Your guilty fastfood pleasures.

[Oerdin]

I am definitely a stuffed little piggy right now because we just got back for The Original Tommy's World Famous Hamburgers. It is a southern California only chain which started in the late 1940's (about the same time as In 'N Out) and their claim to fame, like INO, is fresh, never frozen, and made to order but they do things with a twist by putting their house made chili with extra cheese on everything. It is a messy experience but every once in a while you just need a Tommy burger.

Make mine a double chili cheese burger with chopped chili peppers with a large chili cheese fries topped with grilled onions and chopped grilled chili peppers. A grease bomb which its the spot. What are some of your guilty fast food pleasures?

 

[Oerdin]

Video about Tommy burger. In L.A. it is traditionally a late night spot (because it is open 24/7) where young people would stop by for a snack after a night of hard drinking.

 

[Oerdin]

Another favorite, which I don't get that often because the nearest location is an hour away, is The Hat which advertises itself as "World Famous Pastrami". Their portions are absolutely MASSIVE so big I can normally only eat half of a sandwich in one sitting. When I do go I get their pastrami double dip with melted cheddar cheese, spicy hot mustard, horse radish, pickles, and grilled onions. Don't order their fries unless you are there with at least three friends because it is a giant platter of French fries covered in chili, pickled veggies, and a pound of chopped pastrami.

 

[Oerdin]

You can see what one basic pastrami dip sandwich looks like here.

 

[Oerdin]

I have only been to Freddy's Steakburger and frozen custard two times but each time it was pretty good, always fresh and never frozen as well as made to order. I nice alternative take from an up and coming chain from Nebraska. The fry sauce is also good but I love their jalapeño fry sauce.

 

[Lokmar]

I LOVE In-N-Out! When I go to Vegas, its usually the first place I eat. There's a knock off place called EZ-Out in Montclair Ca. Its sketch but pretty good too. My fam acted like I was trying to get them killed in 2019 when we went to Cali. I'll have to have Tommy's sometime! They have em all over LA County. There's a Shake Shack we went to just south of Newport Beach and it was AWESOME!

 

[Frood]

I can't get to many of my favourite places anymore but there's this Indian guy down the road who makes curries out of his wife's Cafe after he stops couriering for the day.... and his lamb/goat/beef dishes are the best I've tasted anywhere.

I still crave things like cheese steaks from Broad St, scallop pies from Queenstown, and decent hoagies...

I keep a lot of frozen shellfish in my freezer for steaming quick treats with garlic butter.

 

[Oerdin]

Not fast-food but soda is related. This store is cool.

 

[Oerdin]

 

[Oerdin]

 

[Oerdin]

 

[Oerdin]

 

[Frood]

My dad used to buy me one from either of these places on the way into the old Spectrum for Flyers games.

We had rinkside seats..

 

[Oerdin]

My dad used to buy me one from either of these places on the way into the old Spectrum for Flyers games.

We had rinkside seats..

Don't tell anyone but I love an Italian beef more than a Philly cheese steak. Those things make great sandwiches.

 

[Frood]

Never understood the cheese whiz though... provolone all the way...

Traditions matter...

 

[Oerdin]

They have one of these in San Diego. It is on Convoy street which is almost all Asian places but this is an America survivor from the 1960's.

 

[Breakfall]

BigMac

 

[Oerdin]

It turns out McD's is a bunch of sneaky bastards and they have been shrinking the size of Big Macs for yours.

 

[Murdy]

Video about Tommy burger. In L.A. it is traditionally a late night spot (because it is open 24/7) where young people would stop by for a snack after a night of hard drinking.

we had one of those in Santa Monica growing up… OMG sooo good

 

[Oerdin]

Another Southern California chain which is now going national is The Habit Burger Grill. It originally was named Hamburger Habit, then got renamed The Habit when they tried to add salads and pasta to expand beyond just burgers,, before finally getting renamed The Habit Burger Grill. The Santa Barbara based chain also service various fish and chicken burgers as well as a tri tip burger while everything is cooked over a charcoal fire grill.

