There's no skimping on the indulgent ingredients at Pete's Cafe, a fun little rendezvous in downtown L.A.'s rapidly rebounding Bank District.

The crab cakes atop a frisee salad ($12) are bursting with succulent lumps of Dungeness crab, not overloaded with bread crumbs (a common occurrence for the genre). The signature Hellman burger ($12) contains a half pound of prime beef, and tweaks the traditional accompaniments with fontina cheese and a smoked-tomato aioli, as well as lettuce, tomato and a slab of red onion. But the real killer is a side of bleu cheese fries ($7), one of the most decadent pleasures you'll find on a plate.

Pete's is housed in the 1906 San Fernando Building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, with soaring ceilings over the bar and restaurant, and tables out on the sidewalk beneath strands of tiny lights (potted shrubs in giant planter boxes provide a welcome buffer against Downtown's unhappy wanderers). This is a good spot to get a quick bite before a performance at the Music Center or a sports event at the Staples Center.

Emphasis on quick. You probably won't have to worry about missing your curtain, because there seems to be no coordination whatsoever between the waitstaff and the kitchen. We had barely begun our crab cake salad and pancetta-wrapped scallops in orange-apricot puree ($13) when the main courses arrived, the aforementioned burger and a marinated, 10-ounce flat-iron steak ($19). "I can take them back to the kitchen and keep them warm," our cavalier waitress said through a bright smile. Not an appealing option; it made more sense to just eat it all at once.

(The bleu cheese fries come with the steak, by the way. If you order the burger and want to sub out its shoestring fries for the bleu cheese ones - or cheddar-bacon or garlic-basil or chipotle fries, for that matter - it's an additional $1.50.)

If you snag one of the tall tables in the bar, don't settle for its pub-grub-style food menu. Ask for the dinner appetizer menu, too, so as to broaden your options with the crab cakes, wild-mushroom ravioli ($8), burrata caprese ($11) or other delights.

At its best: American classics done well.

Could be better: A modicum of pacing of the courses would be nice.

—Eric Noland, eric.noland@dailynews.com; (818) 713-3681