Oreo Pancakes!!!

Burbank is rife with coffee shops, yet somehow good food manages to elude them. At least Frank's makes real milkshakes from real ice cream, but I'm still pissed off that the attached motel tore down the zigzag Googie roof. And don't even get me started on the Coral Cafe and Lancers, where the customers all look like Ralph Steadman drawings.

Then Bea Bea's opened this year to save our mornings. There is no other place to hit for breakfast brunch, or even lunch anymore. Sure, we still go to Porto's for takeout, but for a delicious and comfortable sit-down breakfast, Bea Bea's has stolen our hearts away.

Service runs the gamut from shy and unobtrosive to friendly and flamboyant, but always competent.In spite of its location next to the pet shop, Bea Bea's manages to eke out a little style with its hip 70s surf color palette and geometric chairs. In fact, the chairs are so simple and square they kind of remind me of Barbie or Lego chairs blown up to human proportions. 

The extensive menu hits on the usual morning fare, scrambles, omelettes, and pancakes. And then Bea Bea's takes it one step beyond. The "Volcano Scramble" mixes in chicken-tequila sausage, ortega chiles, jalapenos, cilantro, tomato, tortilla strips, avocado, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, sour cream and tomatillo sauce. The make-your-own omelettes can be made with dozens of fillings, and the pancakes are lip-smacking, tooth-rotting sweet.

Be careful bringing children here because they will be bouncing around the room all day after one of these concoctions. The "Piggie Delight" crepe combines ham and chocolate chips. Yes, really. The enormous "Going Bananas" waffle include bananas, Oreos and peanut butter with chocolate chips and vanilla ice cream. The "Crunchy Cornflakes" is french toast dipped in cornflakes and almonds.

But the breakfast that makes me scream for it in the night is the "Just for You Pumpkin" pancakes topped with a pumpkin cream cheese marmalade and whipped cream. Another favorite is "Jacinda's First Blush", eggs any style with strawberry french toast, bacon and breakfast potatoes. 

 The french toast is very thick and could be improved by being soaked a little longer to moisten deeper inside. Eaten cold out of the fridge in the middle of the night, though, the french toast seems just right.

The benedicts are another area where Bea Bea excels. The ham is thicker than thick. Only once did a dining partner send back their eggs because they felt the white was runny. "The Crab Cake Benedict" and "Eggs Florentine" were also popular amongst fellow diners. Seriously, check out how thick this ham is.

The restaurant is open until 4pm and also has a complete lunch menu. Besides your wraps, salads and sandwiches, Bea Bea's also served pastas and burritos. The burgers are massive and you can even order them rare. The tuna salad is popular. The spicy tuna wrap is seriously spicy.

There are a number of veggie items and lots of tofu on the menu. Whether or not they are vegan friendly is unclear, but probably so. They do have three different kinds of iced tea, so they seem to be all about promoting choice.

Be prepared for sticker shock. The average price is $10, averaging around $35 for two after drinks and tip, a bit much for breakfast. But considering the massive servings, you can always split a dish or take half home for later. Once you have eaten their pancakes, no price is too high.

The whimsical names on the menu, the ultra-clean hotel style restrooms and fine decor hint at a feminine hand. True to the subtle hints, there is a Bea Bea who runs the coffeeshop. She got her experience at her sister's popular restaurant, CiCi's Cafe in Tarzana. There are more sisters in the family, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Oh, and don't forget to order a honey latte.

Pizza Fries!!!!

Unbeknownst to many Angelenos, the East coast has been holding out on us. Philly, Jersey and New York all enjoy the wonder of Pizza Fries. Why didn't we think of it? It seems so obvious now. I have hunted for Pizza Fries here in LA to no avail. Philly's Best just poured Cheese Wiz on the fries, which made me very sad.

South Street on Victory in Burbank (the Westwood location is now closed, though they are sold at Dodger Stadium) doesn't have Pizza Fries on the menu, but they do have a "top your own fries" option and are willing to go off the list and give you whatever you want. Finally, Pizza Fries are mine!

Local entertainment moguls Mitchell Goldman and Robert "Smitty" Smith used to commiserate over the lack of decent cheesesteaks in LA. They finally decided to stop complaining and open up South Street, which is admittedly authentic. Besides Philly steaks, pizza, and hoagies, they also sell "Water Ice", a kind of Italian ice slushee, and Tastycakes.

