Diner Week: Tokyo 7-7 Coffee Shop

3839 Main St
Ste B
Culver City, CA 90232
(310)204-5728
Mon-Fri 7AM-3PM
Sat 8:30AM-2PM
CASH ONLY

Having the current status of being not as rich as I used to and figured I'd do a special week on the diners in LA. I have a tremendous love for diners being that on the East Coast they are places that are often stuck in time with cheap prices that rarely go up and a staff that'll often stay working there for as long as they live. The food, while rarely being mind blowing, is always consistent and you can count on a certain standard of coffee. Los Angeles really doesn't have too many of these places. I remember one of the last one's, "Tiny Island" on Wilshire, was torn down a few years ago. My heart sank, especially considering that nothing has replaced the spot. I think it's just an empty lot now. I've already written on some diners in LA that I feel are pretty stand out, but I wanted to focus on places a little off the beaten path and or maybe places that you have heard of but never seen.

A prime example of all I have just talked about is Tokyo 7-7 Coffee Shop in the alleys of Culver City. You won't find this place unless someone has told you where to go specifically. My best advice is to get on Main Street in Culver City and look for Bottle Rock wine bar. There you'll see an alley. Walk through the alley till you are in the heart of the intersecting alleys and you'll find Tokyo 7-7.

Though it's a very secretive spot, you'll find that the place is pretty busy pretty often. Don't worry though, the service is fast and at worst you'll only be waiting for a few of minutes. There's a center counter with about 14 tables surrounding it. It's got a certain charm to it that has been all but lost in our city with the ever changing "impress me now" attitude prone to LA.

The French toast is always rocking. Light grilled and pretty classic.

American breakfast with Portuguese sausage for flair. Their eggs are what eggs should be with very "familiar" home potatoes.

The pancakes were fluffy and chewable (some mass to them), the texture uncompromised by the butter and maple syrup.

The prices for breakfast make you wonder how they're making any money! Notice the early bird special!!!

Lunch is insanely cheap too even with Asian dishes on the menu!

One thing that made me smile was the cashier lady who was knocking it down with the abacus! Each bill that came in was calculated super fast with this thing. It reminded me that in school they had taught us how you could do just about any computation on an abacus that you could do on a calculator, you only had to know how to work the computations. She is most definitely a master.

This place is hidden from prying eyes, but has all the clientele it could ever need. They don't take card which is pretty unfortunate, BUT it's cheap enough that you might even have enough in pocket for your meal without having to make a special bank stop. Parking is a actually a whiz with the parking structures right next door that give (if I remember right) 2 free hours. Next time you're on the west side and aching for some breakfast find this alley and pull up a spot on the counter.

Free Refills: No, but the price makes it about what you'd pay anywhere for a soda with a refill if you buy 2 servings of soda.
Entree Price ranges: Breakfast is $1.70 to $5!!! and lunch is $2.50 to $5!!!

Coffee Lovers...clear your schedule!

I would've had this post up earlier if not for the fact that blogger wouldn't let me put a picture up. I still can't and such is life. But the real news is this Thursday night at Intelligentsia in Silverlake, they'll be offering a free tasting of the golden glory of this years coffee, that being Hacienda la Esmeralda's Geisha Coffee. I myself have only heard of this legendary stuff that went for $130 a pound at an auction (which just so happens to be the most ever paid for at an auction)!

The info is as follows:
Time: Thursday the 15th at 7PM
Where: Intelligentsia Coffee House, 3922 W. Sunset Blvd.
Cost: Free
What you get: Free samples of freshly brewed legendary Geisha Coffee

There'll also be a limited amount for sale after the tasting for the true lovers of coffee. Prices will be $99.00 for a half a pound and $55.00 for a quarter pound.

For those who just want to come and enjoy the experience with others there'll be wine and hors d'oeuvres as well.

