By Lisa Hix — Tall windows flood the vast dining room with natural light, illuminating a minimalist mix of rectangular and round tables—each ringed by tasteful, Modernist chairs—beneath a grid of industrial light fixtures and exposed wooden beams. Is this the city’s hottest new restaurant that everyone's been talking about, the one with the locally sourced ingredients served on artfully presented plates? No, it's the new T.G.I. Friday’s. “It was like you opened the door to your grandmother’s attic, and...

Coin-Op Cuisine: When the Future Tasted Like a Five-Cent Slice of Pie

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — Life in 2015 isn’t quite what we were promised in the last century's science-fiction fantasies: We don’t live on the moon, commute to work in autonomous flying cars, or get homework help from friendly robot maids. And yet, our predictions for food service—fully cooked meals delivered instantly at the push of a button—became a reality more than 50 years before "The Jetsons" ever aired. Starting in the 1890s, people flocked to a new type of restaurant whose walls were lined with futuristic...

L.A.'s Wildest Cafeteria Served Utopian Fantasy With a Side of Enchiladas

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — On a decrepit block of Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, hidden behind a dilapidated, aging façade, lies the ghost of a palatial dining hall filled with towering redwoods and a gurgling stream. Known as Clifton’s Brookdale Cafeteria, this terraced wonderland recalls a different time, when cafeterias were classy and downtown living was tops. Against all odds, the Brookdale outlasted attacks from notorious L.A. mobsters and decades of neighborhood decline. Over the last few years, Clifton's...