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Nickel Diner in the January, 2009 issue of Los Angeles magazineCredit: Photo by Jessica Boone\/January, 2009 issue of Los Angeles magazine<\/p>\nChef Monica May and partner Kristen Trattner\u2019s famed diner returns as a weekend brunch pop-up called Nickel Diner Kitchen<\/p>\n
Los Angeles has always had a knack for mixing high and low. This is a place where cartoons, hot rods and Googie architecture have gone from being derided to hung on the walls of museums. Chef Monica May admired the popular luxuries of the 1950s coffee shops, where inexpensive hamburgers and pancakes could be served up in deluxe, artful environments.<\/p>\n
Bringing high-quality and innovative comfort food to a forlorn spot near Skid Row was the ultimate challenge for May and her partner Kristen Trattner when they opened the Nickel Diner on a block of Downtown\u2019s Main Street filled with social service agencies and SRO Hotels in 2008. Los Angeles named it one of L.A.\u2019s Best New Restaurants the following year.<\/p>\n
Nickel Diner in the January, 2009 issue of Los Angeles magazineCredit: Photo by Jessica Boone\/January, 2009 issue of Los Angeles magazine<\/p>\n
Artists had lived Downtown since the 1970s, but the revival that would bring explosive population growth didn\u2019t kick off until the turn of the century. \u201cWe started exploring Downtown together,\u201d says May. \u201cWe fell in love and then fell in love with Downtown. It was a three-way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple transformed an abandoned taco shack\/drug front into a charming, egalitarian neighborhood diner that won the hearts and minds of patrons that ranged from Jonathan Gold and Guy Fieri to neighbors in the SROs. Nickel Diner survived the pandemic, but its ripples claimed the restaurant at the end of 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continued our work for homeless services, but I didn\u2019t have a kitchen to make 300 meals,\u201d says May. \u201cWe had this ADU and we thought, \u2018Let\u2019s build a kitchen here.\u2019 My pastry table and my Hobart are my best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the pair both recovered from cancer, they decided to throw a series of backyard brunches in the garden behind their 1915 craftsman home in Boyle Heights using many of the recipes perfected at Nickel Diner. \u201cWe needed to get back on the wild horse,\u201d Trattner says. \u201cThey\u2019ve had their rest and here\u2019s the next thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Groups of up to 14 guests can enjoy chicken and waffles, chilaquiles or French toast made with homemade brioche at the weekend brunch pop-ups they\u2019re calling Nickel Diner Kitchen<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s more fun than sitting in a restaurant,\u201d May says. \u201cBut it kind of is. It\u2019s a beautiful intimacy sitting at a table with a group of strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n May and Trattner have hosted everything from wedding proposals to kids\u2019 birthday parties to cooking classes featuring pop-tarts, biscuits and boozy donuts. \u201cI love that we still have an echo in this city and people remember us,\u201d Trattner says. \u201cWe went to see Peaches at the Bellwether,\u201d May adds. \u201cShe\u2019s crowd-surfing naked and all of a sudden, someone yells \u2018Nickel Diner!\u2019 and throws their arms around us!\u201d<\/p>\n