101 Coffee Shop

July 5th, 2006 (by David)

Swingers...

It was the day after the fourth of July. Which made it the fifth of July when the Burger Tour met at the 101 Coffee Shop on Franklin Ave where Hollywood meets Los Feliz. In spite of many hangovers and singed eyebrows from holding firecrackers too close to their faces there was a strong turnout of at least 22 people who filled out their burger tour report card. D.W. Rolland, that being me, served as impartial observer. He chose this location due to the groovy jukebox, the great sweet potato fries, and the proximity to his West Coast headquarters.

At 8:00 PM tourists began coming through the front door. There was confusion among the servers and busboys that twenty people is not ten people and that we would actually need enough space for twenty people. An outraged Heather wrote, “The waiter didn’t want to give us chairs because he wanted them for other customers!” Chris Caballero attempted to take matters into his own hands. He grabbed some chairs, which were promptly taken away. Mr. Caballero was given a stern talking to for his proactiveness.  But eventually, surrounding customers fled and the Burger Tour was able to claim the entire back room to themselves. This back room was then wasted as barely any alcohol was imbibed, tourists preferred floats and milkshakes to beer. Although one glass of red wine was floating around the tables.

Around 8:30 the burgers started being served. Slim Slender commented, “I was going to dance on the table and make a scene about not getting my burger. Then I ate half my fries and found it!”  This might have been just as well as most people found the burgers average, but dug the mixture of sweet potato and normal French Fries. As Angie wrote, “the burger didn’t blow my socks off”. Ace of Hearts (who knew cards could talk?) critiqued the burger as “oddly dry despite being nearly rare”.   Matt was in the minority. He thought it was a “great burger” and liked the spicy mayo. Monica also enjoyed the meat and the onions.

Around 9:15 Lincoln stood up at the head of the table and seemed as though he was about to make a toast. He head faked us all and instead made a speech. He said he had a dream about a burger tour around Southern California and now that it was July he was half way done. When asked what he was half way done with, Lincoln ignored the question and changed the subject toward the police cars he had just purchased. Everyone then continued chomping on their food.

The general consensus seemed to be that it was a great atmosphere with the 70s diner décor, framed photographs of random children on the wall, and its  historical significance of being the diner where Vince Vaughn danced on the table in the 90s coming of age classic “Swingers”, but this was nowhere near the best burger in Los Angeles. As surfing swami and renowned philosopher Whitney Tucker said on his way out of the 101 Coffee Shop, “I’ve had better, but I’ve also had worse.”