Indian Cafe

taiwanese c. walken
Originally uploaded by illewminator.

Indian Cafe is a youth-oriented taiwanese cafe, apparently named for the giant wooden cigar store (american) indian that greets you as you walk into the front door. the interior of the space is done quite nicely, decorated with fake trees, tiny lights, and rustic wooden tables and benches, giving the place a disney-like pseudo-outdoorsy ambiance (if you can overlook the tv screens tuned in to whatever sports game is on and the KROQ tunes blaring from the speakers).

you can order beer by the glass or pitcher (unusual for a chinese place) and a pretty wide variety of foods to go along with your beer. We had fried calamari, a chicken hotpot dish, shredded tofu & pork, shrimp and pineapple, and some sort of chinese squash. everything was tasty, if a bit salty, but all the better to go with your beer.

but the real reason i'm posting this is to highlight the characters we saw here. Pictured above is the owner, whom we dubbed the "Chinese Christopher Walken." Below is a photo of one of the customers, who is sporting what i call the "Manchu Mullet."



if you can get over the racist/offensive premise of this place being called "Indian Cafe" apparently solely because of the presence of the wooden indian statue, and the fact that the waitresses wear Pocohontas-style headbands and a feather, then you might find yourself enjoying eating spicy taiwanese treats, drinking cold beers, and singing along to Linkin Park.

Indian Cafe is located (where else?) in a strip mall on San Gabriel Blvd, somewhere north of Valley...