Road Tips

No. 1 Kazoku - San Gabriel, CA

San Gabriel, CA may have the largest per capita concentration of Chinese population/restaurants/businesses outside of cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.  I stayed in San Gabriel when I was out in California toward the end of 2024 as it was close to the home of my colleague who was driving me around during my visit.  We had originally planned on getting dinner together that evening, but my colleague called me around 7 p.m. and said that he was still full from a large lunch we had earlier in the day.  He begged off dinner that night and I told him that was fine with me.  I'm a big boy who has a credit card and I had noticed earlier that there was a sushi place just across the street from my hotel.  My colleague had been there before with his wife and he said that the sushi place - an oasis of Japanese cuisine in the midst of all those Chinese restaurants - was very good.  I ended up going to No. 1 Kazoku for dinner that night.  

 In Japanese, kazoku (家族) means "family".  And No. 1 Kazoku is truly a family operation.  Originally opened in late 2012 as R2 Kazoku, it was the second Kazoku restaurant owned by Freddy and Jeannie Yang.  Not long after they opened the San Gabriel location, they closed their original No. 1 Kazoku restaurant and transferred the name over to their newer place.  No. 1 Kazoku - known to the locals as simply No.1 - is also known for their Japanese charcoal grilled kushiyaki and yakitori - basically beef, chicken and/or seafood skewers - and their innovative specialty rolls served up by Chef Yamasan and his team of sushi chefs.  Tempura dishes - along with teriyaki favorites - also are available at No. 1 Kazoku.  

No. 1 Kazoku is located on Valley Blvd., just across the street from the Hilton Los Angeles/San Gabriel where I was staying.  (see map)  I had to walk over to the crosswalk to cross Valley Blvd. and back toward No. 1 Kazoku - about a two minute walk, tops, from the front door of the hotel.  Or I could have tried to cross Valley Blvd. and it would have been less than a 30-second walk.  But Valley Blvd. is too busy for a pedestrian to try and cross against the light.  

Just inside the front door to No. 1 Kazoku is a small entry way with a large hira daiko ceremonial drum.  I wondered how many times that thing had been banged on by people waiting for a table at the restaurant.  The restaurant was shrouded by a Kirin Ichiban curtain that was topped with a holiday season garland.  I thought it was odd to have a curtain at the entrance to the restaurant, but it's a guess that it played some significance other than being an ad for a Japanese beer company.

Brushing past the curtain into No. 1 Kazoku, I found a long narrow space with a long sushi bar on the right and a number of comfortable booths on the opposite side.  I also found out that the front door on Valley Blvd. wasn't the preferred entry point to the restaurant, but the back door was the most popular entrance because of the large parking lot behind the building.  Even though no one was at the sushi bar - my preferred place to sit - I was shown to a booth along the back wall of the restaurant.  An eclectic mix of music from artists such as Elvis Presley, Hall & Oates and Michael Bublé was playing in the background.

My server that evening was a tall young guy by the name of Nick.  Nick asked if I wanted the full menu or just the sushi menu.  I took the sushi menu from him and asked if he had Asahi beer.  "Asahi," he asked back.  "Sure, we have Asahi on tap!"  Wow!  Asahi on tap!  I'm not certain I've ever been in a place where they had Asahi on tap.  I got a pint to start off.  

Nick brought over the sushi and rolls menu.  They had about two dozen different types of sushi rolls and a number of different varieties of nigiri sushi.  What I liked about the menu was that they listed where the fish originated from.  The bluefin tuna selections they had on the sushi menu that evening came from Spain, their salmon came from Scotland, the yellow tail was flown in from Japan, and the amber jack came from Hawaii.  Plus they had the most succulent parts of the fish - the belly or toro pieces.  

I started out getting a spicy salmon roll.  The roll was sliced into eight pieces and the spicy salmon flavor, well, it wasn't all that spicy.  But, dipping the roll pieces into the wasabi with soy sauce was sinus clearing and the sliced ginger was very fresh.  I made quick work of the salmon roll and was ready to order some sushi.   

For sushi that evening, I got 2 orders of the Scottish salmon belly.  Tender and just bursting with flavor, the Scottish salmon belly was some of the best sushi I'd ever had.  It was simply outstanding.  I also got an order of the toro (tuna) belly.  Those pieces were also some of the best sushi I've eaten.  Between the salmon and the tuna belly, I couldn't tell you which one I liked more.  The fish was fresh like it was caught earlier in the day.  On top of the salmon and toro belly, I also got some of the yellow tail belly sushi.  While it was still good, the yellow tail belly was not as fresh in flavor as the salmon or tuna belly.  

After finishing off the plate of sushi, I was still thinking of getting a couple more pieces of the toro belly and another Asahi.  But they had gotten busy and I don't want to say that Nick forgot about me, but, well, Nick forgot about me.  A number of people had entered through the back door and Nick was running in a lot of different directions.  When I decided that I would just head back to the hotel bar to get a nightcap beer there, Nick dropped off my check.  

After my colleague picked me up the next morning, he asked me how No. 1 Kazoku was.  I told him that it was some of the finest sushi that I had ever had.  In fact, I was hoping to order two or four more pieces, but the waiter had sort of forgotten about me.  "Yeah, service can be a bit choppy at times," he said.  "But it's one of our favorite sushi places.  I feel bad that we didn't come out and have sushi with you last night."  I joked that it was just more for me to enjoy.  And enjoy I did!  I'm hoping there's a chance that I'll stay in San Gabriel again at some point and that would be an automatic revisit to No. 1 Kazoku.  

Thousand Oaks Meat Locker BBQ - Thousand Oaks, CA

My Los Angeles colleague and I had a meeting out in the Conejo Valley northwest of L.A. back in December.  We had some time to kill before we had our meeting and my friend said that maybe we needed to find a place to eat.  We were out in Thousand Oaks and he called up a buddy of his who lived in the area, but worked in L.A.  My colleague asked his buddy where the best place to have lunch in Thousands Oaks and he didn't hesitate.  "The Meat Locker," he told my colleague.  "Best barbecue for miles around."  Oh, yeah - I could be up for barbecue.  He punched in the address to the Thousand Oaks Meat Locker into his Google Maps and we took off for the place.  

Bruce Oxford was typical of the men of "The Greatest Generation".  He served in the armed forces during World War II and it during his time in the service that not only did he learn how to cook, but he also learned how to butcher meats that he ended up cooking for the troops in his battalion.  After the war ended, Oxford worked at various jobs before becoming a ranch hand on a property owned by then-actor Ronald Reagan in the hills above Agoura Hills and just north of Malibu.  (The ranch is now Malibu Creek State Park.)  Oxford bailed hay, rode the fence line and chased cattle that had gotten through some of the fencing on the hilly terrain.  

In the mid-50s Oxford left the ranch and began to work as a butcher at a local grocery store in what was then the sleepy ranch town of Thousand Oaks.  While working at the store, Reagan would come in and get his cuts of meat from Oxford where the two would discuss Reagan's herd of foriegn-bred, organically-fed cattle on his ranch. 

Pictured right - Bruce Oxford.  Photo courtesy The Alan Thicke Show.  

In 1957, Bruce Oxford opened his own butcher shop - Thousand Oaks Meat Market - and Reagan followed Oxford to his new shop.  Part of the building was a frozen meat locker where Oxford would store meat for Reagan - and others - and maintained a relationship with Reagan for years to come.  The locals came in for some of the finest cuts of meats available in the area and for Bruce Oxford's famous beef jerky.  

When Reagan was elected as governor of California in 1966, Oxford went into work the next day.  Looking out at the gate that he had in back, he noticed a car by the gate.  He immediately recognized that it was the Reagan family station wagon and Reagan was in the car.  When Oxford went out to open the gate, he looked in at Reagan and asked, "Sir, what are you doing?"  

Reagan got out of the car and told Oxford that he was getting away from the press who had camped out in front of his house.  "I knew you'd have good coffee here," Reagan told Oxford.  "And I just needed to get away to clear my head for a bit."

While hanging out in the back room of Oxford's butcher shop that morning, Oxford - whose politics never aligned with Reagan's throughout his political career - confessed to the governor-elect that he didn't vote for him.  Reagan laughed and said, "That's OK, Bruce!  I wouldn't vote for you, either!"  

Reagan continued to store his beef at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker into his presidency.  Reagan also tried to hide out at Oxford's butcher shop on Election Night of 1980, but the press had wised up to his movements and staked out the butcher shop.  Undeterred, Reagan spent part of the evening in the back of the shop with Bruce Oxford to get away from the bright lights.  As president, Reagan did stop in to pick up some of his meat on a couple occasions, but most of the time the Secret Service would stop by to pick up the meat for Reagan.  

In the early 60's Oxford set up a barbecue cooker in front of the butcher shop and began to smoke meats - tri-tip, ribs, sausage links, chicken.  It became a weekend only thing for the first few years until Oxford turned it into an every day barbecue restaurant in the early 70's.  

Bruce Oxford's son Wendell - known at Cobby - literally grew up in the restaurant.  Cobby Oxford would get a quarter a day to sweep the sawdust off the floor in the butcher shop.  Later on, he learned how to cut meat from his father and expanded the offerings of barbecue when he joined the butcher shop/meat locker/barbecue joint in the mid-70's.  

Cobby Oxford's wife Robin joined the family business in 1986 when she was pregnant with their first child.  After Bruce Oxford passed away, Cobby and Robin have continued to carry on the family business with help from their children and some longtime employees.  

In 2023, a fire in the barbecue smoker in front of the store caused the business to shut down.  It was determined the venting system above the grill was clogged with residue from years and years of barbecue smoke and grease from the cooking process.  Damage to the building was confined to the front and was minimal.  A few days after the fire, the Ventura County health department allowed the Oxford's to reopen the business with a new barbecue grill in the back alley behind the building.  

We pulled up to Thousand Oaks Meat Locker along Thousand Oaks Blvd. just after 1 p.m. on a beautiful Southern California afternoon.  (see map)  There was limited parking near the place and there was a gas station next door, so my colleague took a left at the gas station and we parked near a park about a block away from the barbecue joint.  As we were walking toward the front door, we passed an alleyway where they had their smoker trailer set up in back.  The smell of smoked meats just jumped into our noses.  "This ought to be good," my friend said as we walked toward Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  

We passed the old smoker grill in the front that looked sort of ramshackle now with some lattice fencing that had fallen down from the front.  Just inside the front door was a small area with a refrigerated counter with warming bins along a shelf behind the counter.  It was counter service at Thousands Oaks Meat Locker and the line was moving pretty quickly.  

Along the wall opposite the counter were a number of pictures of celebrities who have graced the doors of Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  There were signed photos and testimonials of stars such as Tom Cruise, Clint Black, Gary Sinese, Jonathon Winters, Jim Belushi (Jim Belushi? 🤔) and - of course - Ronald Reagan whose picture was a black-and-white still from a 1950's Western movie he was in.  A number of Western-themed movies were filmed in the Conejo Valley in the 50's and 60's.  

The menu was on the wall behind the counter at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  The menu featured beef and pork ribs, pulled chicken, smoked sausage, pulled pork, sandwiches and meat ordered by the pound.  There was no brisket or burnt ends, but the California staple of tri-tip was the answer to brisket.  Sandwiches along with sides such as baked beans, macaroni salad, cole slaw and potato salad were also available.   

I had to use the restroom while I was there and it was located down an open hallway to the back alley.  After using the facilities, I wandered down the hall to check out their smoker.  They were preparing a large catering order for sandwiches and the pit masters were also smoking pork ribs and tri-tip.  The smell of the smoked meat was almost intoxicating.

They have two seating areas at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  There's an outdoor patio that featured flimsy plastic fold-up picnic tables.  I saw a guy of medium build sit on the bench at one of the tables and the table wobbled considerably.  That was too bad because it was such a nice day and the patio had a bit of a shade thanks to trees on the property. 

