Down the Rabbit Hole: Closed Burbank Restaurants, Part 2

What if we told you that some of the most beloved eateries in Burbank's history are still alive in our memories? Join Craig Sherwood and Ross Benson as we take you on a nostalgic culinary journey through Burbank's rich past in this episode of "Down the Rabbit Hole." We kick things off by reminiscing about La Scala's famous salads and London Broilers' hearty sandwiches served from its iconic double-decker bus. We also reflect on the heartwarming community memories tied to Marie Callender's, which has now been replaced by a Chase Bank. Each of these eateries left a lasting impact on the local community, and we dive deep into their significance.

Remember the hidden menu codes and pecan pie secrets that made dining out a delightful adventure? This episode is packed with stories of unique dining experiences, from Market City Cafe's hot rolls to Milano's brief but memorable existence. We also share fond memories of places like Moe's, Moore's Deli, and Mr. Big Burger's, emphasizing their unique flavors and significance to Burbank High students. As we recount these beloved spots, you'll feel the joy of dining out and the sense of community these places fostered.

But that's not all—we also explore classic hangout spots like Pizza Pie, Pioneer Chicken, and Pup and Taco, filled with anecdotes about old friends and high school memories. From all-you-can-eat shrimp feasts to legendary eating contests, this episode captures the essence of Burbank's culinary history. We close by remembering iconic locations like Three Horsemen restaurant, Tony's Bella Vista, and Umami's, ensuring their legacy lives on in our hearts. Tune in and let us take you back to the flavors that defined our dining experiences in Burbank.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for another edition of Down the Rabbit Hole
, where the staff of my BurbankTalks, discusses topics from
Burbank's past or dives deepinto the history of the city.
Now let's see what's on theagenda today as we join our show
.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello Burbank.
Greg Schuett here, along with,of course, my stealthy partner
Ross Benson.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I see my tally light off and here we go.
It is another day, another week.
Tally-ho and deep in the mediadistrict we are.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
We are going down the rabbit hole again.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Boy, oh boy, that rabbit hole.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Rabbit hole.
Rabbit hole, or I should saydown the rabbit hole.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, we have a heck of a part two our first show was
very well.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
In fact, it was the most viewed show in all of our
podcasts.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm not sure how, why people decided it was worth
doing, but I'm sure glad theydid.
And so we're back with part twonow.
Last time we did this, we, uh,a couple things happened.
Number one was we only gothalfway through, which we
thought we'd get all the waythrough it.
And we got halfway through, sowe needed a part two.
And then we found out later hey, we missed a lot of places.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Wow, did we miss a lot of places.
I've been in Burbank now comingup on 68 years and I cannot
believe I feel like that sheetthat I first did.
It had like 67, but I've addedwe added 45 more places that
come and gone.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, it's amazing In fact, so there will be a part
three.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Part three is going to be the restaurants we missed,
so See, that rabbit hole isjust getting bigger and longer
here in the town of Burbank.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Deeper and deeper right.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
You said you know, and longer here in the town of
Burbank, Deeper and deeper right, Deeper and deeper, you said
you know.
We had a great response to thefirst.
I think because people, a lotof Burbank people, are longtime
residents and remember theirfavorite place at the corner of
the block or half across thetown.
Yeah, and that's why when we dothis it brings back great

(02:05):
memories, great food.
I can smell the grease in someof these places.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Well, let's get back.
We're going to start off withthe elves the elves.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Not elves, elves.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
And the first place I have on the list here is called
La Scala.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
La Scala, first place I have on the list here is
called La Scala, la Scala, laScala, la Scala, 3,800 block
west of Riverside Drive.
It's underneath what used to bethe Disney building.
It was part of that, next towhere FedEx was, and now there's
another restaurant down there,but La Scala.
I learned of La Scala.
They're in Beverly Hills and LaScala is now pretty famous in

(02:48):
Beverly Hills.
They have a salad that I makethree times a week now, right,
but La Scala.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right in the corner.
Yeah, san Fernando, I mean it'sGreenland and Riverside, that's
right, but I think they didn'thave a lot of parking there.
That's always been the problemwith that place is not a lot of
parking.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, have a lot of parking there.
That's always been the problemwith that place there's not a
lot of parking.
Well, you can park inside theDisney building, and a lot of
people didn't know that?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah well, especially now, because I don't think any
more Disney people are in thatbuilding.
Nope, they've got 3,000restaurants on Riverside Drive
and nobody knows buildings to gosee them.
That's a problem.
It is Okay, so moving on.
It is Okay, so moving on.
London Broilers Now LondonBroilers.
I remember that place, huh.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
What was it next?
To Pick and save?
Yeah, go with a big parking lot.
And you remember when the DailyReview or the Leader was in
Nahas, right Across from thatparking lot.
I remember walking to LondonBroilers with Gary Mariano.
All the time.
Good sandwiches, good food inLondon Broilers, good place.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah.
Had a great bar we're going upto another rabbit hole down the
line of the stores like Pick andSave that we lost.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Oh yeah, A lot of those.
Oh, there are stories up there.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yep, so yep, london, broiler.
And I think they had adouble-decker bus in the parking
lot all the time, didn't they?
Yep, they probably got fromLondon, or something.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
I think they drove it in parades and other things.
It was yeah, Little LondonBroiler, you know what's that
song?
London Bridge is falling down.
Forget it.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, now you have to go to Lake Havasu to see London
Bridge.
It's no longer in England, it'sin California.
Now Lake Havasu is inCalifornia, correct?
Yeah, I've actually seen it anddriven over it.
Wow, it's a bridge.
Let's move on.
The next one.
Well, next one.

(04:44):
It has a little asterisk for it.
Our next one is MarieCallender's, but we have listed
two here, but it's really one,because there's really one in
Burbank, and the other onegetting honorable mention with
us, it was in Toluca Lake andhow far out of Burbank was the
one in Toluca Lake.
I could throw a baseball fromBurbank and hit it in Toluca

(05:04):
Lake.
It was could throw a baseballfrom Burbank and hit it in
Toluca Lake.
It was at Mariota and Arcola,arcola and Riverside.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Which is now a Chase Bank.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
We needed a Chase Bank, didn't we?

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, right, but talk about Marie Callender's for a
second.
They're burgers and that saladbar, the salad bar, alone.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
The salad bar was outstanding.
I always had fresh croutons.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
And you could go back as much as you want.
And our good friend Stan Lynchloved the waitresses.
Yes, he did At all thoserestaurants.
But he would love that MonteCrisco.
Yes, you know the ham andcheese dipped, you know, in
French toast batter or whatever.
Dip it in, oh my.
But I remembered a secret whenthe waitresses and if you

