THE SUNDAY DRIVE by Colleen Bennett — In Search of Blue Skies and Blue Eyes

Actor Paul Newman

We had a general idea where we were headed for our Sunday Drive. Peter wanted to explore his boyhood neighborhood of Altadena to roust up some screenplay ideas that have been bouncing around in his head and he needs a deadline.  Altadena is located just north of Pasadena, about 25 minutes from La Verne.

We exited the 210 freeway at Madre (not Sierra Madre Blvd), headed north to the New York Drive extension until it meets up with Altadena Drive, then turned right and then down into the crowded Eaton Canyon parking lot. Eaton Canyon was Peter’s playground growing up, 190 acres of zoological, botanical, and geological parkland that on our visit was ablaze with wildflowers and day hikers, many walking their happy, trail-bound dogs.

Before setting out on a hike on the canyon floor, stop inside the Nature Center to see what to avoid on the trail, like poison oak and stinging nettle and, of course, the Pacific r a t t l e snake.

After spying the stuffed bats, bobcats, mountain lions, and assortment of living reptiles, we set out along the one-mile long canyon trail to the Mt. Wilson Toll Road Bridge. While we both (just Peter of course) wanted to venture another half-mile to the Eaton Canyon Falls, which naturalist John Muir once reached on a hot August day in 1877, we decided to save the outing for another day when it would be less crowded and we might have the waterfall all to ourselves.

For now, I’ll leave you with what Muir wrote about his visit: “Half an hour’s easy rambling up the canyon brought me to the foot of “The Fall,” famous throughout the valley settlements as the finest yet discovered in the range. It is a charming little thing, with a voice sweet as a songbird’s, leaping some thirty-five or forty feet into a round, mirror pool. The cliff back of it and on both sides is completely covered with thick, furry mosses, and the white fall shines against the green like a silver instrument in a velvet case.”

Eaton Canyon wildflowers

After hiking back from the bridge to our car, we continued curving around Altadena Dr. to a Keller Williams open house, after all, it’s Sunday and I should be previewing at least my company’s listings. We toured a beautiful 1925 Tudor Revival home, set back off the busy street. The asking price for the 4,573-square-foot, tri-level, five-bedroom, four-bath home at 1242 E. Altadena Dr. was a cool $1.35 million and a great house worth taking the time to see. The brick entrance, the steeply pitched and multi-gabled roof, arched floor-to-ceiling windows, and exquisitely fragrant lavender bushes and jasmine hedges made us feel like we were visiting William Shakespeare or Anne Hathaway. A cup of Earl Grey tea in front of the gorgeous Batchelder fireplace would have been perfect.

Cruising past Lake Avenue, we pulled into a derelict Rite-Aid shopping center just to see if Bulgarini Gelato, a cool hideout that the Los Angeles Times blew the cover off a couple of years ago, was still there. It was, and owner Leo Bulgarini is still masterful at creating peach, pistachio, dark chocolate and other out-of-this world flavors that have gelato fans all over the Southland seeking out this gelato “G” spot. Had we gone that extra half-mile we might have indulged.

Back on Lake Street, we headed south to Woodbury, turned right and headed west, past Lincoln to Arroyo, and turned left to catch the 210 freeway, where we continued west until exiting Ocean Avenue to catch the tail end of the Montrose Harvest Market, held every Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (except Super Bowl Sunday, Easter Sunday and a couple of other Sundays).

1242 East Altadena Dr., $1.35 million

Montrose is a great town, once voted by Sunset Magazine as one of the best places to live … like Mayberry.  On Sundays, the outside vendors take over the streets, selling organic produce, fresh flowers, baked goods, collectibles and antiques. If nothing strikes your fancy, you can seek refuge in any one of a dozen or so eateries. Popular restaurants include the Black Cow Café, Pho 22, Zeke’s Smokehouse and the Star Café, or one of my favorites, La Cabinita, at 3447 N. Verdugo, just down the road.

