The Nickel Makes LAT Column One

By Ed Fuentes
Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008, at 10:33AM

Ed Fuentes [Flickr]

Pastry chef Sharlena Fong, who the LAT piece notes previously worked under restaurateur Thomas Keller.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — For 40 years to the month, LAT’s “Column One” has sat on the front page, a staple that features local, national, and international stories of interest.

Today, Monica May and Kristen Trattner make the front page with Cara Mia DiMassa’s “The Nickel dishes up a big helping of downtown L.A.”. It’s a great account of the two owners’ journey to open up a restaurant in a block that was known by its negatives.

The Nickel opened just under a month ago to very good reviews among the Downtown community. Immediately it was the sort of place where if you indulged by going back a second day in a row, you were likely to see a handful of other people seated near you who were also dining back to back.

People in the neighborhood are obviously excited about the new option. As the Times piece notes, it took the community buying in ahead of time to make the Nickel happen. Julie Swayze of Metropolis Books and Jim and Celia Winstead of Raw Materials are interviewed as investors.

It’s not often a brand-new diner makes the front page of the Times. That’s worth some congratulations.

The Nickel Opens 2009 on a High Note
December 30, 2008
Nickel Diner Adds Dinner Hours for Art Walk
September 09, 2008
The Nickel Diner Opens on Main Street
August 27, 2008

Comments

Bert Green writes:

Great story. And yes, big congratulations to the Nickel!

# on Sep.20.2008 AT 03:57 PM

christopher writes:

those crazy bacon donuts are ridiculous. i feel slighty sheepish when i order them… and am faced with the dilemma of stat-dose Lipitor or an extra hour of cardio at Gold’s to reconcile the guilt. but what-the-hell, they’re DAMN good!

they were PACKED this morning. locals, ya gotta get there early before all of the hollywood peeps take over the place.

# on Sep.21.2008 AT 02:11 AM

meekorouse writes:

made it there around 1130 for brunch and they were out of potatoes already! (omg!) but I didn’t despair too much, as I love their bacon burger and the onion rings are excellent.

I got a couple ‘ding dongs’ to go.. the frosted filling on the inside could put a person into diabetic insulin overload. Still it was chocolaty good & sweet. Eating one of those for the fulfillment of a chocolate craving now & again.. omg. food happiness! ;)

# on Sep.21.2008 AT 01:23 PM

cf writes:

after reading about nickle diner on several blogs and seeing the article in the times, my husband and i decided to check it out. got there a little after 10am for breakfast. atmosphere was a little chaotic for some reason unbeknown to us but friendly staff. we arrived just after 10am and they were already out of potatoes. food was decent enough but $3.50 for a tiny glass of orange juice, really??? think we will stick with cafe metropol for breakfast from now on.

# on Sep.21.2008 AT 07:42 PM

browne writes:

Oranges are expensive. Nickle’s oj is freshly squeezed. If you squeezed your own glass of freshly squeezed orange juice it would cost over 3.50 and it would take quite a bit of time and mess to get it done.

The prices aren’t Clifton prices, but you get what you pay for. I would rather pay a little bit more and have a place (that seems invested in the community) survive than pay less and have bad food and have it fail.

And Cafe Metropol is a bit far to walk from the Historic Core. We need more than two places to eat in the morning around here, the Standard is too much of an adventure just to get breakfast.

We badly need a place open at 7:30 that doesn’t serve vomit inducing food (or tempting ten dollar cocktails) and now we have it. Thank god. I wish they opened at 7am or 6:30am.

I got sick of waiting until 11:30 (when Pete’s opens) in the morning in order to eat or having to pick up a crossaint at one of those horrible chain places.

# on Sep.22.2008 AT 02:50 PM

bromike666 writes:

+1 on the bacon & maple donuts.

# on Sep.22.2008 AT 03:28 PM

loveandhatela writes:

I loved the LA Times piece on The Nickel and with pictures too. I wished it was run on a weekday (mon-fri) rather than on a weekend-Saturday.

# on Sep.26.2008 AT 10:34 AM

Bert Green writes:

The LA Times story wwas supposed to run on Wednesday but the economic meltdown pushed the story to the weekend.

# on Sep.28.2008 AT 02:30 PM