I Ate at Pat and Lorraine's Coffee Shop and, Yes, I Left a Good Tip

The faded, splotchy sign on Eagle Rock Boulevard used to also say "Coffee Shop," although you can't really make it out unless you stare real hard. Decades of California sun has washed the letters out to where all that remains now is I guess is in the end all that matters—"Pat and Lorraine's." 

Stepping inside the beige and red brick building, it immediately becomes clear it has been kept up much better than the faded sign. The clean, pleasant diner bursts of authentic, decades-old kitsch, with knick knacks and doo-dads on the walls, flower curtains over the windows and even a rotating pie column behind the counter. 

Pat and Lorraine's at 4720 Eagle Rock Blvd. dates back many decades, and the actual Pat and Lorraine haven't owned it in over 35 years. And if you don't know Pat and Lorraine's because of its famously large portions or homemade gravy, you may know it as the place that the true, secret meaning of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" was revealed, for the coffee shop is perhaps most famous for being the location where the opening scene of the 1992 gangster film Reservoir Dogs was shot.

Many Eagle Rockers are well aware of the diner's famous connection to Quentin Tarantino's film, and so are likely many regular readers of this site, but as the newly minted local editor for Eagle Rock Patch, I couldn't resist coming to see the place for myself. 

After munching on a pretty delicious grilled cheese sandwich and fries at the counter, I ask my waitress if people come in often and talk about the film. Her face drops and bit and she stares a little more directly at me. 

"Every day," Elizabeth Agosto tells me. "Every day. People come from all over the world. They just want to see where it was filmed. And that’s the table."

Agosto points right over my shoulder to the empty table behind me. I ask her if it is still the same, actual table from the film in the same location, and she says it is. Apparently I'm not even the first person today to come in asking about the film. 

"These two young guys came in today and they were looking around and looking around," Agosto says. "And I can see that they are looking for something, that they are looking around. And I said, 'I think you want that table.'"

Agosto has been working at the diner for 21 years, and in fact started just a few weeks after the scene was filmed. Over the years she said she has had many, many... many conversations about Reservoir Dogs.  

"Some guy just came in from Spain last week, from Barcelona. He just wanted to see where it was filmed. I’m talking places like Japan, India, Argentina. Some people will wait a long time just for the table. That is the actual table. And sometimes they will prop a camera on that little table and they will film themselves," Agosto said. 

Reservoir Dogs was writer-director Quentin Tarantino's first feature film. It was a small indie hit, but in 1994 Tarantino's mega-hit Pulp Fiction, which won him an Academy Award for best original screenplay, brought new attention to Reservoir Dogs, and it has been a classic favorite of many film buffs ever since.

Most of the film is bloody, violent, loud and gut-wrenching, all which makes the opening scene even more memorable, as it features the actors lightly talking and joking. Aside from Tarantino's famous monologue about the true meaning of "Like a Virgin," it also features Harvey Kietel, Chris Penn and Steve Buscemi hilariously debating how much—or if at all—one should tip a waitress.

Agosto said the place is on its second owner, Jose Rodriguez, since she has been working here, and that he has owned it for 10 years. Before that a couple owned it for 25 years and before that, Pat and Lorraine themselves. 

Although it was released in 1992, Agosto says it seems more people come in now asking about the film than ever before. 

"For some reason, its been getting more popular and more popular. Like back in '92, not too many people would want to know where it was filmed," Agosto said. 

I thank Agosto for taking the time and being so nice to talk to me about Reservoir Dogs for probably the 10,000th time in her life. This was certainly something special, I think, so I leave a 30 percent tip.