We’re having 'em for lunch. I looked up a copycat recipe for Tommy’s chili, and I have a pot of that made and waiting. I hope Nathan’s hot dogs will do, because that’s what I have. Let’s see, it has been about forty years since I had a Tommy’s chili dog. What else? Wedges of tomato, slices of dill pickle, grated cheddar cheese and chopped onions, I think.
Is Tommy’s still there? If so, who has been there lately and can refresh my memory?
Tommy’s still exists and they’ve even expanded a bit. They are more known for their chili burgers. I used to eat there as a kid, more often the knockoff which was much closer to where I lived.
We’d go to the one in - where? west Los Angeles? I forget. For us, it was a place to go later at night, say after a concert, and have chili dogs and burgers when one had severe post-concert munchies.
The one in West LA is a fake known as Big Tomy’s which is where I used to go and it was effectively the same as Tommy’s. It’s still there.
There’s a Tommy’s in Ventura now. I haven’t been but you’ve planted the seed.
I looked it up. We went to the one at 2575 Beverly Boulevard, which the map claims is the original Tommy’s. I looked at it on Google street view and it sure looks smaller now, but just as low-rent.
Ventura, eh? We lived in Ventura for awhile. If they had been there from '86 to '99, we certainly would have visited it.
I bookmarked one over a decade ago. Just checked, and the url still works. I wanted a Tommy’s chili-cheeseburger (and had a couple), but I found it works just as well to make Wienerschnitzel Chili-Cheese Dogs.
That’s not West LA and is a real one. Big Tomy’s is on Pico in the shadow of the 405.
Yep. Don’t piss Tommy off! 
Place was a hoot! We’d go there after USC football games. Stand in a line, order and they’d throw a greasy blob at you before you could even get to the end of the line to pay for it. That ‘chili’ was positively odious. We had a nickname for them burgers, but I won’t repeat it here!
Good times.
It’s been there since I moved to the Central Coast 13 years ago. It was a frequent stop on my trips to and from Southern California. I ate a lot of chili burgers and chili cheese fries there before I made some life-extending changes to my diet.
Once, I brought home a whole quart of Tommy’s chili. It was inedible on its own. As a condiment, it’s fantastic. But to make it into a decent bowl of chili I had to add a lot of hamburger and beans.
That was the one.
As I recall from my era there (1976-1980) the L-shaped shopping center was a crappy liquor store and I forget what else. Tommy’s was only the shack in the parking lot. Which shack I agree used to be larger.
Yeah. From school due north on Hoover, bear right on Rampart, continue up to Beverly and there you are.
Only two kinds of people there after 10pm: USC students and absolute derelicts. Then again that describes a lot of central Los Angeles. 
Next time I’m in LA a couple days and have a car, I’m totally going.
Hey, that’s when I and my future husband frequented it. Maybe we stood in line with you at one point. Yeah, the post-10 p.m. crowd was pretty sketchy.
My Tommy’s-style dogs turned out very well. The chili was very good, because even though I followed a typical recipe, I was careful to skim all extra fat from it. I don’t have a twenty-one-year-old digestive system anymore! I also used quality ground beef and fresh spices. Mr. brown had two of them and is now sleeping them off. I had one and I don’t think I’ll need dinner tonight. Health food they are not.
Indeed, and there is one a rather short drive from our house. I even worked as security at the original Tommys, and boy it was an experience. After the bars closed, hungry people from all walks of life would line up for a chili-burger- politicians, hollywood stars, bikers, “cholos”, club people, etc. They have a rather active facebook page.
Yes, off Rampart.
I have used Hormel Chili without beans and it is pretty close.
I’m my era they used an outfit called Rupp Security. I’m not sure quite why I remember that name, but I’m certain it’s a legit memory. It’s probably because the guard they supplied was so memorable …
The guard most late nights was clearly a little bit birth defective. 30-ish white guy, small but stocky. One bad eye, oversized but misshapen head, and very low end of normal IQ. Definitely a USA native, but talked funny.
He wasn’t very large, but he was a special kind of scary. Sorta like a junkyard dog, you always worried that one of his notso-hotso neurons would make a random decision that he didn’t like you and suddenly it’d be on. Why yes, he did have a gun. I can’t vouch for him having bullets; maybe Rupp management was smart enough to give him the Barney Fife treatment. But I doubted that then and still do now.
I wonder what happened to that poor unfortunate soul? He’d be in his mid 70s now.
Hard disagree on that. Two entirely different tastes and mouth feel IMO.
Must have been after my time. The big think was that parking was limited, and there had been knife fights over parking spaces. And yes, my gun was loaded. Mind you- I never used it at Tommy’s, and hardly used my nightstick. Overall, not a bad assignment- I even got free food. Even got me out of a speeding ticket once. (There was a major LAPD station nearby and many of them came for the burgers).
I have a funny story- many regulars asked for 'extra this or that" Extra tomatoes or Onions, etc. So I was standing by the outside line (there were two stations in the day), and guys kept asking for extra this or that. So some regular customer asked for “extra everything!”. The cook took a small plastic bucket, dropped a bun in it, then a patty and then loaded stuff in, including maybe a pint of chili- then plopped a bun on top. The customer plaintively asked for a fork, but he didnt get one. 
Sure, but rather than buying a pint of the OG stuff at Tommy’s it does the job.
And one of them could be mistaken for ‘food’.
God, I want a Sonic corn dog now.
(I know, not the same, but there is a dog in there)
We each find our nostalgia where we do. Bon apetít, dear Beck.
I came to Sonic only in my 30s; they didn’t exist where I grew up. IIRC they had awesome banana milkshakes. I just looked and they are here in SoFL, but none real near me. But a suitable destination for a mini-road trip tomorrow.
I was actually near a more distant one earlier today. But you hadn’t posted yet. Anyhow, tomorrow is a corn dog and a Sonic banana milkshake, no matter how much driving is involved.
Thanks, Beck.
Have a sip and bite for me.
(Beware, the milkshake menu has changed).
ETA…if you down load the app you can get a freebie. Just trash it soon after. They love to send copious notifications.