Every day at the Gaffey Street Diner

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

A visit by any Food Network star almost assuredly brings restaurants some fame—a gentle influx, perhaps, of eaters looking to try all the lauded houses of home cooking. But at Gaffey Street Diner, it’s easy to forget that the network’s bleached-blond host Guy Fieri once made an appearance—the restaurant’s turn on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is remembered only by a pair of framed stills stuck near the door. Most diners who filter in don’t come for a taste of television’s few minutes of fame, but out of regularity. More importantly, they come because at Gaffey Street Diner, just about every plate serves up Kong-sized portions.

It’s those big plates that define the diner, a box of a place planted right where the Vincent Thomas dips into Gaffey Street, open every day (even in those sometimes sunless hours of the morning). It’s a good sign, too, that as appetites steer toward afternoon tastes, the restaurant stays full delivering order after order with steady speed.

There’s not much to take in while you settle on an order—a cafeteria-style setup with alternating walls of brick red and banana yellow—but Gaffey Street Diner doesn’t break any breakfast conventions, so it shouldn’t be too hard to decide. The menu is a down-home one, offering everything from chorizo to biscuits cooked up from scratch.

Plenty of the diner’s finer moments logically form around its egg-based dishes. You can order them on the side and cooked any way you like—of course. But at Gaffey Street Diner that’s a waste: Instead, try building your own huge omelet. The in-house chorizo is a good choice here—a nearly greaseless mix of meat folded into the eggs to give the thing a slight, albeit mild bite (though a quick spoonful of the restaurant’s homemade salsa easily ups the heat).

But omelets don’t even begin to scrape Gaffey Street Diner’s heavier hits. The ultimate meal here is the John Wayne, a dish borrowed from Eat At Joe’s in Redondo Beach and served now as a holdover for anyone with a desire to gain a few pounds in a single sitting. The dish is a heap of food about the size of a toddler—it takes two hands to carry and at least two people to eat. Size doesn’t always equal quality, but the John Wayne is pleasing for what it is: a tortilla topped with home fries, two eggs and cheese all bathed in a peppered red sauce and surrounded by slices of sausage.

On the somewhat lighter side are a few of the diner’s doughier standbys. The pancake sandwich, for instance, is a mix of all the breakfast regulars, but also a disappointing misnomer of a dish that’s a lot of pancake (and eggs and your choice of pig-borne meat on the side) but no sandwich. That’s not to say that it doesn’t satisfy, but you can’t help but wish the dish were true to its name—put a breakfast sandwich on a menu, and I picture the original McGriddle. The French toast, on the other hand, lands every expectation—a latticed pile of thick, griddled bread that’s never stacked too sweet (a la IHOP’s caramel/powdered sugar/sprinkle mountains). There’s no false anticipation or raised expectations, just a dish done easy and done right.

And you’ll find more of this at Gaffey Street Diner. Chances are you won’t spot anything on the menu (breakfast or lunch) that’ll twist any culinary conventions. You probably won’t be able to finish your meal, either. But you’ll end up eating good, fresh food that will always be there for you. That’s what keeps the place going and what keeps bringing its neighbors back again and again. And it’s what brought the Food Network, too.

GAFFEY STREET DINER 247 N GAFFEY ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.548.6964 | OPEN AT 5AM DAILY | FOOD FOR TWO, $10-20

Tags: breakfast, food network, gaffey street diner, guy fieri, San Pedro