Joyce’s Coffee Shop in Northridge sits just north of the railroad underpass near Parthenia Street — a re-emergence into the light of the day that leaves drivers blinking. Which may be the reason that I, for one, have never really paid much mind to Joyce’s before. And that’s kind of sad, since Joyce’s has been in business for 70 years.
It opened in 1955, during Dwight Eisenhower’s first occupancy of the White House. Dick Nixon was his VP. Most families still had black & white TV sets — if they had TV sets at all. It was the year Disneyland became the Happiest Place on Earth.
Which is to say, attention must be paid. And since I have a well-documented passion for the San Fernando Valley’s innumerable breakfast and lunch only spots, it was fated that I’d wind up at the counter at Joyce’s, admiring the wall art paying homage to life in the ’50s, and considering the 50 or so egg dishes — many of which have very likely been served since the very beginning — the kitchen cranks out with Olympic speed.
Joyce’s is a museum of how we used to eat back then. Not across the board, of course. Avocado toast was unheard of back in the ’50s. Loco Moco was first thrown together at the Lincoln Grill in Hilo, Hawaii, back in 1949. But it took many years for it to make its way to American menus. And I have no idea when its hamburger-less spinoff — Loco Loco — was first offered, but not in 1955 is a good guess.
Both Garden Burgers and Beyond Burgers are dishes of our time — and not Ike’s. Plus, the house-made organic watermelon juice and pineapple juice would have made no sense way back when. That’s not how folks rolled back in the day.
Back then, the notion of “organic” and “vegetarian” belonged to the denizens of Topanga Canyon, who read poetry and played the bongos. Veggie Burritos were for the Maynard G. Krebs among us. And so, goodness knows, were egg white omelets. My memory from my callow youth was that omelets were always yellow. The yolk was our friend. (Still is!)
To go back in time, I happily (and hungrily!) order the eggs any style (over easy for me, thank you!) with bacon or sausage (link or patty), pastrami or corned beef, ham or a grilled pork chop, Canadian bacon or country fried steak.
You want a New York strip steak with eggs, it’s here, and the most expensive item on the menu at $19.25. (Heck, I know restaurants where a plate of bread costs more than that! Though the plate does come with fancy French butter.)
More Merrill: Encino restaurant speaks 2 culinary languages – both deliciously
If there’s a breakfast dish that really defines how we ate back then, for me at least it would be the biscuits and gravy with two eggs, a choice of bacon or sausage, and hash browns. It’s a combination that seems downright primordial, from an age when dietary obsessions — with cholesterol, sodium, gluten, animal products — didn’t exist. Far as folks knew, the Mediterranean diet meant you drank red wine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fruitarians would chew their own feet to get protein. Paleo has something to do with people named Ugh who ate brontosaurus steaks. Sushi was a punchline. The Cabbage Soup Diet guaranteed you a week of stomach upsets.
It’s such a pleasure to find classics on the menu like the Philly cheesesteak, the hot pastrami with Swiss, the French dip and the club sandwich. There’s an abundance of melts – patty melt, turkey melt, tuna melt, California melt (chicken breast), even a Beyond Burger melt and a Garden Burger melt. (Meatless with cheese? I guess!)
But aside from the defining nostalgia of the biscuits and gravy, there’s also the BLT. Be sure to ask for the bacon to be extra crispy, as God intended bacon to be, the Brits with their undercooked rashers notwithstanding.
And, if you need dessert, there are ice cream sundaes, ice cream malts, root beer floats. Joyce’s offers pies à la mode. But not Jell-O. Jell-O would be good because, as the slogan used to tell us, “There’s always room for Jell-O!” Even after biscuits and gravy with two eggs and bacon or sausage. Plus hash brown.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Joyce’s Coffee Shop
- Rating: 2.5 stars
- Address: 8826 Reseda Blvd., Northridge
- Information: 818-885-8818; www.joycescoffeeshop.com
- Cuisine: Dating back to 1955, Joyce’s Coffee Shop in Northridge serves many of the classics for breakfast and lunch. No surprises, just the food we all grew up with. Pure nostalgia.
- When: Breakfast and lunch, every day
- Details: Coffee and soft drinks; no reservations
- Prices: About $15 per person
- On the menu: 34 Egg Dishes ($10.95-$19.25), 16 Omelets ($14.95-$17.95), 17 Pancakes & Waffles ($6.95-$15.95), 20 Sandwiches ($13.95-$16.95), 4 Salads ($15.25-$15.75), 10 Hamburgers ($14.95-$16.95), 7 Lunch Specials ($19.95), 7 Desserts ($3.95-$9.95)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)