When I was in college we'd regularly hit up the chain's original location in Goleta.

 

[Oerdin]

They actually show people how to make their tri tip and coleslaw sandwich. Tri tip is the essential part of Santa Maria style BBQ which is traditionally dominant style of BBQ on the central coast of California. Historically, ranch owners were rich in land and live stock but cash poor so they couldn't pay cowboys until after the round of was over and the cattle got sold to slaughter houses in L.A.. one of the ways they'd add perks to attract employees was to offer them all the beef they could eat.

Tri tip is traditionally a tougher cut of meat and was considered a cheap but highly flavorful meat but you have to cook it low and slow in order to soften the meat. So all the priced big money cuts of beef got sold and cheaper cuts like tri tip got given to the cow hands for their dinner. That is how tri tip ended up becoming a region favorite of meat and still is 150 years later.

 

[Oerdin]

 

[Oerdin]

The Habit's entry to the Chicken Sandwich Wars. They also have a grilled Balsamic Chicken Sandwich on their menu.

 

[Oerdin]

Jack in the Box is a San Diego based fast food company which is much smaller than most of the big name brands people normally think of. Their main claim to fame is that they are lower priced than McD's, BK, or Wendy's yet they manage to put slightly different twist on things. Yes, much of it is lower quality (thus how they can sell it cheaper) yet the place gets a cult following for being open 24/7, for always having late night specials, and every month they have monthly limited time special offer items.

 

[Oerdin]

 

[Oerdin]

This was a memorable commercial series.

 

[Oerdin]

Their mash up meals are totally designed for stoners. No, really, they literally market to late night stoners.



Jack's Late Night Munchy Meals.

 

[Oerdin]

 

[Oerdin]

Phillip's The Original is not really fast-food, more like fast casual, but when it opened in 1908 it was considered fast food. It is located just outside downtown L.A. in an area which used to be known as "Little Paris" due to all the French immigrants who lived there. Now the area is mostly Hispanic (which shows how neighborhoods change over 113 years). The origin story of the French Dip Sandwich goes back to 1918 when, supposedly, a police officer was on his lunch break, he ordered a roast beef sandwich and his sandwich accidently got dropped into the rendered beef juices. The cop was in such a hurry he said he'd take it anyway and he loved it so much he came back the next day asking for another one.

Thus was born an L.A. favorite; the French Dip sandwich. When I find myself in that area I always go and I get the large (foot long) with cheese, grilled onions and make it a double dip. Their French bread is a bit on the crusty side so despite two complete immersions into the au jus sauce it holds up well. If you want something a little different get the roast lamb instead of the roast beef. Always add the super spicy house made mustard. It will clear your sinuses and make your head sweat from all the spice.

 

[Oerdin]

The other cool thing about Phillip's is how when you walk up to the counter, and it is a super long counter, like some where between a quarter to half a city block long (no kidding, the place is cavernous as the owning family has expanded it multiple times over the last 113 years), the wall behind the counter from counter height to almost the ceiling is all rotisserie roasting meats. Beef, lamb, turkey, ham, chicken, pastrami, etc...

They have different sections for each type of meat and people regularly baste all in the chosen house sauces for each type. As the meats cook the drippings from the meats on the top drip down on to the meats below them and so on all the way to the bottom where excess meat juices are collected in a big pan at the bottom of each rating meat stack. Those meat juices are what they use to make their house made au jus for their French Dip Sandwiches. The place also has a wide variety if pickled veggies as those were popular on the menu back in 1908 so the family has kept them ever since.

Edit: watching videos I have learned a bit more. They only partially cook the meats on the rotisseries. They get it 2/3rds to 80% done then when they expect a rush (for lunch or dinner) they pull it down and finish as much as they think they will need in the oven. That way they still have a show for visitors with the rotisseries but they don't have to worry about over cooking the meats.