Louisiana Fish

Have you been there? Please report. Sure looks funky. I can't tell from the outside if I mean that in a good way or a bad way. But I'm intrigued.

Corner of Washington and Catalina, north end of Bungalow Heaven, west end of East Washington Village.

(Update: A well-liked spot. Bellis sends this link.)

Favorite

Yesterday we talked about light, and also about coffee shops. I got to thinking: if I had to choose, what would be my favorite coffee shop in Pasadena?

That's an easy one. I mean, if I had to choose, which I don't.

I love Penny For Your Thoughts for the beautiful clothes, unusual gifts (antique, handmade and/or new) and just plain wonderful atmosphere. It's also a sweet little coffee shop. Everyone who's ever been there loves the place. Yet it never feels crowded.

This photo shows the rear entrance from the parking lot, where there's plenty of room for our cars. We should meet there one of these days! You can get your Christmas shopping done in one fell swoop.

I should have saved this post because they're not open Sundays. Stop by and see Millie soon, but not today.

Talbott Electric

One of our lamps stopped working.

We stuck it in the garage and figured we'd do something about it sooner or later.

Then another lamp stopped working.

John knows how to fix a socket but it turns out these things were not normal. They were newfangled. They cost many bucks, on sale, warranty long gone.

I know what to do! Buy new lamps!

(or)

stop by Talbott Electric and find out if the lamps can be fixed.

Talbott is the place on Washington Blvd. with the vintage neon sign. (I'll post a photo of that sign one of these days.) They've been a Pasadena institution since 1924. Besides fixing lamps they offer complete electrical services. In the store, they also have some charming Craftsman-type fixtures. None of that Lamps Plus homogeneity.

The display cases inside the front door are my favorite part. They're loaded with strange antique fixtures, switches and oddments. Note "nurses room" and "nurses closet" on the typed sheet. Time travel.

Despite their oldfangled collection, Talbott fixed my newfangled lamps for less than 5% of what it would have cost to buy new ones.

Sandwiches by Connal

We were hungry, and as is often the case we couldn't bring ourselves to cook. All we wanted was a sandwich.

What we got was neighborhood regulars regaling us with recommendations ("Ask for well-done fries, they do 'em a little light--you'll learn...") and stories ("Did you see that youtube video...") and ideas for next time ("You hafta try the burger, put that on your list.").

Cash only, but if you don't have enough there's an ATM inside. The BLTs were fresh--not fancy, but they didn't scrimp on bacon. The avocado fries were spicy and they give you a lot. But what's really great about Connal's is the small-town, neighborhood feel.

Mess Up Your Paintbox

When I was a kid there was always art class in school. From fingerpainting in kindergarten to more sophisticated projects later on, my classmates and I had a chance during the school day to make something.

My junior high school art teacher was an unperturbable man with silver hair and dark-rimmed glasses who moved slowly through the room as we worked. I won't lie, sometimes we giggled and passed notes--it was junior high, after all. But most times we worked furiously, engrossed in our projects. Art was a fun class. We looked forward to it.

I feel guilty for not remembering the teacher's name. But more importantly, I remember him encouraging me to "mess that up a bit" or "try splashing." I thought he was terribly sophisticated and wise.

I didn't become a great painter but I learned to mess things up a bit. For a girl who felt internal pressure to get things perfect, this was a valuable lesson.

I'm sorry some kids don't have art class in school today. However, there may be hope in the workshops at Paintbox Kids, 1383 E. Washington Blvd. You can sign your little one up for "Ladybug Picnic with Queen Laura," "Lego Engineering" or even "Light Saber Training," which I must witness before I die. (Can a fly on the wall have a camera?)

They also offer open studio, which your child can attend with or without you (check the website and/or call for the details). An open studio full of kids making art sounds like wild fun to me. I hope they mess the place up a bit. I hope they try splashing.

What do you do to mess up your paintbox?

Shiny Penny

Penny for Your Thoughts is my favorite shop in Pasadena. I've said it before: there's no other store like it. Vintage garden items, handmade clothes, old books, jewelry, china--plus coffee, food and free wifi--it's where you go to get a gift for someone who has everything, even if that someone is you.

