CJ’s Café is so popular that the city of Los Angeles awarded the restaurant a Certificate of Appreciation for “activities enhancing community betterment.” This, of course, translates to food—really good food–with unpretentious pricing.
“Our mom, Jessica Cisneros, started CJ’s as a small diner in 1988,” said son Jesse Cisneros. “At first we started serving food my mom knew how to cook, which was mainly Mexican food and traditional American breakfast and lunches. Customers that lived in the area would ask for certain dishes and Jessica would answer that she didn’t know how, but if you teach me I will definitely cook it for you. They gladly came after work to teach Jessica their recipes and they were added to the menu. To this day their recipes are still cooked the same way. The children of the parents whose recipes we still cook bring their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and extended family to enjoy the food they enjoyed when they were growing up. We have kept their legacy alive.”
Today, brothers Jesse and Sergio run two CJ’s—one at 3655 S La Brea and the ever popular original at 5501 W Pico Blvd, both in Los Angeles.
Jesse and Sergio
I’ve never been to the La Brea location, but frequent CJ’s on W Pico along with a varied crowd of diners that often includes Mexican gardeners, politicians (President Biden showed up), movie personalities, housemaids and hungry locals.
Sometimes I order huevos rancheros, chilaquiles, or carne asada torta. Sometimes it’s golden fried chicken and waffles, corn bread, and collard greens. And occasionally it’s a plain American breakfast of eggs, pancakes and bacon. Brought to table by smiling staff.
Whatever I order—I always have a tall glass of a fresh squeezed juice and a side of sweet fried plantains. Oh my, talk about appreciation. I do so enjoy this place!
SWEET FRIED PLANTAINS
You’ll need only two ingredients for this dish, plantains and oil.
Plantains: Although plantains look like bananas and are botanically similar, they differ in texture and use. Usually shipped to markets green, plantains change as they ripen going from green to yellow to black and from starchy to sweet and custardy. You want extremely ripe, very sweet plantains—the black-skinned ones (or deeply spotted black) for this recipe. Two to three plantains yield about 4 side dish servings.
Vegetable oil–any neutral oil will do.
Trim ends off plantains and peel or cut off black skin. Slice plantain on an angle into 1-inch-thick chunks.
Put about ¼-inch deep oil in a large skillet (nonstick is good) and set over medium-high heat until oil sizzles when a drop of water is dropped in.
Working in batches, carefully add plantain slices to hot oil. Fry until bottom side is golden brown. Turn each slice over and continue frying until pieces are deep golden brown, somewhat crispy on outside and sweetly soft inside, about 6 minutes in all. (If desired, you can turn plantain pieces over as they cook to evenly brown all sides.)
Drain on paper towel. Serve hot.