Ham, Meet Egg

James Bartlett, Alta
May 12, 2020

For nearly 100 years, the Los Angeles Breakfast Club has been serving much more than a meal.

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The Democracy of Ham and Eggs

Sandi Hemmerlein, Thursday, February 2, 2017, Avoiding Regret

Welcome to the Shrine of Friendship…
The Temple of Sentiment and Idealism…
where people come together to bury the hatchet…
and have breakfast.

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The Strangest Club in Los Angeles, The L.A. Breakfast Club

James Bartlett, KCET
March 16, 2017

Every Wednesday morning for over 90 years, Angelenos have gathered together in Griffith Park to sing songs, recite a strange poem, meet new friends and breakfast on ham and eggs.

Or, as the members of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club would say: MNX.

As soon as you enter the Friendship Auditorium, home of the LABC, it’s clear you’re in for a unique experience that mixes history, eccentricity and charm. In a contemporary Los Angeles that’s rediscovering its past in the face of rapid development, it’s hard to think of a better place to be at 7 a.m.

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L.A.’s Oldest Eating Group Hams It Up

By CHARLES PERRY, Los Angeles Times
December 12, 2007

IT’S 7:45 a.m., and 40 or 50 people are lustily chanting, “F-V-N-E-M? S-V-F-M! F-V-N-E-X? S-V-F-X!” over the remains of breakfast.

This club has recited its mysterious “cryptogram” every Wednesday morning since 1925. The final line makes the secret meaning clear: “O-I-C-V-F-M-N-X!”

Or sort of clear. It’s “Oh, I see, we have ham and eggs!” (Get it? O-I-C= “Oh I see,” V-F= “we have,” M= “ham,” X= “eggs,” N-E= “any” and S= “yes.”) In its defense, it was devised by a newspaper cartoonist, so you have to make allowances.

For more than 40 years the group has been meeting at Friendship Auditorium. That’s the big hall on Riverside Drive that many a motorist has puzzled about while whizzing south from Los Feliz Boulevard.

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