(05:48):
remember the waitresses, at boththey were owned by the same
guys, ray and so forth when theywould write down the order, I
learned that I loved the cbo dry.
Oh, cbo dry.
The code for it wascheeseburger onions, no dressing
, oh, okay so I'd say to thewaitress I'd like a CBO drawing.
They'd look at me like how doyou know that?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
How do you know that?
How do you know that?
Because we went in there.
I remember we used to go thereafter we'd cover a football game
, right, we'd go there on Fridaynights because you know there'd
always be a crowd at Bob's andeverybody would go down the and
it was funny.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
I had a good friend that was a manager over there
and he had me help him once fortheir Thanksgiving Christmas pie
order.
You know what I learned howthey make their pecan pies.
Back then they would put thepecans in and you know how they
got them to rise.
They'd take their finger and golike this in the batter.
Really, 30 years ago you coulddo that.
Nowadays you can't do that.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
But that's how they made him rise.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
With a glove on.
You can Yep, that was.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
That was.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Bill, wasn't it?
His name was Bill right BillDavis.
He was the manager there.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Bill Davis, and yeah, he took care of us too.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Oh, he did.
He loved when, he just lovedwhen we came in, Because you
know, we always came in thatlast hour and he'd still get us
helped out.
Yep, Good old Marie Callender,See, and people will remember.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, you know it's funny, we're not even talking
about the pies.
The pies were outstanding, youknow, and they picked them right
there on the premises.
Well, they had some other.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
They had chicken pot pie too.
Yes, and they still.
Last week I bought one at youknow, somewhere in the box.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
But back then I don't know if there's any Marie
Callenders left.
I know there was one inGlendale that had actually a
full bar in it too Pacific andGlen Oaks, right in that area by
the 134.
I don't think it's still thereanymore.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
I think there's a restaurant there, but not a
Marie Callenders.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
I don't think Marie Callenders is.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Oh, somebody told me somebody recently saw one out in
the East San Gabriel Valley.
What about their cornbread?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
That's right, that's right.
I forgot all about that.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
With hot honey, oh and butter, the apple butter.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yes, and once again, that was made right there on the
premises.
It sure was.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
See this rabbit hole.
Do you not get the taste ofthat cornbread right now?
Yes, absolutely.
You know, I'm tempted to gohome and I buy Marie Callender's
off the shelf.
Now you can make it at home.
Never the same, because I knowthey put a little sugar here and
there.
Yeah, but boy.
I'm trying to remember the oneup on the hill, hill that was on
san fernando, we're uh, acrossfrom ralph's now there's a

(08:32):
mcdonald's and okay, that'sright near the cornell theater
now there's another rat I don'tknow that we can get to.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, there it sure is.
Um, yeah, so that that and thatone closed first and right um
at big windows.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
You sit out out front .
It was a great place.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, three counters.
Witchers were always nicepeople too.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Always hired the high school kids, the cute girls.
I remember that was one oftheir things.
Nowadays you can't do that.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
That's why Stan wanted to go there all the time.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Those were the nights that he couldn't get into the
car hop service at Bob's and bugthe girls.
For what was it?
An iced tea with 12 sugars.
Yes, you know, good old Steve.
Okay, rest in peace.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Let's move on here to oh Market City Cafe.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Oh, what a salad bar there too.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, I was actually surprised when they went out of
business.
I don't know if that was partof a chain or just a single
place, I don't know if that waspart of a chain or just a single
place.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
No, that was a chain.
He was closing that one downand he had one in Glendale or
another eastern valley, but youremember the cow that they had.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, I wonder you know they had business there
because it's right by the EMCand everything.
It was on San Fernando Road,right by Palm Yep it was right
on the corner.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
And do you remember the hot rolls?
Yes, With the salad bar.
Oh man, Another good.
You don't get a great.
Where in the city can you havea great salad bar?
And that was one.
Had a lot of choices, the coldplates down in the.
You know out front when youwalked in.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
And yeah, yep, okay.
Well, let's move on here.
Here's what didn't last long,didn't last long at all, but it
made our list, of course, andthat was Milano's.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Now, do you remember how many calls did you take from
Mike?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Well, he must have called here every hour, on the
hour, you know, and he knewnothing about the restaurant
business or about the storebusiness or anything else.
And, boy, we tried to help him.
We set up advertising for him,we did a lot for him trying to
help him out, but it came downto the same problem that's

(10:36):
always at that location.
At that location, yeah, and itwas on Palm, just below 3rd
Street, right between theparking structure and 3rd Street
, and the problem being is that,yeah, they have a parking
structure but it was notconvenient to park anywhere and
go in there and he reallythought that he was going to get

(10:59):
all the business from thecondos above.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Right, and those are senior, older people that live
in that.
But also Cartoon Network wasacross the street and he tried
to open during COVID, if youremember, and that office
building was empty.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
I think he was in his 70s or something and he was
retired and trying to do thisfor his wife and his wife got
ill or something and then all ofa sudden he closed one day.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
There was a sign on the door out ill or whatever.
I just saw there is a new placecoming soon into that place.
Hopefully it'll be doing betterthan Milano's did.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, and we enjoyed Milano's.
I was just trying to thinkBefore Milano's it was something
else Varian.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, there were two of them, I was just trying to
think it was before Milano's.
It was something else Varian,something.
Yeah, it was a yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, there were two of them.
Oh, we missed that on our list,didn't we?

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Well, we'll have to put that in show three.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Be in show three.
Another reason you have tolisten and you know what, if
you're out there and youremember what was there, let us
know, tell us, tell us whatwe're missing, because that was
another one that we had doneadvertising for and I remember
something with a P and Iremember I still have gift
certificates that they tradedfor advertising.

(12:16):
Somebody told me they're at thefarmer's market down on 3rd now
not Burbank, I was going to saythose in Iraq gives you nothing
but the thing heavy.
Okay, that's a terrible joke.
It doesn't even deserve a.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Mike, it was nice working with you.
It's unfortunate that, with alist of all these other
restaurants, you're on that listof coming on.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Let's move on.
Um, I'm looking at our.
Oh, next up is Come and gone.
Yep, let's move on.
I'm looking at our.
Okay, oh, next up is somewherethat we that Moe's, moe's, moe's
, that was at the formerInternational House of Pancakes
IHOP and you know, and when he,you know, he kind of fixed it up

(13:02):
a little bit, but he alwaysleft the V of the structure of
the IHOP at the front door.
That was always there.
He never moved that.
You could always see the alwayslook at that and picture the
old IHOP that used to be there.
And he was there, probably.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Well, now he was actually there after.
Hamptons I was going to saywhat about Hamptons and Newman?
Wasn't the actor Newman own oneof those?
I thought?

Speaker 2 (13:28):
he owned Hamptons or something we talked about
Hamptons in the last show.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Go back to Moe's for a second.
Do you remember those burgersthey had?
What a dozen, two dozen customburgers.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
And then they had what do you call it?
A burger bar?

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
And you take your burger up there and then put all
kinds of stuff onto it andeverything else.
Had a great bar in there too.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
People following this show don't think that we like
food or anything.
We could tell you exactly whatwas on some of these salad bars.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
I can tell you what was on all these burgers too, so
they had a good bars.
I can tell you what was on allthese burgers too, so they had a
good burger.
I didn't go there because Ithought it was a little pricey,
even back then.
You know, and to me a goodburger.
You can get a good burger for acheaper price at times, you
know.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Now $19.20, $30 for a burger.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Absolutely ridiculous , but moving on.
So yeah, and actually Moe's didfinally leave and he actually
owned a restaurant by the TewkeLake Tennis Center also.
I think he might still own thattoo, or still run that.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
The guy that, ramsey Schilling, his son has that
restaurant on Riverside becauseyou remember they advertised
with us.
Oh, that's right.
I can't think of the name of it, but I hear I see it in TV
shows right now and maybe weshould go knock on their door
and see if they want toadvertise.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Oh, we'd like that.
Moving on next is one of thethings that we've lost a lot of
here in Burbank.
We just don't have many anymore, and that's a deli that was
Moore's Deli.
That was located right acrossfrom the Hoopscow.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Moore's Deli.
You know you're right.
Where can you get a pastramisandwich back in the day?