I made an executive decision to sit in an enclosed room with a low-slung ceiling that I called "the Cowboy Room".  It had pictures of Western movie heroes such as Tom Mix and John Wayne along with other Western paraphernalia on the walls.  The tables and chairs were proper tables and chairs, solid and sturdy.     

My buddy and I got the same thing - the Manly Tri-Tip sandwich.  It featured over a half pound of sliced tri-tip served on a grill-toasted hoagie bun.  A couple small tubs of  a barbecue sauce came on the side.  With the sandwich we were able to get a couple sides.  My colleague went with a side salad and pesto pasta salad.  I went with the same pesto pasta salad and cole slaw.  I thought about getting some of the baked beans, but I was sort of worried that the aftermath of eating the beans would kick in during our meeting in about an hour and a half.  

The one strike against Thousand Oaks Meat Locker is that they had no beer to enjoy along with the barbecue.  We both ended up getting water instead of beer.  While it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, I would have loved to had a beer with my lunch.  

The sandwich was outstanding.  The tri-tip was tender, it had a wonderful rub that enhanced the overall flavor of the meat, and it had a nice, but not overpowering smokey punch.  I noticed that they sold their tri-tip rub at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker and I went back to buy some to take back home with me.  However, the line to order was now out the door (at 1:45 in the afternoon!) and decided to bag it.  I figured that after we opened our new account just down the road from the place that I could come back sometime in the future to grab some of the season.  

For the sides, the cole slaw was sort of "meh!", void of really any enhanced flavor.  But the pesto pasta salad was very good.  The large tubes of pasta had a generous coating of pesto that offered a zesty flavor to each bite.  

Our visit to Thousand Oaks Meat Locker was truly an enlightening experience.  It's an old Southern California institution that has obviously garnered a loyal following that started nearly 70 years ago.  It's great that the Oxford family has been able to keep Bruce Oxford's legacy alive.  I thoroughly enjoyed my tri-tip sandwich along with the pesto pasta salad that came with it as a side.  The cole slaw - not so much.  The charm of the old place overshadowed the fact that they didn't serve beer at the place.  But that didn't matter as the tri-tip was outstanding.  

Firestone Walker Brewing Company - The Propagator - Venice CA

When I was out in Los Angeles just before Christmas for a meeting, I had a night free to get together with a buddy of mine who grew up in Iowa and is living in Manhattan Beach.  I was staying by Los Angeles International Airport as I had a morning flight the next day and my buddy and I made plans to get together for dinner that night.  He picked me up at the hotel and even though we had made plans to get together, we didn't make plans of where to go.  Knowing me the way my buddy does, he knew that a brewpub or a burger joint would be my preferred dining spot for the evening.  We drove up to Venice and pulled up to a brewpub that was an outpost of one of the oldest established breweries in California.  We were going to have dinner at Firestone Walking Brewing Company - The Propagator.  

David Walker was in the tech industry in his native Great Britain when he met an aspiring young actress by the name of Polly Firestone who was in a three-year study program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.  Polly Firestone was the granddaughter of Harvey Firestone, the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber company.  Her father - Leonard Firestone - established the Firestone Vineyards along the central California coast in the early 1970's after he retired as president of the Firestone company.  

David and Polly eventually married and they moved back to California in the early 90's where David could advance his career in technology and Polly could pursue her acting career.  Helping his father at the winery, Polly's brother Adam Firestone found that he had a lot in common with his new brother-in-law - their love for craft beers.  The craft beer movement was still emerging with California breweries such as Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam and Karl Strauss showing the way for the burgeoning industry.  After finding that many of those beers weren't always available locally on a normal basis, David and Adam decided that they should try their hand at brewing beers and they set up a primitive apparatus in shed on the grounds of the Firestone Vineyards near Los Olivos.  

Whereas most breweries had gotten away from making and storing beers in wooden barrels, Firestone and Walker incorporated wine making techniques by brewing and fermenting their first beer in oak barrels.  Their very first beer they brewed in 1995 was a British-style pale ale which they called Double Barrel Ale.  Most of the other vintners in the area dismissed Firestone and Walker's little side project, but the two felt they were on to something with their brewing techniques.  They pursued the brewing venture to the point that they decided to open their own brewery - Firestone Walker Brewing Company - in 1996.  Their logo depicts the symbol of the Brit (Walker) as a Lion and the American (Firestone) as a Bear both in boxing pose.  

Compared to modern day microbreweries, the Firestone Walker Brewing Company was crude and rudimentary.  There weren't the companies in place to manufacture small brewing equipment like there are today.  They used old equipment from the vineyard bottling their beer in a similar fashion as to how the vineyard was bottling wine.  

By 2000, the number of craft breweries in the state of California had nearly tripled over a 10-year period.  And Firestone Walker Brewing Company had finally grown enough that they could get out of the shed on the Firestone property and move to their own brewing facility in Paso Robles, 90 miles to the north of the Firestone vineyards.  Looking for a brewmaster to run their new facility, Firestone and Walker experienced a massive stroke of luck when Matt Brynildson agreed to join the pair as their head brewer.  

Brynildson was a graduate of the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology in Chicago and was the head brewer at Goose Island Brewery for five years.  Brynildson opened up a brand new horizon in beer making for Firestone Walker and the company took off from that point.  Their flagship 805 blonde ale became one of the best selling craft beers and Brynildson garnered four Brewer of the Year awards at the annual Great American Beer Festival and an equal number of Champion Brewmaster at the World Beer Cup.  

In early 2013, Firestone Walker expanded their facilities to open a barrel-aged brewing center in Buellton, CA near Santa Barbara.  The Barrelworks, as it was called, allowed Firestone Walker to expand its wild ales (sours and fruit ales) and barrel-aged program in a much larger space than what they had up in Paso Robles.

As some of the big breweries were starting to feel the pinch put on by some of the young upstarts in the craft brewing industry, a number of the microbreweries started to buy up some of the more popular and well-established craft breweries.  Firestone and Walker resisted the temptation to sell out until they got an offer from Belgium-based Duvel Moortgat to buy a majority stake in their brewery.  This gave Firestone Walker a stronger presence in the rapidly changing craft beer market, plus helping with greater distribution outside of California.  Adam Firestone and David Walker stayed on as minority owners in the brewery.  

One of the things Firestone and Walker was looking to do was to have a presence in the greater Los Angeles area.  They had been planning on a combination brewpub/gastropub/research & development facility at some point and with more capital on hand, they had the chance to see this plan come to fruition.  They had decided to call this facility The Propagator as it would serve as a place where theories and techniques could be propagated into different styles of beers.   After cutting through some red tape with local authorities, The Propagator opened in April of 2016.  

Technically, The Propagator is in Marina del Rey, but it's on the border with Venice along West Washington Boulevard just west of California State Highway One/Lincoln Boulevard/Pacific Coast Highway.  (see map)  It was a pleasant surprise when my friend pulled into the parking lot next to the brewery, but we were forced to drive around back to find a parking spot.  The brewpub was hosting a corporate event on their large patio that evening and we were lucky to snag the last parking spot in the lot.  

The courtyard/patio at Firestone Walker sits between the Propagator "research and development" building for the brewery and the brewpub, itself.  It was a large courtyard with a number of tables with bench seats, high-top tables and regular four-seater tables.  The patio area was packed when my buddy and I showed up, but by the time we left the even was over and there were just a handful of people hanging out on a cool Southern California evening.  

Just inside the brewpub was the bar area with a small lounge area off to side.  The bar had a number of large flatscreen televisions on the wall of the back bar with wooden beams overhead.  Ornate wooden lounge seating gave the lounge area a bit of a quaint old-English feeling.

Off to the side of the bar/lounge area was a larger dining section with the open kitchen along one wall.  This area also had high-top and regular height tables, as well as a circular seating area that looked like it was made out of beer vessel.  It was rather ingenious way for seating in a brew pub.

My buddy and I took a seat at a regular height table in the middle of the dining area.  It wasn't long before our server that evening - Rosa - came over with food menus for us.  She also had a couple beer menus for us to look through.   My buddy ordered a Waking the Fallen - a steam ale that was similar to the Anchor Steam beer.  They had a number of pale ales on the menu, as well as a handful of fruited ales and seltzers.  They also had three hazy IPA's on the menu including an imperial hazy IPA and an imperial juicy IPA.  I ordered the third of the hazy IPA's - the Mind Haze tropical hazy IPA.  It had a wonderful flavor and it was a smooth drinking beer.

The menu at Firestone Walker was similar to most upscale brewpubs with a number of appetizers and sharables, salads and protein bowls, burgers and sandwiches, pizza, and a handful of entrees including fish and chips, fish tacos, grilled salmon, chicken schnitzel, and mustard-glazed baby back ribs.  

The appetizers were pretty interesting and included ahi wonton tacos, shrimp boiled in Firestone Walker's 805 Cerveza Mexican-style lager along with lemon and garlic, and sweet and smoky Brussels sprouts.  I remarked that my wife would have probably ordered the Brussels sprouts along with the sautéed rustic vegetable appetizer and called it good for her meal.  My buddy suggested getting an order of the taproom wings.  We had a choice of 8 or 16 - we took 8; and we had a choice between traditional Buffalo wing sauce or a Nashville hot seasoning.  We took the traditional Buffalo sauce on them.  The wings were very meaty and had a nice spicy bite to them.

For dinner that night, my buddy went the sandwich route and ended up getting the tri-tip sandwich.  It featured sliced tri-tip topped with a house-made barbecue sauce, caramelized onions, arugula, and a rosemary aioli on a butter/grilled French roll.  It was served on a small cooking sheet along with fries.  My buddy said it was his favorite thing on the menu and he seemed to be happy with getting that again.  

My eyes were focused on the fish tacos until I saw that they were beer-battered with the 805 Cerveza.  The chicken schnitzel sounded delicious, but I was afraid that would be a lot of food.  I ended up going the burger route and got Firestone Walker's Bear Burger - a smashed angus beef patty topped with sharp cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, smoked tomatoes, and a rosemary aioli on a sesame seed potato bun.  The fries that came with the burger reminded me somewhat of the fries from In-n-Out.  While my buddy's meal was served on a try, I got mine on a traditional plate.  

I have to say the burger was very good.  It was a messy burger, but everything seemed to click together with the flavors.  The sharp cheddar didn't overpower the taste of the beef, and the tomatoes shone through with an interesting smoked flavor.  It was definitely a multiple napkin burger, but the bun held together very well.  

My buddy and I finished up our meals and stuck around to have one more beer while we continued to catch up on things before he was ready to take me back to my hotel.   My buddy definitely knows what I like - good brewpubs with good pub food and a fun atmosphere.  And Firestone Walker/The Propagator filled the bill that night.  I would be remiss in giving a shout out to Rosa who was on top of things all through our visit.   My visit to Firestone Walker/The Propagator was one of my more memorable visits to a brewpub.  

Yang's Kitchen - Alhambra, CA

Back out in Los Angeles before this past Christmas for a meeting with a potential new national account, I stayed in the Monterey Park area because that's where my colleague and his wife live.  Since he was going to be my chauffeur for a couple days, I thought it would be good to be close to his house.  I'd never stayed on the east side of Los Angeles before, so it was kind of interesting to see what the area was all about.  The neighborhoods around the hotel were all Chinese - even the hotel I stayed in had signs in Mandarin and employees who spoke the language.  The first evening I was in town, my colleague and his wife wanted to take me to an Asian restaurant up in Alhambra, just north of where I was saying.  They told me it was one of their favorite restaurants to dine and it just happened that night was their "burger night" - a once-a-month pop-up where they shut down their regular menu and serve gourmet burgers.  That sounded great to me, and after they picked me up at my hotel we ended up at Yang's Kitchen.  

