palette du jour

The multiracial citizenry who inhabit Southern California in varying degrees of can-we-all-get-along? harmony have nothing on the rainbow coalition of local restaurants.

Seldom seen in foodstuffs other than M&Ms;, blue figures in House of Blues, downtown’s Blue Cube hamburger stand and Pete’s Blue Chip, an Eagle Rock sandwich joint named for owner Pete Vagenas and for the (usually) positive connotations of blue chip stocks.

On the warm end of the spectrum there’s Pink’s, the hot dog emporium founded in 1939 by the late Paul Pink, Beverly Boulevard’s crayon-colored scenester mecca Red, and the Los Feliz burrito stand Orange Bee Jay, so named, says owner Sarkis Babian, because the place once moved a lot of fresh-squeezed orange juice (that, and the fact the building was, and remains, orange).

The most popular restaurant-name color is, not surprisingly, gold: Golden Bird, Golden Fish, Golden Hen, Golden Ox, Golden Panda Kitchen, Golden Pig B-B-Q and the Golden Dragon.

But we’ll always have Black Angus.