Speaker 2 (15:16):
No, no.
Where could you get out of jailto go get a pastrami sandwich
back in the day?
You'd get out of jail and walkacross the street on third
street there and there you gomoore's deli but oh the food.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
And they had that room.
How many people remember thatroom in the back, all those
writers and animators would comedown from cartoon network and
they started drawing on thewalls and the guy would supply
pens and ink and sharpies and itwas became famous yeah, I've
heard that the, the old cartoonnetwork building now, is
actually where they had a lot ofdrawings done.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Um, they've had to take a lot of that out, but
they've tried to save some ofthose right on the staircases
good old spongebob, notspongebob up the cartoon.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
I forget who was, but some of it was, yeah,
copyrighted, so they had topaint that.
But I hear there were rooms orstairwells that the employees
didn't put up copyrighted stuffand they're still there.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
What a treat I'm a hollywood production studios now
, so they've moved in there themoore's deli yeah, that was and
that was, you know, like I said,not a lot of good.
I know you're a big deli fan.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
Oh, I love pastrami sandwiches with corned beef on
rye, and what was good is notonly the straw meal rye, but a
darn good dill pickle with it,yes.
Or good coleslaw I know you'rea coleslaw fan.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
I love good coleslaw.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
And they had good potato salad with it, yep.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Too bad, morse booked out of town.
Well, let's go back to uh,another burger place now and uh,
mr biggs burgers.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
Anybody been in burbank a couple of years
remembers mr big burgers that'sright there.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
It was on the corner of, I want to say, east and san
fernando, that's correct, andand pretty much an iconic place.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
Oh everybody, burbank High, that was the place to go.
You didn't have Tommy's, youdidn't have all these other
places, mcdonald's, or any ofthose.
It was Mr Big Burger's.
But the taste in that burger,mr Big Burger's, you know, that
is one thing I find.
You can go to a place like MrBig Burger's, like Clint's, it
had a definite taste.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
A unique taste, a very unique taste.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Mr Big Burger's and their onion rings were the huge
onion rings and their malts andall that's a thing people
remember.
I guarantee you ask somebody.
Gary Brick's been here longerthan us and I could bet you he
could say Mr Big Burger's wasone of his favorite places and
he made a good burger.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yes, he did Absolutely, and he knew that you
not only toast both sides ofthe bun, but you don't put the
meat against the bun on thebottom, and that's what keeps it
crispy.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
See, we learned that.
Thank you very much, Mr Brick.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
So let's move on here .
Now we're moving on to.
Well, here's an Orange Julius.
Wow, Remember Orange Julius.
There were a couple locationshere in Burbank.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
There's a couple of places.
Oh, corner Cottage still hasone of those machines that make
the whipped orange.
Okay, you remember that?
Oh that, yeah, you can makethem at home now.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Well, you know, we used to go to, now, the Orange
Juice.
We're talking about the firsttime.
It comes to my mind, it wasright across from NBC I think
it's called the Commissary now,right next to where A&O Liquor
was.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Little tiny, tiny, tiny place.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, now, right next to where A&O Liquor was Little
tiny, tiny, tiny place.
Yeah, and if you picture thestructure, it was an Orange
Julius at one time, right, andwe used to go there all the time
.
You know, back in the Stevensondays we used to ride our bike
down from Stevenson down toCalifornia.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
What was that?
Ice cream that is kind of likean Orange Julius.
What are they called?
A?

Speaker 2 (19:01):
50-50 bar.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
And they're exact.
Yep, and I just saw somebodythe other day, I forget on what
TV show they were trying toduplicate.
You know that taste of Orange,Julius.
All it was was, I think, orange, carbonated water and some
whipped cream.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
I remember back in the day we all figured out that
the cool way to do it was to puta raw egg into it.
You used to put a raw orangejuice with a raw egg.
Now, back then we were allbrave and everything else.
You remember the Rocky film too, using four or five eggs and
just do them straight.

(19:39):
But yeah, we used to put a rawegg into our orange, julius, and
it was a great taste.
But boy, now you look at thesalmonella.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
There were a couple of orange, julius, and then they
had the pineapple, I think, andthere were just two or three,
that's it.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
And the other one, of course, is where Yakis is now
over on Alameda and Maine.
And that was an orange Juliusfor a long long time.
That's right, it's been a YakJulius for a long long time.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
It's been a Yankees for a long long time too.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, but you know again this rabbit hole.
Think of Orange Julius.
You know these young kids theyhave no clue.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Don't they have Orange Julius now in some of the
malls?
Oh really, I don't know, Idon't go to malls too much I I
don't know I don't go to ballstoo much.
I think they do.
I'm not sure, but I think theydo.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
You just again.
You're making me want an OrangeJulius right now.
So bad.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, a 50-50 bar It'll do.
Oh, amazing.
Well, moving on here Now, Idon't remember this place.
I saw you put it on the listhere and I'm a little perplexed
by it.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
It's called Pages.
Pages was, I found out.
Lancers was originally calledPages.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
See, I don't remember that.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yep Many, many years ago.
When it first opened, it wascalled Pages Do you have any
idea when it changed to Lancers.
No, but we'll do some research.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Well, of course, you know.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
I guarantee Don.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
If you're actually watching this video.
Hopefully, by the time I get tothe editing part, I'll be able
to pull some information up andthrow it in the script.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
You know we can always call our historian, old
man Burbank Don Baldessaroni,who grew up here when the dirt
was delayed and he couldprobably tell us when Pages was
there.
I didn't know that was evercalled Pages and no relation to
the baseball player Pages whohas played today, who played for

(21:31):
the Dodgers, but he was MajorLeague debut today but his name
was not Pages, pages.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Pages, pages or something.
Yeah, I don't get it.
You know All I know is he gotin?
The dodgers one tonight.
Yes, he did.
Now you know when we'rerecording this show, so, um,
that's we got.
Oh, here here's one.
That's a long time.
Burbank restaurant, that youknow, pierrot's not.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
A lot of people went to pierrot's.
It was a fantastic fish house.
Yeah, I never, I never.
It was never busy.
If I recall, the owner'sdaughter went to chef school and
the owner opened up arestaurant for her.
It was there at Niagara, Ithink, next to Dick Clark, lock
up from Dick Clark, naomiFlorence, one of those.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Now it's a Mexican restaurant there.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
It was also after Piero's, it was Michael's,
michael's which had the best.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
In fact, we don't have Michaels on our list, do we
?

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, it's somewhere.
What?

Speaker 2 (22:28):
do we have on our list Might?

Speaker 3 (22:30):
be on our latest list .

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh, okay, it might be on the list we're going to talk
about later, so let's go back.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Where can you get Jambalaya?
That's a sad thing.
There's no more Michaels andyou remember the head chef at
Michael's also had.
There was a little tiny orangeJulia stand on the San Fernando
Road, I think, just very small.
It was near one of the walkwaysand Michael's, a famous chef,
apparently robbed or wasinvolved in some robberies and

(22:58):
they arrested him and he foughtit and then that's when he
became the chef after Piero'sand that was Michael's and that
was owned by, I think, one ofthe baseball coaches at
Burroughs, or football coaches'sons.
But Craig Durling and I used togo in there.
They're A-2-Fay and they'reJambalaya and oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Well, back to Piero's .
Yeah, Did you ever stop atPiero's and eat?

Speaker 3 (23:23):
You know those were my youngin' days and I remember
my parents.
I wasn't a big fish fan.
You had to pull bones out offish.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
It's funny, you and I both weren't fish fans, but we
both love fish now.
Yeah, what's up with that?

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Well, it took too much time to pull the bones out
and I remember taking a bite ofsome fish, some fishing when I
was young, and oh, what is this?
And this takes too long, forgetit.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Well, to me, that's the entire story of sunflower
seeds.
You know, being a baseball guy,every player used to have Coach
you want some sunflower?
Yeah, you want some seeds.
You want some seeds, no, no.
Why I go?
Because it's too much work fortoo little food.
By the time I get the shot,there's nothing hardly to eat,
and so to me it just wasn'tworth all the trouble.

