CJ's WINGS CAFE, Altadena

I was rolling along Altadena Drive with full intent of arriving at In N Out for dinner. Josephine, my long black sultry 1938 Buick had certian other ideas. 1938 Buicks can be kinda head strong/
"We're getting wings" she said , and then made a hard right at Lake Avenue and Altadena Drive, rolled up to the sidewalk and promptly stopped. I peered into Josephine's instrument panel and said

"Whatta you doin? I didn't point you here!"

"You promised to go try this joint out as soon as it opened."

" Yeah, but you know I hate chicken wings, come on let me have a Double Double with raw onion."

"I'm not budging till you keep your promise."

I knew Josephine was right, of course, 1938 Buicks always are. SO here I was in front of the best triangular building Frank Lloyd Wright never did, but originally it was a Luther Eskijian building made for the old local HEADLINER chain of coffee shops. I loved that building and fondly remember the old buttermilk donuts found long ago during my childhood there, and of course the Echo Cafe that I did the remodel drawings for, and where Jeanette and I enjoyed many a really good Lebanese dinner. This was a local small minority owned Altadena business and I, just out of solidarity, had an obligation to try to enjoy it.

A confession here: I hate hot wings. Before Friday night every awful hot wing I had ever eaten, except the ones at Bessie's Daughter's Soulful Taco's, hers were good, was a soggy rubbery overly tomato sauced, yet annoyingly dry meated nasty concoction fit for neither man nor beast. I could not IMAGINE that someone would build a menu around hot wings. Generally speaking if Helga wasn't cooking them, hot wings were not food. Most dogs won't even eat them, and dogs will eat almost anything. So with much trepidation, I got out of Josephine, and as I did, my wife rolled up and was delighted to see me and said "Oh Lambie, you were thinking the same thing! lets eat together before our meetings!" I love that 1938 Buick!

SO in we go. It was the second night the Wing Cafe was open. They were running a managers special, 6 wings, fries and a coke- $6.99. I thought Well, if the wings are your average God Awful affair I'll only be out seven bucks and I just won't finish them and still get to In N Out. So we ordered two managers specials with mild boss sauce. The place was just slammed with people. Altadenans who have had a pent up demand for reasonably priced American fare were finally seeing the potential of this desire being met. Several diners with unfortunate upscale pretentions had failed in this location, and I had always said that what Altadena wanted was a place to get a burger, or some chicken or meatloaf where you could sit down and eat. Why is that such a difficult concept for so many eatery owners?

Jeanette and I chatted with many a Altadenan as we waited for our food. It did take a bit of time to arrive, but like I said, the place was slammed with people and only open its second day. I was certain there were bugs being worked out. It usually takes a place a couple months to get to speed.

Our order arrived. Did I mention I don't really like Chicken wings? Yeah I just don't think bony bits of chicken anatomy mostly skin and scant amounts of hard overcooked yet rubbery meat drowning in tomato sauce and Tabasco are really food. I think they are some kinda industrial waste, generally. I tried a French Fry. IT WAS PERFECT. The french Fry was crunchy on the outside but not burned, moist and soft on the inside, firm to the touch and it tasted like Potato, unlike many a fry that tastes like semi rancid oil or some kind of odd foamy paste frshly assaulted with salt. Real Potato, fried perfectly. I had several more and then looked over at my wings. Man, I thought, these are some momentous wings! Look how big! I picked one up, it was hefty. I bit into it, it was meaty and friends, the meat was perfectly cooked to a nice firm ,well but not overdone, texture. The meat was lightly battered with a batter that kind of rolled into clusters of round deeply fried globs that didn't cover the whole wing, but added a nice crunch. Then the sauce hit.O.K. They screwed up our order. This clearly wasn't the mild, it was the HOT sauce. It was GOOD! Who cares it isn't mild...THIS STUFF IS GOOD. The sauce hits your tastebuds and sings a medley of yum on your tongue. There is the hot hot hot of cayenne, the smokey hot of Chipoltle, a zing of vinegar, some sweet and a distant trace of a small amount of tomato. I kept saying Yeah baby! My tongue and front lip had this burning then this oddly pleasant joyful numb tingling sensation. Ohhhh this was GOOD!I was eating as if I'd been starved for months and before that had never had a decent meal in my life. Oh this was GOOD! the heat kept building, I kept eating, hotter and hotter and just wonderful. Jeanette loved her's too, but the heat was too much and I got her last wing. Yeah get the hot sauce guys, and get the extra wing! Then I almost cried, like Alexander the Great having no more worlds to conquer...I was out of wings. That was a sad moment. Jeanette and I decided to try some more of the menu the next night.

So the next night we drove with maximum giddyness (and when was the last time you were giddy going out to dinner?) over to the intersection of Lake and Altadena. We had to park in the parking lot to the south, all the on street parking was taken and the joint was full. I, who hate a overly full diner and a line, ran with my chubby self uphill to the Wings Cafe. I bet that was a sight.....

Jeanette had the Chicken Tenders and this time with the mild Boss Sauce. They were slices of chicken, not that awful bleached pressed stuff some places make, and Jeanette felt they were better than the wings, being all meat, and cooked the same way. The mild Boss Sauce is very smoky and complex, a wonderful sauce, and it too according to Jeanette warms up on you. I had the C JBoss Burger. Two freshly ground,not frozen sirloin patties, rich slices of cheese, chopped fried sweet onion, tomato, lettuce and Boss Sauce. Move over Pie N Burger, the best burger in the San Gabriel Valley is now in ALTADENA, Baby! Yep, this is da bomb burger!
he of tripple extra largeness and too many chins will have many more of these!

Finally, a note about dessert here:

GET THE CARROT CAKE! You would never know it these days, but carrot cake was invented eighty years ago at the Brown Derby and was a semi health food dessert. Way way back in olden time, the frosting was a lightly sweetened cream cheese. Somehow over the years the cream cheese frosting in most carrot cakes got a bunch of vanilla and so much sugar that the frosting has a brittle crystalline texture and so much sugar that the gigantic pieces generally served make even the most healthy person dizzy. NOT SO HERE!

The cream cheese frosting is smooth and round in your mouth. It's not super super sweet, its slightly so while still maintaining the essence of a dairy product. There are walnuts and carrot that you can TASTE and enjoy in this cake. Its the good stuff!

So he of much girth has a new place to hang, and its in Altadena. CJ's Wing Cafe is the place to be!