Et tu, Peppercorner?

(Sigh)

Last December it was the Dollar Bookstore, this September...

If you can read the writing on the poster you'd see that it apologizes for the inconvenience, but the Peppercorner will be closing forever, and they thank everyone for the support over the years.

This restaurant is was around the corner from our apartment, priced incredibly well, and not overrun with annoying elements of the neighborhood. It's a place Corrie and I have visited an average of 30 times a year, which is a little under once a weekend.

We were regulars for sure. they knew which restaurant I worked at in Orange County; they knew when I busted my leg; they knew when Corrie was studying for her exams; they were on top of my back-to-school-ness. It was a nice little family atmosphere.

The Peppercorner, though, would be closed for stretches during the summer, or spring, sporadically over the years. A poster would be up stating that the owners were on vacation. The owners of our pizza joint on Malcolm X Blvd in Bed-Stuy did the same thing, so this was nothing too out of the ordinary.

Just a few weeks back it was closed. Another vacation I figured, since there was no note this time. I got back from Oklahoma City and had breakfast there one of the days before work started again.

That day turned out to be the date listed on the sign as the last day they'd be open.

A few days back I started researching---trying to find anything that I could about the closing.

Whoa.

It turns out that all those "vacations" were forced shutdowns for health code violations. Dirty meat slicers; roaches, both dead and alive; unlabeled chemicals like de-greaser and other various poisons; slime in the ice machine...the list went on, as did my brain:

Roaches, while disgusting, are as ubiquitous in downtown Long Beach as the black and white cats of Brooklyn: they are everywhere. And huge. And, for me, not the crazy deal breaker if they're near the doors: they're seriously everywhere down here. Over 20 dead and nearly a dozen living? Oh my...

The meat slicer needs to be cleaned regularly...same thing with the ice machine.

Neither Corrie nor I ever got sick from the place, and the inside, what the public saw (aside from the train-wreck of a bathroom) was always clean and nice, never betraying the reality behind the scenes. Plenty of other restaurants in this neighborhood are way dirtier inside than the Peppercorner was.

That leads to our next issue: where to eat now? There's the Long Beach Cafe, the closest thing to resembling the Peppercorner: a dive-ish diner. But the coffee is super-weak, the sausage isn't that great, and it's more expensive.

A tiny bit closer than the Cafe is the Breakfast Bar, a restaurant that makes decent food, but isn't a "local dive-y diner," and has the unfortunate case of being overrun with hipsters. Maybe that's changed, but we've yet to see.

There's the "close" far place, Potholders. The food and ambiance are definitely agreeable, and the walk isn't so bad at nearly a mile, so a bike ride isn't out of the question. But it's BUSY, so, for us, we're looking at arriving before 10 am at least, which isn't always that easy.

The next most likely place we'll head is called Park Pantry, and it's a little over a mile, but in the opposite direction from Potholders. It's right across the street from Bluff Park, and the prices are even better than the Peppercorner's were. Also, it's a mandatory bike ride, and, because of the prices and neighborhood density, it's a mandatory pre-10 am arrival. Better shot closer to 9, really.

Ahh...the problems of the childless adult: where's the best diner for me to melt away in?