He of the extra extra extra large shirt had been doing lots and lots of food reading. Everyone, The Pasadena Weekly, the LA Weekly, the LA Times were proclaiming a local place to be a food miracle. The Fat Man wanted too believe so. The new place, the SLAW DOGS was located where the one of multiple chins once enjoyed the best Philadelphia Cheesesteaks to ever hit California. That great place was gone. The Fat Man hoped SLAW DOGS was a worthy successor. The Fat Man hopes for world peace also. It's about the same.
I have no idea what SLAW DOGS the various food critics went to. They have raved page after page about plebean food revelations, explosions of flavor on the tongue, surperlative declarations on and on and on.
Perhaps the one of the fully stuffed sweater was oversold. In any case, he was underwhelmed. The first time. So the chubby One figured it was an off day, and went back again. And again. And again. There were no revelations. There were no fabulous anythings to revel in. Yes the dogs are stuffed to the point of being too messy to eat without a fork.
Frankly, the one of spare tire girth wanted to love this place and found it over priced, over sold, and way way way over hyped. The Picnic lunch was ...OK. The Bar B Que dog with onions again was OK. The Asian dog- not a revelation akin to meeting the Buddha. OK, fresh food, but not great and pricey for what you got.
Want a really GREAT dog at a fair price that is a Hot Dog Classic? Try Scooby's on Hollywood Boulevard, don't bother with Slaw Dogs.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Big Boy in Pasadena, the American Dream
He of the double chins has not written much about food recently. Fear not! He has been plowing his way through many a feed lot, he just sadly has not found much worthy of filling his pen with ink in the local Pasadena area. His jolly roundness has been celebrating many a fine old LA diner through the facebook group CLASSIC L.A. DINING. Clifton's, Phillipe's, Chili John's and Canters have so far delighted he of triple extra large girth.
It is a visit to a classic yet new place today that causes his tubbyness to write. Long long ago, when the Chunky One was a wee willowy lad, the first restaurant he ever went to was the famous East Pasadena Bob's memorialized in Sam Shephard's play TRUE WEST. The Fat man's father had been the bouncer of that particular Bob's Big Boy's infamously rowdy car hop service. Stories of baaaad ass car and motorcycle club members learning to fly were often told to a spell bound boy by Bob's Big Boy employees.
Both the Bob's on foothill in East Pas and the one next to PCC closed in that dark era of shoulder padded women in neon colored jackets called the early 1980's. Everybody was SO busy being upscale and pretending to be "European" that no one wanted to be caught dead in Bobs Big Boy, it was so so so...er ah EGALITARIAN, so AMERICAN, so lacking in that most important attribute of the YUPPIE "mind": pretension.
He of the rolls over the belt longed for the sacred space of the Wayne McAllister designed hallowed halls of American dining. Those Wrightian Usonian open cantilever roof openings, the large glazed areas, the lawyers, bankers, plumbers, cops, gang members, judges, office workers all dining next to each other, chatting easily together on the field of equality: The worlds best Blue Cheese dressing and a double decker slathered in a sweet sharply tangy hamburger relish. Bob's Big Boy was a embodyment of something more than commerce, it embodied a equality that was achieved in America in the post war era through high quality, fair prices and unbelievably excellent service.
The Fat Man has long made trecks to Toluca Lake where the Mc Donnald brothers retain a original more or less unmolested Wayne McAllister designed Bob's Big Boy. It's a time machine to better designed restaurants, excellent service and the highest quality simple fair at a fair price. At hte end of every trek a letter is written on the back of the bill: "Call me, I have a perfect site in the Pasadena Area for you, a huge market waiting." They never called.
The McDonnald brothers did have a Pasadena franchise that wasn't doing so great a Baja Fresh in a almost invisible location. With hundreds of local Mexican places to frequent, no one was finding their way to Baja Fresh. They knew there was a longing in the SGV for a Bob's, so they have just opened a Bob's big Boy in that location. Jeanette and I went there at 3 in the afternoon on a Monday- the place in this down economy was 3/4 full. A good sign!
The food was wonderful. If you knew Bob's in the 50's, 60's, 70's or 80's, all I can say is the beef is perfectly fresh, the hamburger relish has that slight bite of sharp tart sweetness you remember, the fries were perfect, the salad is better and where else in town can you get a vanilla root beer?
