Remembrance of restaurants past

Cafe Society
1

I had a friend from out of town drop in last night, and we were reminiscing about olden times. We are both junk food aficionados and we were talking about long closed restaurants.

One of my favorite taco joints was La Jicora in Isla Vista, Califiornia. Man, they had the greatest bean and cheese burritos on the planet. They unfortunately sold their property to get this, Burger King! Of course, that travesty and every other business thereafter has failed miserably. Even Sushi Teri House, a very good cheap Japanese food joint has failed. I still hope to buy the property and open my Tommy’s franchise (which doesn’t franchise, so I will be forced to steal their recipe and call it DarrylBurger).

When it was about to close, my roomie went up to the owner and asked him the most important question in the universe, “What is the special ingredient that makes the beans so delicious?”. The answer, “Chorizo!”. Generations of hippie vegetarians had been scarfing down bean and cheese burritos there, not realizing that the burritos contained spiced pig salivary glands and esophagi. My friend also let on that that was the place that he had first seen huevos rancheros, ordered by yours truly. I’ve actually tried to make refried beans with chorizo, but my results were not even a poor imitation of the Real La Jicora thing.

Another killer restaurant now closed was Serranito’s (sp?), also in IV. It had the world’s greatest flautas, which were like an oven baked burrito. Quite often, you see them deep fried at lesser establishments. They had a bizarre green sauce not of this earth on them, not comprising of avocado, tomatillo or green chile. I always liked the chicken and broccoli. They were the first place I had been to that placed a smidgeon of the ingredients on top to identify the flauta/burrito. The owner was gunned down on the doorstep to the restaurant. We used to jokingly order the human flauta. I almost always had a friend working as a waitress there, and was able to get very good deals on pitchers of beer.

In the San Fernando Valley of my childhood, there was a magnificently shitty hamburger stand, the name of which I cannot remember. On the last day of school, they had the unbelievable deal of hamburgers for 20 for a dollar. Even in my poverty stricken youth, this was a fantastic bargain. The hamburgers were about the same size as a McDonald’s.

Neato Burrito on the Balboa Peninsula in Orange County, California. They had the world’s greatest grilled fish burrito. Oddly enough, their refrigerated front case was filled with eggs. It was crawling distance from my friend’s house and was one stop shopping for eggs, fish burritos, and drugs.

So, any remembrances of long closed food joints?

2

In DC there was a place called Vesuvio’s that had everything you needed in a great pizza place. Delicious pizza. Pretty waitstaff. Carafes of wine for cheap. Mean looking waitstaff that made sure you didn’t get too familiar with the pretty waitstaff after drinking too many carafes. I am sure they had other stuff on the menu, but I never tried because their pizza was so consistenlty perfect. It closed up and was replaced with a wrap works. Maybe, that’s not what caused me to move to Santa Barbara, but it was surely a driving factor.

In Santa Barbara there was a terrific hamburger shop on State Street. I forget the name of it, but it was right next to this odd art store that had 3D art of some sort. Anyway, this place had very good burgers, and incredibly excellent waffle fries. No where else had better fries.

There’s a spot on State Street that has gone through 3 or 4 incarnations while I lived there. i don’t know what it is now. But, at one point it was a terrific tri tip spot that had incredibly awesome deals. Then, it became a average to middling place. Then the Palazzio people bought it and it became a pretty good fish and chip spot. I miss both the tri tip and the fish and chips.

pat

3

There used to be a resturant called Victoria Station that had the most wonderful prime rib. It was built of old boxcars, so it had neat atmosphere, too. I don’t know if any are still left but the ones I knew of have closed.

4

In Thousan Oaks, CA there used to be a tiny Mexican hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Pancho’s run by a very nice Korean couple. They had easily the best salsa Ihave ever had and their beef tacos were probably illegal they were so addiciting. I would even drive the 50 minutes to from Glendale after I moved just because I had to have the tacos. Well, one day I made the trek and it was gone, the building had been razed. I tried to find out if they had moved but got nowhere.

5

I worked for Naugles for a time. (California Del Taco clone)… in Camarillo

6

Oh, gods. Naugles.

Junk food heaven when I was in high school, especially since there was one across the street from the school. I miss that place. (I think.)

7

Ingram’s Chili Bowl. An old diner that started out as a truck stop back in the late 40’s. The house specialty was called the El Dorado. Open faced chili-cheeseburger with hash browns on the side.

