,
he or she might reconsider whether this is really your average cafeteria eating style place.
Walking up the staircase,
past some more bears engaged in slightly unusual activities,
one has a good view of the lower level eating area.
My personal favorite is the moose on the balcony.
Quite impressive, I must say. Judging from the size of the head, this was not a small animal at all. I probably would have given it a wide berth, had I come across it in the wild.
And there you have it – Clifton’s Cafeteria is certainly not unremarkable. It is not a fine dining place, but one of the last bastions of honest fare so dear to many who remember this kind of food from their childhood. I highly recommend it for breakfast, if one wants to attend events at the Convention Center, which is only a short stroll of a few blocks away.
All details of the history of this place, the last one left of several restaurants owned by the Clinton family in the Los Angeles area, can be found here. How long Clifton’s will survive is unsure – the family just put the building up for sale. What happens next – nobody knows.
Sounds like my kind of place, good “homestyle” cooking.
It seems that all this food only lives on in the memories of people and in reruns of old TV series – and at Clifton’s, of course.
Most of it is not quite to my taste, too sweet, too heavy, too much everything, but not enough finesse. However, I learned to take some of the American classics and lighten them up a bit, take out the excessive amounts of sugar and serve them at home (much to the delight of my very American husband).
By the way, a big help on this course for me was Julia Child. God bless that woman. Her omelets for breakfast always earn me a big gold star in this household.