Cafe 50's

I went to a diner this week and I figured why not review it for all my new found friends.

The diner itself is a really good throwback to the 50's. As you walk in there's a jukebox filled with music from the era. You can either go left or right to booths or to bar style seating. There's 50's paraphernalia all over. You have framed pictures of artist from the era and movie posters from the time as well. Along with a few newspaper clippings. 

My wife invited me for a pre-Christmas dinner just the two of us. Being a diner we had to go a semi-traditional route with our menu selections. Wifey had the Cheeseburger with cajun fries and I had a Philly cheese steak with regular hand-cut fries and 1000 sland dressing on the side for the fries. To drink we had a coffee shake in a special shake cup with whipped cream and two straws. 

Here you have all the varieties of shakes

available. Let your mind be free. Also a

picture of my coffee shake.

  You have some of the menu options as well.

Now the food was good and we didn't have to wait long. The service was okay. On a scale from 1to 5, 1 being crap 5 being excellent, I give it a 3.

Cafe 50's

850 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles CA 90029

(323) 906-1955

Across from LACC on Vermont and Normal Ave.

Coffee is My Drug of Choice

Hi my name is Mon Amante and I am addicted to coffee.

Step # 1 Acceptance. Now just to be clear I like it and I don't want to change. It's not harming me. I believe coffee is my drug of choice. I accept that coffee is a part of my life. Unlike other drugs it doesn't control me.

Let's go over what coffee means to me. When my dad was growing up, his family had a large carafe of coffee, in his backyard, on a table, next to an outdoor stove. My great-grandmother would make this large amount of coffee and place cups next to it for everyone who lived on the property and the workers. Therefore, everyone would just grab a cup and go. My dads' been drinking 3-5 cups of coffee a day since he was a kid. Which is about 50 years. On my mom's side of the family my grandma used to pick coffee from the volcano when she was in her 20's and 30's. For my family in the afternoon they had a piece of sweet bread and a cup of coffee. My pops has had the same coffee cup for almost 20 years. Coffee is a way of life.

Many studies out there show the pro's and con's of coffee, but when you've grown up on something those studies mean nothing. We live in a society where a $5 cup of coffee a day is normal. Where there is at least one coffee shop in every town, I live inDowntown LA and there are at least 25 Starbucks alone within a 10 mile radius of me. Our society is ruled by the God known as coffee. (Don't worry my God knows I'm joking.)

Thankfully I am not bound to any specific coffee like my ancestors. My addiction spans into the possibilities of frappuccinos, cappuccinos, lattes, americanos, macchiatos and a plain cup of Joe or milk with instant coffee instead of espresso like a latte. I can be versatile.

In my house I have an espresso machine with a milk steamer, a regular 12 cup coffee machine, instant coffee and a french press. I know it's an addiction and I accept it and I deal with it. My brother ended up working at a coffee shop, and when I needed a job for a few months I worked there too. It was the best place for me to work. I learned how to brew the perfect cup, pull the perfect espresso shot, the perfect temperature for milk to be steamed to. I learned about different flavors, the right grinding size, the strength levels and so much more. I do have to say at the time it really helped with the cost of coffee in my life.

I also learned the difficult lesson that too much strong coffee is not good to my stomach. To be honest at that time I was having about 5 shots of espresso throughout my 6 hour shift plus whatever I had at home. You see the company I worked for believed in quality and they only served the best and the freshest stuff out there. I eventually went down to a 1/2 caff drink or decaf sometimes.

Ultimately I love coffee and it's a part of my daily life. I can give it up although I don't see the point of it. No harm no foul. If you ever have a coffee question let me know and ask away. I have a fair amount of coffee knowledge and I make a mean latte and cappuccino.

Lucifer's Damned Good Pizza

I love sales and specials and coupons and everything that allows me to save. Therefore sites like Groupon, Living Social and everything in between are perfect for me. I truly believe in the idea that if I get to try something and its good enough, I will go back and therefore their advertising tactic works.

I love restaurants, food, cooking and therefore our most often bought goods are for restaurants. I have been to more new restaurants in the past year than in my entire life, at least the first 20 years. I think it's important to know what a restaurant is like before you go, why not tell you about my experience just in case you're in the area and want to try it. I'll provide you with my experience and a picture and maybe just maybe you'll decide to take the risk.

Just remember I live in the great city of Los Angeles and I go to near by cities no further than 100 miles.

I recently went to a restaurant called 'Lucifer's' on Melrose & La Brea. Now if you live in LA you know how many good places there are to eat around that corner alone and I go to a few of them. However Lucifer's is now at the top places to recommend for a well 'Damned Good Pizza' as they say.

For the past couple of months I had been craving a really good pizza and lets be honest one of the chain places just wasn't cutting it. I had had Little Ceaser's, Papa Johns, Pizza Hot, and even my favorite Costco and none of them were fulfilling my craving. Well my wife saw this special for this place and it was like half off for a large pizza and salads, which immediately sparked my interest so why not, I have nothing to lose, ultimately you do get to eat.

We get there and its busy, all the tables except for two are taken up and we figure that's a good sign right. As we're looking around we realize we have probably sold part of our soul because the theme is well you guessed it Lucifer inspired. No matter, I figure I pray enough to be safe for now as long as I don't prick my finger and sign anything with blood I should be fine. then we look at the types of pizzas and they all start calling my name: Meat Lover's, Three Little Pigs, Veggie Supreme, Quattro Formagio and a few others. Then they have different chili ratings, Zero, Medium, Fiery and Blazing. They have three different salads: Greek, Tossed and Ceasar. Drinks are awesome they're in a little Coca Cola fridge on the side and a few are in glass bottles which are my favorite.

Well we went with the Meat Lover's, chilli was fiery, the Greek and Ceasar Salad, a Coca Cola and a Dr. Pepper. It was exactly what I had been looking for, it had plenty of meat and it was just spicy enough to where it didn't need the red chilli Pepper Flakes. I'm a firm believer in adding parmesan as well and it didn't need it. I mean it was just toasted enough and it wasn't overly thick or saucy and no flavor overpowered the other. It was everything I could have dreamed of. I wasn't there for the salads but they were just as good as the pizza.

Then there was the service and that just helped to further them up the list. They were polite and helpful. The food was brought to our table and they asked if we needed anything. One of the waiters saw that I had a glass bottle that needed to have the cap removed with a can opener and he asked if he could open it for me. He took it back with him and then brought it back without having to be asked. I guess the service took me by surprise because it feels like lately I've been to so many restaurants where the service has been crap. I went to one where I waited 15 minutes for someone to take our order and 35 minutes for my food. Another where the guy was just rude when taking our order. What can I say I enjoy good service.

So remember if you're ever in LA and in the mood for pizza, check out Lucifer's.

Lucifer's 
1958 Hillhurst Ave, LA
7123 Melrose Ave, LA
(323) 906 8603