Food Find: Nickel Diner serves up diner fare with flare.

Nickel Diner is located on Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles. And how appropriate that a diner that makes old [fashioned] new again should be housed in a neighborhood that's rapidly transitioning from dingy and dirty to hip and reborn.

The waitstaff is tatted. The menu showcases tofu alongside diner standards like grilled cheese and the Nickel Burger. And the dessert tray is rich and sugary and high in calories, but hosts a vegan tapioca. It is truly a diner for a new generation--a hungry one that likes its organic quinoa and its fried onion rings in equal parts.

P.S. To the bottom left of the dessert tray you'll notice what our waitress called a 'Cher Cupcake.' She couldn't tell us why it's called that--that we'd have to try it to find out. We, instead, ordered the Salt Peanut Cake [with potato chips]. So, I beseech you to go in, order the cupcake, eat it, and report back.

P.P.S. House specialties include the Smac & Cheese and the Maple Glazed Bacon Donut. Though I don't eat bacon, both looked pretty, pretty, pretty good.