TAKING summer visitors on a tour of downtown Los Angeles? Before or after Disney Hall, Olvera Street, Santee Alley and whatever other landmarks are on your itinerary, stop in for breakfast or lunch at Blue Star restaurant, a terrific little cafe located in one of the most visually arresting spots in the state.
Rising around Blue Star is Mid City Iron & Metal, where enormous Caterpillars shovel mountains of scrap metal -- iron fencing, steel file cabinets, all kinds of stoves, bicycles, chairs and dozens upon dozens of unrecognizable bits and pieces of buildings, vehicles, appliances and machines.
The sleek, comfortable cafe, a vine- and graffiti-covered building with a motorcycle parked out front, is in fact in the middle of the scrap-metal district, though hungry workers from nearby garment and textile companies are its main customers.
Chef's finesse
CHEF-OWNER Kash Brouillet, a downtown resident for about 14 years and formerly chef at 410 Boyd, opened Blue Star four years ago in September. His updated American diner menu lists contemporary versions of unpretentious favorites, made with top-quality ingredients, personal touches and plenty of finesse.
Brouillet uses Michel Blanchet fresh smoked salmon for his smoked salmon and scrambled eggs dish, makes his own fruit preserves, has a generous hand with fresh herbs and has created a terrific mushroom-nut vegetarian burger.
Specials rotate daily -- meat loaf on Monday, chicken mole on Thursday, fish and chips on busy Fridays, when the friendly all-pro waitresses run between kitchen and patio all the sunny afternoon with pints of draft beer and orders of golden crisp cod and excellent fries.
On my first visit, I drive on 15th Street from Alameda -- semis to the right of me, semis to the left of me -- and end up in a long line of trucks piled high with scrap metal, my Mustang accidentally funneled into the lane where drivers wait to turn into a yard and drop off their loads.
Gestured away by the yard's gate guard, intimidated and way out-machoed, I am happy to finally park and step into the cool, simple dining room with its black, gray and tan linoleum floor.
Windows look out to a patio enclosed by a corrugated metal fence; there are buckets of silverware and hot sauce on each of the black tables. The walls are trimmed with hubcaps. A flat screen sits over a small counter that seems to double as a bar; there are half a dozen beer taps.
