An homage to kitsch and kindness
In 1935, the United States was reeling from the Great Depression and many Americans were poverty-stricken and hungry. That’s when Clifford Clinton founded Clifton’s Brookdale Cafeteria in Los Angeles, the second in a chain of what would become a dozen themed eateries. He was a Bay Area boy whose father and grandfather were in the restaurant industry. But Clinton wasn’t just a restaurateur; a man of charity, he was driven to help the poor. Clifton’s Cafeteria was guided by the ethos “No guest need go hungry for lack of funds.” During the restaurant’s first three months of business, Clinton gave away 10,000 lunches for free. His generosity nearly sank him into bankruptcy.
Current owner Andrew Meieran tries to stay true to the spirit of Clinton’s compassion. His hope is to employ people from local shelters, like the Midnight Mission, who have received training in food and hospitality. The challenge is how to support these workers as they achieve success. It’s an honorable goal in progress.
Info
Address 648 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014, Tel +1 213.627.1673, www.cliftonsla.com | Public Transport Purple and Red Lines to Pershing Square Station, then a .3-mile walk | Getting there Paid lots and metered street parking | Hours Cafeteria: Mon–Fri 11am–9pm, Sat-Sun 10am–9pm; Monarch Bar: daily 11am–2am; Gothic Bar: daily 6pm–2am| Tip It’s just a 10-minute walk to the famous Millennium Biltmore Hotel (506 S Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90071), where the Academy Awards were held in the 1930s. An afternoon tea in the Rendevous Court is a nice way to experience the hotel’s , history and grandeur.
Meieran spent millions renovating the restaurant over five years. Remaining loyal to Clifton’s original interior design, he carefully restored the first floor to its 1930s appearance, evoking a sense of being enveloped in the redwood forests of Santa Cruz, where Clinton once hunted. A giant fake redwood extends from the second through fourth floors. The walls adjacent to the sequoia on all three levels have seamless murals of trees painted on them.
Also on the first floor is the beloved tiny two-seat chapel. The diorama within it fell into disrepair, but under Meieran’s guidance now depicts mountains blanketed with trees. A recorded voice once intoned within the shrine: “If you stand very still in the turmoil of life, and you wait for the voice from within, you’ll be led down the quiet ways of wisdom and peace, in a mad world of chaos and din.”
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