Megan and Murray McMillan

This Amada machine is as big as a VW bus with an awning and a campfire.

This Amada machine is as big as medieval knight armor in a museum when you are a 9-year-old boy.

This Amada machine is as big as a church at midnight, protecting a sober homeless man remembering his family.

The Amada Corporation’s Japanese cafe ($6-$12, complete with water garden) is one of my favorite places to go for lunch in East LA. You wouldn’t know it’s there, the only sign says AMADA in a serious font on a obviously industrial building. The Amada Corporation makes magnificent machines that make machines. The kind of things in life that you wonder how they were made. Those shelves inside computers that hold the power supply. Coat racks. They use the somewhat large cafe as an extension of their incredible showroom. A place to take your dad for lunch.

It’s located on the 5, just south of the 605. It’s somewhat tricky to find: exit Valleyview and get on the North side access road headed South. Getting to this access road is easy if you are coming from the South on the 5, but kinda tricky if you are coming from the North. Once on the access road, it’s about three minutes down. Although somewhat unmarked, the showroom is behind the water garden.

I’m saving up for an Amada machine.