Chris Yang grew up in the San Gabriel Valley town of San Marino, just south and east of Pasadena.  The son of a father who grew up in Hong Kong and a Vietnamese mother, he got interested in cooking at an early age.  In high school, he met a young lady by the name of Maggie Ho whose parents were Chinese/Taiwanese.  The young couple shared the love of dining out and cooking at home.  The two were inseparable and ended up going to the University of California - San Diego where they would continue their love of cooking and finding interesting restaurants.  Many times, Ho would send out pictures on social media of something Yang made in the kitchen and she would give it the hashtag #yangskitchen.  

Yang was studying management sciences and he participated in an exchange program with the University of Hong Kong.  Living in Hong Kong while in college opened his palate to new taste sensations.  And also while at UC-San Diego, Ho was also majoring in management sciences and was part of a study abroad program at Peking University where she got her first taste of truly traditional Chinese cuisine from her father's homeland.  

After graduating in 2012, Ho got a job at LeisureLink - a company that helped vacation rental companies maximize their marketing and bookings -  and Yang went to work at a restaurant owned by acclaimed Chinese/Singaporean chef Bryant Ng at The Spice House.  Up until then, Yang had only cooked in his kitchen at home.  But Ng took him under his wing and showed Yang the ropes of working in a professional kitchen.  Ng helped Yang expand his palate, learning from the talented chef about different recipes and new cooking techniques.  

Pictured right - Chris Yang and Maggie Ho.  Photo courtesy Eater L.A. 

At the end of 2013, Bryant Ng announced that he was going to close his restaurant leaving Yang without a job.  Undeterred, Yang and Ho took a five month sabbatical and traveled to China to learn more about traditional Chinese food.  During their trip to China, they decided that they wanted to open their own restaurant.  

Upon returning to Los Angeles, they went to work at Bryant Ng's new restaurant Cassia in Santa Monica.  While Yang worked in the kitchen under Ng's guidance, Ho worked the front of house as the two learned on the job how to run a restaurant.  

While working at Cassia, Yang and Ho were introduced to chef Joseph Marcos who worked at Pizzeria Mozza under James Beard Award-winning chef Nancy Silverton.  The couple told Marcos of their dream to open an Asian-fusion restaurant that would offer "pop-up" special nights where they would offer foods that were completely off the menu.  Marcos was so taken with the concept that he agreed to be a partner with the couple in their endeavor.  

The wheels started turning in early 2018 as the trio looked for a spot for their restaurant, they happened upon Los Angeles real estate investor Allen Liao who was intrigued by the young couple's vision for a restaurant.   A performance art theater had moved from a building on Main Street in downtown Alhambra and as a silent investor Liao helped secure the building for the new restaurant. 

At first, Yang was hesitant to open a fast-casual Chinese-American restaurant in the middle of the San Gabriel Valley - home to literally hundreds of similar restaurants in the area.  He knew in order to keep the quality of the food he served at a high level, he'd have to pay a premium on sourcing his food, and would have to pass that along to his customers.  Plus, he didn't want to have people nit-pic about whether or not his food was "authentic".  But in the end, he decided to go through with his dream.  It took about a year for the buildout of the space before they were ready to open the doors to Yang's Kitchen in August of 2019.  Yang and Ho were both just 29 years of age.  

Within the first 45 days of being in business, the crowds were almost overwhelming.  Their first weekend in business, it turned out that Yang's Kitchen was woefully understaffed.  As the crowds continued to grow each night, people were literally fighting over seats and the kitchen couldn't keep up with the demand.  It forced Yang's Kitchen to close for a short time while they caught their breath and regrouped.  Yang and Ho brought in people they knew from the hospitality industry around Los Angeles to give them pointers on streamlining the operation.  Once they were able to simplify their procedures, they didn't feel quite as overwhelmed.   

Adding to the growing pains of a first time restauranteur, some of Yang's styles of food were confusing to some of the customers.  They had a beef wrap on the menu and customers thought they were getting a Chinese beef roll with sliced braised beef, hoisin sauce, wrapped in a scallion pancake.  But Yang's beef rolls were made with a Mexican flair with seasoned beef and pico de gallo as a nod to growing up in Los Angeles.  

After awhile, patrons settled into Yang's culinary offerings and the restaurant garnered a lot of critical acclaim.  Their braised pork and braised beef soup made with house-made noodles were the popular items on the menu.  Things were going great for the first six months of business - and then COVID hit.  

Forced to shut down the restaurant operation for a few weeks, Yang and Ho turned Yang's Kitchen into a retail boutique that sold basic ingredients - noodles, rice, etc.  Once they were able to reopen for take-out only, they changed their menu to more of brunch offerings.  Initially only open in the evening, Yang's Kitchen opened for breakfast and lunch, closing in the early afternoon to change over to their dinner menu that began at 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday and for brunch only on Monday.  

It just happened that I was coming into Los Angeles on a Monday and that was the day that Yang's Kitchen was having their burger night pop-up.  We found a parking lot off Main Street in downtown Alhambra behind the restaurant.  (see map)  It was around 7:30 in the evening when we got to Yang's Kitchen.  

The restaurant is not very big with just a few tables on a concrete floor.  Initially, they had counter service at Yang's Kitchen, but they've since gone to a waitstaff.   On the boards that used to show the menus for the restaurant, one board now has a message of thanks to family and friends who have supported Yang's Kitchen since day one, as well as thanking the Alhambra community as a whole, along with the customers who have kept the restaurant going.  Another board had a list of farmers, seafood purveyors, local bakeries, and organic food vendors that supports Yang's Kitchen.  A third board listed Yang's Kitchen's philosophy of using only locally-sourced, organically-raised ingredients in their foods with everything made from scratch, and that they pay their employees a livable wage while reducing their environmental footprint.  

The burger night pop-up is a popular event for Yang's and they suggest reservations are made in advance.  We didn't have reservations and the restaurant was full.  However, the young lady who was the hostess came up with an alternative plan for us.  There was a pizza restaurant next door that closed their doors.  (My friend told me that there was a chance that Yang's Kitchen would expand to that space.)  There was a little alcove that was in front of the entrance to the pizza joint that was off the sidewalk.  The hostess said that she could put is there.  I asked if we'd have heat as it was a bit chilly that evening and she said, "Oh, yeah.  We can light the propane heat tower for you."  After setting up the table, turning on some lights and starting the heat tower, we took our seats.  

Our server that evening was a nice young lady by the name of Sophie.  She gave us the menus for the burger pop-up that evening and took our drink orders.  I ordered an IPA from the Ohana Brewing Company that had a taproom just around the corner from Wang's Kitchen.  My friend's wife ordered a glass of the Chateau Grolet Cotes de Bourg, a red blend from the Bordeaux region in France.  Later on, she ordered a glass of the "mystery" wine they had featured that evening.  It turned out to be a 70% Cabernet/30% Merlot blend.  My friend - who doesn't drink alcohol - got a glass of sparkling fruit soda.  

Since it was the burger night, they weren't serving off their regular menu.  I asked Sophie for a regular menu to see what they had to offer and it was an interesting mix of food.  The menu started off with a mix of cold appetizers and hot appetizers.  The cold appetizers included a smoked fish dip, a chicken liver mousse, and raw oysters on-the-half shell.  The hot appetizers featured chicken wings, smoked pork jowl, and blistered sugar snap peas.  Main entrees on the menu included a braised duck leg, a lamb shank in house-made curry, and clay pot mussels in a chicken stock with chili butter.  As I called out some of the items on the menu, my colleague and his wife would go, "Oh, that's great!" Or, "That is so delicious!"  It looked like we were going to have to come back the next time I made it out to have dinner with their regular menu.  

That evening, they had the oysters on-the-half shell, and a ginger/scallion aged hiramasa (yellowtail sushi) as appetizers.  They had three different types of burgers available that evening along with a blue cornmeal fried chicken as an appetizer.  That was what my colleague/friend got for his dinner that night.  "I don't know," my friend said. "The fried chicken just sounded good to me."  It featured four pieces of misshapen chicken nuggets in a golden brown crunchy coating.  He said it was delicious and offered me a piece.  I had a small piece and I had to agree with him.  The chicken came with a spicy Szechuan-style "secret" sauce on the side. 

His wife ended up getting the Brie burger - a pasture-raised wagyu beef patty, topped with a triple-cream brie cheese with mushroom aioli, whole-grain mustard, and a shallot marmalade on a locally-baked light-and-dark sesame seed bun.  A side of cornichons (picked cucumbers) came on the side with the burger.  

My friend and I both got the Yang's burger - a wagyu beef patty topped with Widmer's brick cheese from Wisconsin, garlic aioli, caramelized onions, sliced organic mushrooms, and sliced cornichons, then finished with a slow-roasted tomato sauce on the sesame seed bun that was with his wife's burger.   We also got community fries to go with the burgers.  

Now, I have to say the burgers we had were just outstanding.  The Wagyu beef had such a wonderful flavor, and even with the very forward taste of the Widmer's cheese along with the garlic aioli and caramelized onions on the burger, the Wagyu beef just shined through with each bite.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger and Sophie was more than happy to bring more out to us during the course of the meal.

My friend and his wife have a sweet tooth and are big on desserts.  While I was pretty full from my burger and fries (and a small piece of chicken), they coerced me into getting desserts.  My friend got the organic vanilla soft-serve ice cream, while I ordered the orange sorbet soft-serve.  My buddy's wife went with Elaine's Purin flan - a smooth Japanese custard that was served with a chocolate drizzle.  Now, the orange sorbet was outstanding.  It had a very forward orange flavor with a silky smooth texture.  And - oh god - was it rich!  I had - maybe - five bites of the orange sorbet before I had to push it in the direction of my friend and his wife.  His wife raved about the Purin flan so much that I had to take a spoonful of it.  And it, too, was delicious.  I think I let my friend and his wife have as much of the orange sorbet as they could handle before I got it back for the last couple of bites.

While I would really like to get back to Yang's Kitchen to try some of the items they have on their regular menu, the burger night pop-up was a fun experience.  The burgers were great, the fried chicken appetizer was wonderful, and the service we had from Sophie was just outstanding.  She was fun, helpful and fully engaged with us all evening long.  I got up to use the restroom and realized that they were trying to close since it was past 9 p.m., Yang's Kitchen's closing time.  But we were having so much fun sitting and talking at our patio table that time got away from us.  I came back out when Sophie was talking with my colleague and his wife and said, "Hey, guys!  We probably need to let her go home.  It's after 9 o'clock!"  

Sophie said, "Oh, no need to hurry.  We're going to be here for awhile."  But we did leave quickly after that.  Yang's Kitchen was a great experience, one of the more fun and memorable meals I've had lately.  

Shellback Tavern - Manhattan Beach, CA

During my trip out to California earlier this summer, I was hoping to get together with a friend in Manhattan Beach for dinner the night before I was going to fly back home.  However, he had a family obligation that evening so we weren't able to get together.  Since I was already in the area, I asked him if he could recommend a place that I should go to for dinner.  "Knowing you, I've got the perfect place for you," he said.  "It's a great little dive bar near the pier called Shellback Tavern."  He was adamant that it was my kind of place.  With that, I took off to find the Shellback Tavern and check it out.  

In 1922, the great, great granddaughter of classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach opened Bach's Cafe and Bakery in a small building along the beach in what was just known at Manhattan, CA at the time.  (It became Manhattan Beach in 1927.)  Just after World War II, it became a bar - The Knothole.  The Knothole later became the Surf as a nod to the burgeoning surf culture in Southern California in the late 50's into the early 60's.  A few years later, the Surf morphed into the Shellback which eventually became the Shellback Surf Tavern.  By the turn of the 21st century, the bar/restaurant was known simply as the Shellback Tavern.  It was in 2003 that the iconic Manhattan Beach bar was in financial trouble and was in jeopardy of closing down.  This is where Bob Beverly came to the rescue. 