(24:06):
I want to take a bite out ofsomething.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
And then after Michael's it was something else
and they had a great karaoke bar, a karaoke night, and I
remember friends from highschool used to go there like
every week for karaoke.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I can't remember the name of that.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
I'll think of it.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
One of our listeners will Email us.
Please, people, please, please,please, email us if we've
forgotten something or we'remissing something, because we
really want to go overeverything.
Give everybody their fair.
Look here.
Okay, so moving on, from whenis my list here?

(24:47):
Oh, we're on another page here,aren't we?
After that, we go to what was astaple in Burbank and to this
day I don't know why thefranchise.
What happened?
I'm sure there's a reason, butkinder chicken.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yep, not a lot of people, if you remember next to
Savon Savon Drugstore.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Savon Drugstore boom, boom.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
Pioneer Chicken was there.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
There was one uptown, in fact, I knew a couple of
people that worked there, theone on San Fernando, it was
right next to.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Dodie's or Ralph's, ralph's.
Yes, that's not Delaware,that's one north of Delaware.
Yeah, anthony.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
That's your neighborhood.
Now, yeah it is.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
I should know.
You should know those things.
I don't, yeah, I should.
But you know what?
Didn't have good chicken.
I have stories.
Oh yeah, the one down next tonow CVS, but Savon Drugstore,
debbie Mobley, a good friend ofours.
Years ago she worked there.
I don't know which husband, buther and Paul met there and I

(25:59):
remember taking breaks fromSavon Drugstore.
I worked at Savon.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Go in there and get their two-piece sandwich for two
bucks or something.
Well, our next one here isgoing to bring back a lot of
memories for our Burroughs crowd, especially Besides being a
great pizza place, but it was aplace that was one of two places
back then that you could get toget some food and get back to
school on time during your lunchpass, and that was called.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
Pizza Pie.
How big was that place?
I think this studio is bigger.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yes, it was absolutely tiny.
It's on the corner of Reese andMagnolia and it was just a tiny
little white building.
I remember.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Windows on three sides, a door in the back.
I still don't know how theycould throw the pizzas in there,
but at lunch if you went toBurroughs.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
And you got.
He had pizzas ready to go too.
He could always get one or twoslices, yep.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
And he had enough to cover the lunch bunch for
Burroughs.
And then, when they closed,they moved over on Alameda where
Winsentire was, which was amarket Alpha Beta.
I believe.
Alpha Beta.
Yeah, after they closed,winston Tire took over that
parking lot, one of the littletiny holes in the wall.
There there's a barbershop andsome other stuff was Pizza Pie.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
I remember Pizza Pie the one with Magnolia and Reese
was absolutely phenomenal.
That was back in the 70s, youknow back in the day.
Let's move on here.
Another iconic place, onceagain at Burroughs.
It would be pushing theenvelope to walk there and walk

(27:41):
back to Burroughs.
You could make it and that was.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Pup and Taco, pup and Taco, pup and Taco.
It was like wham bam.
Thank you, ma'am.
Here's your.
Was it the taco or the burritoor the combo?

Speaker 2 (27:59):
that was, you know I don't know what was in the taco
it was a pup, and I'm sure thepup wasn't all beef either, you
know but you remember there wasalso a pup and taco up on glen
oaks across from foster freezeat angelino yep, which is now a
duncan donuts oh, there's, achinese place, a drive-thru
chinese place.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
Now, boy, these places, how they rotate.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Now it's a dunkin donuts up and taco oh my
goodness, I mean that.
And now it's a.
Uh, then taco bell took overthere.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
That's right, that still is a taco bell yep, they
remodeled it and drive throughand I've used it many a times
yep, okay, after, well, afterPup and Taco, we go to a place
that wasn't here too long.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
It was here probably maybe seven or eight years,
maybe at the most, at the cornerof Riverside Drive and Maple.
What was the name of the place?
It was called Red Maple, redMaple, and they have now since
left Burbank.
They, I guess, wanted a biggerlocation and they moved over to
right across from Trader Joe'sTrader Joe's on Riverside Drive

(29:05):
in Toluca Lake now.
Much bigger place, much biggerplace.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Brian who owns it is a great guy.
I see him every so on.
He's on the board of TolucaLake Chamber now.
But do you remember when theyRed Maple?
I remember we did their opening.
He had that used to be a shoerepair place.
Yes, and he had that used to bea shoe repair place.
Yes, I remember my dad takingme there, I think it was
Victor's Shoe Repair, wasn't it?
It was a Victor's no it wasn'tVictor's, it was.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
I remember back in the day we used to go to Lucky's
.
That was in the corner of Passand.
Alameda, and they had all thoseshops in the parking lot of
Lucky's there across the alleyYep, shops on the parking lot of
of lucky's there across thealley yep, and they were facing
toward the parking lot and theywere businesses that weren't
facing toward riverside but theywere facing toward yeah, and

(29:50):
what else was the shoe repairplace?
Their?

Speaker 3 (29:52):
place and I remember my dad always getting his shoes
worked on there.
But then when brian took itover, him and his partner to
make a red maple, they convertedthat whole place.
The power in that place was theold knob and tube.
I remember him showing me thefuses and everything that they
changed and then it became uh,on the corner there's a sushi

(30:13):
place now or a pokey place, buthe moved down, like you said, to
uh mariotta, or across fromtrader jo Joe's Nice place,
great guy, great food, do youremember?

Speaker 2 (30:24):
And then didn't they make that custom if you got
coffee or yeah, they put apicture of something on there
for you or something, yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
That was a new trend back then, boy.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
A rabbit hole.
I was never a cappuccino guy.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, me either, but I remember them doing that.
It was kind of neat.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Probably still do it.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Um, after all here, okay, now here's one.
If you remember this place,you're pretty good I I do, of
course, because I was there forthe, the, the grand opening of
it.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Really.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
And it was called Roy Rogers roast beef sandwiches.
Right Now that is at the cornerof Valley and Riverside.
Is that where it was?
Yeah, and that was the veryfirst restaurant there.
It was built as a Roy Rogersroast beef sandwiches and it
lasted there for a long time no,I shouldn't say last.

(31:26):
It's probably made five or sixyears and then it went out of.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Uh now we we got an office, so probably preface it.
Roy rogers was pretty famousback in the day as a cowboy and
on quite a few westerns and soforth and that's how that chain
came about.
I don't think the guy thatowned it was called Roy Rogers,
but Well, I think he, well, hehad a stake in it, right,
exactly.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, he didn't Maybe a horse in it or two, but yeah
Well, maybe a horse stake in it,I don't know.
Okay, moving on from Roy Rogers, which I just called Tender
Greens Today, by the way, is itcalled?

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Tender Greens yeah, yeah, you're right.
But we have a list of whatother things were over there.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, well, we'll get into that.
So, moving off from let's seehere, we just left Roy Rogers
Now oh here's a place that for along time, if you've been to
karaoke or I think they even didporn star karaoke and things
like that, and that's sardossardos.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
I have another one written down here.
I kind of crossed that sardos.
Guess who was famous over therefor porn star karaoke, ron
jeremy.
I'll never forget I used to goto the vons, he's in prison now.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Now, isn't he?

Speaker 3 (32:40):
He's dying in prison.
Apparently he got dementia orwhatever and they found that
they can't.
You know he doesn't rememberanything and yeah, but I'll
never forget.
One night I went to Vons, 301North Pass and the parking lot
was packed, I mean full, at 10o'clock, 11 o'clock at night.
I'm going.
How many people shopping avon?
No, everybody said ron jeremyis over singing karaoke with all

(33:05):
the other porn stars.
Wednesday night porn star,whatever you know what?
the food there was terrible yeah, my sister knew the owner uh
sal, I'm not sal, I get theguy's name he tried, he really
tried and then, like I just readhis memorial of the restaurant
on some web page and he said youknow, with the prices you can't

(33:28):
pay waitresses now and theprice of food, you got to bring
something in some shtick andwell, no, what you got to do is
actually have good food thatpeople will actually go to the
restaurant you know, I mean itwas crap.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
that's the bottom line, that's the reason it
became good for karaoke.
Yeah, I think the part we kindof must have passed up there was
Salerno's, salerno's.
Salerno's.
That's been a long time.
You remember Salerno's right?

