“Is there a restaurant at the El Monte airport?”
What was originally planned as a daylong outing somewhere had quickly devolved into trying to fit in a flight somehow. Sometimes life throws you a curveball and you need to adjust and adapt. We have some local fly-in destinations that we like, but wanted to try something new.
So, that was the question I asked myself as I was trying to figure out someplace to go for a quick flight and a bite to eat.
A quick internet search revealed that not only is there a restaurant on the field, but it has some good reviews.
I filed a flight plan and pulled a flight briefing before we headed to the airport. It’s only 15 miles from Fullerton (KFUL) to El Monte (KEMT) over the Puente Hills which separate North Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley.
It was a short climb to 2,000′ to clear the hills before calling up KEMT Tower and descending to a pattern altitude of 1,300′. The pattern was busy with arrivals, departures, and a couple guys just working the pattern. Tower put us on a left downwind, number four for landing with the other three in a right pattern on the west side of the airport.
I was unsuccessfully trying to find the traffic in the opposite pattern through the haze and also looking at the fait outline of the mountains ahead, wondering how far out I would have to extend my downwind. The tower answered my question.
“November 15Echo, make a right 360 so you don’t have to extend your downwind as far.”
“Right 360, 15Echo,” I responded rolling into a standard rate turn to the right. As we rolled out of the turn he told us we were number three behind a plane turning right base. I spotted the plane on short final and then picked up the one on the right base, confirming to the tower that I had him in sight and was cleared to land.
Annia’s Kitchen is conveniently located just about mid-field on the east side, adjacent to the transient parking. A busy restaurant is usually a sign of a good restaurant, and there wasn’t an empty table in the place. The have seating indoors and an outside patio looking at the runway. We put our name in and took a seat in the lobby for what turned out to be a short wait before being seated outside.
I’m a believer that you can have breakfast for any meal, so even though it was lunchtime I ordered and omelette with an English muffin. I told him they could hold the hash browns and he offered to substitute a fruit bowl instead. A number of reviews mentioned their pancakes so my wife ordered some eggs with a side of pancakes.
We relaxed, watching the planes take off and land while we waited for our food. When it arrived we weren’t disappointed. Everything was good.
There was a humorous moment. Well, it was funny for me but not quite as funny for my wife. As I was fishing a piece of watermelon from under some cantaloupe, the cantaloupe fell into the small cup of salsa. I put it on the side of my plate so I wouldn’t mix it up with the other fruit, but hadn’t informed my wife of the event.
Knowing that I don’t like cantaloupe and any on my plate is up for grabs my wife stuck her fork in the salsa tainted piece and popped it in her mouth. Needless to say, it was not what she was expecting!
After lunch we made the short hop back over the hills to Fullerton. I had landed at El Monte once about seven years ago doing transition training in my Mooney and have flow over it countless times, but this was the first time I stopped there. We’ve added it to the list of good local restaurants to fly to and will be back.
