Good food. Open 24 hours.
Or is it the other way around?
Either way, both are good reasons for eating at The Kettle, an appropriately upscale coffee shop in this affluent beach community located about 10 miles south of Los Angeles International Airport.
The Kettle actually is a cut above the run-or-the-mill café, thanks to the efforts of the brothers who own it. They took a diner soon after it opened 27 years ago and turned it into a stylish eatery offering rather sophisticated fare for this genre of restaurant. Sure, there are the burgers and the fries, the meatloaves and the club sandwiches. But there also is the BBQ Pork Focaccia Sandwich, or the Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken or the Crab Agnolotti pasta.
And what a treat to have all of this available at 10 or 11 o'clock at night when I often find myself most in need of a meal.
Prices here are a touch higher than you might expect at a coffee shop, but so is the quality of the food and its preparation. Plus, the portions are huge, often turning into two meals for me.
My husband and I have tried a number of dishes on the menu over the years and have not been disappointed. I especially enjoy the BBQ Pork Focaccia sandwich ($7.50).
But most often we return to our old favorites-the Chicken with Fruit for my husband and the soup and salad for me (each $7.50). The perfectly roasted half-chicken is accompanied by salad greens and fresh fruit, like watermelon, pineapple and kiwi. For my dinner, I always choose the turkey vegetable soup-better than mama used to make, full of chunky vegetables and big cubes of turkey. My favorite salad is the cobb, huge in size and generous in diced turkey, bacon, avocado and crumbled bleu cheese.
Whatever you do, don't leave before trying the bran muffin. The best I've ever had.
The menu boasts a full breakfast selection. And there's a children's menu as well.
Always good, always dependable, and best of all, always open.