 

Bob Beverly owned a sports bar in Manhattan Beach and came from local political royalty.  His father, Robert Beverly, was the former mayor of Manhattan Beach and later became a California Assembly representative for Manhattan Beach, then a California State senator.  Bob Beverly sold his interest in Grunions Sports Bar to bail out the Shellback Tavern.  For the past nearly 20 years, Bob has been at the helm of the funky little surf tavern just steps from the Pacific Ocean.  

Pictured right - Bob Beverly.  Photo courtesy Easy Reader News.  

The weather in Southern California had been dicey all week long.  Cool temps, off and on rain, and brisk winds coming off the ocean had been the antithesis of what one would think weather in Southern California would be in the early summer.  But the weather on Friday afternoon had gotten somewhat nicer, although it was cooler at the ocean front.  I drove into downtown Manhattan Beach - which has become one of my more favorite Pacific Ocean towns - and found a parking space on Manhattan Beach Blvd.  

I walked down toward the beach passing a number of restaurants and watering holes.  Some of them looked pretty interesting and I stopped into one place to have a beer.  I contemplated staying at the bar because they had a great beer selection and an interesting menu.  But my buddy told me that I had to get to the Shellback Tavern.

The Shellback Tavern is located at the corner of Manhattan Beach Blvd. and Ocean Dr.  (see map)  It was around 6 p.m. and the Friday evening/end-of-the-week crowd had packed the place.  It would definitely fit in my category of what makes a dive bar.   It was a cacophony of noise in the small place with no seats open at any table.  I figured this was an "eat-at-the-bar" kind of place anyhow.  Classic rock was playing on the sound system and I got a large kick when the women in the bar were loudly singing along with the Toto song "Africa".  

The only problem is that the bar was also packed.  I found a spot at the far end of the short bar - literally the last seat available in the place - and I took it.  The bar had a few flatscreen televisions on the wall along with a lot of colorful signage.  Also colorful were the dozens of Shellback Tavern hats that hung from a line directly above the bar.  I guess the hats are extremely popular, but I didn't pick one up.

One of the bartenders came over with a menu for me to look over.  After ordering a beer - the Hazy A.F. from the Hermosa Brewing Company just a couple miles down the beach in Hermosa Beach - I got up to use the restroom.  Directly behind me was a window that looked out across Ocean Drive to a parking lot with the beach and ocean just beyond.  While it was cool out, the sun felt good and I made a plan to walk out onto the pier after finishing my meal.  

The menu was your typical bar fare - lots of appetizers, burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, wraps and salads.  They also had tacos, chicken tenders, and various sandwiches such as a BLT, a tuna salad sandwich, and a roast beef dip sandwich topped with Swiss cheese and green chiles.

At this point during my trip, I was in a complete and utter food funk.  Really, nothing sounded good to me and I contemplated drinking my beer and heading back up the street to the first bar I had stopped at.  But something on the menu kept popping out at me.  

I ended up getting the grilled mahi mahi tacos.  The tacos were small but loaded with chunks of lightly grilled mahi mahi, shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, diced red onions and green chiles on 4 corn taco shells.  (The menu said that it was 3 to an order, but I got 4.)  And I have to say that they were very good.  They were light and not all that filling. They were fine, nothing great and not the best I've had.  But having grilled fish tacos at a place just steps from the beach was a definite plus that evening.

As I was eating my tacos, a tall guy came over to my side and was taking with the bartender.  The bartender said, "Hey, man!  I got some Busch Light for you!"  That immediately got my interest.  Not so much for the quality of the beer he ordered, but THE beer he ordered.  

After I finished my meal and went to the restroom once again, the guy was standing by himself a couple three steps behind where I was seated.  He was tall - at least 6'8" - and looked athletic.  He had a long elastic knee brace on one of his legs.  I went up to him and I asked, "So, where in Iowa are you from?"  

He was kind of taken aback and said, "I'm not from Iowa, but I'm from somewhere close to Iowa."  He wanted to know why I thought he was from Iowa.  I explained to him that Busch Light was, in effect, the state beer of Iowa due to its popularity in my home state.  

"No, I'm from the western suburbs of Chicago and I went to college in Wisconsin," he told me.  He was, indeed, a basketball player during his college years at a small Wisconsin college.   We talked for a bit and he told me that he actually worked for a company in Carroll, IA and was back there two or three times a year.  "The drive from the Omaha airport to Carroll can be a bitch," he told me.  I told him that I had made that trip a number of times in the past and agreed that driving along Highway 30 to Carroll could be tedious at times.  It was sort of fun to connect with a former Midwesterner at the Shellback Tavern.  

After settling up at the tavern, I wanted to walk out onto the Manhattan Beach Pier to enjoy some of the salt air and take in a bit of California on my last night there.  The clouds had thinned out above the ocean, but inland it was still a bit cloudy and somewhat dreary.  The wind coming off the ocean was cool and the temperature was in the upper 60's.  Yet, there were people swimming in the ocean and a lot of people were milling along the beach.  The cool temps didn't seem to affect them.  I have to admit I was somewhat chilled when I walked off the pier.  

My visit to the Shellback Tavern was interesting.  It had a funky party vibe to the place, a loud and active Friday evening crowd blowing off steam from a week of work.  They had a pretty good selection of beers and while their food menu was basically bar food fare, the mahi mahi tacos were good for what they were.  I'm really warming up to Manhattan Beach and am somewhat jealous that my buddy lives there.  The Shellback Tavern would probably be the kind of place that I'd like to hang out at if I lived in the area.  

 

Stout Burgers and Beers - Hollywood, CA

While staying in Hollywood while out in Los Angeles on a business trip earlier this summer, I had a long day of meetings and driving in between.  I guess I thought I was used to driving in big cities like Chicago or Minneapolis, but driving in L.A. just wore me out each day.  I needed something for dinner that night - something like a good burger and a good beer.  I did a quick search and found a place that wasn't too far away from my hotel - Stout Burgers and Beers.  That's where I decided to eat that evening.  

Charles Lew was born and raised in Scotland.  He ended up in Florida going to college in the late 90's and was accepted to law school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.  Lew traveled cross country in his pickup truck and worked a handful of odd jobs while going to law school in L.A., most notably as a bouncer at a bar where he met people from different walks of business life.  It was then where Lew found himself turning into a serial entrepreneur coming up with a number of different business ideas.    

After getting his law degree, Lew applied for a brokerage license to sell stocks.  However, the 2008 recession nearly wiped him out and he was forced to go into the legal profession.  He established The Lew Firm, a small law firm that represented people associated with the L.A. music scene, hospitality ventures, entertainment and sports.  But Lew and a friend had an idea of a craft beer restaurant that sold upscale burgers. 

Alex Kagianaris was a New York City native who was the son of Greek immigrants.  After graduating high school at 16, Kagianaris went cross country to do his undergraduate work at the University of California-Berkeley where he focused on communications with an eye on sports broadcasting and possible sports management.  After graduating from Berkeley, Kagianaris entered Loyola Marymount's law school and met Lew.  The two hit it off with their love of craft beers and late night cheeseburgers after an evening of partying.  

After graduating from law school, Kagianaris went to work as a legal counsel for a small independent record label with offices in L.A. and London.  From there, Kagianaris worked on the in-house legal staff at Warner Music Group.  While he liked his job at Warner Music, Kagianaris really wanted to do something that was more entrepreneurial in nature.  Many times he lamented the lack of good craft beer places in Los Angeles, at least compared to other large cities around the nation.  He talked about his dream of an upscale burger place with Charles Lew many times before the two decided to start their own place.

As the new venture was being formulated, Kagianaris hired a friend who was a trained chef to concoct the burgers for the menu.  The only problem was that Kagianaris wasn't too enamored with the burgers the guy was coming up with.  With Lew's blessing, Kagianaris decided to fire his friend the chef and work on the burger menu himself.  Working as an attorney during the day, Kagianaris would come home at night and work on meat blends and how the burgers tasted with different types of cheeses, condiments and other toppings.  

Pictured right - Charles Lew and Alex Kagianaris.  Photo courtesy LAVoyage.

Convinced they had a winning combination, Stout Burgers and Beers opened in Hollywood in 2009.  And it was a hit from the start.  Within a couple years, the two decided to open their second Stout Burgers in Santa Monica.  But before that happened, Kagianaris decided to quit his law practice and went to Le Cordon Blue cooking school to learn how to be a proper chef.  These days, Kagianaris goes by the nickname "Chef".  

Within a few years, Lew and Kagianaris opened more Stout Burgers and Beers across Southern California.  In addition to the Stout Burgers and Beers restaurants, Lew and Kagianaris - under the KAGLEW Consulting Group - have established the Boomtown Brewery and The Morrison Pub (named after Lew's mother's maiden name) with locations in Atwater Beach and in Burbank.  (Note - the Stouts Irish Pub locations in Clinton and Bettendorf are not affiliated with Stout Burgers and Beers.)  

The weather during my time in Southern California was far from what one would think summertime weather would be for the area.  Most of the days were damp with drizzle or spitting rain, cloudy skies and a brisk wind coming off the ocean.  Many of the locals said talked about the "June Gloom" where it's cloudy and damp in the mornings from the marine layer coming off the ocean, but it usually lifts late morning for sunny afternoons.  The only problem for the days I was out there, the marine layer hardly ever lifted.  While it was cloudy and in the low 60's in Los Angeles, out toward San Bernardido - 60 miles from L.A. - the weather was sunny and warm.  

And it was that way the evening I wanted to go to Stout Burger and Beers  It was only about a 3/4 mile journey from my hotel to the restaurant, but it was A) spitting rain; and B) I didn't want to walk by myself back to the hotel after dark as Hollywood is pretty chancy in some areas.  I found a parking spot just down the block from Stout Burgers and Beers located in an L-shaped strip mall at the corner of Selma Ave. and N. Cahuenga Blvd.  (see map) 

As I was walking through the parking lot of the strip mall, there were a couple other restaurants attached to Stout Burgers - 3rd Base, an upscale sports bar; and Trejo's Cantina, a Mexican restaurant owned by actor Danny Trejo.  The exhaust smell of burgers cooking on the grill coming from Stout Burgers and Beers trumped anything those two places had to offer.   

Now, I didn't know Stout Burgers was a chain when I walked into the building.  It looked like it was a small neighborhood brick-faced burger joint that had been there for years.  (Well, actually, they'd been there 14 years.)  Inside, it featured a mish-mash of tables that didn't match along with metal chairs at the tables.  Plastic covers were down over the usually open windows because of the cool temps and the off-and-on rain we were having in usually sunny Southern California that day.   And interesting mix of music from the likes of Shania Twain, Ice Cube, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pat Benatar was playing on the restaurant's sound system in the background.

The semi-circular stone-topped bar was prominent in the corner with a handful of spigots on the wall behind the brick-faced bar.  Those metal stools that I hate were what was all to sit on at the bar.  I thought to myself that anyone who uses bar stools like these really doesn't want their patrons to linger at the bar too long.  

I sat down at the bar and one of the bartenders was a lady by the name of Lauren.  She was very neutral in her demeanor when she came over to great me.  She was sort of doing two things at once when she picked up a table card with a QR code on it for the menu and plopped it down in front of me, pointing at it after she did so.  "Know what you want to drink," she asked hurriedly.  "Well, actually, no - this is my first visit," as I thought to myself, pulling out the my phone to take a picture of the QR code that took me to a web site with the food and beer menu.  

Normally, I would post a link to the menus on this post, but there is no website for Stout Burgers and Beers. That's sort of strange they don't have a website or much of a social media presence considering both owners have their own personal websites.

