Remember How Simple Life Still Can Be

Walk into Rockwell’s Cafe and Bakery, and if they haven’t yet memorized your regular breakfast order, chances are they’ll already have it on the griddle the next time you come through the door.

Make a few trips to the old-fashioned drugstore nearby and it’s likely that at least one of the six Brodskys who work there will remember that you’re partial to egg creams and maple nut fudge.

Even the bag boy at the Ralphs market next door probably won’t have to ask “Paper or plastic?”

Welcome to Villa Park, where the homes are big but the atmosphere is definitely small-town.

It’s funny that although Orange County’s smallest city (2.1 square miles, 6,500 residents) has only one shopping center, which doubles as its civic center, the people don’t feel deprived. Maybe that’s because though the options are few, they often find what they’re looking for in the shopping complex at the bend in Santiago Boulevard.

Art, Atmosphere and Eats

If you’re looking to open a restaurant, what better way to decorate than with plates? That’s what Marty Colleary figured in 1987, when he and his wife, Wendy, were putting the finishing touches on Rockwell’s Cafe and Bakery (17853 Santiago Blvd., Villa Park, [714] 921-0622).

Colleary already had a collection of Norman Rockwell gilt-edged plates, as well as prints by the famed illustrator, so the restaurant’s name was a given. It all seemed a perfect way to evoke the homey atmosphere Colleary sought.

“There’s something in his artwork that expresses what’s genuine,” Colleary said. “I think I’m a pretty good judge of character, just as Rockwell was, so it seems to work out well.”

Of course, the attention to decor and atmosphere would mean little if Rockwell’s didn’t serve good food. The restaurant passes that test every day, as evidenced by the number of regulars and its growth. It opened with 20 seats; it now has 140.

Breakfast favorites include four kinds of eggs benedict (each $7.95), all topped with homemade Hollandaise sauce. Ingredients range from seafood and avocado to marinated chicken. The menu also features 10 omelets ($5.95-$6.95), with the grilled artichoke version offering a particularly enticing mix of mushrooms, bell pepper, onions and olives.

Rockwell’s is never busier than it is for Sunday breakfast. For lunch, there’s an array of salads, pizza, pasta and burgers, but don’t bypass the sandwiches. Try the grilled eggplant (with roasted bell peppers, tomatoes and Provolone, on a French roll) or the hot pastrami. Both are $7.95. Dinners include Mom’s meatloaf ($12.95), grilled or poached salmon ($15.95) and Chop House pork chops, topped with an apple chutney glaze ($15.95).

The Rockwell’s experience begins and ends with the scent from the bakery, which serves upward of 1,000 cakes a week. It’s next to impossible to get out without sampling from the dessert tray.

“One of the great things about this place is that near the end of the day, we’ll sometimes send people home with a muffin for free,” server Lauren Brown said. “It’s a real friendly place. We didn’t even have computers until about a year ago.”

Colleary still isn’t sure he likes them.

“I’m used to a cigar-box operation,” he said.

Rockwell’s is open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

A Soda, but No Jerks

Picking a store after which to model his fledgling pharmacy 28 years ago was easy for Jim Brodsky. He had a picture of his father’s drugstore in Wisconsin to use as a guide.

“It was like restoring a car--we found pieces and tried to put it all together,” said Brodsky, owner of Villa Park Pharmacy (17821 Santiago Blvd., [714] 998-6060). “It took about four years.”

What Brodsky assembled was a piece of Americana--a drugstore like those from previous centuries, with a candy counter, goose-neck soda fountains, a malt machine, swivel stools and wooden booths.

“I grew up in a place like this, when the corner drugstore was a way of life,” said Brodsky, 56. “There are very few of them left, but this little one’s here, and as long as I have a breath in me, it’ll be here. Hopefully, my kids will take over when I’m gone.”

The store already is a family operation. Brodsky’s son Bob, 32, is the pharmacy manager, and Bob’s twin sister, Shelly, works as a pharmacist on weekends. The youngest Brodsky kids--Jake, 10, and Shayna, 8--often spend summer afternoons pouring lemonade out front, while their grandmother, Sylvia Brodsky, 84, sells lottery tickets from a wooden cubicle that once served as a ticket booth for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

When he isn’t teaching pharmacology at USC, Brodsky is also at the store, filling prescriptions and dispensing advice on natural remedies. The local doctors call him “Dr. Weeds and Seeds.”

“They’ll phone me and say, ‘Tell me all you know about blood root,’ ” Brodsky said. “They’ll want to know how it interacts with a prescription medicine.”

Brodsky’s advice for good health? Take time to stop and munch the fudge ($8.95 a pound) and sip a cherry phosphate ($1.35) now and then.

Villa Park Pharmacy is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

A Good Fit

Janet Brown’s 2-year-old clothing boutique is a relative newcomer to the Villa Park Shopping Center. But thanks to her attention to service and word-of-mouth, the customer list is growing for Personalized Fashions (17785 Santiago Blvd., [714] 974-7395). Brown wears many hats in her one-woman operation--buyer, color consultant, personal shopper, even seamstress.

“Let’s face it, it’s not easy for women to put together an ensemble these days,” Brown said. “There are so many choices and so many mistakes you can make that it’s easy to become frustrated. And department stores just don’t give the personal service I do.”

Most of what Brown carries is dressy sportswear--dresses, suits, shoes and accessories for a wedding or a cruise. But her business has started to take off--tripling in the last two years, she said--since local shoppers started realizing “this isn’t an old ladies’ shop. I sell two- and three-piece outfits for under $100 that are comfortable, wear well and look great.”

Dresses range from $39 to $250. Copies of jewelry by designers such as Judith Jack and David Yurman sell for as little as $29.

Brown added that if a customer has something specific in mind, she’ll look for it on Mondays, the day she shops the L.A. Clothing Mart.

“It’s that kind of service that sets me apart,” she said.

Personalized Fashions is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. It’s closed Sundays and Mondays.

IF YOU GO

* Getting There: To reach the Villa Park Shopping Center, exit the Costa Mesa Freeway at Katella and go east to Wanda Road, which runs into Santiago Boulevard. Turn left, and the shopping center is a quarter-mile ahead on the right.

* All That Glitters: Also check out Jewelry Designs by Steven (17767 Santiago Blvd. No. 602, [714] 974-3500), which is just a few doors down from Personalized Fashions.

Villa Park

1. Personalized Fashions

17785 Santiago Blvd., (714) 974-7395

2. Villa Park Pharmacy

17821 Santiago Blvd., (714) 998-6060

3. Rockwell’s Cafe and Bakery

17853 Santiago Blvd., (714) 921-0622