Around the neighborhood: 2 hello agains and 1 good-bye
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 6:32A little while back I wrote up a short review on Rita Flora on 3rd and La Brea.
I recently noticed the kitchen looked dark and decided to check out the web page and found out the kitchen has closed after 17 years of operation but the florist part of the business remains.
While walking around the Farmer’s Market, I finally noticed the venerable Dupars has completed its renovations and is open again. It has actually been open since the beginning of the year but I hadn’t noticed! Of course, I went in and had a breakfast of beef hash and eggs with coffee.
Lastly, continuing on the venerable LA restaurants theme, the Hamlet (formerly Hamburger Hamlet) is trying to re-assert itself onto the scene. One of my co-workers received some coupons from the nearby Hamlet which I suppose is part of their marketing campaign. Well, it worked! We went and enjoyed their burgers for lunch. I also checked out their web page and found out their new web site launched on February 15, 2007. While mousing around the web page, I see they are offering a half-priced appetizer happy hour.
By Rene (see more of his posts). You can find more of Rene's writing at his own website Rene's Ramblings
Chris Barrus says:
March 20th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I’m not sad to see Rita Flora’s kitchen go dark. The food was great, but the service was the worst (regardless of time of day) I’ve experienced anywhere. I thought that the bad service was maybe an anomaly, but the Citysearch and Chowhound commentary confirmed it.
Artista says:
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Is Dupars any better now? I ate there before the renovations and it was honestly the worst greasy spoon food I’ve EVER had. The food was so disgusting that I took a picture of it. I had grilled cheese & fries. There was barely any cheese on the bread and the fries were soggy and cold. Has it improved?
Rene says:
March 27th, 2007 at 8:43 am
8-)
I have to say I’ve only had breakfast food at Dupars and it is pretty hard to mess up bacon and eggs!
As for Rita Flora’s Kitchen, I ate there a few times and the service was just fine and I liked the food. I did feel though that Rita Flora’s pricing was a tad high even for the high prices we normally have to deal with as part of living and dining on the Westside
The big challenge of running a restaurant: consistently good service and quality food such that people come back. The challenge of reading restaurant reviews is whether the report reflects a good day, a bad day or a typical day?
I suppose in that regard, longevity counts for something … a restaurant that consistently falls short in some aspect of the business (service, food quality, pricing to value ratio, ABC city cleanliness ratings or atmosphere) will go out of business.