Comfort at Cliffords

 Comfort at Cliffords







Gone, gone, gone. All vestige of gracious living! Gone completely!- Miss Alma "Glass Menagerie"


      Greg and I often mused about the wonderful places from our past that were gone forever. Even in a town like South Gate there were restaurants where you experienced a feeling you would find nowhere else in the city. There was the Taco Kid, the Crystal Room, the Pancake Corner, the Stein and over on Pacific boulevard in Huntington Park a wonderfully traditional caffeteria called Cliffords (no relation to Clifton's). It hit the sweet spot for Greg and I loved visiting the place for breakfast. When I was a saleman  on Friday evenings I stopped in for the sirloin tips on rice. In the mornings the place was immaculate and smelled divine, like bacon and maple syrup drenched flapjacks. Behind the buffet counter were the efficient ladies in starched white uniforms who ladled with care the dollops of scrambled eggs, pork sausage links, short stacks and perfectly grilled bacon. As a matter of fact I stole a Greg term and referred to the women as "the bacon nurses" in their sanitary white uniforms. Cliffords was run like a Swiss watch by a manager who kept the place stress-free, sparkling clean and inviting keeping mugs brimming with Mannings coffee at all times. As a matter of fact, local politicos and businessmen used to meet up and sit together at a big table  for coffee and the settling of civic business. Cliffords even kept wooden pegs on the wall where each of the big butter and egg men could hang their personalized coffee cups. Yes indeed, there was a cup for John Sheehy up on a hook.  Greg liked the story I told when I got up early one weekday and made a bee-line to Cliffords for a gut-buster breakfast and sat down in one of the cozy booths to enjoy a high-calorie feast. Before I knew it a shabby-looking guy slid into the booth across from me and I was greeted with a sour ass smell as he began a pitch to get some money off me. Within seconds, the afore mentioned manager was on the case and shagged the guy so that none of his customers could be disturbed. He did not mince words but just brusquely said "alright buddy, beat it!"




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