Speaker 3 (33:58):
On Riverside Drive and I remember one day I walked
by there and saw a cockroach inthe window and said I won't be
eating there anymore.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Well, that was Slerno's Submarine Sandwiches
though.
Right, but you know that wasoriginally before it was down
closer.
I want to say it was downcloser near China Trader or in
that area, and then he moveddown two or three blocks down.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Because he wanted that outdoor.
It used to be a dry cleaner.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, no, I think when they sold, when China
Trader got bought out, theywanted that whole block for
development or something and hegot thrown out with bathwater
type thing, you know.
So I think his name was Ernie,his name was ernie, that's his,
that was his name and that's theplace I actually used to go to

(34:48):
all the time for a ham andcheese uh, submarine sandwich
all the time and it was great.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
now I think I never saw what you saw but it happens,
it's, it's a business, but we,you know, salernos, you know,
the names are so close.
How about Sorrentino's?

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Sorrentino's.
Sorrentino's was.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Known for fish too.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yes, that was right on the corner of Riverside and
Pass.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
What color was the building?
It was green.
It was green.
I went to school with GinaSorrentino.
She was in my class.
Oh, her family owned it.
She told me what days to gothere and eat, but that was more
of a classy place again.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
You know, but Sorrentino's was right on the
corner Right down from the ChinaTrader.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
That's right and it was there for a long time and
then became FedEx.
No, no, before FedEx it was aSony repair shop or something.
That's right, yep repair shopor something that's right, and
then became a FedEx or Kinko's.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Kinko's.
That's right.
They merged into FedEx and nowthere's going to be a six-story
building.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Yeah, six-story.
Oh, my goodness, it's going tobe a monstrosity.
Yeah, it does not fit theneighborhood.
So more to come on that on theMyBurbank side.
Trust us.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
Right, but now the next place.
Let's get back to a burger here.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Well, I'm not going to just say a burger.
I'm going to say, and I thinkI've got to go back one here, oh
, to a double place here, andall I'm going to say is Malibu
chicken.
What does that tell you?
Malibu chicken.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Oh, a sizzler.
A sizzler, sure, avo chicken asizzler and we had two sizzlers
in Burbank.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
We just lost the last one.
Maybe what three or four yearsago?

Speaker 3 (36:31):
how many years ago more than three or four,
probably more like ten now, butwe did have one up there at
Providence in Glen Oaks.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
But again, fantastic, fantastic salad bar oh the
salad probably the best saladbar by far and you remember we
knew the manager one over hereat hollywood way.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
He was just great.
But malibu chicken and thesteaks weren't that great unless
you had brand new set ofdentures yeah, yeah, the state,
all the other stuff.
Yeah, you know, and their,their clam chowder soup and
their taco bar and just scissorswas and they're still around.
There's one up in I know, uh,la canada, we've lost it here in

(37:12):
burma.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Yeah, it's unfortunate I went one time to
the sizzler on ventura boulevardit was down around, oh I don't
know, somewhere between down inVineland or something, that area
and we went during, you know,when I was coaching ball and it
was after a game, and we went tothe Sizzler and back then they
had all-you-can-eat shrimp.
They had the all-you-can-eatshrimp there, and so I said,

(37:34):
yeah, I want the all-you-can-eatshrimp and I started eating
shrimp.
Now here's the secret when youdid that, they would also give
you a baked potato.
They'd give you some bread anda steak and all that.
Yeah, but the secret was youdon't eat that stuff because all
that bread doesn't fill you up.
So I started on those breadedshrimp, those little breaded
shrimps.
How many later?
Okay, so I'm up, 7 to 10 at atime.

(37:59):
So I'm up to around 115.
And I'm just, you know, nowit's become a, it's a challenge
now.
Now it's become a, I'm going towear a badge of honor.
So I get up to around 115 orwhatever, and I said, sir,
please, another round, please.
He looked at me and says no, nomore, that's it.
I said, sir, I go.

(38:19):
It says it's all you can eat.
And I have eaten all I can,exactly as I said.
He looked at me and says Ican't do it anymore.
I'm sorry.
He refunded our entire meal tous and threw us out, you know.
So I got a boy.
I'll tell you what.
I did not really eat shrimp fora while after that.

(38:40):
That was a A learningexperience.
Oh, you can eat shrimp.
Yeah, I remember, boy, that wasa.
They all did that.
That was a thing for a while,and I think there were too many
people like me out there whoWell, you know you say that and
I'm not proud of it.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
Back in my young teen days I did a food contest at
Tommy's and ate 13 Tommy burgers.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Holy cow.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
And talk about sick laughter, that.
But you know what I'm not proudof that.
Now I look back at those daysand, oh, I can do this, watch
this.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Now I can barely get through anything and you know,
big as I am, I'm dieting Goodold shrimp.
You watch the hot dog eatingcontest.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
After that Joey Chestnut guy or whatever it is,
he can eat what, 50 or 60 orwhatever they are.
But you know what?
They don't show you afterwards.
As soon as the time expires andthey're done, all those guys
turn to the side and they loseit.
They all lose it right away.
They don't keep that in theirstomachs.
So that's the part they don'tshow you.

(39:43):
But there's a bucket next toevery one of those guys and
yikes Well, I thought it waspretty funny, if you are really
into the Dodgers.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
They showed them when they went to Korea and they had
a wing-eating contest with allthe new guys and new coaches and
all, and it was team building.
I think that one of the guyswent through 125 wings and could
have kept going, you know.
But I tell you we really builtteam building for the Dodgers

(40:11):
this last year.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yep, well, moving along, moving along.
So, um, after the scissors,here's a place that um was
originally built for thisrestaurant and it was called
Spoon's Spoon's.
It was on the corner of FirstStreet and Cypress, right there.

(40:33):
I'm not sure what it is now.
It became a Hooters after.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
I think it's empty currently.
Okay, but it was a.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Hooters.
Yeah, but it was Spoon's firstand we used to go there.
All it was good food.
It was kind of like an Island'sRight.
But the shakes there, that'swhat was kind of neat.
You know Spoons and Spooningyou had to spoon your shake, you
couldn't just use a straw andthe shakes were just phenomenal,
just phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
It's just you know you think about.
I guarantee everybody listeningto this you can name a place
that their specialty wassomething, but like spoons, you
had to use that ice cold spoonsto take out the rest but didn't
make it through the straw.
You know the old malt days andall these places had things that
you really wanted and I bet youeverybody listening to this
show will think of the differentrestaurants we've mentioned and

(41:25):
it'll put that taste in theirmouth, hopefully good taste.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
I was disappointed when I found out that I never
knew what the difference betweena shake and a malt was.
I found out later.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
When you shake like oh.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah, well, they just throw some powder into it.
Ah, just some powder, that's it.
And that's what makes thedemult taste and it's like,
really, that's all it is.
It's just some powder.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
But also back in the day they used some real ice
cream.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
You know there's no malt ice cream, Right, Okay,
let's move on from spoons.
Next comes I think this is whatyou were talking about a second
ago is it's had manyincarnations over the years, but
for a long time it was calledSteve's Charburgers.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
They were pretty well known for that word charburger
Right and that was on the cornerof Victory and Brighton.
That's right.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
And it's been many things now since, and we need to
come up with a list of all thethings.
It's been too.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
You're right, because Blazin' Burgers were then there
.
They're gone.
Now it's a Mexican restaurantwith a guy and his wife are
doing a great job.
You know what's different aboutthat location?
Got to drive through One of thelast places and this guy had to
, I hear, be able to get hisbusiness license.
That's in there currently.
He had to keep the previousname in the name of the

(42:40):
restaurant, so it wasgrandfathered in, but he's also
open until 10 o'clock at nightfor that drive-in.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
I remember we went to Blazing Burgers one time to eat
and it was during a summer day,105 outside, yeah, 105 outside.
And so we were going to go inand go inside to eat because it
was 105 out and the tables werein the sun.
And the owner goes I go, wewant to.
No, no, we don't see inside,that's just for our storage now.
And it's like really so off wewent.

