Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A Kitschtastic Father's Day

For Father's Day, my husband's dad surprised us with dinner at this joint not too far from our house. He loves the 50s movies, cars and music, and knows that I love everything retro, and he thought we'd love it. He was right! It was kitsch overload and 1950s Americana retro heaven!

The menu is huge, and I was delighted to find a delicious avocado sandwich on rye amongst all the burgers, hot dogs and fries. If my readers from other countries have ever wondered why Americans can get so fat, just look at the next two photos.

Our food, Grandpa and Daddy-O and two hungry and over-stimulated kids.

The whole place was jam-packed with repro tin signs, old toys, movie posters, etc.

Even an old Chevy coming right through the wall. I tried to do one of those "look, I'm holding up something really heavy" shots with Miss June...these are really hard to do with wiggly kids.

A couple of my favorites: Elvis, of course...

and my perennial favorite, Marilyn...

This one is especially for Keith of The Dino Lounge:

And for all of you retro-renovators wondering what to do with those unsightly vertical blinds, here's an idea:

Just spray-paint giant portraits of your favorite stars of yester-year! Just kidding - that's a bit too kitschy, even for me!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day and a great weekend!

17 comments:

  1. What a fun restaurant! I love places like that!

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  2. Wow! That is kitsch overload! Is there an empty place anywhere in that restaurant?? Look at all the food!! ;)

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  3. What, no post about Miss June's B-day party?! I was looking forward to that one, too. :(

    I have to say, this diner looks a bit over-the-top. Ruby's or Johnny Rocket's is more how I roll! But it looks like y'all had fun, and that's what matters. Plus, it does seem quite thoughtful of Bob. He knew that YOU would like it, but what about Steven? I didn't think that he appreciated the old, kitschy shtuff like you do...

    The girls are looking cute as ever, btw!

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  4. I used to love going to a restaurant like that. Each table had a tiny juke box that you could put a quarter in and choose a song. I loved the retro feel of it.

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  5. Wow, that post made me hungry! I'm off to Nation's (it's like a 50's style burger shack near us that has updated itself through the years, so now it looks a little 80's, but unlike Mel's, Nations is the real thing! Huge burgers too), OK, now I'm making myself hungry; time to go!

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  7. I love your blog! I nominated your for a Lemonade Award - details of which are here (no, I hadn't heard of it either):
    http://kaybar007.blogspot.com/2009/06/lemonade-award.html

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  8. Wow! That is so cool. I would love to visit that joint. It looks awesome. Thanks. That was definitely right up my alley. Cheers!

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  9. Looks like a fun (but very busy) place. Those portions are disturbingly large. We used to have a hangout called the Greasy Spoon. It was a great 50s place with those little table jukeboxes. We still miss it.

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  10. Wow!
    Your weren't kidding about the overload!
    That place is fab-u lous!!

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  11. Cute! Nothing beats a good old-fashioned diner burger!!!

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  12. Kitschy yes (but really fun) - looks like a perfect place to spend Father's day with the family. And I'll bet the food is soooo gooood!

    Thanks so much for your kind words of encouragement for me about my Dad. He's doing much better and it even looks like he'll be able to make it to Florida for my wedding - hooray!

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  13. Oooh, I've been here! I was amazed the first time I went. Had no idea something like that could exist in So Cal outside of Los Angeles! Ha!

    Btw, love the blog!

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  14. Holy smokes, thats a lot of fries! I love that it was a dad that did the suprising on fathers day :P

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  15. love the kitsch on Hound Dog Street. Your family looks like thet had fun and am crazy for the checks all over!!

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