RESTAURANTS
Meet Me at Tommy’s New Owners Re-Claim the ‘50s Diner
by Bill Koelzer W
hen you walk into Tommy’s Restaurant on the S. El Camino Real/Valencia interface, you know
suddenly that you are back in the 1950s. One look does it. Adorning the walls, halls and even the ceil-
ings are dozens of ‘50s-era posters of movie stars and celebrities, There’s Elvis, Frank Sina- tra, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, the Beatles - and the beat goes on. Just to the right, where a cash
register normally sits on a counter, Tommy’s sits in- stead on the dis- tinctive grill of a ‘50s Rolls Royce. What a time those years must have been - 65 years ago! The very time that Tommy’s was born. With its towering “Tommy’s
Restaurant” sign, highly visible from the yards-away I-5 freeway, the restaurant derives some 20% of its business from people coming off the freeway, with the rest coming from locals.
Now Tommy’s has been reno-
vated and brought back to life by Peter Rock, owner of Dad’s Liquor, a bit further south on El Camino Real in San Clemente, run with his wife, Georgette, and their sons Richard and Ed. Peter and Georgette bought
Dad’s in 1976, but had always wanted to own a restaurant in San Clemente that had strong potential. When several previous owners let Tommy’s decline, and ultimately be sold, the Rock’s bought it in early 2012. Georgette says, “Everyone said I was a good cook at home and so we incorporated some of my best recipes into the brand new menu at Tommy’s.” “One of the unique things, cuisine-wise here,”
Richard, “is that we can customize food orders for
you. It doesn’t have to be fried foods Entering Tommy’s dining room is like stepping back in time.
only, you can have your chicken grilled if you want, and choose your own vegetables.” Ed, who manages Tommy’s on a
says
daily basis, says, “We make turkey dishes right here. We cook the turkey and we slice it here so it’s not the flaked and formed, or in- jected turkey…it’s actually oven baked, whole turkey breast.” Georgette adds, “And every-
thing is fresh. Same with the roast beef…the roast beef sandwich is oven-baked roast beef. And we also have our
own meatloaf - yes, we actually make our own meatloaf.” Ed adds, “our
hamburger meat is never frozen…it is ready formed, fresh, juicy and soft, it’s a high quality burger meat. Our milk shakes and malts have five scoops of ice cream,” Ed says proudly, “and we also have periodic
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SAN CLEMENTE JOURNAL
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