(43:10):
That's when it turned into.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
It was something else , the Chinese or some other type
of brand of food.
It wasn't a burger place.
Oh, it was a burger place, yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
But that's why I think they're out of business,
because you can't sit down inthe hot sun or just get food,
only to go.
Right, you really can't soMoving along, moving along.
Let's see, here we have next upon our list.
We get into the teas Ooh, andwe go to Teresa's.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Now, how many people remember Teresa's?
It was owned by Teresa, I think, and it wasn't there too long a
couple years, but her homemadedressing and her pies.
Corner of Sparks and Olive.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Which has now become a Starbucks.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
I never forget.
But I had a good friend, GlennDuke, who passed away, former
fireman, he owned that houseright behind it and he knew
Teresa pretty well and Iremember I'd go to his house and
Teresa would give him this andthat and pies and pretty nice.
She moved into Glendale.
She closed Burbank Place whenStarbucks offered to take it

(44:15):
over and she opened one inGlendale and I don't think it
was.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
We went there occasionally, but it was never
very crowded inside, you know,and it just didn't seem like it
was a priority.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
But the food was very good.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
The food was good.
The food was good.
The next one I keep trying toremember the name is so familiar
, but I can't remember the placeat all and that was called the
Three Horsemen.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
Oh, I'm sorry, Sorry, three Horsemen, think about it.
Three Horsemen.
Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, threehorsemen, think about it.
Three horsemen.
Pickwick, three horsemen,that's right.
Across from the arenas where weused to have riding rings.
Yeah, that's right and it waspart of Pickwick Bowl, right.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Because I don't remember it that well, because I
always went into Pickwick Bowlbut I always went through the
back door.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
See.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
So I don't remember, and I just knew that there was a
bar entrance there where youcould get food.
I didn't, at least ever see aname and I remember the counter.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
The Three Horsemen had a counter and you know when
you bowled you got food fromthere.
But I remember going to thatrestaurant.
It had good food, fish andchips like stuff like that.
It was very good.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
I think closed down.
For the last couple years thePickwick was still a bowling
alley, but there was norestaurant anymore.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
For our long-time Burbank followers.
We'll remember the ThreeHorsemen.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
As soon as you gave me the place, I remember it.
The name was familiar to me.
I kept looking at the name andsaying I know that place.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
I think I have a picture and I'll have to look.
Before they tore the Pickwickdown, the three horsemen were
still up on the building.
There were three horses andunder it it said three horsemen.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Somebody sent us a video the other day of them
knocking down the Pickwick signand it's like too bad, they
couldn't have saved that somehow.
You know the guy in the valleywho saves signs, valley Relics.
Yeah, too bad they didn't savethat sign, but I guess they
can't save every sign.
Moving along, moving alongAnother the.

(46:13):
This time it's the dip.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
The dip.
You talk to any police officer,any motor.
The dip was famous.
Five points their coffee.
Yep, the dip was famous.
Five points their coffee.
The dip was just and fivepoints being Burbank.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
That's right.
Victory Lake, Lake, yeah, andbecause Victory went two
different directions and Burbankwent all over.
It was what a mess there.
In fact, as we know, any timethere was an accident or
something there, it always wouldtake two police officers to
direct traffic at thatintersection, because it was

(46:49):
just so complicated.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
I'll never forget when the power lines fell on a
car at that intersection.
Traffic was screwed up in thewhole San Fernando Valley
because when you shut thatintersection down there was
nobody moving.
It screwed up.
You couldn't get off thefreeway, you couldn't go east,
you couldn't go west, youcouldn't go north, you couldn't
go south.
You were screwed.
And I'll never forget watchingthem, that line that had fallen

(47:14):
on a vehicle and they couldn'tdo anything until they
de-energized everything rightand now the dip is the uh costco
gas station but there was arestaurant in the dip and I
remember it was a drive-thru.
It was a burrito place and Igotta look because I just found
the picture of a car thatlaunched out of it.
I'll look at tonight and I willput it on our list of other

(47:36):
places okay, yes, please do sendme that picture for our, our
next show.
Oh, I will oh the dip, alongwith a picture of you directing
traffic.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Oh yeah, there we go.
Next up here's a favorite ofmany people for a long time and
the pizza was great there.
The Italian food was great,Tony's Bella.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Vista.
You know that was one of RonHoward's and Rance Howard's
favorite places.
He talked about going in thereall the time.
I happen to know some of thefamily that owned it, you know,
and yeah, Tony's Bella Vista wasprobably one of the top pizzas
in Burbank.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Oh yeah, Top Italian restaurants.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
You know?
I mean, I'm not sure why they.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Well, it was a land family issue between who's
owning this and who's that?
And the funny thing is I hadsome leg surgery a couple years
ago and one of the familymembers made me Italian food
while I was convalescing.
I thought if I closed my eyesI'd think I was eating at Tony's

(48:41):
Bella Vista.
It was that good.
And my good friend ChristinaSpratt, who helps us out quite a
bit, she's in that family Boy,a great group of Italians that
know how to cook.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
I'm not sure.
Right now they're resizing thatwhole block up into smaller
places right.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Pizza place is open.
Pizza place is open.
Pizza place is open.
I've just told that the and weneed another pizza place in
Burbank.
Well, there's now three overthat neighborhood, but Bagel
Boys, bagel Boss, is opening.
The stuff came off the windowyesterday.
I was told they were justwaiting for a permit or two.
We're going to see them thenext couple of weeks with a nice

(49:24):
patio and the place the cupcakeplace that was up two blocks
other side of UME Credit Union.
She downsized and she's movedover there, so there's three new
restaurants right next to eachother.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
There's parking.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
Lots of street parking over there.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Moving on to I think it was only here for maybe five
or six years at the most calledUmami's.
How did you say that?
Yeah, umami's.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
That was over.
That took over for Papu's HotDog Show.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Right.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
So they became Umami's, a high-end burger Good
burger, but high-end.
I didn't like the fact thatwhen they first opened it, if
you wanted a drink they wouldsell you a bottle of Coke or
something that was eight ouncesor something for $3.
And you know, one eight-ouncebottle ain't going to do much
for you.
So by the time you get ityou're spending $15 on three or

(50:20):
four Cokes just to get the usualamount of drink you know, that
was just to wash the taste down.
Yeah, but it was good.
They had, you know, dippingtrays and everything else.
The food was good, the burgerwas good.
My understanding was the guywho owned it.
They bought a lot of locationsat once, a lot of locations at

(50:41):
once, and they just couldn'tsustain them all.
And my understanding is that itcame down to he just couldn't.
He walked away.
He just closed the doors oneday, gave the keys to the
landlord and said I'm out ofhere.
So there you go, and I mean allthat remodeling, everything
else they did.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
It wasn't a sports celebrity or some celebrity that
I don't think so, but he justwalked away.
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Let's see here Moving on.
Oh okay, now here's one thatonly are really, really older
listeners are going to remember.
But it was, it was.
It was infamous.
It was one of the great placesin in the 50s and 60s.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
You could see it a block away.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yes, and it was called Vandy Camps.
Oh, corner of Victory and Olive.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
With their big windmill, or big, what was it?

