DDD #18

When we were in L.A. a few weeks ago we managed to go to TWO restaurants featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! It’s usually a challenge to go to one DDD on a weekend trip, so for us to hit two was great.

Crazy fact about the Grundman’s DDD quest:
Neither John nor Amber had ever been to a DDD in Southern California.

How crazy is that? Granted there aren’t a ton of them down there, but still…we go to L.A. at least four times a year. I think one factor is that we never made it a priority when we traveled there, because there are so many other good places to eat. However now things have changed.

Our first DDD was The Nickel Diner in downtown L.A. I thought we might have missed the lunch crowd by showing up after 1pm, but I was wrong! The place was packed and we had to wait…but no biggie.

The place was pretty small and the kitchen was right in the dining area, which was kind of cool. We actually saw the owner, which is always a treat, and let me say that her hair had definitely been styled for the show. But can you blame her? I would have done the same thing…and had my makeup done! She has a really cool Cruella DeVille vibe going on with her hair.
These lights are actually upside down lamps.
I started off with a homemade ding-dong, although it kind of looks like a hostess cupcake.
As you know I normally like to order what dishes were featured on the show. I was ready to order this awesome looking salmon dish but it wasn’t on the menu. I’m assuming it was a special. We also wanted to try the bacon maple doughnut that was featured on the show, but they ran out! At least they had the mac-n-chee which you can see here with John. He also got the pulled pork hash, which was to die for. So weird but SO good!
I got a bacon cheeseburger that was pretty good, but the mac-n-chee and pork were better.
We even dragged my sister and brother-in-law with us. Molly got a fish burger, and Michael got a chicken salad sando. Both very good. As you can see they were very excited to pose with their food. Such good sports!
After Michael posed for the photo he caught a woman’s eye and he told her ‘I don’t know why we are taking photos of our food.’ I turned and saw this cute lady with a huge smile and she asked me if I was a food blogger. I told her I had a blog but it wasn’t specifically about food. She then told me that her daughter-in-law was a food blogger. How crazy is that? I briefly talked to daugher-in-law and got her blog address. Here I am talking to her. (John was actually being impatient while waiting for me to pose with my food...hence the attractive shot of the back of my head.)
I found out that her name is Lynn, and her blog is called The Actors Diet. You should definitely check out her entry about The Nickel Diner. See if you can spot the cute chick in a pink sweater in a couple of her photos. She actually got some really good interior shots of the place.

Once again there wasn’t one sign that Guy had been there with his crew. No poster and no stencil. What gives?