Pie, Whimsy, and the Phantom Wilfair

I can be bargained with and swayed to many different viewpoints, but one thing I must stand firm on is this: The Wilfair Hotel's real-world Los Angeles neighborhood is freakin' whimsical.

Maybe not at first glance, but again, within one city block, you have a mastodon statue, tar pits, climbable ceramic sloths, a giant boulder you can walk beneath, 202 vintage street lamps in a clump, and a Perceptual Cell (a small orb you recline inside as a light show plays). Plus the diner seen in "The Big Lebowski" and, and, and? Dorothy's ruby slippers facing Wilshire and Fairfax, at least in mega poster form.

Let's add a pie contest to this list, the sort of homey 'n sweet pie competition you'd expect to see at a county fair and not plunk in the middle of one of the world's biggest cities.

Last week such a homespun cook-off went down next door to The Wilfair and Motel Fairwil, outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Home cooks entered pies of every sort, local foodies judged, and pie lovers were invited to come taste.

Yep, that's Moby. He judged the vegan pie category.




I predict a few of The Wilfair chefs may enter a fruit pie -- made with oranges from the hotel's famous citrus topiaries, of course -- in a future KCRW Good Food Pie Contest. As will Monty Overbove, who may try his hand at a savory pie, or maybe chiffon or mousse.

Gomery will be Monty's go-to guinea pig, as far as sampling early efforts go. That set-up will not go smoothly, I predict, as the bespectacled cousin will thumbs-up the pies Monty is iffy about and will have constructive notes for the pies the tender-ego'd baker believes to be surefire.

Just don't get pie on your tie, Gomery.

(He probably will.)

Whatever edible effort Monty ultimately enters, you can bet the motel lobby will smell like sugar and warm pastry for days, since it leads straight into the diner and the diner's tiny kitchen.

And a little more Wilfair before I go. The space the fictional hotel occupies can be very clearly seen in the snapshot below. See the two women on the left? And the buildings immediately behind them? And the space between those buildings? That's the phantom Wilfair. I can see it, so perfectly, and all of its themed floors.

Right there. Exactly.

And, yep, there's a large swath of green next to our corner. I just bet a few particular people who live at The Wilfair and Motel Fairwil retreat to that lawn to make grass angels by the full moon.



cr: Thank you, KCRW and Caught Up in the Moment Photography!