College Eats in Claremont

An LA foodie getaway that Gets An “A”

There’s may places where you say, “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” Well, Claremont inspires a twist on that saying. It’s a nice place to visit, and it would be a nicer place to live, especially if you are a college student.

It’s easy to see why this small town is often called the quintessential college town.  There are, after all, seven colleges within its boundaries, and it’s clear the town’s commerce district, called “the village” — chock full of coffeehouses, cafes, bars serving a plethora of craft brews, movie theatres, a comic book shop, and the obligatory Birkenstock store — is designed to be a mecca for college students.

Meal Plan

 

You won’t be hard pressed to find dining options for every taste. For lunch try the cute 50’s-style diner, The Village Grille, that makes their own spaghetti and meat sauce. The décor includes glass cases of vintage items like a faded Frosted Flakes and Cracker Jack’s boxes, but the service was LA-fast, without the LA attitude, with a little college-town PC thrown in, as in straws were available by request only, and they were paper.

For dinner, get some good ‘za from Pizza ‘N’ Such, which prides itself on its authentic New York style pizza, and they nailed it.

It’s hard to choose where to go for dessert, with so many treats places, but namely for the name, you’ve got to try I Like Pie Bake Shop featuring,  you guessed it, scrumptious pies, individually-sized. Yum.

You can also cool your heels at the local ice cream shop, Bert & Rocky’s Cream Company, featuring dozens of different flavors of ice cream, sorbet and sherbets, and a very patient staff who didn’t seem to mind that my kids asked to taste 7 varieties before choosing their flavors.

Claremont is definitely a town you can eat your way through, and then you can work off the calories walking or biking through the village, and you can feel comfortable making your way through the streets at any hour. It feels like a true community, where people say hello and smile when they pass you on the sidewalk. It’s amazing that it is under an hour’s drive mile away from LA, in good traffic, yet it feels a world away, or like a place from decades ago; kind of like college days.