An Adventure in Pies

This morning, looking at the possibility of yet another day on the couch, I decided SMS and I better embark on an adventure. You see, due to the Jewish Holidays and early closings on Shabbat, we have worked a total of 4 full days in the past 3 weeks. This means I have watched too much television and the thought of doing just that all day today was just too much. So I picked somewhere we had never been before (Eagle Rock) and did some research. I knew there was a pizza place there that is supposed to serve "the best pie west of brooklyn" and I knew there was a college campus (Occidental) so I thought it might be a cool area to check out.

I was right and wrong.

We departed the house a little before 2pm and due to a crazy traffic jam on the 101 we took surface streets to the 134. On the way to the freeway a restaurant with a sign that read, simply, Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Pie. Not, "We have Peanut Butter ..." or "Stop in for ..." No. Simply the name of the pie. And, man, did it sound good!


We didn't stop for pie (we hadn't had lunch and we were on an adventure) but I did imagine what it might taste like and I did post the following status on my Facebook page: "Jamie just passed a restaurant with a sign that said 'chocolate peanut butter banana pie.' that's all the sign said. that's all it needed to say." This status received quite a few comments and an email. Let's just say the people were interested, but I digress, back to our adventure.

Upon arriving in Eagle Rock we hit another traffic jam due to some road work so we wound our away around town through a very nice neighborhood north of Colorado Blvd. We then parked at Eagle Rock Blvd and Colorado Blvd and starting walking south. The first block was cute, but it petered off quickly.


There were a ton of churches, strip malls, industrial businesses (like lumber yards and plumbing shops), fast food joints with a few cute boutiques and restaurants sprinkled throughout. I was disappointed and I couldn't believe it because I had just read that the Los Angeles Times had recently said that Eagle Rock is "the latest 'it' neighborhood." It made me think that people out here don't know the definition of 'it,' or 'neighborhood' for that matter.

Eagle Rock, like much of LA, lacks density and it really bothers me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy out here and like it for what it is (beautiful, warm, expansive) but an "it neighborhood" LA is not - at least most of it isn't. I think I may have read too much Jane Jacobs or something but I think I'm eerily in tune with density and how important it is to the flow of a neighborhood -- much of LA gets it completely wrong. Even somewhere like Abbott Kinney in Venice, Main Street in Santa Monica or Robertson in Beverly Hills lacks flow. There will be two or three cool stores right next to each other and then nothing you would ever go in for blocks. It feels weird and stilted and, just, well, off. SMS says that's because everything here is a "destination store" -- you drive there, park in their lot, do your shopping or eating, get back in your car and drive away. A culture like that doesn't need flow, it needs parking spaces, but I don't understand why certain stores or restaurants couldn't serve as hubs -- you would drive to a neighborhood to go to that business and walk around before or after. SMS says it doesn't work that way. But I digress again... the weather was perfect, we had the sidewalks to ourselves, so we walked.

We ended up at Senor Fish, a decent Mexican joint where we got a snack of chips and salsa and guac. It was good. The clientele was a decent mix of families, young couples and hipsters. One thing Eagle Rock definitely has going for it is diversity. Here's a pic of the snack:



To further prove my point that Eagle Rock is NOT the next 'it' neighborhood, I can tell you that while we were eating I approached a woman sitting near us who was waiting for her food. I asked her if she lived around the area. She said yes, cautiously. "We've never been here before," I said, "and we're exploring, can you tell me what we should check out?" She looked at me as if I had a second head. "Um," she said, "there's a place with good dessert right across the street." "Great," I said, "Is the college nearby?" "It's not far," she said. "That way a bit," she said gesturing vaguely over her shoulder but not helping more than that. I thanked her and rejoined my husband. Not very neighborly if you ask me.

Nevermind. We ate our guac and continued our walk. We passed the diner where the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs was shot and I took a picture:



We continued on to the campus and then made a big loop back up to Colorado Boulevard determined to try the "best pizza west of Brooklyn."



Casa Bianca opens at 4pm. We arrived at 4:05pm. By 4:30pm it was packed and by the time we left at 5pm there was a line out the door and around the corner.




SMS ordered a small pie with onions and garlic. I ordered the Deluxe (house special) with sausage made on site, green peppers and mushrooms. Both pies were good: SMS' was better and while my sausage ROCKED, the green peppers chunks were too big and the mushrooms were canned. (I will never understand why anyone puts canned mushrooms on pizzas, let alone a place that goes through the trouble of making their own sausage.) It was my mistake though -- at a new place you always get a plain pie to test the place, but I was hungry and made an impulsive decision spurred by the idea of homemade sausage. On the positive side, the sauce was VERY tasty, but there was too much cheese for my taste and for thin crust, it wasn't very light -- it was almost like over-cooked bread. Like I said, they were good, but not great. And, as the last time I checked, Pittsburgh was west of Brooklyn, I can categorically say, this was not the best pie west of the borough!

All in all, though it sounds like I'm doing a heck of a lot of complaining, it was a very nice day. The weather was perfect and SMS and I enjoy each other's company -- we enjoyed the day, even if I didn't enjoy Eagle Rock per se. So after pizza we headed home and SMS said we could stop for PIE!!!

Four N 20 calls itself a "Grill and Bakery" -- I'm not sure what's wrong with "diner" or "coffee shop," which is clearly what it is, but no matter. Once inside, I found out that the reason the sign outside said nothing more that "Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Pie" was because it was the "Pie - of - the - Month" and when you're the pie of the month, what more do you need to say?! We sat ourselves down and ordered me a slice.

"We're out," the hipster waiter said.

"Excuse me? You're kidding, right?" I asked.

"No, we switched today to Key Lime Pie."

I almost hurled.

"You should probably take the huge sign down," I informed him.

He didn't seem any happier than I did.

We left.

We were almost out of the parking lot when he called after us, "We found one!" he yelled.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, there was one left."

We returned and purchased the whole pie. Yup. The whole pie.



It is YUMMY! It seems to be a no-bake pie consisting of chocolate cookie crust, HUGE chunks of bananas coated in peanut butter (remember this: large chunks of bananas: good; large chunks of green peppers: bad) and a heavy does of whipped cream.



I guarantee we will not eat the whole thing before work on Monday, so if you work with us and you're reading this, get ready for yummy leftovers!

So today was a relative successful adventure in pies -- I'm certainly sleepy and glad to have not spent the day on the couch.

CODA
Now for those of you who are thoroughly confused and thinking to yourself, "But Jamie HATES pie," remember the rule: gooey fruit gross; banana, chocolate, peanut butter or pizza YUM!