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Well, maybe "great" is the wrong word for some of these.
These are places I've dined in the past that are now defunct. Some I miss,
some I don't, some I miss for reasons other than the food. You will notice
that a large percentage of them were on La Cienega Boulevard. Although a
portion of that street was once designated "Restaurant Row" and intended to
house eating establishments, that doesn't completely explain so many of these
having that as an address. Nor does the fact that I went there explain why
any of them went out of business, despite what you may have heard.
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ONTRA CAFETERIA — There were several but we used to go to
the one in Beverly Hills. It was on Beverly Drive, across from where
R.J.'s is now. Back in 1968 when comedian Pat Paulsen waged a mock
presidential campaign, he held his big fund-raising dinner there and personally
rang up the cash register, charging each diner 49 cents.
At an Ontra, you could get a great hot turkey sandwich carved
right off the bird, right in front of you. You could get great side dishes
and an incredible selection of breads and other baked goods. They don't
make cafeterias like that anymore. Hell, they don't make cafeterias at all.
The Ontras were all huge places with pretty good food at pretty good prices and
I keep waiting for that kind of establishment to make a comeback. When
they do, I'll be first in line...with my tray.
BIT O' SCOTLAND — Over on Westwood Boulevard, between
Olympic and Santa Monica Boulevard, you could once get the best fish and chips you ever had, served by
cheery older women with (mostly) British accents. The entire menu was fish and
chips, shrimp and chips, chicken and chips, some kind of ham and chips, plus
various combination plates. I never had the ham but I think it was the
only thing in the place that wasn't fried, except maybe the clam chowder (red), salad,
beverages and shortbread. This was all served in an an old house someone had
converted into a restaurant that was way too small for the crowd. On weekends, the wait to dine could run upwards
of an hour and for some reason, every time I found myself waiting for a table,
the party ahead of me included James Coco.
After Bit O' Scotland closed, the same family opened a restaurant
over on Pico near Rancho Park. It's called John O' Groat's and it's open
mainly for breakfast and lunch. But at lunchtime, you can order fish and
chips made with the same wonderful recipe. Alas, they don't have shrimp,
scallops or cheery older women with British accents.
HARRY'S OPEN PIT BARBECUE — A small chain of barbecue places
that cooked real meat over real wood. Their sauce was mediocre but that was okay
because the ribs and chicken were so good nude that you didn't need sauce. I
used to go to the one on Crescent Heights, just south of Sunset, situated about where you
now enter the parking garage for the Virgin Megastore. It was a little
rathole of a building with everything served fast food style. You ordered
your ribs and/or chicken at a counter and they'd take your food right off the
grill for you. Then you carried it into a little dining room with picnic
table seats and a large sink, right in the midst of the tables, for the washing
of rib-stained fingers.
That's Harry's always had a strong rock-and-roll connection due to
the surrounding businesses and when it
closed, its proprietors briefly moved its open pit and food service into a rock club across the street.
As a result, a number of musicians did odes to Harry's ribs on their albums of the period.
Canned Heat, for instance, recorded a song called "Harry's Open Pit Barbecue."
It's about all that's left of what was once the best place in L.A. to get ribs.
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SHIP'S COFFEE SHOP — There were three — one in Westwood
and one in Culver City, but everyone's
favorite was the one at Olympic and La Cienega. It was open 24 hours and it wasn't
Denny's. If you ordered breakfast, they brought you bread instead of toast and
you cooked it yourself in the toaster at your table. Every table had one, plus
they were all along the counter for the folks sitting there. It was another great place
to get a hot turkey sandwich and I remember that a friend of mine
liked to go there because they had "the coldest milk in the world."
The waitresses were all what you'd get if you put out a casting call for
"friendly coffee shop waitresses."
All three Ship's Coffee shops were opened by restaurateur Emmett Shipman between
1956 and 1967 and closed in the eighties. They were noted for their
decor and the one at Olympic and La Cienega was used as a location in several
movies. They may be among the "most missed" defunct eateries in all of
Southern California.
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