Speaker 2 (51:34):
It was a big windmill yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
Yeah, and I remember it used to move and rotate
around the building Blue.
I could picture it like it wasthere tomorrow or yesterday.
It was blue, right, you know,the neon lighting on the edge of
the windmill and the waitresseswore little Scandinavian type
things and I think it was a.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
there's another one that lasted I think it was in
Glendale, near Las Pilas orsomething for a long time.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
I can visualize it, yep.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
But the one in Burbank.
It didn't make it.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
And we will touch on other restaurants.
There were several.
That was a pretty famousintersection for restaurants.
Yes, it was, still is.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Still is Well.
Next is another one of ourdearly departed delis Victor's
Deli, and I know how you feelabout delis.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
Victor's Deli was you know?
You come in off that alley, offthe back next to the lock shop.
Tell us where.
It was Hollywood Way inMagnolia, and I remember the
owner of Victor's Deli.
He used to own a place up onMagnolia called Shuggy's,
Shuggy's, Shuggy's and it burntdown and it was all of one

(52:49):
storefront but it was a greatlittle deli.
Well, when he didn't want torebuild there, he bought the
deli there and it changed thename to Victor's again.
Do you remember what we used toget in the middle of the night
on his pie run?

Speaker 2 (53:07):
um, good old martino, martino pies, cupcakes, key
cakes, cakes, but then the piesum ron, ronnie, ronnie right,
the pie guy ronnie was the pieguy and he had five dollars and
he would.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
He'd have the Martino's run.
He'd go from Coral Cafe to acouple places on Magnolia, to
Victor's Deli Yep.
We would wait there 132 in themorning, they were still hot.
He'd sell us a dozen for fivebucks, yep.
And then from there he wentright down to the studio, to the
commissary at Warner Brothers,to fill them up with pies and

(53:42):
then over to the hot dog showand over to Bob's.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Martino's had a lock on this city when it came to
every day getting fresh pies andfoods and everything else.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
But good old Victor's Jelly, again a great.
They were known for theircoffee, their morning breakfast.
They had the counter.
You sit there, you know, andall the traffic would race down
Hollywood Way and unfortunatelyit burned down interesting what
happened to this other place?

Speaker 2 (54:11):
oh, we won't talk about that.
Is that a?

Speaker 3 (54:11):
place burned down too .
Yeah, well, but then, uh, atsome time in there, yonans, yes,
occupied the building.
I remember that.
And but when victor Deli, I'llnever forget I went skydiving a
week before, jumped out of aperfectly good airplane, out of
a bad parachute, and I rode itdown and I broke my leg.
And I remember shootingpictures of that fire.

(54:33):
We had Fire Chief Mike Davisthere, kurt Reynolds there, and
I shot a picture of them withthe fire going up and my doctor
said you go to any more fireswith your leg cast on.
I'm going to put you in a castup to your hip, but I got
pictures of that fire.
I still have them.
That was a major intersection.
Send us a picture.
Do we have a fire?
Oh, I will, I'll come up withthat.

(54:54):
That was one of my old famousshots.
But it also burnt down.
Dennis Lights, the closed storenext door.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
When it burnt down, it got into the attic and it
spread into the business nextdoor and now it became a Rite
Aid, which has now become anempty building.
Yep, there's a piece ofproperty right there which I'm
not sure who can go in there,because when they built that
Rite Aid there's a a lot ofcontroversy because they put a
building with no windows.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
Right, somebody told me that there is a market chain
looking for that size store overin that neighborhood, but I
don't want to.
We'll see.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
But they got to then put windows in, that's going to
be expensive.
There's also not a huge parkinglot for the size square footage
of that store well, you know,but if you take that side
parking lot where they had theuh, the um drive-through for
that, which never worked, by theway, um, that was your
drugstore, wasn't it mydrugstore?
I remember I went there duringthe uh, I actually picked that

(55:58):
drugstore because during thepandemic you couldn't, you know,
go in places.
I I'm going to pick that placeso I can go there and drive in
and get the whooshy-dooshythrough the machine what was
that called the machines, thevacuum machines.
And I get there and I wassitting there for maybe you know
, dodging right down the car, Iwas sitting there probably 10
minutes in that place going.
So I finally called them.

(56:21):
I said, hey, you know I'msitting out here.
They said, oh yeah, that'sworked for years, I go.
Well, how about a sign orsomething?
How about letting people knowthat?
So now I'm at the CVS over byVerdugo and Parrish, and they
have a drive up and there's novacuums needed.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Well, they do have vacuum too on the other side.
Oh, okay, you just go to thewindow, but they don't use it.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
They don't use the vacuum at all.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
Okay, well, I don't really test the vacuum anyway,
the story about that you knowdrugstore is kind of like my
story of Eden Park.
Eden Park.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
If you watched our last video, you actually would
see a picture of Eden Park there.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
And if you come up to me in public and then start
laughing at me about Eden Park.
We're going to go eat there.
There we go.
Stories of the places that wehave in Burbank is just like
Rite Aid Wow, but what wasbefore?

Speaker 2 (57:16):
it was a Rite Aid, wasn't it a Thrifty's?
No, I think the Thrifty's wasacross the street where Porto's
was.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
No, they were up at Magnolia in California Thrifty's
, but I thought, because Iremember Rite Aid had an ice
cream counter.
Oh yeah, with the weird dipthing that they made their cone
out of.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Now they had one, the pet place over on Olive.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
Oh, next to Tom McCann's.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
What was the name of that?
That was the place that had theice cream.
That was the Thrifty's, thatwas the Thrifty's Right.
That's the place I'm thinkingof.
The Thrifty ice cream wasalways the best.
Oh, okay, I thought Rite Aidhad.
Okay, so that's the place I'mthinking.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
The Thrifty Ice Cream was always the best.
Oh, okay, I thought Rite Aidhad.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
No, I don't think Rite Aid ever had ice cream.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
See, I could be wrong folks.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
I am an ice cream connoisseur.
Of course I mean, look at me.
Of course I love ice cream.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
But I remember at Thrifty's they had the ice cream
Instead of a scooper.
It was built round and it wouldgo into the cones.
Weird, yes, and if you got athree decker ice cream instead
of three round balls, it wasthree.
Yeah, weird, yeah, oh yeah, andit was good ice cream now,
folks, if you remember what Ijust brought up, that ice cream

(58:29):
scooper you probably have an oldcan opener in the drawer in
your kitchen.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
Okay, let's.
Next up is a, a newly departedMexican restaurant that was
there for a long time, yeah itwas, and it's called.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Viva's, viva's Cantina, and it was there for it
was.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Right across from the Pickwick.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
And next to the Equestrian Center, which was not
in Burbank, craig, yeah, well.
Well, the front gate is.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
The front gate's in Burbank and after that you're in
LA.
But I remember, you know I.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
It's kind of like Lakeside Golf Course you drive
in the Rancho area.
They were regulars there.
The bar was loose and wet andthey poured heavy and different
bands were in there all the timeand now they moved on For a
long time it was closed and thenit got bought and now it's
another restaurant that has been.
I hear it's changed someoperations and changing things,

(59:34):
but Viva's Cantina, viva's.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Cantina Viva's Cantina, absolutely.
Here's one for you.
I'm not sure if they had foodthere.
Now, right, our next one, but Iknow that it was a rowdy place.
It was a place that the policewent to often, and not because
they were there to get a drink.
It was because they went thereto arrest people.
That was called the WhiskeyBend.

