I'm typing this sitting under the
umbrellas at Irv's Burgers, a Fifties era hamburger stand in West
Hollywood. It's a notoriously friendly neighborhood place and it
reminds me of something that first struck me when I moved to LA from
Atlanta: for all its trendiness, LA has a distinctly old fashioned
attitude toward dining. In most of the country, if you drive down the
street looking for a quick bite to eat, you will see the same places
serving the same food.
It's true that national chains are
eating away at local dining, but the independents and local chains
like Tommy's and Zankou's still dominate much of the town. Part of
the reason is certainly the loyalty these spots inspire. Pulitzer
Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold once refused to say whether
he preferred Apple Pan or Pie N' Burger because he didn't want to
deal with the letters from the patrons of the spot he didn't pick.
I was having a cheeseburger at Apple
Pan last week and I got into a conversation with the man sitting next
to me. He had been coming there weekly for over fifty years, only
slightly longer than the counterman had been there.
There are plenty of regulars here at
Irv's, walking in and picking up old conversations through the
pick-up window with the family that owns the place. There's a
comfortable, small town vibe here that you can find in most of LA. That's not something most of the world associates with LA, but the locals know.
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