This blue collar diner offers classic dishes, including a `Rambo' breakfast combo

The Wilmington branch of Eat at Rudy's isn't where you might expect an eatery to be — and, at the same time, it's exactly where it should be.

The curiosity of its location is clear. There's an oil and natural gas facility across the street, along with trucking companies to the south and the west. On the other hand, Wilmington is a blue collar town, supporting the massive shipping industry that stretches for miles along the docks.

Eat at Rudy's is very much a blue collar diner — a classic elbow-bending, can-I-freshen-your-coffee-honey kind of place, where big meals are needed by people who work hard with their backs, their arms, their hands.

If there were tablecloths on the tables, it would make no sense at all. This is the world of Formica, with real sugar and real milk poured into real cups of joe. This is where those who work here, and live here, go for breakfast and lunch. It's the sort of eatery where one breakfast combo is called Rambo, and another is John Wayne. There's a Popeye omelet because, well, of course there is.

The original Eat at Rudy's sits deep in the heart of Old Torrance, at Post at Cravens avenues — a couple of streets that casual cruisers don't tend to meander down. Even Waze gets confused.

But the Wilmington incarnation is easy to find, situated on busy Anaheim Street, if only because everything here feels so retro — but not self-consciously so.

Just consider the old school line drawing of a chef in a toque that's the signature of the place; chefs haven't looked like that since Harry was in the White House. There's a box on the menu of four dishes for not just kids, but seniors as well. If Rudy's was open till 4 or so, it'd have an early bird special. But it closes at 2 every afternoon.

And it opens at 6:30 every morning, seven days a week.

Eat at Rudy's is as comfortable as an old shoe. Seated at the counter, with its fine view of the kitchen and its machinations, this is a restaurant that makes you feel as if you've come home at last. That's because, well, for loyal locals, it is home.

It's a cafe with a menu that's as recognizable and reassuring as mom's cooking — if mom offered a sizable selection of egg dishes, creations Hot Off the Griddle, burgers and sandwiches, and a smattering of Chef's Favorites.

Breakfast is the spiritual centerpiece of the food here — first of all, because there are more breakfast dishes than anything else, but also because the place simply exudes the country goodness of biscuits topped with sausage and gravy, with two eggs any style and home fries. Really … what's not to love?