For Valentine's Day

My ex loved coffee shops. I ate more patty melts, tuna melts, and chili sizes in my seven years of marriage than I have in the many decades since. (Of course, becoming a vegetarian a few years after the divorce might have something to do with that.) So when we moved into our first home (in which I still live, 30 years later), we scoured the neighborhood for the best local. There was a Denny's, of course, but chains didn't count--it had to be authentic, preferably family owned.

About a mile up Balboa, on the corner of Saticoy, we discovered Heart's Coffee Shop, and it looked like the perfect local hangout...but we went there exactly once. Although the sign and decor were right on the money (red vinyl bar stools! my ex enthused), the food wasn't very good, and the service was terrible. It was one of the times when I put my foot down and said "Once was enough!" and we never went back there.

I have, however, always loved the sign (especially the handwritten-on-paper part!), so I thought I'd do a sketch just for Valentine's Day. I'll bet there will be a bunch of lovers who will go there for breakfast today, so they can take a photo in front of the heart-bedecked decor. I hope the food and the service have improved since the '80s, so that they enjoy more than the ambiance. Maybe I'll give it another shot one adventurous Saturday morning.