Tarzana, Calif. – He walks in at 8:30 a.m. sharp, so punctual you think he’s one of his old basketball players lining up for layup drills. Four or five days a week he comes, grabbing the same Naugahyde seat by the door.
If you watch from across the room, he appears like just another regular. He’s one of the gang, no more important than Scotty and Milly and Mike sitting along the counter. But every once in a while 96-year-old John Wooden will drop his fork full of the luscious pancakes that bring him back every day and sign an autograph.
The greatest coach in the history of college basketball hasn’t roamed UCLA’s sideline for 31 years, but he has been roaming down Ventura Boulevard to VIP’s Cafe for the past 14.
VIP’s, renamed nine years ago, is the kind of place where an icon who won a record 10 national titles can feel as comfy as if he’s in his own dining room. It’s a 1960s-style diner with ceiling fans, green-blue upholstered booths and friendly, chatty waitresses who whip up the best short-order breakfast grub in the San Fernando Valley.
It has a Rat Pack feel to it. I keep thinking I’ll see Frankie and Sammy nursing hangovers over a cup of joe. But as a sportswriter and longtime college basketball fan, one raised in Oregon and who watched Wooden’s Bruins lay shambles to the entire country, seeing Wooden there means more. Sinatra could belt out “My Way” over a Belgian waffle, and I wouldn’t be more impressed.
“He’s the sweetest man in the world,” says my waitress, Karin Thomsen. “And he’s so smart. His body is 96, but his brain is like 26.”
I walk up and introduce myself, and later at his home in nearby Encino we switch subjects from hot teams to hotcakes. I ask what makes him get up every morning and drive to this unassuming diner.
“It just happened by chance,” Wooden says. “I just felt comfortable going in there. At that time, my son-in-law was going with me a lot. He has since passed away. He liked it. Very soon, different ones I knew started coming in and talked about it. Now I know so many people who are coming regularly who’ve started since I did.”
Soon word spread. If you wanted to catch John Wooden, go to VIP’s at 8:30 a.m. weekdays. His ex-players, nearly all with diplomas and successful and painstakingly loyal, have discovered VIP’s too.
“Mike Warren (Class of ’68) comes a lot,” Wooden says. “Kenny Washington (1966) comes a lot. Andy Hill (1972) comes a lot. Keith Erickson (1965), Keith Wilkes (1974) and several others. Seldom one of my players doesn’t come.”
VIP’s list of breakfast items could fit in the margin of a Denny’s menu. There are 1 through 5 and A through F. That’s it. I had the French toast with two slices of bacon, Wooden style (real brittle). Of course, they were brilliant. The French toast was nice and soft, covered with powdered sugar and accompanied by an old-fashioned plastic tub of whipped butter and hot maple syrup. Total cost: $4.25.
“Oh, you had the No. 4!” Wooden says. “I normally order the 2 but I have had the 4, and occasionally I’ll have the 5.”
The No. 2, the Wooden special, is the extra crispy bacon with real buttery toast and two eggs, scrambled. We had talked for 45 minutes about his legacy, the NCAA Tournament and the bastardization of today’s coaching salaries. But he never got more excited than discussing the chow at VIP’s.
“I think their hotcakes are as good as any I’ve ever tasted anywhere,” says Wooden, holding up his index finger for emphasis. “And another thing, it’s economical. You get the No. 1 or No. 2 and go to another place up here, it’ll cost you twice as much.”
Favorite haunts are nothing new with basketball coaches. Colorado State’s Dale Layer is a regular at The Egg & I in Fort Collins. Air Force’s Jeff Bzdelik loves going to Big Bill’s NY Pizza on Holly Street and County Line Road in Centennial, a must stopover for visiting NBA coaches or ex-Nuggets head coaches such as Doug Moe.
No one around here, however, is treated with the type of reverence as Wooden is at VIP’s. And he reciprocates. He walks in, says hello to total strangers, and then sits back and waits for his hotcakes. Soon a customer, stunned that the man voted the greatest college coach of the 20th century, is sitting near him.
Pretty soon he has a pen in hand. “There are times I wish it wouldn’t happen,” he says, “but it’s going to happen almost every day so you accept it and don’t let it upset you.”
I don’t ask for an autograph. A simple handshake with a basketball icon and the best French toast in San Fernando Valley is a great way to start your day.
Staff writer John Henderson covers sports and writes about the food he eats on the road. He can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
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If you go
VIP’s Cafe, 18345 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, Calif., 818-343-7361.
Learn more about the basketball legend at coachjohnwooden.com.