The interior is a stripped down more plain less detailed McCallister Bob's, it honors the designs you knew, while not slavishly aping them. It's a pleasant place to be, especially considering the lack of available exterior wall in a center building location.
While I was there, a corporate Lawyer I know in his Coutroom dark blues was having Pappy Parker's Fried Chicken, some college students were eating dessert, construction workers stopped in for a burger. Amazingly enough, the high quality food and excellent service with fair prices were already weaving the magic of a democratized egalitarian environment.
Jeanette and I each had a Big boy combination, each of us ordering the burger in the peculiar ways we prefer it, Jeanette HEAVY on the relish, me add tomato center out. They were EXCELLENT, the fries perfect, you could close your eyes and find yourself back way way back to Saturday lunch as a child, dates after the football game as a teen, and comfort food as a young business owner and newlywed whose world was exciting, but swirling with change and pressure.
Open your eyes, and you are in a place that is recognizable as Bob's and happily, now Bob's is back in Pasadena!
It's a real American Dream.
It is a visit to a classic yet new place today that causes his tubbyness to write. Long long ago, when the Chunky One was a wee willowy lad, the first restaurant he ever went to was the famous East Pasadena Bob's memorialized in Sam Shephard's play TRUE WEST. The Fat man's father had been the bouncer of that particular Bob's Big Boy's infamously rowdy car hop service. Stories of baaaad ass car and motorcycle club members learning to fly were often told to a spell bound boy by Bob's Big Boy employees.
Both the Bob's on foothill in East Pas and the one next to PCC closed in that dark era of shoulder padded women in neon colored jackets called the early 1980's. Everybody was SO busy being upscale and pretending to be "European" that no one wanted to be caught dead in Bobs Big Boy, it was so so so...er ah EGALITARIAN, so AMERICAN, so lacking in that most important attribute of the YUPPIE "mind": pretension.
He of the rolls over the belt longed for the sacred space of the Wayne McAllister designed hallowed halls of American dining. Those Wrightian Usonian open cantilever roof openings, the large glazed areas, the lawyers, bankers, plumbers, cops, gang members, judges, office workers all dining next to each other, chatting easily together on the field of equality: The worlds best Blue Cheese dressing and a double decker slathered in a sweet sharply tangy hamburger relish. Bob's Big Boy was a embodyment of something more than commerce, it embodied a equality that was achieved in America in the post war era through high quality, fair prices and unbelievably excellent service.
The Fat Man has long made trecks to Toluca Lake where the Mc Donnald brothers retain a original more or less unmolested Wayne McAllister designed Bob's Big Boy. It's a time machine to better designed restaurants, excellent service and the highest quality simple fair at a fair price. At hte end of every trek a letter is written on the back of the bill: "Call me, I have a perfect site in the Pasadena Area for you, a huge market waiting." They never called.
The McDonnald brothers did have a Pasadena franchise that wasn't doing so great a Baja Fresh in a almost invisible location. With hundreds of local Mexican places to frequent, no one was finding their way to Baja Fresh. They knew there was a longing in the SGV for a Bob's, so they have just opened a Bob's big Boy in that location. Jeanette and I went there at 3 in the afternoon on a Monday- the place in this down economy was 3/4 full. A good sign!
The food was wonderful. If you knew Bob's in the 50's, 60's, 70's or 80's, all I can say is the beef is perfectly fresh, the hamburger relish has that slight bite of sharp tart sweetness you remember, the fries were perfect, the salad is better and where else in town can you get a vanilla root beer?
The interior is a stripped down more plain less detailed McCallister Bob's, it honors the designs you knew, while not slavishly aping them. It's a pleasant place to be, especially considering the lack of available exterior wall in a center building location.
While I was there, a corporate Lawyer I know in his Coutroom dark blues was having Pappy Parker's Fried Chicken, some college students were eating dessert, construction workers stopped in for a burger. Amazingly enough, the high quality food and excellent service with fair prices were already weaving the magic of a democratized egalitarian environment.
Jeanette and I each had a Big boy combination, each of us ordering the burger in the peculiar ways we prefer it, Jeanette HEAVY on the relish, me add tomato center out. They were EXCELLENT, the fries perfect, you could close your eyes and find yourself back way way back to Saturday lunch as a child, dates after the football game as a teen, and comfort food as a young business owner and newlywed whose world was exciting, but swirling with change and pressure.
Open your eyes, and you are in a place that is recognizable as Bob's and happily, now Bob's is back in Pasadena!
It's a real American Dream.
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