The Pacific Dining Car Restaurant and Bar in Santa Monica is celebrating a 25th anniversary this year.
The decision to establish a second Dining Car Restaurant was made and acted upon in 1990.
The original Pacific Dining Car Restaurant has been serving and delighting the people of Los Angeles since 1921.
So one night last week we visited the restaurant in Santa Monica and it proved to be a memorable evening.
We dined with Isidro Pineda, who is general manager at Santa Monica as well as his wife Bertha and renewed our acquaintance with his daughter, Nadine, who is an assistant manager and Hostess at the restaurant.
The menu is an exact duplicate of the downtown Pacific Dining Car and the policy of being open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year also holds true.
Isidro Pineda's career with the Pacific Dining Car extends some 38 years.  Starting downtown washing pots and pans, then Bus Boy and moving on to Waiter.  He was named G.M. at Santa Monica eight years ago.
This long time relationship between owners and employees is a tradition at the Pacific Dining Car.  We first became acquainted with the Pineda family when we met Nadine, who was representing Pacific Dining Car, at the recent Awards Banquet of the Southern California Restaurant Writers.
Our review of this evening can be found in the Summer issue of Vittles, Vintages & Voyages.