The menu had, well, burgers and beers.  I saw a hazy IPA from the Radiant Beer Company from out in Anaheim south and east of Los Angeles.  It was a great beer and I definitely had more than one during my visit.  I understand they have a guy who travels the country searching for interesting beers that they can serve to their customers at their restaurants.  Man, how do I sign up for THAT job!

They had about six or seven burgers on the menu including a basic cheeseburger and a spicy-style burger.  I seem to remember they had a couple of vegan burgers available, as well as a chicken sandwich.  My burger choice that evening was the Truffle Shuffle burger - a burger patty topped with brie cheese, sautéed mushrooms and a truffle aioli.  For sides I had choices of fries, onion rings and tots.  Of course I took the tots.  (I did note that they had loaded tots for an upcharge.  They were tots with mixed with crispy prosciutto ham, chopped chives and topped with a mornay sauce (made with greyère cheese).   And I was happy that they had Cholula to go along with the tots.  

The Truffle Shuffle burger was one of those where I took the first bite of the burger and I went, "Mmmmm...."   The burger was juicy and full of flavor.  The brie cheese was light and didn't mask the taste of the beef, the sautéed mushrooms were a nice complement to the beef, and even though I knew it was on the burger, the truffle aioli wasn't forward or pronounced where it didn't overpower the other features of the burger.  The bun held together with all the messiness from the cheese, aioli and the juiciness of the burger.  It was simply a great burger.  

The tots, well, they were tots.  They were fine.  There were way too many of them for me to eat given the size of the burger, but they were tasty.

Lauren's demeanor didn't change the whole time I was there - she didn't get friendly, nor was she snotty.  I encounter those kind of servers or bartenders from time to time and I'm OK with it.   It's tough as a single diner away from home, but as long as they take care of me and don't leave me hanging when I need something. I will say Lauren was efficient.

I wouldn't have guessed that Stout Burgers and Beers was a chain at any point during my visit.  I didn't find that out until I was doing some research on the place on-line.  But it was also tough to learn about the place as they really had no website or online presence.  But the burger I had and the beer selections available at Stout Burgers and Beers spoke loudly.  It was an excellent burger and one that was very memorable.  I'm glad to hear there's a Stouts Burgers in the Nashville area as I'll be back there sometime in the near future.  I'll have to check it out to see if it's as good as the original Stouts Burgers and Beers I tried in Hollywood. 

Tail o' The Pup - West Hollywood, CA

While out in L.A. earlier this summer, I drove by an iconic hot dog stand and took note of where it was.  One day when I had a lull in the action in the middle part of the afternoon, I went back to the Tail O' the Pup to give it a try.  

For years, the Tail O' the Pup was one of the most popular and cherished food destinations in Los Angeles.  It was featured in television shows, movies and music videos, and attracted entertainers, locals and tourists to its distinctive hot dog-and-bun shaped stand.  Stars such as Jay Leno, Betty White, Billy Crystal and Sigourney Weaver were  regulars at Tail O' the Pup.  It's no wonder that Tail O' the Pup has such a star-studded lineage - it was actually founded by a pair of famous ballroom dancers back in the mid-1940's.  

Frank Veloz and Yolanda Casazza were a husband and wife dance team who were known professionally as Veloz and Yolanda.  The couple became huge stars in the 1930's performing on Broadway, at Carnegie Hall, in films and putting on shows in ballrooms across the nation.  The couple permanently moved to Southern California in the late 30's and realized that they needed to invest some of their entertainment money into something more stable.  Yolanda gave birth to their first child in 1940 and the couple decided to start a restaurant to keep money flow going if they were between dancing jobs.  

At that time, many of the restaurants in Los Angeles had theme designs in their architecture.  Root beer stands were shaped like barrels, orange juice stands were shaped like oranges, and the famous restaurant - the Brown Derby - was shaped like a hat.  Hot dog stands were big across America in the 30's and 40's and Frank and Yolanda decided to open their own hot dog stand.

The couple commissioned streamline moderne architect Milton Black to come up with a unique style of a hot dog stand.  Black was already famous in designing some of the top homes in the Los Angeles area prior to World War II.  Black came up with the iconic 18-foot-long stand and all Frank and Yolanda had to do was to have someone build the bun and hot dog structure  find a spot for the new venture.  

Then World War II started and Frank and Yolanda put their hot dog stand on hold.  However, after the war ended, the couple resurrected their wish to put the hot dog stand on a street corner and open for business.  They had the hot dog structure built and found a spot at the corner of Beverly Blvd. and La Cienega in Beverly Hills.  The structure was too small to cook in, so they built a kitchen building behind the hot dog structure.  Just down the street from their location was another iconic L.A. restaurant, the Tail O' the Cock.  Frank and Yolanda decided to name their restaurant Tail O' the Pup as a word play on both the neighboring restaurant and the hot dog nickname.  

Frank and Yolanda opened Tail O' the Pup in 1946 with a star-studded opening featuring Hollywood stars and searchlights similar to a Hollywood film opening.  The couple ran the stand until the mid-50's when they went through an acrimonious divorce.  The stand was sold and changed hands a couple times before a man by the name of Eddie Blake bought the place in 1976.  Blake played up the popularity of the iconic hot dog stand and began to attract entertainers to his little stand.  Tourists would come to see if anyone famous would show up for one of Tail O' the Pup's famous hot dogs.  

In the mid-80's, urban development came calling and the Tail O' the Pup faced demolition in order to put up a luxury hotel.  An outcry amongst many in the Hollywood community saved the iconic stand and it was moved to a new location on San Vicente Blvd.  Eddie Blake's son Dennis took over the day-to-day operation of the restaurant and continued in business until 2005 when nearby Cedars-Sinai Hospital needed the land for expansion.  Dennis Blake tried to find a new location, but real estate had skyrocketed and he couldn't find a spot to even lease to put the hot dog stand on.  The Blake family put the hot dog structure into storage hoping to find a spot to start up again.  

Unfortunately, that never happened.  In 2017, Eddie Blake's grandson Jay Miller inherited the structure.  After unsuccessfully trying to pair up with another restaurant to bring back Tail O' the Pup, Miller donated the structure to the Valley Relics Museum, a pop culture museum dedicated to collecting, restoring and preserving relics of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.  

In 2018, the 1933 Group - a trio of investors whose primary goal was to restore and renew structures - bought the Tail O' the Pup structure from the museum with hopes to resurrect the business once again.  The group - Bobby Green, Dimitri Komarov and Dmitry Liberman - sought out former employees of Tail O' the Pup and researched cooking methods, procedures that were in place, and what made people come back time and time again for the hot dogs.  In the meantime, the group had the iconic hot dog and bun painstakingly restored to its original state.  

The 1933 Group secured a property at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and La Cienega Blvd. about a mile north of the original 1946 location.  The building was once a former recording studio/rehearsal space (more on that later) and they built on a two story frame structure on the front for outside seating.   With another star-studded crowd on hand, the new Tail O' the Pup reopened on July 20, 2022, which happened to be National Hot Dog Day.  

It was after 2 p.m. when I pulled up to Tail O' the Pup along Santa Monica Blvd.  (see map)  I was able to find a parking spot just up the street in a metered space.  Since it was after the lunch rush, I was able to get right up to the counter inside the big-assed hot dog.  

The menu at Tail O' the Pup featured a number of hot dogs with various toppings along with corn dogs, burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken strips, and even a vegetable drink and a skinless hot dog with bacon flavored cheese for dogs!  

All the hot dogs at Tail O' the Pup are 100% hormone-free beef wieners that are smoked over maple wood.  The original hot dog at Tail O' the Pup - the 1946 Pup -  is a split frank that was grilled and served on a toasted bun with chopped onions and mustard.  The Piggy Pup had chopped bacon on it, the Jalapeño Pup had sliced jalapeños and a jalapeño spread, and the Chicago Pup was basically a Chicago-style hot dog with green relish, onions, mustard, chopped tomatoes, sport peppers and a dill pickle on a poppy-seeded bun.  They also had beer on the menu and I made sure to get one of those to go along with the meal.  

I made my choice for what I wanted to eat and was instructed to go inside the building behind the ordering counter to get my food.  It was a bright and colorful room with a pick-up counter and a kitchen area behind that.  The walls in the dining area full of booths had a number of historical pictures of Tail O' the Pup and some of the people who used to work or dine there.  Music from the 1940's and 50's featuring Guy Lombardo, Frank Sinatra, The Andrew Sisters, and Ella Fitzgerald was playing in the background.  

I ended up getting the Chili Pup with chopped onions and mustard, and the 1976 Pup - basically a steamed hot dog that as introduced in 1976 when Eddie Blake took over the business.  Usually, the 1976 Pup comes with ketchup and mustard.  And I'm one who thinks it's a major sin to put ketchup on a hot dog (although my wife likes to eat them that way).  I asked the guy at the counter if I could switch out the ketchup for chopped onions and he said that would be no problem.  

I decided to sit outside just before the entrance to the inside part of Tail O' the Pup.  It was sort of a cool and cloudy day, so sitting in the warm sun was not an option.  The padded chairs were comfortable and the tables were sturdy.  Actually, I marveled at how clean everything was.  

The 1976 Pup had a nice snap to the casing and the steamed bun had a good taste.  It was a basic hot dog, but it was good.  The Chili Pup was better.  The chili had a nice texture and was a bit spicy.  It was a nice complement to the hot dog.  

The chili dog was messy and after I finished I needed to go to the restroom to get cleaned up for my next meeting in about an hour.  However, when I went inside to use the restroom, they had it closed off for cleaning.  One of the guys behind the pick-up counter told me that they had a bathroom upstairs by the outside dining area that I could use.

I went up to the second story of the outside dining area and there was a nice little cozy space with a canvas tent over the tables and chairs.  I turned to go use the restroom and I saw a plaque on the outside wall of the building that immediately caught my eye.  I went in to clean up and then came back out to read the plaque.

                 
The plaque basically said that for two years the building served as a rehearsal space for The Doors, the legendary L.A. band from the late 60's into the early 70's.  The band used the building in 1970 and 1971 and decided to record their last album "L.A. Woman" in the building.  The recording board was set up in the upper floor and cables were run downstairs where microphones and instruments were set up.  Since the building wasn't really sound reinforced for a recording studio, it gave the album sort of a live sound quality.  The album was released in the spring of 1971, 2 1/2 months before Jim Morrison's untimely death in Paris at the age of 27.  It was one of those moments where I went, "Huh!  Well, that's kind of cool!"  

The only downside of my visit to Tail O' the Pup was that it was - I felt - extremely expensive.  $8.95 for a basic hot dog, $9.95 for a chili dog.  $8.00 for a basic plastic cup of beer.  With tip and tax - don't know why I needed to tip since it was basically counter service - it was over $30 bucks.  That's Major League Baseball ballpark prices.  Nevertheless, I had to try Tail O' the Pup just once.  The hot dogs were good, but really nothing special.  It was great that they were able to resurrect an iconic Los Angeles restaurant, but the sticker shock of the meal I got was one that gave me pause.  Nice to go to Tail O' the Pup once, but I won't need to go again.  

Valley Inn Restaurant - Sherman Oaks, CA

When I was out in Los Angeles earlier this year, I got together with a guy who I've known for years through a list serve that we've both belonged to for a number of years.  I reached out to him to let him know that I'd be in L.A. for a few days and suggested that we get together for dinner at some point.  He agreed and he came up with a couple places that might work for us to have dinner.  One was an old Midwestern-style supper club in the San Fernando Valley called the Valley Inn.  I told him that would be great, fully not expecting to go to a supper club in the greater Los Angeles area.  