As tempting as all these restaurants were, I had a special place in mind that Peter had never been to. We headed down Verdugo to pick up the 134 freeway and headed west to Toluca Lake and Riverside Dr., to return to my old stomping grounds in the 70s, where I rented my first apartment on Cahuenga and used to eat at Hamptons restaurant, which was owned by none other than Paul Newman. One day in the 70s, Paul Newman was having dinner with a friend of his, Ron Buck. Buck was a writer, artist and entrepreneur who had, among other ventures, built the 9000 Sunset building, as well as a trendy West Hollywood discotheque known as The Factory. He had worked without credit on several of Newman’s films, and he and the actor would later share credit for the screenplay of the 1984 Harry and Son. Buck was also great at cooking hamburgers on his backyard barbecue. As the story goes, Paul and Ron were grilling hamburgers in the back yard one day when the two joked that their hamburgers were better than what you could buy at most restaurants. Somehow, the suggestion arose that he open a gourmet burger restaurant there … a place where folks in the movie business who could afford better than Hamburger Hamlet could get one of Buck’s specialties, served with a glass of expensive wine. The place was named Hamptons (no apostrophe) because it was to reflect the fun and leisure of vacationing in the Long Island community known as The Hamptons. Various burgers were named for various friends and soon, it became a very “in” spot for folks who worked at nearby studios. It was a great place to spot celebrities and/or talk about that new screenplay, and since screenplay is on our mind, it seemed apropos. Since Hamptons had catered largely to an industry (showbiz) crowd, they instituted an unusual pricing policy. Members of the Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild and Directors Guild paid 10 percent less, while agents had to pay 10 percent more. This location on Riverside Drive was actually the second Hamptons – the only one I’d been to, while the original Hamptons was on Highland in Hollywood.

Mo's Fine Food

Once upon a time, it was impossible to get a table at lunch without a long wait. People loved the eighty varieties of burgers, including Stan’s Fantasy (with sour cream and black caviar), The Nelly Burger (creamed horseradish and bacon) and The Foggy Bottom Burger (peanut butter and sour plum jam). People also loved the little buffet that accompanied each burger, allowing you to further dress your sandwich and pile the plate with salads and side dishes. The menu did not include French fries — odd for a burger joint — but if the German Potato Salad available in the buffet wasn’t to your liking, you could order a platter of Potatoes Hamptons, which was basically hash-browns with sour cream.

Today, Hamptons which was sold in 1995, is called Mo’s Fine Food. The burgers, still delicious, are served with all kinds of exotic, unusual toppings like caviar, peanut butter, sour plum jam, pepper sauce, broccoli and more. There are over 23 kinds of specialty burgers, and they are generously sized half-pound certified angus beef and come with your choice of several sides in their burger bar, a concept they kept from Hamptons. There’s a fun, casual bar right in the middle, where having a mid-afternoon drink seemed perfectly natural. The blue cheese and carmelized onion burger we split was perfect.  I remember the burgers costing about $7 back in the 70s, which, by contrast, makes $12 now seem reasonable. The only difference now is that sadly we’ll never catch a glimpse of Paul Newman. While Peter watched the end of the Duke and Baylor basketball game, I was dreaming about Paul Newman.

Bob's

Iconically, right across the street from Mo’s is Bob’s 49, home of the “Big Boy.” Unlike Mo’s Fine Food, the streamline modern restaurant was packed at four in the afternoon. I don’t know whether it was because of spring break or because “Bob’s 49” is the oldest standing Big Boy in the storied chain, built in, you guessed it, in 1949.

On the south west side of the corner is Papoo’s Hot Dog Show, which has been a neighborhood institution since 1949 and sells hot dogs with more toppings than you can imagine. There’s more on the menu, but we were told the hot dogs were the way to go. Maybe when we decide to see a play at the Falcon Theater, a 130-seat performing arts space on the southeast corner of Riverside and Rose that producer/director Garry Marshall opened in 1997, we’ll grab a gourmet show dog to split.

On the way home, we jumped off the 134 at Glendale Avenue,   last-minute decision to buy some fresh fish at Fish King. It has a great reputation and has been standing since 1948, just north of the freeway.  I hadn’t been in many years, but I remember the premium fresh fish and the made-to-order meals were always very good. Their wild Alaskan salmon was $29.95 a pound, but at that price I’d rather go to Houston’s and have it served to me.

Papoo's Hot Dog Show

Until the next time……

Total trip: 5 hrs., 83.5 miles