It was 1955, and Orange County looked
to have a lot of tourist potential, provided all things went according to
plan. Sure, there were many who scoffed
at the idea of an amusement park based on Mickey Mouse, but there were many who
doubted Walt Disney before, and regretted it.
So, just down Harbor Boulevard from where
Disneyland was being constructed, Harvey and Charlotte found a piece of land where
they could build a restaurant. The building was not that large, and sat about
35 people, but everyone knew about it for two reasons. First, Belisle’s was
hard to miss. It was a bright pink landmark on the corner of Harbor and Chapman
Avenue in Garden Grove. Harvey chose
pink because he liked the way it drew your attention, just as it did for the
Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.
But Belisle’s Restaurant had one other
famous caloric feature: the servings of everything on the menu were
enormous. No, not just big, or
generous. They were enormous. They
served catfish, and hush puppies, beef ribs and meatloaf. They served stacks of pancakes
and plates full of bacon. But these were not your average restaurant
portions. The Los Angeles Times once
described the meatloaf “about the size of the crankcase,” and the generous
portions extended to desserts too, in the unlikely event you felt like more
food. They had a banana split that looked
like a mountain, and an enormous strawberry pie covered in whipped cream.
The place was open 24 hours a day and attracted
people from all walks of life. Many will
say that Belisle’s was built to feed the crews who built Disneyland, but Disneyland
and Belisle’s opened just months apart. Still, there were hotels that sprang up
along Harbor, and construction workers were regulars. And many notables stopped in as well, such as
Ronald Reagan, Architect Phillip Johnson (Architect of the Crystal Cathedral,
just east on Chapman), and even Cesar Chavez, who, as you might expect,
requested that there would be no lettuce or grapes in his meal.
Belisle’s started out small, but it grew
over time. The place was always packed,
with lines waiting for the gluttonous portions of pancakes on Sunday Mornings. For a while, a large man dressed in a chef’s
hat would stand on the corner flagging cars to stop by… a novelty back then, but
as the novelty wore off, Belisle’s upped the game by adding a little person also
dressed as a chef. They added wing on to
the pink building, and a towering sign with a circus motif and changeable message
board… though it almost always carried the same message: “5 out of 4 eat here.”
But all good things come to an end,
and after 40 years, Belisle’s was closed and razed in 1995. The city of Garden Grove was in constant
search of something to lure tourist dollars to venture south and tried several
times to come up with something… anything… that might work. Their plan for the Belisle’s property was to
build a world class hotel adjacent to a new “Riverwalk” shopping district,
though the adjacent “river” was nothing more than a small wash. Through eminent domain, Garden Grove seized the
Belisle’s place… and then nothing happened.
Maybe developers got cold feet. Maybe the land was not fit for a large
complex. But for whatever the reason,
Orange County mourned the loss of their beloved Belisle’s. Little did Garden
Grove realize they just destroyed one of the best attractions they ever could
hope for. Today there is a Red Robin on the corner where Fresh Pies were “daked
baily,” and even though you can order bottomless steak fries, they pale in
comparison to the load of potatoes you could get at the mighty little pink
diner that once sat at the corner of Harbor and Chapman.
I had Thanksgiving dinner at Belisles when I was living here temporarily working on the OC police message system over on City Drive in 1977. Now retired and living in Irvine I crave those old-fashioned comfort food restaurants. The closest is the Freid Chicken restaurant art Knotts berry farm.
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