There wasn't much to Sherman Oaks in 1947 when Jim and Otto Nassar built and opened the Valley Inn.  The town was just 20 years old at that time and there was still a lot of agriculture in the valley - as in orange groves as far as the eye could see - before the westward population push began in the 1950's turning those farm fields into houses.

After World War II, Indiana natives Jim and Otto Nasser started the Pink Pig, a supper club-style restaurant in the San Fernando Valley.   Movie stars became regular patrons of the Pink Pig and the popularity of the restaurant caused the brothers to open another restaurant not far away.

The Valley Inn was elegant with its dark wood paneling, its pin-cushion booths, and its charming, romantic ambience.  Stars such as Cary Grant and W.C. Fields migrated over to the Valley Inn.  Later on, many TV Western actors would visit the Valley Inn as a number of shows were shot in the hills and valley near the Valley Inn.  It later became a hangout for stars such as Shirley MacLaine, Betty White and UCLA men's basketball coach John Wooden who lived nearby.  

Jim Nasser eventually moved back to Indiana and the Nasser brothers sold the restaurant in 1952 to three gentlemen - Ricky Biagi, Alan Caplan, and Leonard Einhorn.  The three shepherded the Valley Inn through its golden years of where it became the place to see and be seen in the quickly expanding San Fernando Valley.  The group ran the restaurant for 28 years before selling to another group of investors in 1980 headed by Jack Gold.  Gold and various investors owned the Valley Inn for another 18 years before Sophia and Boris Brodetsky bought the business in 1998.  

The Brodetsky's were both Russian immigrants and fully grasped the history of the Valley Inn when they bought the restaurant.  The restaurant was in deep need of repair when they took over.  But they were keen on preserving the key elements of the restaurant.  Nearly all the original booths, tables and chairs were refurbished with an attention to detail to the original late-40's look of the restaurant.   

Their gracious nature and outgoing qualities endeared the Brodetsky's to their patrons giving the Valley Inn a family-feel when you would walk into the place.  The pandemic in 2020 almost forced the Brodetsky's to close their doors, but with the help of their loyal customers they were able to forge through the tumultuous times and continue in business as strong as ever.  

It was a bit of a drive for me to go from Hollywood up to Sherman Oaks.  Not being in L.A. for a number of years, it took me awhile to figure out that distances are not discussed in miles, but in the time it takes you to travel from Point A to Point B.  It was about a 35 minute drive for me before I pulled up in front of the Valley Inn just off the 405 on Sherman Oaks Ave. near Ventura Blvd.  (see map)  I was able to find parking on a side street around the corner from the Valley Inn and went inside to find my friend.  

The front of the Valley Inn is obscured by a large tent over some parking spaces in front of the restaurant that was put up during the pandemic three years ago to allow for outdoor dining when indoor dining was temporarily banned in Los Angeles County.  It was a nice evening - one of the few nice nights during my trip to Southern California - but it was cool and there were no customers seating under the tent.

Inside the Valley Inn is a small entry/waiting area with the hostess stand.  A number of autographed photographs of celebrities in the entertainment industry as well as famous Los Angeles sports figures.  There was an electric piano in the room that someone - don't know if he was an employee or just a patron - was playing for a bit.  Next to the piano was a trophy case that was sort of a shrine to UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, longtime Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn and a couple other athletic figures who have been regulars at the Valley Inn over the years.  I was told that current UCLA football coach Chip Kelly is now a regular at the Valley Inn.  

The bar is in a small room off to the right as you walk into the Valley Inn.  The bar, itself, has a bit of history behind it.  It was custom-made in England in the 1880's and shipped over to the port in San Pedro just south of Los Angeles.  When the Nassers built the Valley Inn in 1947, they bought the bar and backbar from an old saloon and had it placed in their bar room that was specially sized for the bar.  The bar and backbar were ornate and really eye-catching.  I immediately liked the bar.

I waited in the bar area for my buddy to show up.  The bartender that night was a pleasant lady by the name of Ishla who introduced herself to me right off the bat.  I told her that I was waiting for someone to show up and I ordered up a Ballast Point Sculpin that they had on tap.  

It wasn't long after that when my buddy showed up.  In a bit of a pleasant surprise, he had his longtime lady-friend with him.  She was definitely my buddy's anchor in the relationship and was fun to be around.  

My buddy suggested that we eat in the bar, but he said that I should take a look around before we made a final decision.  Off the entry room with all the memorabilia and signed photographs is the John Wooden Room, a small dining area with burnt orange fabric walls and old-time light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  My buddy - who had been to the Valley Inn many times and was a wealth of information on the place - said this was the room that John Wooden would hold court with friends and donors during the hey-day of UCLA men's basketball in the 60's and 70's.  

The main dining room looked like you stepped back into the late 40's/early 50's.  The elegant booths and linen-covered table tops haven't changed in over 75 years.  While it was quiet and intimate in the main dining area, I sort of liked the idea of sitting at the bar. 

There is a bar menu at the Valley Inn, but it's primarily appetizers.  My friend said that he's eaten at the bar many times over the years.  Ishla confirmed that when she said that we could order off the regular menu with her.  "It's more fun at the bar," Ishla said as she handed us menus.  My buddy got a Moscow mule to start out with while his lady friend ended up with a martini.  

The menu at Valley Inn has evolved over the years, but there are some mainstays that have been part of the menu since 1947.  Baby back ribs, sautéed calf livers, oven-roasted chicken and fried chicken are part of the menu that includes steaks, lamb and pork chops, some seafood dishes, and a few pasta entrees.   The prime rib at the Valley Inn is aged for 28 days and hand-patted with a blend of spices and herbs.  There were some things on the menu that I doubt were available when the restaurant first opened - the sesame peppercorn encrusted ahi tuna appetizer was one.   The Valley Inn's famous garlic cheese bread got my attention on the appetizer side, as well.  

I was told that the steaks at the Valley Inn are all Midwestern-raised, possibly in Iowa.  And that's what I ended up getting.  I got the prime New York strip steak, cooked rare.  A side of seasonal vegetables and mashed potatoes were my choice for the side.  (I should have gone with the steak fries.)  A small tub of hollandaise sauce came on the side.  I asked Ishla if I could get some ground horseradish and she quickly obliged.  

The New York strip was cooked perfectly, tender, juicy, and full of flavor.  I dipped a couple pieces into the hollandaise sauce and it was a nice complement to the taste of the meat.  The cut of beef and the way it was cooked rivaled anything I've had at a Midwestern steakhouse.  It was an outstanding steak.

My friend got one of the specials that evening - a breaded pork chop with a side of vegetables. It was a thick cut boneless pork chop It looked pretty good and he said it was very good.  

His ladyfriend ended up getting the chicken marsala pasta - a lightly breaded and sautéed chicken breast on a bed of linguine and topped with a marsala wine and mushroom sauce.  She said it was one of her favorite dishes on the menu at the Valley Inn.  It did look delicious.  

The Valley Inn was a real treat - an old-school Los Angeles eatery steeped in history.  My Midwestern-raised New York strip was cooked perfectly and was surprisingly very good.  (I know - I'm a Midwestern beef snob.)  My friend and his lady friend said their meals were great - just like every time they've visited the Valley Inn.  He was telling me of some more old-school supper clubs in the area and we made a preliminary date the next time I get back to L.A. to meet up at one of those places.  But I don't know how it could be much better than the Valley Inn.  

Rao's - Hollywood, CA

I was in Los Angeles earlier this summer and was staying in Hollywood since it seemed to be centrally located for my trips to see my new accounts that I was calling on.  I hadn't been in L.A. for a number of years, so just getting reacquainted with the area was a big part of my trip to the city.  After a day of calling on and meeting some of my new accounts, coupled with the stress of Los Angeles area traffic, I was pooped by the time I made it back to the Hampton Inn in the heart of Hollywood that evening.  The last thing I wanted to do was to get into the car again and go look for a place to eat.  Hollywood is sort of trashy and probably not too safe after dark for those on foot, so finding something in the area while the sun was still up was a bit of a priority.  I did a quick search for restaurants in the area and there was an Italian restaurant not far from the hotel with a somewhat familiar name - Rao's.  I decided to walk over there for dinner that evening. 

You've probably seen Rao's soups and pasta sauces on grocery store shelves for a number of years.  Many people feel that Rao's is the best jarred marinara sauce available on the market.  Earlier this year, food critics from The Washington Post did a taste-test of 12 of the most popular marinara sauces available at supermarkets across America and they found that Rao's pasta sauce was the best of them all winning handily over the 2nd place finisher - and one of our favorite store-bought marinara sauces - Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Marinara.  Five years ago, Bon Appetit magazine declared Rao's marinara as the best jarred sauce of all time.  

However, fans of the popular tomato sauce were suddenly concerned when it was announced last month that Campbell's - the famous soup company - bought Rao's parent company Sovos Brands of which 70% of their overall sales were from Rao's sauces and soups.   The $2.7 billion dollar acquisition immediately caused concerns with fans or Rao's marinara who thought the behemoth soup company would change the recipe for Rao's sauces.   Shortly after the announcement to buy Sovos Brands was made, Campbell's put out a statement that said they would absolutely not touch or change any of the Rao's sauces and soups.  

But the history of Rao's dates back over 125 years after Charles Rao, an Italian immigrant who moved to New York with his parents in the 1880's, bought a small brewery-owned tavern at the corner of 114th and Pleasant in the Little Italy section of Harlem, once the home to the largest population of Italians in America.  Charles ran the tavern from 1896 until his death in 1909 when his brother Joseph took over.  When Prohibition came into effect in 1919, Joseph added food and made bootlegged wine in the basement of the small tavern.   

With the nation in the grip of the Great Depression and with Prohibition still in effect, Joseph passed away in 1930.  His son Louis Rao took over and kept the little tavern going and eventually thriving into the 40's and 50's.  When Louis Rao passed away in 1958, his brother Vincent Rao took over and decided to turn the little neighborhood tavern into an Italian restaurant using many of the Rao family recipes that were brought over by his grandparents from their southern Italian village of Polla.  The restaurant became known for their wonderful, yet simple, offerings of Italian food and quickly became a favorite with people in the immediate neighborhood.  

In the early 70's Vincent's wife Anna decided to spruce up the restaurant making it a more elegant environment for people to dine.  When the place got exceptionally busy at one point in 1972, Vincent and Anna asked their nephew Frank Pellegrino to come in and help out at the bar for a couple weeks.  Frank had been a singer on a cruise ship and was between gigs at that point.  Frank thought it would just be a short while before he'd get back on a cruise ship to sing but he ended up staying and growing with the restaurant.  Frank eventually became the face of Rao's as their maitre d' and front of house manager.  

Rao's was considered one of the best kept secrets in Manhattan until New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton gave the restaurant 3 stars (out of 4) in a review in 1977.  Suddenly, Rao's became one of the more popular - and toughest - places to get into in Manhattan.  Seating just 60 people, Frank Pellegrino had to implement "table rights" on specific nights for the regulars who were also having trouble getting into the restaurant.  Some of the those "table rights" were passed down to family members who still have them today.   

Pictured right - Frank Pellegrino, Sr.

Frank Pellegrino - "Frankie" to his friends and loyal patrons - was an interesting man who wore many hats including an actor (appearing in movies such as Goodfellas, and on television shows such as Law & Order and The Sopranos), he authored cookbooks, and later became a businessman offering the Rao's line of sauce, as well as producing a CD of songs that were his favorites on the jukebox at Rao's.  He was known for breaking out in song while checking in with diners at their tables some evenings at the restaurant.  His friends included Martin Scorsese, Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen, James Caan and Frankie Valli.   His hard-nosed exterior, but warm and caring interior gave him the nickname of "Frankie No" as he continually had to turn down people trying to get into Rao's in the 70's and 80's.  And it didn't matter if it was a celebrity, a politician, a captain of industry or a tourist in from Indiana, if Frank couldn't fit you in that particular evening, you didn't eat at Rao's.  

