"culver city" news and stories

• It's still summer. Homemade pops, anyone?
• Waterloo & City puts the fringes of Culver City on the dining map.
• There's dinner theater -- and then there's when dinner becomes theater.
• Got a crabcake emergency? No worries.

Los Angeles has many things to recommend it to the enterprising eater, and Surfas is unequivocally one of them. Why? Well, for one, take a look at this photo. Mycryo Gelatine Substitute. Lots of it. While the vast majority of the population would have absolutely no idea of what to do with it -- sprinkle it? snort it? use it instead of NutraSweet? -- the fact that Surfas carries it in such large quantities is just very cool. So is the shop's eye-popping variety of spices, flours, sugars, extracts, chocolates, nuts, dried beans, butters and -- well, you get the picture.

Geared towards pro chefs who presumably have a need for things like mycryo gelatine substitute (used mainly by pastry toques, as discussed here), Surfas is also a paradise for the less ambitious homecook.

Find out why after the jump.

Though the news clips on their website are no longer available, it seems that Surfas, the restaurant supply store in Culver City, Ca, will be closing as of November 1 this year. The City of Culver City has declared the property on which the store is located "Eminent Domain," and will be using it for a large re-development project. According to food blog Eating LA apparently, owner "Les Surfas, whose father opened the store in 1937, has refused to accept Culver City's offer of $4.89 million to buy the Surfas warehouse." Others are speculating that the store will not close,and will simply move to another location.

• Rumours and discussion at Chowhound
• Save Our Surfas Blog
• News at Eating LA
• Les Surfas answers questions about his refusal of the offer from Culver City to buy

I've always been puzzled by two restaurants next door to each other on Washington Blvd. in Culver City's new downtown. It's not unusual for restaurants to locate in the same area, and even next door to each other - look at mall food courts. But Double Dutch Dinette is right next door to another diner even though there are no other diners in the area, and the area is pretty large.

But my bewilderment only lasted until I actually ate at Double Dutch Dinette because it’s a dinette, not a diner. I always thought a dinette was a table and chairs for under $100 at Ikea, but a dinette is also “a small space usually off a kitchen used for informal dining.” That is a fairly accurate description of Double Dutch Dinette - a small informal little restaurant.

The interior is like a kitschy retro diner. The food, too, is homestyle diner-inspired, but a little more up-scale. Salads dominate the lunch menu – perfect for what I am guessing is an entertainment/studio-heavy clientele (Sony Pictures HQ and studios are all over Culver City). There is everything from simple mixed greens, to classic selections like chef’s and Caesar, to more creative or exotic choices like Beijing chicken and Thai steak. Niçoise, with albacore tuna, red potatoes, and olives chopped and tossed together is my favorite, and the Exotic chicken with apricots, feta cheese and walnuts isn't bad, though I've always wondered what was so exotic about it.

Double Dutch has sandwiches, a few hot entrees, and strictly vegetarian dishes as well, some of them dinette-y like a BLT and turkey meatloaf, and some of them not as dinette-y, like baked polenta and raspberry salmon, which is the most expensive thing on the menu at $13. The dinner menu is almost identical, only a few dollars more expensive for each item.

Double Dutch Dinette
9806 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 280-0991
www.jenniecooks.com/DDD/