When I stopped by the other day the store was in an uproar because they were getting new shelves. But I can always find a pretty vignette in this unusual shop. I'd blog about the place more often if I had more ready cash. I did spend some money this visit: got a couple of iron candle sconces for the garden. The thing I love about them besides their charm is that I'll be the only one in town who has them. You can't get anything like them at OSH.

Around the corner from Penny for Your Thoughts another delightful boutique was in a different kind of uproar. In fact, the shelves going into "Penny" came out of Motif, a beautiful gift store that's closing after several years of success. As she rang up my purchase, owner Stephanie Plumb Miller told me, "Nothing negative about this. It's all positive."

Penny for Your Thoughts is at 1365 N. Hill Ave., (626) 798-1631. Motif is at 1389 E. Washington Blvd. (The two stores share the parking lot behind.) Motif is selling off everything, including fixtures, at huge discounts. On September 3rd they had several items left, including Christmas decorations. Call first to see if they're still open, (626) 398-5038.

Update from Susan C, 9/7/10 3:25pm: "I drove by Motif today and the 'closed' sign is in the window."

Thanks, Susan.

Brainy Cooking

Cook Books, the one-of-a-kind cookbooks store on Washington Blvd. in Pasadena, is like a complete brain, with left and right hemispheres.

The left hemisphere would be the store's well-organized website. Faced with what seems an endless mound of books, you might think the right hemisphere is the store itself. But owner Janet Jarvits (whose brain contains all of Cook Books) or Webmaster Richard can point you directly to what you're looking for. In fact, the store is as organized as the website, with a selection so vast you'll find all you want and then some. As Jarvits says, Cook Books is the largest out-of-print cookbook store open to the public. But if you get lost browsing, don't worry. The cats will come and find you.

I bought a vegetarian cookbook. But if you want a recipe for brains, I'll bet you a dollar Cook Books has what you're looking for, and it won't take but a minute to find it.

Theme Day: My Favorite Local Shop

The City Daily Photo blog community shares a theme day the first of each month. This month's theme asks, "What is your favorite corner store or local shop in your city?"

The first time I walked into Penny for Your Thoughts at 1365 N. Hill Avenue, it seemed someone had gone into my brain to find out what I liked, and put all those things into one store. Vintage books, cute fashions, unique gifts, unusual purses and shoes, antiques and classy junque are all so charmingly arranged I wanted to just sit and appreciate it. Which I did, while enjoying a cup of fresh-brewed coffee and a locally-baked gourmet cookie, at one of the shop's funky café tables.

This eclectic place came not from my brain but from that (those) of two sisters, Liz and Millie, who grew up in Pasadena and opened the store in November of 2003. They run the place with a staff member or two, and occasionally a bubbly baby to brighten the mix.

Coffee and free wifi with fun, fashion, funk and fabulousness. What could be better? I don't know another shop like it.

174 City Daily Photo blogs are participating in today's theme. Check them out here.

Loading Dot

This might be the cleanest loading dock I've ever seen. It faces the alley behind Cook Books and The Archives Bookstore on Washington Blvd. at Hill. (The mind-boggling Cook Books store will be featured here Monday.)

I think this is an early 20th century building, say, before about 1940. It's easy to make such a guess, as Pasadena was incorporated in 1886.

The "dots" on the upper part of the building are washers or plates that anchor reinforcing bolts, or tie rods, to protect the building from bowing. Some plates are even designed to prevent bolt heads from pulling through the brick. You can tell by the relatively random pattern that the tie rods were added later and not part of the original design. You'll see a lot of these around Pasadena in older buildings, because tie rods are popular (if sometimes futile) in earthquake zones.

Pasadena has a lot of these old brick buildings, well-preserved and put to good use. They feel Midwestern to me, and since I grew up in Illinois, it's one reason I feel so at home here. You can't beat it—a bit of Midwest, with California weather.

Companions

As usually happens, I was on my way to take pictures of something else when this pair of old friends caught my eye in East Washington Village, on Washington near Hill.

Good things come in twos. And in pink!