Cafe Laneaux

The next time you feel like having a big breakfast in the middle of the day, you might think about driving down to Cafe Laneaux. It's located at 8501 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90044 (telephone 323-752-8515). The two-story brick building is on the southwest corner of Vermont and 85th Street, across from the city's Mark Ridley Thomas Constituent Service Center. Take the Harbor 110 Freeway, exit at Manchester, and go west across Figueroa, Hoover and Vermont. I cross Vermont, turn right on Kansas Avenue, and find free street parking on 84th or 85th street. The area is safe during the day. If you don't want to park on side streets, metered parking along Vermont Avenue is 25 cents an hour.

Cafe Laneaux is one of the few family-owned sit-down restaurants in this area of South Central Los Angeles. (The community is so plagued with fast food chain stores that it asked the city council for a moratorium on building any more.) Los Angeles city councilman and former police chief Bernard Parks eats at the cafe, as do many law enforcement officers. It is open from 8 am to 6 pm daily.

Sandra Underwood owns and operates Cafe Laneaux, together with her daughter Lashawn and grandson John. It opened in about 2005 after a long battle with the city over upgrades to the sewer and other requirements for its aging building. Breakfasts of ample proportions are served all day. They feature a wide variety of meats, including pork or turkey bacon, pork links, pork or chicken or vegetarian sausage patties, ground beef patties, Louisiana pork or beef hot link sausages, corned beef hash, Spam, salmon croquettes, catfish, red snapper, chicken wings, ham steak or New York steak. Three-egg omelets, breakfast burritos, waffles, pancakes and French toast are served. Sides include hot grits, home style potatoes, steamed rice, hash browns, sliced tomatoes, fresh fruit and cottage cheese.

Lunch at Cafe Laneaux features salads, Po' Boy sandwiches of hot links, catfish, red snapper or shrimp, hot and cold sandwiches, a variety of hamburgers, and platters (such as chicken wings and shrimp) with a side, garlic bread and a small green salad. There is often a daily special. One recent day it was Barbecued meat with two sides (from dirty rice, macaroni salad or garden salad), with a choice of links, ribs, rib tips, beef brisket or pulled pork for the meat. Sundays Sandra Underwood moves into the kitchen herself to prepare soul food. It's the cafe's biggest day.

Cafe Laneaux is a work in progress. On a recent trip, Sandra proudly showed us the newly redecorated rest rooms that she had done herself. The ladies' room was bright pink with large, colorful framed pictures and a giant ornate mirror over the wash stand. In the back room, which can accommodate groups of 12 to 20 people, there was a newly installed corner stage. The cafe had opened to a Friday night karaoke session after its 6 pm closing. It was very successful, drawing over 70 guests, and Sandra plans to continue this every other Friday night.

The area around Cafe Laneaux is safe, and your visit will be pleasant, if a little different. Please note that not all parts of South Central are the same. For example, Figueroa Street around Manchester is a pretty gritty neighborhood where people with light skin and fancy cars will stand out. On Manchester near Figueroa you'll see a storefront church that explicitly welcomes the homeless and drug addicts and announces that it feeds daily. Drive right on by.