The Amoroso rolls are flash-frozen in Philly and finished in South Street's oven. They come out soft and a little chewy, just like in Philadelphia. They use rib-eye and chop the meat, two more of my criteria.

The only place they veer off the standard is that they use a blend of white American and Provolone. A strict Wiz vs. Provolone is the usual policy (Wiz is offered for an additional buck). But you can't really taste the difference in the Provolone mix with the meat, onions and peppers fist-pumping in your mouth.

Tonys Darts away

When friends come to visit my Magnolia Park neighborhood, they sometimes ask where my "local" is. I'm left blank, because we don't have a local here like we did in Los Feliz. Other than Tinhorn Flats and the standing bar at a few restaurants, this hood has been devoid of a comfortable watering hole.

That is, until Tony Yanow came to town and renovated a little hole-in-the-wall to create the first draft-only "bottle-less bar" in Burbank. All of the bartenders at Tony's Darts Away are experts and can help you choose from the 30-plus rotating beers on tap.

The bar serves only the best locally sourced craft beers available. In keeping with his green philosophy, Tony's goal is to narrow the geographical gap between the brewer and the customer. By keeping the "beer miles" low, it decreases the carbon footprint. The menu is heavy on IPAs because IPAs are a true California innovation.

Beers are served by the glass, "honest pint" or in some cases, in a tulip glass. The best way to get a feel for the beers is by buying a "flight" or sampler of four. Ask the knowledgeable barkeep for your preference, be it sweeter beers, IPAs, a combination, or even something "hoppy" and they will come through for you. You can also pick and choose your own flight from the menu.

In addition to craft beers, Tony's brought in sommelier Andy Lynch to select wines from California red and white varietals, all served on tap (as well as a few sodas for the teetotalers).

Another interesting difference is Tony's bar food. Whereas a token vegan dog is usually hidden down near the bottom of the menu, Tony's displays them front and center. Four kinds of vegan sausages join the other locally sourced artisanal sausages.

So far our favorite has been the bratwurst. There are a number of vegan toppings, including a vegan cheese and a garlic aioli. For the carnivores, we recommend straight-up mustard and peppers as being the best match for the sausages.

Surprisingly for bar fare, the salads are actually at the top of our list. The beet salad is a definite winner.

The hand-cut chips and curly onion strings don't hold a candle to the sweet potato fries. They come covered in a sweet glaze, but if you ask real nice they might make you a special batch of naked sweet potato fries to dip in that garlic aioli.

The one wrench in the works is the size of the game area. It is so small that the pool table, dart board and satellite jukebox are all crammed up against each other. It is virtually impossible for people to play both darts and pool at the same time. And if you want to put another dime in the jukebox, baby, be careful you don't get a dart in the forehead.

Update:
We just returned again tonight and they had moved the jukebox to avoid dart accidents. It was perfect for our crowd of college-aged visitors.

The service and vibe are friendly with just a touch of dive still hanging in the air. A marijuana leaf sticker and the occasional broken glass keep the place from being too hip for its own good. So pull up a barstool, because we finally have a place to call our "local". Oh, and don't play pool with George. You can't beat him.

Rocket Fizz

Last summer a riot of neon notified Burbank that there was a new store in town and it was all about fun! Rocket Fizz is here to bring back the candy and sodas of childhood, as well as hard-to-find local products. They even have a wide assortment of obscure diet sodas.









Partners Jack Cross, whose career in the field of body shops shows in his retro design, and pizza shop owner Luke Jacobeli have created a wonderland of nostalgia.

Customers wander around exclaiming, "No way!" "I haven't seen this since I was a kid!" "They have apple Abba Zabbas!" Really, did you even know they had apple Abba Zabbas?









Cross and Jacobeli chose Burbank as their store location because in many ways Burbank is a retro town, with its ancient shops, Googie signage, and of course Bob's Big Boy.

There is a patio in the back where you can enjoy your drinks and chocolate cigarettes, and they are planning to start showing B Movies there, something to foster a sense of community in the neighborhood. Rocket Fizz is open from 11am to 9pm weekdays and 10pm on weekends, but sometimes they are open even later, which saved me from an uncertain fate last Christmas Eve.



At least he went happy





I dared three people to try to fit an entire Cherry Mash in their mouths until this guy took me up on the dare.







Oh, for the halcyon days when hobos and smoking were cool



Fun with wax moustaches