The Year of Unappetizing Food Photos

Last night, dear readers, we went to Damon's. As you can see, the sky was a bit threatening, but we threw caution to the wind! We were celebrating Valentine's Day early, because the next two weekends will be madness!

Damon's is a Glendale, California, institution. We haven't been there for about 8 years. When I worked at a catering house in Glendale 15 years ago, we went to Damon's all the time, with friends, with co-workers, or for cozy moments.


I took a shot of the lamp over our table because I found it odd. The casing is set inside a black hurricane or cylinder that has a cut-out with colored glass set in it in no particular shape whatever. I'm sure there's a name for this type of lamp but I'm too lazy to sit on my ass and google it. And now that I look at it again, it looks like Batman's cowl fashioned from stained glass. Weird.

One of my favorite movies is The Apartment. I didn't realize until we'd been visiting Damon's for awhile that several scenes in The Apartment were filmed at Damon's. If you love The Apartment, you may recognize the ambiance, and then again, you may wish to turn away. I love it for the kitschyness and the tropical feel. And the way I've been missing Hawaii (home of our timeshare), I was just in the mood for this atmosphere.



This is a shot taken from our booth, of the lamps and ceiling. I'm a ceiling fan.
(No, not in the rotating sense!) I like to notice ceilings. They can be fabulous, or a horror. I like Damon's ceilings.



The woman here is our server. She is one of the veterans and is very business-like and a multi-tasker, like most of Damon's staff. She can work the dry wit like the best of 'em, and doesn't give up a smile easily. I had to earn it.


Damon's largest aquarium. I try to get a booth by this flatscreen, because the pictures always change. The big spiny fish isn't in this shot, but he's majestic. If you look to the right of the yellow fish's tail, you can see an eel face. Eek!


I tried to get a shot of the adjacent wall. I love that wall!



We didn't bother to photograph the food when it was actually appealingly untouched. Here is our first course--cocktails. One of them even had shrimp in it! If you look closely, you can see the paint in my nail from working on tags all afternoon. (I did wash my hands before having my chi-chi.)


A plethora of sides. I have to try everyone's onion rings (which can be a horrifying experience at times). These were pretty good. Not great. The French bread was so-so. The salad brought back fabulous memories. It's always COLD. They keep it cold, they serve it in cold bowls, and I think one of the ingredients is shave ice. It's fabulous, tangy and sweet, with beets.


After the shrimp, the bread, the onion rings and the salad, it was hard to really get too far into the New York (perfection), or the twice-baked potato (a triumph). This is not Hawaiian cuisine, folks. This is the vittels of the fly-over states.


As we left, I got a few shots of the large entry area with the bars and the banquette where diners wait to be seated. Apparently, they're having an all-you-can-eat buffet with complimentary chi-chi's and mai-tai's for the Super Bowl. $100. per person, $10. per kid. They offered me a discount for not talking.



Here's the waiting-area bar.

And below is the sports bar. Top of the line theatre, here! Don't laugh. Where the chi-chi's are, anything can happen.



It was lovely to see that some things don't change much. Yay for Damon's!


Next Up: Chris has an angioplasty.