If you ordered one for breakfast, they’d slap a fried egg on top. Each table had a bowl of freshly diced onions next to the Tabasco sauce.

8

In Mansfield, Ohio, in the 70s, there was a bar/grill called Creamer’s (pronounced Kramer’s) that we would go to every so often when I was a kid. There was a main bar area, and then a restaurant in a separate room. The cool thing about this place, other than that it was totally old-school bar/grill, was that the bar area was full of taxidermied animals, moose/deer/other busts & whatnot. There was even a wide, shingled roof overhang over the door from the bar to the restaurant area that had a squirrel scene (a la Kevin Kling’s Taxidermy). Inside the restaurant area it was dark as night with plates displayed on a ledge that went all around the room, and if I remember correctly, the light came from lights that were along the ledge, too, up high, yellow, and dim. We would order fried shrimp- to us kids it was a delicacy.

That place was the real deal. It’s gone now. Dang. :frowning:

9

Not a restaurant exactly, but the only weekly Thai street fair in the US…Wat Thai weekend food fair.

Kneecapped by area residents who complained about the traffic around the temple. Haters.

I’ve taken every person who visited me to the Wat Thai food court and not a single person has left anything but insanely happy and blissful. Had it not been shut down, I would have suggested a Dopefest there at some point.

sob

10

Shanghai Minnie’s. Little dumpy Chinese place near the UW campus. Nothing special about it, except they had a dish called “fragrant vegetables” that was the best Chinese restaurant food I’ve ever had. Plus, best name ever, how can you not love a place called Shanghai Minnie’s? Sadly, Minnie (I have no idea if she was actually Minnie or had any relation to Minnie or if there ever was a Minnie) sold the place and the new owners changed the recipe.

11

About twenty years ago (!) I used to frequent a place called Alita’s Fajitas, right on the Drag just south of UT. Man, I loved that place- they had the best burritos I’ve ever had.

12

RG’s Giantburger? What year?

Son of a bitch! I was supposed to go down there with my Thai bartender buddy. We never made it, and then I read about the neighborhood parking fiasco that shut it down. Before the L.A. dopefest, I did make it to the world’s greatest Thai noodle joint, Rodded Restaurant at 5623 Hollywood Blvd. Their secret ingredients are tiny bits of fried pork skin, plus some secret spice that they will never reveal.

13

Naugles. :frowning: They closed down when I was still very young but I remember trips to Naugles as happy occasions. Am I misremembering or did everything come in orange wax paper, spotted with grease?

This is the first time I heard about Wat Thai, and now I’m pissed it’s not even there!

14

Yeah! That’s it. RG’S! Man! They had carafes of wine as well. I think I am sensing a pattern about places I like. You know the best part about RG’s? That little backyard were you could sit and eat your food. It was hidden and out of the way, so it was usually an awesome place to just sit around and waste time.

15

My favorite restaurant in South Pasadena just closed its doors a couple of weeks ago – Gus’s BBQ. That restaurant had been in the same family since the 1940s, and I’d been going there since I was about 15.

For reasons that remain unclear to me, they’ve now sold the restaurant. Apparently it will be keeping the name once it reopens, but it just won’t be the same.

ETA: Another vote for missing Naugles.

16

Prime Rib and Boxcars: Whatever Happened to Victoria Station?

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Yeah, Go Fish was it’s name when they had the fish and chips. It surprisingly didn’t last that long. Now it’s a hot dog place.

I loved Naugles when I was in college. I remember when they closed.

18

I must say I loved the one in San Francisco (the one in Reno, not so much) but I can’t imagine ever wanting to read a book about it (even if it does mention Lynn Swann and Johnny Cash.)

19

We loved the Victoria Station in Miami, too. It was inside Dadeland Mall, and they did have amazing prime rib, as well as a great Sunday brunch with giant beef ribs. It was open as late as 1996, but then faded away.

I also miss Taco Viva, which was a fast-food Mexican chain, but leagues better than Taco Bell and actually much better than most sit-down Mexican restaurants I’ve been to.

20

When I think of San Francisco though I remember most fondly a dessert place on Union St. called Bepple’s which had the best pie in the world and my all-time favorite deli which was just about a block down from Union on Fillmore (I think) which served fresh squeezed juices of all kinds and hot turkey and roast beef sandwiches which were just incredible. Does anyone remember this place besides me?