Cornering the market

SEND a big donation off to the dial-a-miracle church of late-night cravings. Your prayers have been answered. Du-par’s at the original Farmers Market has not only come back to life, it’s now open 24 hours a day.

This is just the latest in a series of incremental changes that has returned the southwest corner of the market (the one closest to 3rd and Fairfax), to supremacy as a place to meet and eat. Them’s fighting words for regulars loyal to the other sectors, of course, but the evidence is irrefutable. In addition to the consistently good fare at Kokomo Cafe and the Gumbo Pot and the must-have limeade at Gill’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream, southwest corner denizens have, in the last couple of months, been able to count on great pizza from the new Deano’s Gourmet Pizza washed down with imported beer or a glass of wine from E.B.’s Beer & Wine, a tiny new bar. And now we have a 24-hour haven of hot coffee, fluffy pancakes and chicken pot pie.

The original Farmer’s Market has survived, not on nostalgia, but because it works as a place to rendezvous, wander and hang out. And while Du-par’s has long enshrined the midcentury moment with its coffee shop decor and uniformed waitresses, it works in its new incarnation not because of nostalgia but because the kitchen understands what’s appealing about coffee shop food.

It’s almost as if consulting chef Jennifer Naylor (whose grandfather founded Tiny Naylor’s and whose father W.W. “Biff” Naylor now owns Du-par’s), has defined a Mildred Pierce cuisine (remember the Joan Crawford movie?). It’s not a greasy-spoon, hash-slinging style of cooking, but a more genteel, farm-fresh approach to classics of the American Midwest, treated on her old-new menu (which is in place at all three Du-par’s) with dignity and respect. It’s not about jalapenos or lemon grass or truffles. It’s about flavors of milk and butter, chicken and vegetables, salt and pepper. Simple stuff that’s bland in the wrong hands.

Here, the dishes delight. Individual chicken pot pies are topped with richly browned buttery crusts that separate into layers as you cut through, the moist bottom layer clinging to the steaming hot filling of tender chicken and just-the-right-size pieces of carrots and celery bound with a light chicken gravy. Hot parkerhouse rolls have a subtle flavor of butter and milk. Steamed zucchini and carrots are lightly seasoned and buttered, with individuated flavors that come to the fore with each bite. An entree of sauteed scallops and steakhouse-style mushrooms makes you appreciate salt and pepper all over again. Buttermilk pancakes are heavenly (why can’t I do this at home?) and hash browns could bring even calorie counters back to breakfast potatoes: They’re tender and hot inside, with a perfect golden crust.

In addition to the standards available at all three Du-par’s restaurants (there are branches in Thousand Oaks and Studio City), there’s a menu of changing dinner specials from chef Medardo Hernandez.

The freshly renovated room, similarly laid out but lighter and more open than before, and new patio area are on point too. The style -- booths, wooden chairs, framed vintage photos -- is not tongue-in-cheek retro, but rather we’ve-always-liked-it middle-American cafe. Booths are comfortable, floors are carpeted, tables are umbrella’d and dinnerware is sturdy.

Coffee snob? Du-par’s will work with you; there’s a French-press coffee as well as the just-fine regular brew. Pie fiend? Boysenberry, rhubarb, lemon meringue -- they’re all back, and they go down easy.

Slice of heaven

MEANWHILE, around the corner at Deano’s Gourmet Pizza at lunchtime on a sunny day, office workers are standing in line, perching on stools at the counter and grabbing nearby tables. Word of mouth has drawn the crowd. There are lots of pizza claims bandied about in this town, and Deano’s slogan “health oriented gourmet pizza” might cause skeptics to move on to another food stand. But give it a try.

Owner Dean Schwartz rebuilt the 60-year-old unit and engineered a menu of irreverent pizzas, pasta dishes and salads.

Three kinds of crust -- cornmeal, herb white and whole wheat -- are the basis of almost 20 pizzas, many quite well-conceived. The best are the less traditional. For a Mexican chicken pizza, a wonderfully thin cornmeal crust that’s crisp at the edges is painted with spicy black bean sauce and topped with just a little cheese plus chicken, chiles and black olives. It’s light but full of fun flavors -- what you think you want but never get with nachos. The Mediterranean is one of those kitchen-sink wonders, with a fennel-scented crust, spinach, chopped garlic, tomatoes, salty feta, kalamata olives, fresh basil and more.

We sipped Pellegrino limonatas with our meal, but on another occasion, later in the day, I’d stop at the next counter, the tiny bar called E.B.’s, where the slogan is “beer and wine from far away.” On Thursdays, bottles of Labatt Blue are $2.50, on Fridays it’s Peroni. And there’s always Guinness on draft.

Yes, farmers marketeers, we can look forward to the longer days of spring, knowing that our breakfast, lunch, happy hour, dinner and after-hours noshing needs will be well met.

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Du-par’s Restaurant & Bakery

Location: 6333 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (323) 933-8446; www.dupars.com. Branches also in Thousand Oaks and Studio City. See a montage of photos of Du-par’s through the years at www.youtube.com.

Price: Breakfast dishes, $6.50 to $11.50; sandwiches and burgers, $8.50 to $11; “traditions” and entrees, $8.75 to $15.

Best dishes: Buttermilk pancakes, chicken pot pie.

Details: Open daily, 24 hours. Validated lot parking. No alcohol. Major credit cards.

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Deano’s Gourmet Pizza

Location: 6333 W. 3rd St., (323) 935-6373.

Price: Pizzas, $6 (8-inch cheese) to $18 (14-inch meat-lovers); panini, $7.50 to $8.50; pasta, $5 to $11; soup and salads, $3 to $7.50.

Best dishes: Mexican chicken pizza, Mediterranean pizza, grilled vegetable sandwich.

Details: Open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sundays until 7:30 p.m. Validated lot parking. Major credit cards. No alcohol.