In 1992, Frank Pellegrino decided to start packaging Rao's famous tomato sauces and offering them on store shelves.  Pellegrino said that he was tired of having to say "no" and this way people could get a taste of Rao's at their home.  To help launch Rao's Specialty Food, Pellgrino brought in a partner - his cousin, Ron Straci - to help oversee the operation.  Straci - a lawyer by trade - helped start the business and oversaw its growth adding more varieties of pasta sauces over the years.  

Two years later, Vincent and Anna Rao passed away and Frank Pellegrino and Ron Straci inherited the restaurant from their aunt and uncle.   But a 2015 lawsuit Frank Pellegrino filed against Straci and Straci's wife, Sharon - the CEO of Rao's Specialty Foods - alleging that the Straci's were turning down offers to buy the retail food operation caused a deep rift within the family.  Pellegrino alleged that Sharon Straci was hoping to stay on as CEO of the company, but the overtures from private equity companies to buy the business didn't include her staying on board.  The Straci's eventually countersued Pellegrino making things around Rao's and Rao's Specialty Foods one hot mess.  The suits were later dropped when Frank Pellegrino died of cancer at the age of 72 in 2017, and Rao's Specialty Foods was purchased by Sovos Brands later that year for just over $450 million dollars.  

Back in 1982, Frank Pellegrino, Jr. was a 12-year-old kid who started to help out in the family restaurant.  He bussed tables, was a waiter, he learned to cook in the kitchen and started to learn the management of the restaurant.  His father kept trying to talk Frank, Jr. out of coming into the family business, hoping that he'd follow his schooling in graphic design.  Frank, Jr. did open his own visual arts business, but it did not last.  He eventually joined the family business and opened Baldoria in 2000, a larger version of Rao's in New York's theater district.  But it was an inquiry from a large Las Vegas casino that changed the lives of everyone involved in Rao's.  

Pictured left - Frank, Jr. and Frank Pellegrino, Sr. in 2015.  Picture courtesy Vanity Fair.  

In 2005, Caesars Palace contacted Frank Pellegrino, Sr. and wanted to know if he would be interested in putting a Las Vegas version of Rao's in their casino.  It intrigued the elder Pellegrino who loved Las Vegas and many of his patrons visited the city over the years.  A deal was put in place with Frank Pellegrino, Jr., overseeing the operations of the Las Vegas location.  Leaving Baldoria (which eventually closed), Frank, Jr. moved to Las Vegas and they opened Rao's at Caesars Palace in 2006.  

With the success of the Las Vegas Rao's, the Pellegrino's and Straci had their eye on the Los Angeles area.  Many of their Las Vegas patrons were from Los Angeles and some had remarked to Frank, Jr. that it would be great if they could put a Rao's somewhere in the city.  In September of 2013, Frank Pellegrino, Jr. opened the Hollywood location of Rao's in an area that features a number of nondescript post-production film and television studios.  

Today, the original Rao's in New York is still in business, despite being gutted by an arsonist in 1995 and a dispute between two Mafiosos in 2003 which saw one mobster shoot another to death at the bar.  The Las Vegas location closed in 2021 after 15 years of business, but plans are in the works to open a Rao's in Miami Beach in the near future.  It's still a family run business with Frank Pellegrino, Jr. overseeing the operations of the restaurants in Hollywood and New York City making it 4 generations of over 125 years of the Rao/Pellegrini families involved in the Rao's restaurants.

The Rao's in Hollywood is located on Seward Street off of Santa Monica Boulevard.  (see map)  It turned out to be a 10-minute walk along the grimy streets of Hollywood to get to the restaurant from my hotel.  The restaurant is located in a building that may - or may not - have been the site of the Hollywood Cantina, a World War II-era restaurant which catered to West Coast servicemen that was founded by actress Bette Davis and Jules Stein, the co-founder of MCA.  The facade of the building was painted the same tomato red color as the original Rao's in New York.  

I was definitely an early diner, walking in the door around 5:45 that late afternoon.  Just inside the front door was a dining room on left side and a small bar area on the right.  The small dining room had a number of autographed photos on the wall, as well as Christmas lights and wreaths - in June!  Turns out, that's sort of the signature decoration of the Rao's locations, something they started to do in New York years ago and continues to this day in Los Angeles.  The bar area had Christmas lights over the bar and a large picture of Frank Pellegrini, Sr. was on the wall next to the bar.  

Just past the front dining area was a larger dining area with an open kitchen window on one side and booths for couples on the opposite side.  Like the dining area up front, the main dining room featured dark wood walls and floors, subdued lighting and tables covered with linen cloths.  More photos of celebrities and athletes hung on the wall in this room.  

In the far back was a covered outdoor dining area.  A couple people were already eating out there.  It was noticeably more bright due to the sunlight coming through the translucent corrugated roof and it was more of a contemporary look to the decor than the dining rooms.  This Rao's location is decidedly larger than the New York City location which seats just 60 diners.  

When I first came in, the only person in sight in the place was a bartender.  She apologized and said that the maitre d' hadn't shown up for the evening and told me that I could sit pretty much anywhere.  After walking through the place I went back to the bar and told the bartender that I'd just sit there with her.  She said that was fine with her.  "I could use some company," she said as she handed me a menu and asked what I wanted to drink.  I started out with an IPA from the Elysian Brewing Company out of Seattle.   She brought me my beer and said, "My name is Ashley.  Take your time looking through the menu."  

Having a menu in my hands at Rao's is definitely different from the original place in New York City.  They've never had menus at the original Rao's.  When the waiter comes around to your table, he'll tell you pretty much the whole menu.  I understand they do have menus for people to look at if they need to, but the quaint nature of Rao's is having the waiters recite the menus.  They don't do that at the Rao's in L.A.  

The items on the menu at Rao's are definitely old school Italian foods.  They had their basic San Marzano marinara sauce offered with a choice of different types of pastas.  They had a pear and ricotta-filled ravioli, as well as a carbonara sauce with fusilli pasta.  Chicken Milanese, a bone-in veal parmesan, and the lemon chicken featuring Vincent Rao's famous lemon sauce were part of a main entree section of the menu.  

I decided on something finally and I started out the dinner with a side Caesar's salad.  The lettuce was cool and crisp, and the Caesar's dressing was tangy.  It was a nice start to the main part of the meal.

Although many things on the menu sounded pretty good, the one that that jumped out at me was the rigatoni bolognese - a hearty meat sauce of San Marzano marinara with ground beef, pork and veal with tubes of rigatoni pasta mixed in.  I thought I needed a red sauce even before I walked into Rao's and this was the perfect dinner for me.  I got a glass of a house Italian chianti to go with the meal. The bolognese sauce was thick, meaty and very delicious.  This was a very good old world Italian meal.  

I lingered around after dinner having one more beer before I was going to head back to the hotel.  Ashley came over with a dessert menu for me to look over.  She tempted me with her description of a cheesecake they had, but I asked her about the tiramisu.  "Made fresh in house every day," she told.  That was good enough for me.  And for some reason I ordered a double espresso - it was only around 6:30 and it was my thinking that the caffeine buzz I would get from the espresso would be wearing off by the time I would be getting ready for bed later in the evening.  

The tiramisu was very good.  It was a generous portion that was served to me and it was very rich.  Between the tiramisu and the espresso, I was pretty amped up by the time I started my walk back to my hotel.  

Although I've never eaten at the original Rao's in New York, I would like to imagine that the one in Los Angeles was just as good.  The rigatoni bolognese was a top-notch spot hitter for me and the Caesar's salad was one of the better types of that salad I've ever had.  Ashley's service was prompt and friendly, and the atmosphere of Rao's felt like I was sitting in New York, Boston or Chicago rather than in the middle of Hollywood.  Rao's is off the beaten path in Los Angeles and is definitely a destination for many.  But it's worth the effort - whether you're driving or walking.  

The Old Place - Agoura Hills, CA

During a business trip to Southern California for meetings earlier this year, our company took us out to dinner on a Sunday night to a restaurant up in the Santa Monica mountains north of Malibu.  Pulling up in front of the place, I sort of thought, "What the hell kind of place is this?"  It was a small building, set back from the road a bit with a facade that looked like it was an old Western saloon from the 1880's, complete with a deer rack on the front. With a bit of trepidation, I got out of the car and wandered into this restaurant by the name of The Old Place.  

The man who founded The Old Place in 1970 - Tom Runyon - had a pretty colorful history behind him.  He was born in Washington D.C to Charles Runyon II, who was a lawyer at the State Department, and Cornelia Runyon, who was an artist and sculptor.  In 1923, Tom's father packed up his family, including Tom's older brother Charles III - who would later become the dean of law at Yale - and moved west to be closer to Tom's uncle who had moved to California a few years before.  

Tom's uncle, Carmen Runyon, was a coal baron in the days before coal went on the decline as a fuel source.  Carmen Runyon bought a plot of land in the hills above Hollywood in 1919 - the year before Tom was born - which included a canyon that was originally called "No Man's Canyon".  Tom's uncle put in a hunting lodge on the property and Tom would spend his early years exploring and hunting in the canyon. (Today, that canyon - Runyon Canyon - is a popular outdoor recreation area in the city of Los Angeles.)  

Charles Runyon II died in 1927 and Cornelia Runyon moved herself and her two boys to Brentwood on the west side of Los Angeles.  But young Tom's heart remained in the canyon that his uncle owned. He would trap for wild animals - mountain lions had a healthy bounty back in the 1930's - and he'd sell their pelts along with pelts from raccoons and bobcats that he'd trap.  

When he was in high school, Tom started to raise and train falcons.  The story goes that he would take a rifle to school and hide it in his locker so he could shoot pigeons on the way home to feed to his falcons.  (The 1930's were a much more simple time, weren't they?  Can you imagine bringing a rifle onto school grounds - even keeping one in a car - today?)  

Times were tough for the widow Runyon in the 1930's and the family was forced to rent out their house while they stayed in the chauffeur's quarters in the garage.  After his brother had gone off to college, Runyon's mother felt that Brentwood was becoming too expensive to live in and too crowded with people who had the same ideas about moving to Southern California that the Runyon family had earlier on.  She built a home on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean just west of Malibu and moved there in 1937.  

Thanks to his mother's charm and his brother's legacy, Tom got a scholarship to a boarding school up the coast in Carpinteria, CA to finish out his high school years.  But Tom didn't like to study.  He bought a car that could pull a horse trailer that he would drive up and down the coast to explore and hunt the hills and canyons on horseback.  

When he was 19, Runyon bought his first airplane and fell in love with flying.  Just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he signed up for the Army Air Corps and eventually saw action in World War II flying cargo missions in North Africa and Italy.  After the war was over, Runyan stayed in the Air Corps and rose to the rank of major.  

After being discharged from the Air Corps, Runyon went to New York City to study writing at Columbia University.  He wrote articles for magazines - primarily fiction stories - before heading back out to California in the late 1950's.  

Runyon immersed himself in the then-hot L.A. art community, living in a rented apartment above the carousel at the Santa Monica Pier in the late 50's and early 60's.  Tom loved the party life and he hosted a number of soirees with legendary food and liquor spreads for people who were deep into the art scene in Los Angeles.  One of those artists, Barbara "BoBo" Bell, caught the eye of Runyon and the couple eventually married in 1961.  Thinking that he needed to settle down a bit and start a family, the Runyon's moved to his mother's home in Malibu that year.  The couple were soon blessed with two children, a girl and a boy.

While living in Malibu, Runyon became friends with Dudley Murphy who owned a local restaurant/hotel on the Pacific Coast Highway overlooking the Pacific.  A child of the Great Depression, Runyon had saved his money and started to invest in land parcels with Murphy in the hills above Malibu.  The two donated a large parcel of land back to Los Angeles County in the mid-60's so a connecting road through the hills north of Malibu could be built.  

