I recently dropped off a family member at LAX for an early Sunday morning flight. And since I didn’t feel like going home for breakfast as the sun rose over the South Bay, I started searching for a restaurant that served some tasty eggs and bacon at such an early hour.
And I found…precious little.
Except for one much-loved option, a standard since 1973 — practically prehistoric! — that serves all day every day. 24/7! Breakfast, lunch and dinner whenever you want, and whenever you need. It is, of course, The Kettle — a South Bay destination without which we’d be a sorrowful backwater for all-day/all-night cooking.
Compared to, say, New York City, Southern California in general has never been a hotbed of 24/7 eateries. Going to college in New York, I’d often take a break from an all-night study session and head for Chinatown, where legends like Lin’s Garden and Hong Fat served heaping plates of noodles at all hours to a crowd of night-shift workers, artists and students in need of some cheap filling carbs.
But here in SoCal, Chinatown is pretty quiet after dark. Sure, there are sundry all-night tofu stew joints in Koreatown, various branches of Norm’s that never stop serving — and of course, both Canter’s Deli and The Original Pantry, both much-loved by night owls who worry little about cholesterol in the midst of meals that they’ll be tasting long after the sun rises.
By comparison, The Kettle is almost…elegant. There’s a fine view of the beach from the outdoor patio. It doesn’t have that funky, rundown feeling of so many 24/7 restaurants, which never seem to get all that clean. The Kettle has long seemed well tended to, well cared for — a place where the owners, and the customers, feel a lot of pride in this South Bay treasure. And believe me, after I had hacked my way out of the airport, it was a relief to sit down someplace…civilized, where the servers genuinely seemed happy to see me, even so early on a Sunday morning.
And the breakfast food served here…is just right. They call their morning menu (served all day, of course), “The Breakfast Club.” Which barely scratches the surface of how…satisfying the food here can be. This is a breakfast menu that exists in at least two worlds — one old, and the other new. You feel like nothing more complex than some eggs, however you want them of course, and you can get, at the most basic, an order of two large eggs, served with breakfast potatoes and your choice of toast or a muffin.
That’s about as classic and, yes, Midwestern, as breakfasts get.
From there, the complexities are layered on, like butter and jam on a muffin. There’s smoked bacon, of course — also made as you want it. There are maple sausage links and smoked ham. There are apple chicken sausages and, on the healthy side of ledger, a breakfast of chicken breast with scrambled egg whites. (Did you happen to see the article about the East Coast body builder who eats 100 eggs a day, the whites only. Which is nutritionally…crazy!)
There’s also an exceedingly tasty Breakfast Sandwich, of scrambled eggs, Tillamook cheese, caramelized onion jam, grilled tomato, arugula, thick-cut bacon and Sriracha mayo served on a toasted brioche. You don’t get toast or a muffin with that one. Of course.
There are omelettes of bacon, avocado and cheddar, caramelized onion and mushroom, spinach, zucchini and more. There are buttermilk pancakes, variously topped with strawberries, and bananas. But then, if you want to head for the Dishes of the Moment, the Benedicts are the place to go.
There are eggs Benedict, done in the traditional way of course. And there are also eggs Benedict with crabcakes, with smoked salmon, and with pot roast — yes, pot roast! Now, that’s a breakfast and half, maybe even three quarters. Ditto the barbecue pulled-pork hash with a pair of eggs sunny-side up. The pulled-pork breakfast burrito. And the honey fried chicken and biscuits.
On this particular morning, I kept things simple, with a nice Hangover Scramble. I had to get home, and go back to sleep. But it did my heart good to know The Kettle was there to feed me breakfast whenever I want it, and whenever I need it. With Kraft mac and cheese for the young ‘uns. In case they’re up early as well.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
The Kettle
- Rating: 2.5 stars
- Address: 138 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach
- Information: 310-545-8511, www.thekettle.net
- Cuisine: Breakfast 24/7
- When: Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day
- Details: Soft drinks; reservations not needed
- Prices: About $20 per person
- On the menu: 11 “Breakfast Club” Dishes ($11.50-$20.95), 5 “The Griddle” Dishes ($9.95-$12.95), 6 Fruit & Cereal Dishes ($6.95-$17.50), 13 Café Free Egg Dishes ($11.50-$17.95)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)
