Food

Glendale-based DineEquity Inc., the parent of the IHOP and Applebee’s restaurants, on Thursday reported a continued drop in the number of customers at both chains and warned that the rising price of food staples may make for a challenging 2011. While the company still managed to turn a $9 million profit for 2010, DineEquity’s $299 million in fourth- quarter revenue was down 16% from $355 million during the same period a year earlier. The company also reported a net loss of $58 million for the quarter, compared to a $48-million loss in the last quarter of 2009.

Rotating last month through a room filled with vendors at a school food conference, Glendale Community College nutrition instructor Sona Donayan was bombarded with information about packaging, delivery and pricing. Nutrition facts were harder to come by. “They give a lot of incentives, freebies, samples, good prices for highly processed, unhealthy foods,” Donayan said. “[Cafeteria] workers don’t really need to develop any skills if everything delivered is prepackaged and frozen and all you need to do is throw it in the oven, heat it up and call it a meal.

For some cooks in Burbank, fast food has meant the kitchen moves at least 1,000 feet every 15 minutes. Burbank law requires food trucks to move to a new location at least 1,000 feet every quarter hour. After three hours, they can return to previous parking spots, but only after having made potential customers seek them out at 12 stops. Gourmet food trucks — which have gained prominence with their sushi burritos, Korean barbecue, french fries and burgers made with grilled cheese sandwiches as buns and stacked with bacon, cheddar, pickles and beer soaked onions — have inundated special events and the hearts and stomachs of Southlanders in recent years.

Pet food sales in North America and revenue growth in the developing world were bright spots in 2010 for Nestle, S.A., with U.S. headquarters in Glendale, company officials reported Thursday. Leaders of the Swiss company said that despite a rise in the cost of raw materials, such as coffee and cocoa, they anticipate revenue growth of between 5% and 6% in 2011. “The times of today is like a Rubik’s cube,” Chief Executive Paul Bulcke said in a meeting with the press in Vevey, Switzerland.

Everybody deserves a good belly laugh without the hassle or cost of driving to Hollywood. The all-new Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank solves your laughter and dining needs with a unique menu and a spectacular setting where people can witness top-rated comics pushing the envelope for hard-earned chuckles. The night my friends and I went, the featured comic was the star of TV and film, Tom Green. Since Green is in the middle of his World Comedy Tour, he was able to weave in humorous stories about his travels while also poking fun at his current career path of hosting an online talk show.

This location is a tough sell, I thought as I walked across the parking lot toward the entrance of the Pizza Grill Factory in Burbank. Parking is a problem, and most of it will be dominated by Subway in the same strip mall at the corner of Olive Avenue and Victory Boulevard. Once inside the small eatery, I was impressed by its cleanliness and hospitality, and last but not least, the quality of its food. I had the Pizza by the Slice (two slices) lunch special ($3.99) that included a small drink or a salad.

GLENDALE — With the holiday season coming to a close, local food pantry operators are looking nervously to their stock shelves. In the months surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas, churches, service groups and other organizations typically host numerous food drives to help the nonprofits provide needy families with food for holiday meals. But pantry operators say they also rely on food donated during the holiday season to carry them through the winter months — a time that is generally void of major food drives around town.

A report on the use of the chemical bisphenol-A, a suspected toxin commonly found in soda cans and baby bottles, has given Nestle S.A. a B-plus for its effort to eliminate use of the chemical. The report was commissioned by Green Century Capital Management and As You Sow, which encourage private investors to support only publicly-traded companies that favor safe materials, sustainable energy use and other environmental goals. Nestle, a Swiss company with its U.S. headquarters in Glendale, fared better in the report than large retailers and manufacturers including Costco and Whole Foods, which earned a D grade.

The presents were so numerous they all but filled the tiny one-room apartment on Wilson Avenue in Glendale. In one corner was a bicycle and helmet, in another, a set of plastic building blocks. Five children danced around, arranging and rearranging the piles. "They woke at 7 a.m. and already wanted to bathe and get ready," their mother, Aida Cardenas, said. "They are so happy. " It was a joyful moment in an otherwise difficult year for the family, which has struggled with prolonged unemployment.

What is it about a diner that comforts us so? The waitresses with pencils behind their ears? The pies on display? The regulars? The long counter and swivel chairs? Is it the fake flowers and old photographs? Or just the predictable (in a good way) food? The Toasted Bun in Glendale gives you all those things and now they're doing it beyond breakfast and lunchtime. Since 1963 they've been serving up comfort food in an easy-going environment. In the mornings, they sling hash and eggs.