(59:57):
The Whiskey Bend, in fact.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
They had food there, right, Yep.
And the last I heard theWhiskey Bend and Whiskey.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Bend is where.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Up at Bethany in San Fernando.
If you drive by there now youcouldn't tell it was the Whiskey
Bend.
I know the people that own it.
The Augustines own that.
That used to be a restaurantand a bar and they have rebuilt
the whole place.
It's now an office building.
But knew the bartender there.

(01:00:26):
Glenn Sorkness's daughter was abartender there for many years
at the Whiskey Bend.
You're right, burbank PD.
They were out there many, manya times.
It was what they called a bikerbar.
It was a biker bar.
Yes, absolutely Nothing againstbikers.
I owned one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
It doesn't get bars, but bikers and bars together.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Oh yeah, burbank PD used to go out there and they
were prepared.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Think of Sons of Anarchy in Burbank style.
I think that takes us to ourlast one and that we talked
about briefly, and that wasYonans and that, of course, that
was there before Victor's Deli.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
Yep, and they were known for their coffee Yep and
people would leave there withtheir coffee cups because it had
Yonans on the front.
But again, when you went toYonans, you got that great
Martino's either pie or a teacake and made your coffee.
You didn't care how the coffeetasted.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
No, I think the great thing about it was it had great
traffic because it was alwayson the way to the airport.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
That's right.
That's why Hollywood Way is isa great.
Now you can't get in and out ofthat parking lot, but we did
skip over one that you and I hada question about and we tried
to look it up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Yankee peddler yeah, I could.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
I didn't bring it up because we couldn't find it well
, I'm going to do some researchon it because I do remember
burning down.
That was back in the late 70s,early 80s and over here on
Riverside Drive and I remembershooting pictures of it a
fireman going in the front doorand it burning down and we lost
that restaurant.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Yankee Peddler.
I remember I've heard the nameYankee Peddler, but when I
looked it up I couldn't find anymention about Yankee Peddler or
being in Burbank.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
So folks, take and help me out here, Give me your
stories of the Yankee Peddlerand where it was and if you
remember when we lost it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
Yes, well, if you were actually out there shooting
pictures, you should have thosepictures somewhere.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
You know what?
I just this week uncovered somepictures, black and whites,
from the 70s that I shot.
I mean I can't believe.
Um, some of the things that Icovered back back back way back
then and thank goodness you knowI don't have a dark room
anymore and I don't, I can'tlook through a loop.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Yeah, I don't have a dark room anymore, you mean?

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
yeah, you're right.
Yeah, the dark room that I usedfor years is in craig's
backyard.
Now it's a gymnasium, I thinkor something.
But I remember spending manynights out there.
I remember going to calls inthe middle of the night, three
in the morning.
I'd go into the dark room incraig's backyard and I deliver
pictures of the paper.
But these old pictures that Igot fire firemen didn't wear

(01:03:14):
turnout coats, firemen didn'twear breathing apparatuses.
You look at some of thesefiremen.
That how it's all changed.
But I've covered things in thiscity and one of them was well,
that's back.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
that's back in the day when firemen actually just
got on the back of the fireengine and held on.
There was no cab for them tosit in, that's right.
They just held on to the backof the thing, got on the
tailboard Right and when youwent over a bump they'd go
bumping up into the air.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
I talked to many guys that there were train tracks at
Olive and Lake and they'd endup on the hose bed because the
engineer knew when to hit thattrain track and you'd lose it.
But then the firemen weregetting hurt and killed because
they didn't put the strap on.
But because they didn't put thestrap on.
But that's back in the day.
I mean I found a picture of theold Rescue 5.
I mean back in the late 70s.

(01:03:59):
What Burbank fire has changedto, but the concept is all the
same Put the wet stuff on thered stuff and the fire will go
out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
That's what they say.
That's what they say Well, Ithink we got through it.
Well, I should say we gotthrough the second half of our
original list.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Can you believe, craig?
I went through after I lookedat our original list and I came
up with double the amount thatwe don't have written down here
in Burbank.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
That's why we have different parts that's right In
this series, and so we have atleast now a part three coming up
of the restaurants we missed,and that might even be a
two-parter, depending on howmany restaurants have been
missed and also how many emailswe get from you guys and
comments in the comment sectionson YouTube.
We would love to hear yourexperiences, your restaurants,

(01:04:50):
the ones we forgot, especiallyyour stories, the ones we forgot
, especially your stories.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
I bet you that we have some still people living
here in Burbank that when theywere after high school, served
as a waitress at some of theserestaurants and some of these
places that it was their firstjob.
Nowadays you get out of highschool, you're not going to
waitress, but it's still a goodjob.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Yeah, but I'm going to start paying them about $20
an hour now as of what was itthe first?

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
uh, yeah.
So restaurant wages havechanged and I'm sorry to say
that we I am afraid we're gonnasee some more restaurants added
to this list after this, for youknow, this quarter of this year
restaurant owners can't affordto be in the business I, I don't
.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
I don't know if we can keep up with our shows with
the amount of restaurantscontinuing to close, because
it's ever-changing.
And they say that's one of thehardest businesses to be in.
I would love to own arestaurant.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
I just read a quote.
I will quote Gary Brick.
Somebody just wrote about arestaurant and he said if you
don't own the dirt, you'reworking for somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
And he has said that many years he owned the dirt.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
That's just like renting an apartment or renting
a house You're paying somebodyelse's mortgage for somebody
else Yep, and the markup inrestaurants.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
You know unless you own the dirt.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
You know I watch these shows all the time.
You know the Gordon Ramsayshows, the Kitchen Nightmares
and the Irvin shows, the ones hedoes.
I can't remember RestaurantImpossible, and they talk about
how hard it is in the business.
And here's the thing that youdon't consider.

(01:06:32):
We have our favorite places andyou go in.
You know always.
You always know the person,especially when the owner's
there.
You know if you, we, go to um,to larry's, you know, that's
right.
We always know who's going tobe working.
Yep, he's always going to bethere.
But here that's the problem,though.
If you own a restaurant, youwant to be open any sort of time
.
You're going to be there 15hours a day, six, six or seven

(01:06:55):
days a week, and that's the onlyway you can actually make a
profit.
But what's the price you payfor that over?

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
a decade.
Well, my brother who ownedrestaurants here in California
and in Hawaii the hardest partpeople don't realize you don't
go on vacation, because when yougo on vacation and you have a
manager call you and tell youthe blender stopped or
something's not working orwhatever, somebody didn't
deliver us something.
You're working 24 hours a dayfor your life and I'll tell you

(01:07:27):
if for a restaurant owner, yougot to give them a lot of credit
and let's have some goodmanagement working for them.
I know some restaurants here inburbank that do.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Yeah.
And then you have to have goodemployees because all of a
sudden the waitress says oh okay, I'll just give it to you for
free.
I'll just give it to you.
Every time you say I'll give itto you for free, 66% of that
price came out of that owner'spocket.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
Well that, and I have a friend that owns a couple of
Mexican restaurants here inNorth Hollywood and we put
cameras in and he learned, yeah,one employee said, oh, we don't
have that today.
And he would go back and askthat employee what's this right
here in the fridge?
Well, I just don't want to makeit today.
That person goes and tells fiveother people that I don't want
to go there anymore.

(01:08:11):
So when you criticize arestaurant, for not having
something or something, takethat all in, you know for the
grain of salt.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Well, there's a lot of good restaurants out there.
Now there are.
We've lost a lot of greatrestaurants over the years and
favorites.
So, once again, if you got onewe missed or you want to share
something about one we talkedabout and have your own story,
send it to us, put it in thecomments section, send it to us
and we'll bring it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
But we have another part coming up of the
restaurants we missed and Iguarantee that is the reason
this show is called Down theRabbit Hole, because that hole
will be dug and dug and dug.
Thanks for watching.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Thank you much and we will talk.
See you on part three.
There you go.