By Larry Wilson
In Pasadena dining, what’s in a name?
The good players of this great new game played on Facebook and elsewhere, “You know you’re old-school Pasadena (Pacoima, Poughkeepsie, wherever) when …” are particularly adept at keeping the cyber conversation going by recalling at length what businesses used to be in buildings now housing other businesses.
Since restaurants turn over more often than most, it’s almost always restaurants that are named.
I may be old-school Pasadena, but I am relatively terrible at remembering the former tenants of restaurant spaces I frequent now, even when I used to frequent its predecessors as well.
Oh, yeah, I know that Louise’s Trattoria started as the Rite Spot — well, became that at the corner of Fair Oaks and Colorado in the ‘80s — and that Kenton Nelson’s great moneybags-at-City Hall mural that graced it is presumably still behind the drywall.
I can tell you that Smitty’s on South Lake was misguided Asian fusion before the smart Smith Bros. went all-American, and even that it was Greg and Bob themselves who conceived of the Asian place and then pulled the wool over a reporter’s eyes when they told him what a wacky idea “someone” had had with that fusion thing. But what was the Asian called? Dux, maybe? And what was it after it was Monahan’s forever? You recall. I don’t.
Sure, having been here, I could show you where Blum’s was on South Lake, and the Stuft Shirt, and La Couronne, and the Chronicle, which then was Joachim’s Pinot at the Chronicle, and then J. Lo’s. But I can stand there on De Lacey in Old Pasadena and stare at that place that at one time was the Union Cattle Co. with its mechanical bull and not be able to name a single one of the half-dozen other restaurants that tried and failed in the barn-like location. Actually, it’s a gym-like location. ‘Cause I can definitely recall when it was the ritzy, bright-red Brignole’s Fitness in the ‘80s, before the popular owner Doug got arrested in the steroid thing. That was a story I covered, and I remember those.
Or the Raymond and Green joint that’s now redwhite + bluezz? Mmm, Spencer’s, with the Chronicle staff after Lud’s place closed. And Funnies. And Patrick Gruest’s Fleur de Vin, which name Patrick changed while he still ran it, for reincorporation reasons, though I can’t say to what. But I know there were others. And I just can’t recall.
I can still be shocked. I can get attached to a name that I will never forget. Driving by Rick’s Tacos on Walnut last week, looking like it has for 50 years, only the neon sign said … Bobby’s. I was flummoxed. Whither the Spuderito? Happily, the restaurant-frequenter these days has only to go to Yelp to be reassured that Bobby, the longtime manager, has taken over but won’t change the menu a whit.
Forget the nomenclature, you say. Where can a person get a good bite to eat in town these days? you ask. Unlike the King of All Hash Houses, Jonathan Gold, who even going under the knife would only tell his surgeon about one place — Sumi’s Europane — I say it ain’t so.
Eat at Noir, on Mentor, because Claude and Mike are the best fine food-and-wine combo in town (the cheese, the charcuterie, the scallops!)
Eat at Cafe Verde on Green, tiny undiscovered gem, a treat.
Sushi and sake at Japon Bistro.
Norma’s Tacos in the converted gas station down Green by PCC: barbacoa genius.
Robert Simon’s new a/k/a bistro in One Colorado for the squid, the chorizo mussels, the impeccable service and wine list.
Parkway, sure, better than ever.
But I still need to get in the Smith Bros.’ Cheval Blanc Bistro in Old Pas, if only to not remember: What were the 27 names it was known by before?
- Larry Wilson is public editor of the Pasadena Star-News and the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group.
In Pasadena dining, what’s in a name?
The good players of this great new game played on Facebook and elsewhere, “You know you’re old-school Pasadena (Pacoima, Poughkeepsie, wherever) when …” are particularly adept at keeping the cyber conversation going by recalling at length what businesses used to be in buildings now housing other businesses.
Since restaurants turn over more often than most, it’s almost always restaurants that are named.
I may be old-school Pasadena, but I am relatively terrible at remembering the former tenants of restaurant spaces I frequent now, even when I used to frequent its predecessors as well.
Oh, yeah, I know that Louise’s Trattoria started as the Rite Spot — well, became that at the corner of Fair Oaks and Colorado in the ‘80s — and that Kenton Nelson’s great moneybags-at-City Hall mural that graced it is presumably still behind the drywall.
I can tell you that Smitty’s on South Lake was misguided Asian fusion before the smart Smith Bros. went all-American, and even that it was Greg and Bob themselves who conceived of the Asian place and then pulled the wool over a reporter’s eyes when they told him what a wacky idea “someone” had had with that fusion thing. But what was the Asian called? Dux, maybe? And what was it after it was Monahan’s forever? You recall. I don’t.
Sure, having been here, I could show you where Blum’s was on South Lake, and the Stuft Shirt, and La Couronne, and the Chronicle, which then was Joachim’s Pinot at the Chronicle, and then J. Lo’s. But I can stand there on De Lacey in Old Pasadena and stare at that place that at one time was the Union Cattle Co. with its mechanical bull and not be able to name a single one of the half-dozen other restaurants that tried and failed in the barn-like location. Actually, it’s a gym-like location. ‘Cause I can definitely recall when it was the ritzy, bright-red Brignole’s Fitness in the ‘80s, before the popular owner Doug got arrested in the steroid thing. That was a story I covered, and I remember those.
Or the Raymond and Green joint that’s now redwhite + bluezz? Mmm, Spencer’s, with the Chronicle staff after Lud’s place closed. And Funnies. And Patrick Gruest’s Fleur de Vin, which name Patrick changed while he still ran it, for reincorporation reasons, though I can’t say to what. But I know there were others. And I just can’t recall.
I can still be shocked. I can get attached to a name that I will never forget. Driving by Rick’s Tacos on Walnut last week, looking like it has for 50 years, only the neon sign said … Bobby’s. I was flummoxed. Whither the Spuderito? Happily, the restaurant-frequenter these days has only to go to Yelp to be reassured that Bobby, the longtime manager, has taken over but won’t change the menu a whit.
Forget the nomenclature, you say. Where can a person get a good bite to eat in town these days? you ask. Unlike the King of All Hash Houses, Jonathan Gold, who even going under the knife would only tell his surgeon about one place — Sumi’s Europane — I say it ain’t so.
Eat at Noir, on Mentor, because Claude and Mike are the best fine food-and-wine combo in town (the cheese, the charcuterie, the scallops!)
Eat at Cafe Verde on Green, tiny undiscovered gem, a treat.
Sushi and sake at Japon Bistro.
Norma’s Tacos in the converted gas station down Green by PCC: barbacoa genius.
Robert Simon’s new a/k/a bistro in One Colorado for the squid, the chorizo mussels, the impeccable service and wine list.
Parkway, sure, better than ever.
But I still need to get in the Smith Bros.’ Cheval Blanc Bistro in Old Pas, if only to not remember: What were the 27 names it was known by before?
- Larry Wilson is public editor of the Pasadena Star-News and the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group.
