By Henry Rosenfeld Ocean Park
The wonderful old green-and-white clapboard Ocean Park Cafe has closed. The venerable hangout by the Santa Monica Airport on Ocean Park Boulevard near Centinela Avenue, next to the old-time Cadillac repair shop, served the finest in breakfast sausage and an even better hot turkey plate special for nary more than $5.95 every Thursday. The family of Alejandra and her brothers say their father has sold it to the motel owner around the block on 32nd. But it is closed for a while now and I’ll miss it dearly while cherishing the memories: The time they stayed open late and sold sodas to the overheated on both sides out front protesting or praising Bush and Arnold’s appearance at a posh Republican fundraiser at the airport, we lining the corners as the cops kept us apart and out of the intersection, all of us waiting for a glamorous presidential limousine -- men in suits in vans, actually — that never did roll by (they took the back way in). And did I mention the turkey special every Thursday? Where am I gonna go now for giblets? The neighborhood’s going through them changes... ARGGGGGHHH!
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 2, 2006. Read the original PDF.