Are you sometimes tired of all those hipster locale's such as Abbott Kinney Blvd., Highland and York Blvd.? Silverlake and Echo Park . . . .? Do you sometimes feel like you don't belong in those places because you are not dressed hip enough to be seen there? Do you get sick of the $5 lattes, and cappucinos, $15 glasses of wine, $18 small plates and $45 entrees in those oh so chic places? And do you sometimes notice that when you go to those places, the clientele are the white folks and Asian folks and wonder where does the rest of Los Angeles go? Well I do. Sometimes it's just nice to walk into an unpretentious place with good food, reasonable prices, a diverse clientele, and friendly staff, and walk out feeling like you've just been to some place real good.
For those of you who feel "unhip" occasionally, or all the time, I'm going to write about some down home places I like called Unhipster's Hangout. The first of these places I'm going to talk about is
Johnnie's Patrami Restaurant in Culver City which has been around since 1952. Situated on the corner of Washington Blvd. and Sepulveda, Johnnie's is a throwback to the Americana of the olden days. (Not that I know exactly what the olden days look like since I didn't come to the US until 1978). It's a diner that serves fried chicken, hamburgers, pickles, coleslaw and the world's best pastrami sandwich. There are three kinds of seating: stools around the counter, booth with high back bench seating, or outdoors on picnic style tables around a fire pit. On the counter and tables, there are little juke boxes where you can queue up songs from selections such as "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Monday Monday", "Gloria", and many more oldies and not so oldies but goodies.
The wait staffs seem to be from another era: Surly and no nonsense elderly ladies who look kind of unfriendly, although our waitress tonight was a young woman who is awfully nice and polite. (I just checked their website and what do you know? Some of the waitresses are originals! How cool is that!) When you look around, you don't see any hipsters, just downright unhip older folks like me who've probably been coming here forever for the famous pastrami sandwich and chili fries. There tonight were older African Americans couples, older white folks, an old Asian/caucasian couple, and some African American young men. The pastrami sandwich isn't exactly cheap at $12.75, but it's huge and enough for two people. I like mine with melted Swiss cheese. The cup of joe is not espresso, but has unlimited refill. By the time I walked out of Johnnie's, I felt as if I've rediscovered a treasure, and hoped that hipsters don't swarm here any time soon.
