The Kettle - Manhattan Beach

Remember when Beanie Babies were the coolest thing since sliced bread? Parents were lining up for miles outside the local Hallmark store for a chance to snag coveted fuzzy friend, and their market value went as high as $250 for Tabasco the bull when he was retired. Looking back, all this hype was clearly a load of bull, but the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby just goes to show the true nature of trends: When things become too popular, they suddenly cease to be cool.

A similar thing happened to seafood. Shellfish used to be exclusive and hard to come by, especially the ones that required a lot of work like blue crab. But then crab became packaged, and suddenly, the crab cake was as common as Pokemon cards, even at dive-y diners like The Kettle. Their Crab Cake Po' Boy fails to hit the spot with a bland, crouton-y crab cake full of fillers and covered with sriracha mayo minus the sriracha.

The same crab cakes make an encore appearance on the Crabcake Benedict, with its standard poached eggs on an English muffin under a decent-but-generic Hollandaise. If the crab cakes don't step it up, they'll go the way of the Tomagotchi. Find me one person under the age of 20 who knows that that is. 

Unlike the crab cakes, the Cannoli Pancakes had potential. They sound as gimicky as Furby, a child-pleasing, small-beaked alien spewing all sorts of nonsense, but they actually taste pretty good. The whipped ricotta is light and sweet, and the chocolate chips make it complete. Not the most original of ideas, but there's a reason you still see Furby in stores.

I've always been a late-adopter when it comes to trends, but so far that has only prevented me from indulging in what hindsight hails as frivolous foolishness. The Kettle is a late-adopter too. Their previously-trendy, diner-style shabby-chic has been done and done to death, and considering they still prosper in the subtly stylish streets of Manhattan Beach, I don't know who they think they're fooling. The forced casualness of the food make it easily forgettable, and the fact that it's one of the few open-late restaurants in Manhattan Beach is probably the only reason I'd go again.