Groundworks Coffee

1501 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028 (amongst 6 locations total)
(323) 871-0107
Mon-Fri 7AM-8PM
Sat-Sun 8AM-8PM

I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter. I myself did and had a wonderful weekend all around. Played at some different places and just had a great weekend. Oh and I popped into Groundworks coffee for a debatable (but many agree) iced chai latte after I went to the 101 cafe and headed over to Amoeba Records (which is conveniently located diagonally across the street from Groundworks). They somehow nailed the right proportions and have got it down to a science everytime. I've tried other places and it's too sweet or not sweet enough or the spice is actually bitey, but not here. It's just right...everytime.

They have great coffee as well and very tasty paninis which make for a great snack after walking for hours through Amoeba. A word of mention that also goes for this coffee shop and their coffee. They are fair trade coffee distribtuor which means the coffee you'll be drinking will be coming from people who didn't get worked to the bone for horrible and often illegal wages. Check out Black Gold for more on that. Also, the selection of beans that they have is amazing and can be complex in flavor. If you're a coffee nut, as many today are, know that you WILL reliably find an amazing cup of coffee here. They have multiple locations which can be seen on their site if you aren't close to this one, and the prices are pretty good to boot.

On a side note about seeing movies, I saw Grindhouse this weekend and it was so much fun. Just a fun return to entertainment. Some say that the pacing can be slow, just ignore them. Go expecting to watch everything you want in 2 over the top "B" slash "slasher" slash "car-chaser" slash "exploitation" movies our generation has had the joy to watch in a sticky floored cinema. Here's a tip though, don't drink too much or your bladder will explode by the final scene.

Free Drink Refills: coffee shop...duh
Entree Price Range: blanking right now but it's about $4 for a panini if I remember right...it's cheap enough either way.

Love for the "101 Coffee Shop"

6145 Franklin Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 467-1175
Everyday 7AM-2:45AM

Haha...the 101. A place of legend for the Hollywood scenesters. Aside from feeling like you've stepped back in time (you'd swear you'd walked into a late 60's or early 70's diner) this diner is nothing short of one of THE best places to get together for food. You may ask why just a place to get together? Because you can spend some serious time there and not even realize it. It's just a fun place to be. The food is awesome. Enough said about that. You're like, "All of it"? Yes, all of it is good...DARN good. I can say that with some degree of authority as I've had a lot of their food in the past. It's a diner with a higher edge of class to the cooking. Some of you may discount it as a grease spoon but it is a far cry from that. Rather it's more like a chef at a nice restaurant just lost his job cause the restaurant got closed and then got hired here. So he's making amazingly good food but dumbing it down for people like us so that we don't suspect him and his feelings don't get hurt cause we're wondering what he's doing here making our breakfast.



Food looks good doesn't it? Well it is. And the prices are pretty good as well. You know when you go to a nice restaurant and the waiters and waitresses are all models or actors? This is no exception except that most of these people don't seem like they want to be either a model or and actor. It's a hangout and point of inspiration for art...

That's right. In the first line of the song he's referencing this very same place. How do I know? He doesn't live very far from the 101 and comes here.

Famous people come here all the time as well and what's great is they don't get bothered here. You just see them and realize wow...I always wondered where they went when they eat normal food. Just to mention last time I went there I saw Fred Durst and his girl. Hopefully he's less of a turd cause he treated a friend of mine very badly while she was working at a radio station here in LA. But I digress.

Excellent food, great atmosphere, open super late, parking is the only sometimes bummer (small parking lot) but there's street parking if you don't mind walking a little which I assume most of you don't considering the fact that if you eat like me you know you should be walking off more than your share of food.

While inside the 101 I was inspired to just film stuff so here's the menu for your perusal. You're like "did he just film the menu?"...yes I did:

Also I thought to share a little bit of me. An illusion for the masses after a meal fit for well maybe not a king but maybe a jester in the Hollywood scene. (Someone remind me to close the aperture more next time.)

Free Drink Refills: Yes
Entree Price Range:$7 to $13 (those $13 plates are super rare though)

PS. It's a a very short walk from the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre where you can catch some of LA's funniest doing comedy.