Later that fall, I heard from a friend in the know that the place had closed but would soon re-open under a different name...
Little did I know the old Brian's would end up taking over the old Johnny's R. spot on El Cajon Blvd (near the water tower)...
This was the place with the rotating sign! We were bummed because we never had a chance to try Johnny's R. We were always curious because of the spinning sign and the unusual look of the restaurant, which reminded me of some type of weird tree house. In it's past life, it was once the House of Pies.
It turns out that the Johnny's R closed in June of 2012. It's namesake and owner, Johnny Raizian died the year before and the restaurant kind of went of downhill from there.
As of October 2012, the old Johnny's R. reopened as the new Lil B's Urban Eatery. Brian Stout, one of the former owners of Brian's American Eatery, (both were named Brian) revamped this landmark restaurant on the Boulevard into a bright retro diner. Most of the staff of the old Brian's are here and the menu is pretty much the same as Brian's.
The other day, Cathy of Mmm-Yoso and I made lunch plans based on the different coupons I had available. I compiled a list of places ranging from North Park, La Mesa, El Cajon, and Hillcrest. We ultimately decided on Lil b's...
The sign STILL rotates! Pure awesomeness!
When you walk in, it's like The Jetsons meets The Dick Van Dyke Show meets Morris Lapidus all in candy coated technicolor!
Ameboid shapes and cheeseholes abound...
All the light fixtures are different here. No matchy matchy.
When we walked in, it was quite filled up. This shot was taken when the lunch crowd thinned out...
What to order...
Cathy and I liked the orange propeller ceiling fans. I liked this holey metal lamp cage.
Dots and ovals everywhere...
Even their flatware was not devoid of dots. We noticed different colored napkins at each table. The one next to us was a muted teal and avocado green. I really liked these details.
Tea anyone?
After careful consideration, we both chose two different types of sandwiches to share...
Both sandwiches came with a side of choice. Mine was the garden salad with lemon slices in lieu of salad dressing. I opted to wait until my sandwich came before eating it. I don't really like to eat in "courses". Growing up Filipino American, we were used to eating buffet style with all the food on the table and picking and choosing what we wanted to eat. None of this soup or salad first and the main meal next.
Our lunch...
I ordered the Apple Walnut Chicken Salad Sandwich...
This was Cathy's (overly dressed) coleslaw...
which was paired with her Crab Cake sandwiches, a duo on a Hoagie roll served with tartar sauce. Both of our sandwiches came with a pickle spear.
The crumb coating was golden brown and not greasy. Very crisp on the outside with a moist and delicious crab filling. Even better with that tartar sauce. I'm glad that we shared because I kind of liked this better than my sandwich!
My Apple Chicken Walnut Salad Sandwich was piled high with lettuce and tomatoes. Despite being the first word in the title, it was very short on the apples. I only had a few tiny pieces of Granny Smith while Cathy's half had none. The menu description said Swiss cheese, which turned out to be shredded. (I thought it would be a slice). I felt the cheese was unneccesary to the sandwich and didn't really add anything to it. The filling itself was okay, but it didn't have enough apples or walnuts in the salad to provide any flavor or textural contrast. If there were more of these tidbits, I would have liked my sandwich more.
Deconstructed. I usually don't eat too much of the bread.
About my coupon, it required that in order to get one free entree, you would need to buy two beverages. I chose soda (which I normally don't drink) because it was listed as $1.65 on their menu. Restaurants charge so damn much for drinks. Cathy got a hot tea which was charged $2.99. Later at home, I noticed on the receipt that my soda was charges as $2.99. WTF man. Anyways, too late to do anything about that now...
On the positive side, both sandwiches were tasty with more points going to the crab. The entree and side portions were generous as well. Our waiter, Mike was super nice as was the suave gentleman who greeted and seated us. He had the coolest hair a la Tony Manero.
"Would ya just watch the hair?"
For old time's sake, here are some previous posts of Brian's American Eatery:
My post - November 2010
Kirk of Mmm-Yoso - March 2006
Darlene of My Burning Kitchen - April 2011
and Johnny's R:
Kirk - Dececember 2009
A super short post by Dennis of A Radiused Corner - November 2010, plus this article, "Johnny's R Restaurant Sign Stops Spinning" (SD Reader June 2012), and the reviews from yelp.
The old sign in action:
Recent reviews:
UT SanDiego (October 2012)
Yelp (lots of haters there though)
and Michael Lum from quest4thebest who went there the month it opened...
I would give this place another shot with Bert and TC. I'm easy like that.
Lil B's Urban Eatery
3611 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 296-8268
website - none yet. They do have a facebook page though.
With our satisfying lunch, Cathy and I took the scenic route to North Park for a quick coffee and desserts...
3 comments:
Hey CC - We had passed a couple of times and thought about checking them out...but not being the biggest fan of Brian's we thought we'd go sometime after we heard more about the place. Nice write-up!
You got some great pictures. Both of our sandwiches were good, and the chicken salad did taste like chicken- too often I can't tell if its chicken or tuna...but the apples would have ben nice. I hadn't noticed there was a difference in beverage prices :(.
Hi Kirk - Thanks for your kind words. It's worth at least one visit.
Hi Cathy - Thanks! Yes, the chicken was real and not that canned stuffed. I only had two lonely apple pieces. And they suck for overcharging for my damn soda!
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