Nathaniel Whitfield's friend of the climbing gym in Los Angeles recommended reviewing the “Merry Go Round” the next time he was in the picturesque mountain community of Lone Pine.
Then, the 33 -year -old found himself eating fried noodles at 200 miles north of the megalopolis in a carousel -shaped restaurant. Inside, the figures of delicate horses painted in cakes appear from the corners and cracks. Buddhas too. Although a vintage neon sign on the front announces fillets, barbecue and lamb chops, the rate is China.
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From the patio, diners can contemplate the irregular crown of Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States adjacent to 14,505 feet. And just at the end of the road, the epic and rounded Alabama hills, partly famous for their crooked rocks in natural arches. Once it is a backdrop for innumerable western films, the steep landscape of East Sierra is now more likely to draw climbers and hikers than the royal or silver jeans.
Whitfield, like many adventurers who seek to replace calories in the articulation of the 50s, looked tired. He had walked for 3.5 hours to Lone Pine Lake with Alex Cardoza, a friend with whom he was having dinner.
Mount Whitney appears on the eastern city of Sierra de Lone Pine, attracting approximately 30,000 people who hope to accumulate it every year. To limit hiking and backpack crowds, a permission is required between May 1 and November 1.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
A viewer on the road on Lone Pine allows visitors to look at Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 lowest to 14,505 feet. Lone Pine Peak, who is closer to the city and seems bigger, is often confused with Mount Whitney.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
The food was good, “it was also nice to chat with people,” said Whitfield, UCLA professor. “It's a good atmosphere. I find Lone Pine, I just know people I don't know in Los Angeles.”
Previously at the food, Dan Siegel, one of the restaurant owners, sat with Whitfield and Cardoza, giving them with part of the history of the establishment. Siegel's service dog, a relaxed American thug named Blue, extended next to Cardoza, 37, along the padded bank of the red cabin. Blue is both an accessory and the mountains in the distance.
Dan Siegel's service dog, Blue, joins a customer in his stand.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Before Siegel and his wife, Kuei Chu, bought the Oddball restaurant in 2010, was the grill that the sign announces. An elegant one in that. Siegel conveyed a story about a veteran who said that the original owner, an owner named Margie, would not sit it until a coat and tie was put on.
Once upon a time, the Western John Wayne icon would balancing and would always sit in the same cabin hidden in the back, according to the owners. Wayne would become the city to shoot films like “Blue Steel”, a 1934 western starring the Duke as a marshal from the United States who chases a bad called Polka Lunk Bandit.
It seems that part of the history of origin of the restaurant seems to be obscured by time. None of the current owners could remember Margie's last name. But everyone was sure of their love for the carousels, and they say the building took its unusual form.
“Margie had a collection of horsy horses,” Siegel said. “She built a restaurant around her horses.”
The diners deepen the meals in Merry Go Round, a restaurant built in the 1950s that resembles a carousel. Today, the family restaurant serves American -style Chinese food along the 395 highway, which connects communities in the Sierra del Este.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Merry Go Round's current owners say that these horse figures were part of the restaurant's original decoration.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
The Funky Carousel form of the building reminds the mimetic or programmatic architecture that began to emerge in Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century. Some relics remain. The inactive hour bar in North Hollywood, built in 1941, resembles a large whiskey barrel.
The times have changed. Pandemia fed an boom in people seeking socially distanced outdoors. Places like Lone Pine, the entrance door to the destination of the Whitney cubes list, saw an increase in visitors that the locals say it has not retreated. Approximately 30,000 people try to accumulate the peak every year, according to a recent estimate.
Chu, originally from Taiwan, is the force behind the food. She said she has been cooking since she was 17 years old, studying it in her homeland. At 75, he has been in that for more than half a century and still frequently works the only Wok in the Merry Go Round.
On a recent Saturday night in the kitchen of the size of the shoebox, he spent hours hunger to hungry hikers, SUVERS SUV, rock climbers and national parks, along with premises and customers of a lifetime who are attracted to hospital owners as well as tasty dishes.
Kuei Chu, 75, cooking shrimp at the only wok in the restaurant. Chu comes from Taiwan, where he studied cooking.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Chu changed some recipes to adapt to the taste of Americans, pointing out: “The Chinese do not eat so sweet.”
Even so, even American Chinese food is a rarity along the 395 highway, the artery that connects the communities along the east side of the irregular mountains of Sierra Nevada. The hamburgers and barbecue remain king. Merry Go Round stands out when offering vegetarian, vegan and gluten options.
The recent restaurant of Merry Go Round Lensa Tresnak said it was surprised to see a menu element called Zhen Fish-Filetes Swai that rest on a bed of Bok Choy and snow peas, covered with newly cut ginger and green onions. Born in South America of Chinese parents, he said it was a dish that his father did.
Michael Quan, Chu's son, said the restaurant's sauces, all handmade, are what makes him shine. The anise, the coriander and other flavorings lent a subtle complexity to the “special soy sauce” established in the tables. The orange sauce, almost sweet with citrus spikes, is cooked with orange peels and dry peppers of Szechuan. The chicken covered in it is the paradise for those raised in the basic element of comforting food, or those who have just crushed several vertical miles.
Quan, 32, too. His mother said she taught him; He says he picked him up for himself.
A welder by profession, said he returned to work at the restaurant full time after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. He wanted to lend a hand while she underwent treatment.
“She is good now, thank God,” he said. “She has returned to her loud me.”
The owners of Merry Go Round Kuei Chu, second from the left, and her husband, Dan Siegel, third from the left, along with the son of Chu, Michael Quan, and the friend of the family and the employee Marrisa Watterson, right, in Lone Pine.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Siegel, 81, met Chu as a client in his previous restaurant in Ridgecrest, a city of high desert just over an hour south of Lone Pine.
“She went out to Schmooe with the clients, and I was:” This is the one, “said Siegel, who comes from what he billed” The Jewish Alps, “the Catskill mountains in New York.” Unfortunately, we were both married to other people at that time, so I had to wait for a while. “
Recently they approached their 16 -year -old anniversary.
Chu left retirement to run the Merry Go Round, who acquired from a friend. Bored, I had already started cooking Chinese food there on Tuesdays to serve the locals.
Siegel was not excited about the perspective of a new company. I was ready to retire.
Now Chu is ready to go back again. Siegel said the family is trying to sell the restaurant to buyers to whom Chu can teach salsa recipes.
The rock formations of Alabama Hills near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, west of Lone Pine. In the direction of the clock needles from the upper left: people start walking on the path of Mount Whitney; view and man fishing in Lone Pine Creek; and rock formations in the Alabama hills near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada.
It would mark the end of an era for customers, and servers, who have come to know and love the owners.
Jedidiah Womack, 40, began working at the restaurant about seven years ago, after returning to the city to be with his father now late, a personality larger than the life that climbed mountains and jumped from the planes. Sometimes Womack performs magic tricks for children in the restaurant. There is some margin to be himself in the non -corporate environment, he said.
“I felt adopted in a bigger family when I had no other,” Womack said with a characteristic lyrical flowering. “And that continues.”
On a warm Saturday night in September, Myles Moser walked by using flip flops when the restaurant approached its official closing time. The staff often serves the newcomers. An experienced rock climber also works on construction and helps Siegel go out with repairs from time to time.
“We have met Myles for a couple of years,” Quan joked.
“A couple of years? My butt,” Moser said. “We are family.”
So what will the family do if Merry Go Round passes to new hands?
Siegel took a photo of a 30 -foot RV on his phone.
“It's time to investigate the United States,” he said.
Night Falls on The Merry Go Round Restaurant while its Neon Vintage sign shines.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
