Ontra Cafeteria
Click above to enlarge
There were several Ontras around L.A. but we used to go to the one in Beverly Hills. It was on Beverly Drive at Dayton Way. Back in 1968 when comedian Pat Paulsen waged a mock presidential campaign, he held his big fund-raising dinner there and personally rang up the cash register, charging each diner 49 cents. That wasn’t that much below what you’d normally pay for a meal there.
At an Ontra, you could get a great hot turkey sandwich carved right off the bird, right in front of you. I usually did but sometimes I went for the fried chicken, especially on “all you could eat” night. As you went through the line, they gave you enough for a normal person, plus a little flag you could put on your plate to indicate you were entitled to more. They had a young lady dressed in gingham like a farm girl who strolled the cafeteria (a pretty large place) with a basket of more fried chicken and a pair of tongs. You could signal her to come over and give you another thigh or two…and it was pretty good fried chicken.
You could get great side dishes and an incredible selection of breads and other baked goods. They had all sorts of wonderful cakes, pies and other desserts but I usually went for the orange Jell-O, which was in cubes.
They don’t make cafeterias like that anymore. Hell, they don’t make cafeterias at all. The Ontras were all huge places with pretty good food at pretty good prices and I keep waiting for that kind of establishment to make a comeback. When they do, I’ll be first in line…with my tray.
Click above to enlarge
Click above to enlarge
Click above to enlarge
16 Responses to Ontra Cafeteria
Leave a Reply
I remember going there with my mother and sitting upstairs with a hot turkey lunch and looking across the street at the Crenshaw shopping center — May Co & Broadway dept. stores – it was a real treat as a kid.
This was in the early 1950′s
My dad used to manage all of the Ontra restaurants in the early 50s. I was just a toddler and one of the “infamous” family legends was about me, at age 3, throwing my bacon onto the adjoining (occupied!) table. My parents were mortified :)
Stepanie, I worked at Ontra on Central Ave in Phoenix, AZ. from 1960 to 1962. How would I go about locating co-workers. Specifically Yoshi Shimana who was a cook in Phoenix and then transfered back to CALIF.
Funny, I was just remembering how Ontra’s (my mistake–I remembered it as “Ontra’s” but I can see from the signs it was simply “Ontra”) was my favorite restaurant as a kid. I think it had to do with not having to guess what I was getting (so hard for a 5-year old to know without seeing!). I also went to the one in Crenshaw in the 60s with my parents. It was probably one of the few places they could afford with five kids in tow.
My grandfather, U.G. James, founded and owned the Ontra Cafeterias in Los Angeles. It started as a family enterprise. Grandfather managed the business end of things, my great-grandmother supervised the kitchen and my great aunt handled the cash register in the early years. The first Ontra Cafeteria was established in the early 1920s, located at Eighth and Vermont. Grandfather sold the business when he had Ontras in five locations, the last one being on Beverly Drive. He sold in the mid-1950s. My mother remembers very clearly that the Ontra Cafeteria played a large roll in her life.
I remember the one on Van Nuys Blvd. right across from the old Bob’s Big Boy. If Chandler Blvd. would have come straight out to Van Nuys Blvd. instead of curving as it did, it would have gone right through Ontra. For whatever reason, my sister pronounced the name as “On-Trays,” but we all knew what she meant. We had good meals there. I don’t know when they closed, but I missed it for a long time.
Hey Lee, I have a old photo from the 30′s with an Ontra cafeteria on the ground floor and an Odd Fellows Hall on top of it. Anyone know which location this was? Thanks
Hi JJ,
My dad is pretty sure that the Ontra in your photo was the Vine Street cafeteria.
When I was a little kid, I used to go to the Vine Street location with my Mom, and the pictures definitely look like that location. They had the best Italian Salad dressing. In the alley next to the building someone had painted “Agnes Moorehead is God” Ahhh memories.
How can I get Ontra recipes? I’d love to relive so of those amazing meals with my family.
I am a relative of the family, my father is Charles E. Scott. I have a picture of one of the James and Scott families Christmas breakfast in Los Angeles but I am not sure which location it was but I remember we liked to slide down the banister. I was four or five (I think) so it would have been in 1946 or 1947. There is a man I knew as Gene James, his wife Marjorie and two daughters, Aunt Hattie Lange, and three other women, I think one is named Myrtle, Gene & Helen Burda, Lois & Neal Vance, The Sties family, George Moore and other people who’s names I can’t remember. I would love to hear from someone in the family as I don’t know much about them and I am the sole survivor of my immediate family. Aunt Hattie gave me a doll when I was about two that I still have.
Thank you so much for putting this together. I was born and raised in Encino and remember so many of these great restaurants. Well… maybe they weren’t all that great, but the memories are wonderful. Wil Wright’s had the greatest hot fudge and the tiny macaroon on the side, the best. I wish I could go there right now!
One omission is Chicken Delight. It was a great fast-food chicken joint before KFC or most other fast-food chains. There was one in Tarzana that we got take-out from all the time, mostly in the summer. Here’s a link I found explaining its history and what happened to it. http://www.chickendelight.com/about.htm
Again, THANK YOU for the wonderful job you’ve done bringing happiness for those of us still around to remember the good ol’ days in LA.
Lorna
Judy (Scott Dunn):
My grandfather, U.G. James (he later legally changed his first name to Eugene; people called him Gene), was first married to my grandmother Helen Furtenau James. Helen was a hostess or cashier at the first cafeteria. They married in 1929. Helen was the mother of Eleanor and Dorothy, the two daughters you mention. My grandmother Helen was had a beautiful voice, an achingly pure soprano. I have recordings of her singing arias from La Traviata, her high notes were extraordinary. My grandfather was later married to a woman named Marjorie (@1946).
My mother recalls that it was a family tradition to close the cafeteria once a year on Christmas day so that there could be a family reunion. She recalls the photograph you mention.
My mother fondly speaks of her grandmother, Hattie Matilda. I believe that Hattie Matilda was a Scott, thus the family connection. She gave my mother dolls as well, we still have a couple of them.
Stephanie M.:
My mother remembers your father well. My mother remembers your father’s office next to her father’s Eugene James’s office. She recalls her father recognizing what an excellent executive he was. She recalls that your father put his three sons through Stanford and perhaps some other excellent universities. Is this correct? If your father was the manager of the restaurants in the early 50s, it should be the same gentleman. She remembers the respect the family had for your father.
My grandfather sold the cafeterias to Conrad Hilton in the 1950s. My mother recalls that Hilton sold the cafeterias to the Catholic Church a couple years later.
my family ate at the one on Vermont in now Korea Town, i used to love that place… we probably ate there several times a month for years!
Diane Elder:
Thank you for the information on the family. I kind of remember some things but I was only five or six at the time. I remember Hattie and I knew she was my fathers aunt but I can’t remember the names of some of the other people. But I do remember the Ontra Cafeteria was a very nice place and going to the cafeteria several times with my older sister when I was a teenager in the 50′s. She worked in downtown Los Angeles and it was still special to both of us because of the family connection.
The wonderful memories I have of my mom and step dad taking me there for our Friday night dinner. I would always get the Mack and Cheese. We ate at the one on Wilshire Blvd. How I would love to travel back in time and relive the experience again and again.