Fredo's 720 n.Lake Ave, passthedohuts

He of triple extra chins has been eating salad. A whole two weeks of salad. It's fine for a couple of days. One fantasizes about being thin, fast, and nimble.Thats enough to carry a guy for a few days. Then, the withdrawl kicks in, the massive depression, the disgust at the sight of lettuce.You NEED a CARBOHYDRATE and you need it NOW!



So I'm riding around town with Josephine, bitching into her instrument panel that I just can't eat another salad for lunch. Josephine smoothly, but insistantly told me to go to the intersection of Lake and Orange Grove and pull up at Fredo's.

Ah, 1938 Buick's are such sweet things! So I pulled up and parked Josephine in all her long curvy blackness at the curb within the dappled light under the street trees. Only in the Denas! We have shade at the street. It's one of the subtle wonderful things about this place that most people never understand until they are somewhere awful like Hollywood or God forbid, Orange County, and all of the sudden they realize that they are dining on the sidewalk in the blazing unrelieved California sun. But then, as I often do, I digress...



I am here for some FOOD. Some stick to your ribs, carry you through a long day, quality FOOD. I've heard from friends that Fredo's is good, but I am dubious. A Cheese Steak Hoagee is a regional Philadelphia area food that seems to get all screwed up as it travels. You know, you've had the corporatista imitation:

A bun that is too thick and chews like a dogs oral fixation toy, sliced rubberized meat that has spent days in a warming tray and chews like WW1 boot leather, a big glob of melted cheese on top with some limp flavorless onions and bell peppers dumped into it carelessly. You eat one of those after hearing its the thang in Philly and you think that folks back there have no taste buds and jaws as powerful as a Cat D-9 tractor. Those chain store corporate imitations are just plain awful, but generally this inedible waste is served in a large portion, like its some kinda undesirable pile of leftover product they are trying to foist off on you. Chances are it is.



I've been told so many places with inedible hoaggies were palaces of culinary delight that I crossed the door of Freddos with considerable reluctance, but Josephine isn't known to steer a guy wrong. As I rolled my rotund self up to the counter I noticed a display of Tastee Cakes on the counter. Hmmmm, the Philly regional corporate junk food, well a couple plus points for some kind of regional fidelity...I ordered, a Freddo's "the Works"fries and a Coke. I waited. My stomach growled. It kept saying "This better be worth the wait, it had better be better than Carl's Junior." I hoped it was, cause eating at a national chain, even for fast food, is a morally reprehensable act.



My food came. I can't really explain this, but it smelled right. Kind of like a faint version of the clean sweat of a hard working guy. A good Chesse Steak Hoaggie always smells like that. It looked right. The Hoagee was wrapped in PAPER,it seeped a brown gray colors lightly at the back. It was a size based on the classical size bread flute, and looking down I saw paper thin steak chopped into small 3/8" x 1/4" pieces completely covered with warm melted almost liquid cheese. There were onions in there and chopped peppers and mushrooms totally encased in hot steaming cheese. I picked the sandwich up. It was hot to the touch. It had just been made the second before served. no heat lamps, no bins,
F R E S H. I was kind of annoyed that I would have to wait to eat it till it cooled down. I had some fries. Thick cut, soft, nice potato clouds. Comfort fries to the max.



My sandwich cooled down. I bit in. Oh MY very gooodness!!!I shouted (really, can't take this guy anyplace) Thats GOOD!!!! It was good, friends. The flavors of the cheese , the steak, the onion, the mushrooms and pepper blended together in a delightful symphony of perfection. Cheeesy, beefy, Fresh bread, savory perfection. Whoooo yeah! Worth breaking your diet for perfection. Really really good "Oh my goodness I gotta tell Mark Picaj (who is from Philly) about this joint" Faithful to the original regional food!

The next week I took Jeanette. She had a Chicken Cheese Steak and I had a Teriyaki Mushroom Cheese steak with onion rings. These were also EXCELLENT, but really, get "The Works", its the authentic experience. The onion rings were good, but I'll be sticking with the fries in the future.

So here we have a small joint in what has to be Pasadena's ugliest strip mall, that serves a out of state regional food, and serves it PERFECTLY right. Get to Fredos, quick before they do something stupid like franchise the joint!