Pictured at right - Tom Runyon.  Picture courtesy the Runyon family and the Tompanga Messenger.  

Runyon also invested in properties on his own.  One of the places he bought was an old building along Mulholland Drive in an area known as Cornell.  The building dated back to 1914 when it was originally built as a general store, but later served as the post office for the small town of Cornell.  It had been abandoned a few years earlier and had become rather run down.  Runyon bought the place and buildings next to it in 1968 with the intention of restoring the central area of Cornell to the way it was when it was a ranching community.

Not really knowing what to do with the old buildings, an old friend suggested that Runyon open a restaurant because he was so good at hosting parties.  Having a taste of the restaurant lifestyle while hanging around Murphy's inn, Runyon thought a small steakhouse would be the perfect starting point.  Because the building was so dilapidated when he took it over, it took Runyon nearly two years of restoring and renovating the place into a very basic restaurant.  He always referred the building as "The Old Place" and the name stuck when it opened in 1970.  

Initially, the Old Place had just two employees - Tom, who cooked, washed dishes, and was the bartender; and Barbara, who waited on tables.  It had a very rustic appearance including swinging front doors like an old-time Western saloon.  And they only sold two things - steaks and clams.  (The clams were a nod to Runyon's youth when he would go back to the family's home on the New Jersey shore for visits.)  

The Old Place was the antithesis of the glitz and glamor in L.A. and it became a favorite place for movie stars and other industry heavyweights to hide out and let their hair down.  It wasn't out of the ordinary to see a movie star who was living in Malibu seated at the bar next to a local ranch hand or a guy who had been hunting in the hills.  

One of the regulars at The Old Place was actor Steve McQueen who lived nearby with his wife, Ali McGraw.  Director Sam Peckinpah was also a regular who hung out at The Old Place.  McQueen and Peckinpah collaborated in a movie called "The Getaway" in 1972 that starred McQueen and McGraw.  The three thought Runyon was such an interesting character in real life that he was cast as a bad guy in the movie.  It was the first of a handful of bit roles for Runyon who also was cast in other films such as "Convoy" and "Every Which Way But Loose."  

Bob Dylan would hang out at The Old Place on occasion, as well.  One weekend, Dylan was playing an old piano in the back of the place.  A guy sitting on the bar remarked to Runyon that the guy sort of looked like Bob Dylan.  And he sort of sounded like Bob Dylan when he sung.  "Probably because he is Bob Dylan," Runyon replied to the customer.  

Tom Runyon was able to renovate other buildings and recapture some of the old ranch town essence of Cornell, which was eventually absorbed into the nearby community of Agoura Hills.  He continued to run The Old Place - now with more employees - with Barbara deep into his 80's.  In July of 2009, Runyon passed away peacefully at his Malibu home at the age of 89.  The Old Place had been closed for a few weeks before and after Runyon's death, but his son, Morgan - who was a director of commercials and music videos, and who is somewhat famous for the Runman trilogy of underground cult surf movies - reopened The Old Place in late 2009 with partner Tim Skogstrom from the next door Cornell Winery and they continue to run the rustic steakhouse today.  

From our hotel to The Old Place was about a 15 minute drive up into the Saratoga Hills of the Santa Monica Mountains and through a number of twists and turns before we ended up on Mulholland Drive.  A quick left and around a curve brought us to the front of The Old Place.  (see map)  Upon entering the place, the bar is prominently the focus of the low-ceilinged dining area in The Old Place.  It featured a bench instead of bar stools with antique light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  There were a series of heavy wood tables and booths in the small place.  It was a pretty funky place - the restrooms were outside, around the building and to the back of the building.  

We were a party of about 30 and there was no private area for us to all sit, so it was sort of catch-as-catch-can when it came to seating.  I settled in with five other people crammed into a booth on the wall opposite the bar area.   We immediately ordered a bottle of red wine for the table - a cabernet from the Opolo winery in Paso Robles, CA.  The wine glasses were little cocktail glass - no stemware could be found even with a nice wine list.  

I also wanted to start out with a beer and asked the server what kind of IPA's or pale ales they may have.  He said that they had an IPA from the HopSaint Brewing Company in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance.  It featured west coast hops that were very prevalent on the tongue, but had a nice smooth citrus finish to it.  It was a very good IPA.   

The menu at The Old Place has expanded since it's opening nearly 50 years ago, but not by much.  They still offered a sirloin or a ribeye steak, and the steamed clams were still part of the appetizer menu.  But items such as an organic grilled chicken breast in a white wine and sage marinade, beef stew and a chicken pot pie were part of the entrees listed on the menu.  Appetizers included a New England-style clam chowder, a noodle & cheese bake that was The Old Place's variation on a mac & cheese dish, and a mushroom skillet that featured button, porcini and portobello mushrooms sautéed in a white wine, butter, cream, garlic, onion and thyme reduction sauce.  It was topped with parmesan cheese and served with sour dough bread.  

Personally, I wanted to try that, but I was outvoted at our table for the cheese and meat board.  It featured soppressata and prosciutto for the meats, and the cheese was a gouda rubbed in espresso, a lavender-flavored goat cheese, and a parmigiana-reggiano cheese.  Olives, toasted bread points, and smoked almonds came with the meat and cheese.  It was all right, but I think I would have preferred the mushroom skillet a little more.  

One of the items they did not have on the menu that evening was a bone-in filet.  And that's what I got.  I had them cook it medium-rare rather than the normal rare that I usually order for filets.  But with the bone-in, it's a little more tough to cut around the bone if the meat is too rare.  It came with a loaded baked potato the had real bacon bits, butter and sour cream on top.  The bone-in filet was magnificent.  All their steaks are grilled over oak wood and the taste of the wood-fired steak was outstanding.  

My colleague, Todd, got the seafood "catch-of-the-day" - the halibut.  It was sort of ironic that he got the halibut as we all went deep sea fishing earlier in the day as a company "team-building" exercise.  (It was fun for about two hours, but unfortunately, we were out on the boat for seven hours.)  Todd caught the biggest fish of a the day which was, of course, a halibut.  But one of the crew members described it as a "small one".  I'm guessing it was around 15 pounds, but the guy told me that it was a California halibut which grow to be about 35 to 40 pounds.  He said that Pacific halibut can grow to 350 pounds or more.  Nonetheless, my colleague, Todd, thought the grilled halibut - which was served on a bed of rice and topped with scallions - was very good.    

One of my other colleagues got the sirloin salad - a small sliced sirloin that is placed on top of a bed of lettuce with avocado slices and sliced hearts of palm.  It looked pretty good and he said that he was happy with his choice.   

Any bit of doubt that I had when entering The Old Place went out the window with the delicious bone-in filet that I had for my meal that evening.  The place was indeed funky and unique, and after learning the history of the place - and for it being known as a popular "hideout" for some of the more famous people in the Malibu area - I decided that I really liked it.   We were a little cramped with six people seated in the heavy wood booth, but we made the best of it.  Service was pretty good as we were tag teamed by a handful of servers to take care of any request we may have had.  It's nothing fancy and it isn't fine dining, but my steak - I thought - was very good.  And that's saying something about California steaks from a Midwestern boy.  As I'm sitting here writing, I'm nodding my head as I remember the meal and the atmosphere at The Old Place and happy that we had the chance to go there.  

Twisted Oak Tavern - Agoura Hills, CA

We were called for a weekend meeting out in California earlier this summer and many of us got in on Saturday afternoon.  I met some of my colleagues at one of the rental car places and we took a drive up to Agoura Hills, north and west of Los Angeles where the meeting was to take place.  After checking into the hotel, we were hungry and we found out that we were sort of on our own for dinner that evening.  It was late in the afternoon, but with many of my colleagues coming in from the East Coast and Midwest, we were sort of famished.  It turned out that there was a restaurant - Twisted Oak Tavern - just down the street from our hotel, literally walking distance from where we were staying.  We decided to head there for a late lunch, early dinner.  

It turns out that Twisted Oak also houses a brew pub - the Lab Brewing Company.  Co-owner and brewmaster Roger Bott had a number of years of home-brewing experience as he worked in the biotechnology field.  Co-owner Jeff Walker also had a background in brew pubs before the two got together to open their own brewery on the site of a former dance lounge in the Agoura Hills Town Center in November of 2011.  

Sensing a need to re-brand after three years in business, Walker and Bott temporarily closed Lab Brewing Company just before Christmas in 2014.  They came up with a new concept that promised a "fresh twist" on a gastro/brew pub.  They reopened about a month later under the name Twisted Oak Tavern.  The Lab Brewing Company continues to operate out of the facility and in addition to supplying Twisted Oak with a variety of craft beers, Lab Brewing also distributes to a handful of restaurants in the Agoura Hills/Thousand Oaks area.  

A group of us made the very short trip over to Twisted Oak around 2:30 on a brilliantly sunny Southern California Saturday afternoon.  (see map)   We found a high-top table for 8 in the bar area.  A young lady working behind the bar came out to give us some menus and to take our drink orders.  In addition to the 8 beers on tap made in house by Lab Brewery, Twisted Oak also has a number of other craft beers on tap primarily from California.  I got a local IPA that was made with hops from New Zealand.  It had a somewhat hoppy, yet smooth taste to it.   

The three-sided bar wrapped around the front and into the dining room.  Recessed away from the large windows that let in natural light on the other side of bar, the dining area was more dark and cozy with a number of booths along a wall of reclaimed barn boards.  Tables with banquette seating lined the east side wall of the dining area. 

Off to the side of the dining area bathed in a soft purple light were fermenting tanks used by Lab Brewing Company.  There were also a number of tanks behind a glass wall across an entry way in the brewery area.  The entry way exited out to a nice little patio where a reunion party was just getting started when we got there.  

We really didn't want to eat too much as we figured we would be going out for dinner later on that evening - after 8 p.m. in true European fashion.  While Twisted Oak has burgers and sandwiches, they also feature a handful of entrees served during the dinner hour in the evening such as stout beer braised short ribs, a miso salmon dish, and an oven-roasted pig's head that is brined over night and available on a limited basis each day.  They also have flatbreads, salads and a number of appetizers.

We sort of focused on the appetizer part of the menu deciding to get a little bit of everything to share at the table.  I also got a dinner salad with a raspberry vinaigrette to start out on so I wouldn't overeat so much on the appetizers as It was getting close to 5 p.m. body-time and I was pretty hungry.  

My choice for an appetizer were the mahi mahi fish tacos.  The tacos featured large grilled chunks of mahi mahi topped with great tasting creamy chile verde sauce on flour tortilla shells.  Shredded cabbage and lettuce along with chopped tomatoes were part of the toppings on the tacos.  I'm a sucker for good fish tacos and I have to say these were pretty damned good.  

We also got a couple double orders of chicken wings for the table.  Someone ordered the habanero-spiced wings that I didn't think were all that spicy.  And we also got the tandoori chicken wings that I felt tasted like something you'd get at Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The chicken wings were pretty underwhelming to me.  

Finishing out the food order at the table was a large plate of the loaded chicken nachos.  It stayed down on the other end of the table, and that was fine with me.   Between the salad, a couple chicken wings and the fish tacos, I'd had enough food to keep me going for the next 5 hours until we had dinner.  

While we really didn't do anything other than appetizers on our visit to Twisted Oak Tavern/Lab Brewing Co., I have to say that I was very happy with the fish tacos, but that was about it.  The chicken wings were pretty pedestrian.  I will say the IPA made from New Zealand hops that I had was very good, and the service for a lazy Saturday afternoon was fine.  Twisted Oak was a nice little place to hang out with some of my colleagues when really none of us wanted to give up a summer weekend for a meeting in California.