Franco's

One of the special things about living in Uptown Whittier is being only a couple of blocks away from one of the best restaurants in Los Angeles - Franco's Trattoria.

Franco is the real deal, an Italian chef straight from Italy, who happened to marry a lovely woman from Whittier, California and subsequently decided to open his little restaurant in the neighborhood.  How lucky are we?

My neighbors George and Ray

We love coming here.  The food is delicious and always made with fresh.ingredients.  Franco usually comes out of the kitchen, too, to ask you how you are and if you enjoyed his food.

What was left of the antipasto!

We ordered a large antipasto salad to begin with.  It fed four of us hungry adults beautifully.  I love the antipasto here.  I haven't had such good mortadella or salami since I was in Europe.  I have no idea where Franco gets them, but it's really one of the reasons we keep coming!

The House Lasagna

Peggy loved her lasagna.

Ray couldn't remember the name of the pasta dish he ordered, but it looked good!

I realized after I photographed everyone else's food, I'd forgotten to photograph mine!  I had a Pasta Puttanesca that was to die for.  It had eggplant and red, yellow and green bell peppers in it- and black olives, the puttanesca, or 'little pillows' the dish is named for (yeah, that's the cleaned up version of the dish's name).  Yum!

Pork Chops with fettucine

I had enough of my pasta left over for a nice Sunday lunch.  There usually isn't much left over from the meals here.  We tend to attack every morsel greedily.

Peggy and I posing for the camera

We had plenty of time before curtain time at the community theatre, so we wandered over to Mimo's farther down Greenleaf.  It was warm enough we could sit outside comfortably with light jackets on.

Mimo's also has good food.  They cater mostly to the breakfast, lunch and snack crowd.  Their outside seating, with large umbrellas, is a nice place for people-watching.

The rest wanted coffee.  I just sat and enjoyed the pleasant February evening.

Ray and Peggy ordering 

I really do love living in Uptown.  (Note: they tried calling it The Village for half a minute in the 60s, and some local signage still bears that moniker, but the local residents stubbornly refuse to stop calling it Uptown.)

It's nice to have all these great places within walking distance.  I love Franco forever for coming to my neck of the woods and starting his restaurant here.  If you want good Italian food - if you want REAL Italian food, you will truly enjoy Franco's.  You can get a bowl of soup and bread for about $5, meals are in the $10-12 range.

Enjoy!