Nick's Paradise Cafe

A few years back, Montebello had a corner sandwich stand/hangout named Bill's Paradise. It's long gone, but people still come to the corner looking for Bill. These days, they find Nick's Paradise Cafe.

Bill is not forgotten, however. Nick's has re-created Bill's "four-finger dog" -- a sesame-sprinkled hamburger bun with what looks like four fingertips sticking out. They're the ends of a frankfurter quartered lengthwise and grilled, topped with melted Cheddar, red onions, tomatoes and lettuce. Mustard and mayo are involved too.

There's a different nostalgia in the trio salad, "stolen from the infamous Patio Deli." (Owner Nick Begakis used to own that deli, which endured for 11 years on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.) It's three salads in one: potato, chicken and tuna -- though if you count the bed of mixed greens and tomatoes as a salad in its own right, it's actually a quartet. The potato salad is crushed, rather than cubed, and tastes slightly of Dijon mustard. The chicken has a faint, interesting aftertaste of pepper and curry. The tuna salad is just a good plain tuna salad.

This no-frills fast-food joint has more than a few surprises. Along with the usual sandwiches, there's the Acropolis burger: a third of a pound of beef on a sesame bun, topped with tomatoes, grilled red onions and lots of Bulgarian feta cheese.

There are wonderful chicken kebabs sprinkled with Greek oregano and lined up on a skewer with bits of onion and bell pepper. They're served on a heap of diced tomatoes, red onions and red bell peppers that tops a round of pita bread. Thick yogurt-cucumber sauce (tatziki) comes on the side. This is a lot of meat and very fresh vegetables for $4.50. It's available as a dinner plate too, accompanied by rice pilaf, vegetables and soup or salad.

You've probably figured out that Begakis is Greek. That's why the pastry box on the counter contains baklava -- a very good, honey-soaked, cinnamon-scented rendition made by an employee who formerly worked for a Greek deli in Los Angeles -- and tender butter cookies (kourambiedes) with a tantalizing hint of fresh orange peel, heavily dusted with powdered sugar. The filo pockets (touted as "the best in the world") are actually the Greek savory pie tyropita, stuffed with plain feta or feta with spinach or chicken.

Nick's puts out an excellent Greek salad in an oregano-scented red wine vinaigrette. And sometimes there are Greek daily specials. Begakis does a lot of catering, and when he makes too much of an item for a job, he brings the rest to the cafe. So you might find moussaka, pastitsio, lasagne or even seared baked salmon as a daily special.

Begakis serves more standard coffee shop dishes as well, plus some inexpensive ($5.99) dinners like chicken Marsala and chicken piccata (I prefer the piccata for its tangy lemon-caper sauce). Both come with rice pilaf and heaps of very fresh steamed vegetables. His meatloaf is dark and dense, wrapped with bacon that bastes it as it cooks. It's finished off with thick, deep brown gravy made with turkey stock. The mashed potatoes on the side are fresh, not instant. Some of the peel is retained to prove this.

There's a good, coffee shop-style Caesar and a curious version of the ever-popular Chinese chicken salad, "Dr. Wang's Chinese Chicken Salad." The menu insists that it's "the real thing." I'm not so sure about its authenticity, considering that pita bread is served on the side, but I can say it's a big, light, pleasant salad. It's a layer of sliced bok choy, nappa cabbage and crisply fried wonton bits piled with chunks of baby corn, mandarin orange segments, sliced water chestnuts, a few strips of red bell pepper, sesame seeds and grilled chicken breast that appears to be the same oregano-sprinkled meat used for the kebabs. The dressing, served on the side, is a sweet sesame oil mixture.

The cafe opens early for breakfast, which includes a Greek omelet with feta cheese and Greek olives as well as chorizo and eggs, a Denver omelet and so forth.

Nick's gets some of its desserts from bakeries, but Begakis' wife, Tammy, bakes the bundt cakes, chocolate cheesecake and a nifty version of Rice Krispies Treats with peanut butter bits.
-- Barbara Hansen, Times Staff Writer

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