Let’s Talk Real Issues in Downtown … Fast Food?

So my elected representative on the city council is Jan Perry and I live in the 9th district. Various downtown blogs I follow have mentioned her by name and I figured she was the councilperson in our area but this morning I checked the riding and confirmed she is the shot caller in downtown.

When I pulled up a map to check out just how big the riding was I couldn’t believe the area covered, it’s massive!

I can only imagine the challenges she faces in her duties; developing social programs for those in need, economic development of her district, and the formation of public policy. Lots of heavy stuff, right?

Well apparently one of the big pressing issues Ms. Perry feels the need to tackle is what I eat and where I eat it.

You see yesterday an LA city council committee, led my councilwoman Perry, approved an ordinance that would ban the establishment of ‘fast food’ restaurants within a 32-mile radius. You can check out more on the issue here, here, and here.

I understand the theory behind the Ms. Perry’s movement - she would like to see additional affordable food options for certain areas of Los Angeles, particularly those at a socio-economic disadvantage. I get it, I really do. These areas traditionally do not have a large number of supermarkets and residents are eating unhealthy. But what kind of food choices do you hope to bring in? Will people in those areas be able to afford them?

The impact on me personally is two fold. One, I have been dying for Wendy’s since arriving out here and there isn’t one in downtown Los Angeles nor does it appear one will exist any time soon. Secondly, should government be telling me what I can eat in my neighborhood and when?

I like fast food as much as the next guy, and yes I know it isn’t all that good for me. But you know what? Neither are the creamy mashed potatoes I get at a fancy sit-down restaurant. While I don’t want my neighborhood to be littered with fast food options I certainly don’t want to live in a place where dinner will cost me $100 any time I want to eat out. Also, what kind of business constitutes fast food? Is ice-cream in the ban because it isn’t good for you?

Exaggerating? Sure I am, to a degree. But at the same time are there not more pressing issues for the city to throw their weight at than this?

I could spend the rest of the day listing issues that need more attention than hamburgers, fries and Coke. The homeless issue downtown is not going away on its own, so what is being done to tackle this issue head on in a real-time, real-life basis? Why does it take months on end for new businesses to get the permits and certifications required? They city is tough on jaywalkers, easy on public urination and indecent exposure.

I mentioned a few weeks ago who should be running this city if you want action; I mean real life in your face action.

Parking enforcement. Nobody works harder, seven days a week to get things done. If the city was run with the dedication and no-nonsense attitude of these people you would be looking at a world-class city.

Chicago Style Pizza in Beverly Hills

On Friday night we were invited out with some of H’s colleagues to a restaurant in Beverly Hills. I am not going to name the establishment in question simply because it could draw too straight of a line between H’s place of employment and this blog.

The place wasn’t far away, maybe 10 miles but of course it took a little over an hour to get there. We knew better than to hop on the highway after seeing the traffic when we crossed over on Wilshire so we continued to make our way down the only super-main-street we know here in LA. Traffic was terrible and mostly caused by people wanting to cross over three lanes of traffic and make a turn all within 30 feet of the corner, but that is another story.

I knew some if not most of the tab was going to be picked up but I wanted money in our pocket so we were on the hunt for a bank. We are now with Bank of America since Chase doesn’t exist out here (and we are so disappointed about that). Apparently here in Los Angeles the concept of drive-thru ATMs has not caught on since we never passed one during our ten mile journey. Every single Bank of America was on the ground floor of a large building and therefore not easily accessible. Why are there no drive-thru banks?

So we get to the place, sit down and chit chat, order a few drinks and everything is fine. Well the restaurant is a pizza place and really the only reason I was okay going since (a) I am a super picky eater and (b) I love me some pizza.

Jump back a few hours earlier when I am checking the place out on the web and they are advertising their well-received ‘flat pizza’. I didn’t know what it meant either but the pictures did the talking. The dough is wafer thin to the point where it doesn’t look like dough; it looked more like corrugated cardboard. And the toppings? All green stuff and all piled as high as you could get it, not really cooked into the dough.

Luckily the advertised Chicago style deep dish so I was saved. Not really …

A few of us ordered a pepperoni deep dish and I was really looking forward to it since I hadn’t eaten all day. The tray arrived and the entire thing was, well, not very big. The pieces were pretty small and I don’t think it fed more than two people really. Now correct me if I am wrong but generally a pizza has some sort of tomato paste - a liquid form of tomatoes that makes everything come together. Nope, not here. On this pizza they took a bunch of tomatoes, shaved them down and threw them on top. To make matters worse there wasn’t very much cheese.

Perhaps some people like their pizza like that here. The other people we were with seemed like enjoy it. But when I think Chicago style pizza I conjure up images of deep, thick pizza smothered with cheese. Big and thick enough that you can only eat two, maybe three pieces before you tap out.

The disappointment was most likely my own since I know real Chicago style pizza from Lou Malnatis, Stefanos, Duo, Giordano’s, and many other local establishments.

There should be some sort of test before you can advertise and sell Chicago style deep dish pizza.

Oh yeah, stopped at McDonald’s on the way home for the rest of my dinner. H too …

Satruday Night Grocery Shopping

For some reason we decided at 9:15 p.m. on a Saturday night we needed groceries. H and I grabbed our little tote box thing with wheels and our recyclable bags and we went around the corner.

The whole experience took an hour for a few reasons:

1. Any time you want something from the deli counter you need to set aside at least 20 minutes of your life you won’t be getting back.
2. H likes to shop, even for groceries. So when it comes time to picking ground beef it is a 10 minute ordeal as each and every package is compared to one another.

But it isn’t our shopping habits that caused me to write on this Sunday morning but rather two things we saw at Ralph’s. Now remember, we are just grocery shopping here - something millions of people do each day all around the world. But of course in downtown LA it’s a little different.

• Two women dressed in Victorian dresses. They were both really long with buttons all the way up the back. One of the garments was an ivory color and the other was black - both were see-through. Neither woman was wearing a bra and it was quite obvious. They raced around a section of the store we were close to shouting out things like “I found the cheese! The cheese! It’s over here, I found it!”. The other would join with their cart of miss-mashed items and begin to hold different cheeses and speak loudly about what they should buy. They moved at a fast pace and reckless abandon in their trampy old-school period dresses, shouting throughout the store about what they needed next.
• As we are standing at the deli counter, a guy and girl enter the store. They are dressed normal enough, just walking around with a hand-held basket instead of a cart. Nothing out of the ordinary except for the hula-hoop she has with her. The hula-hoop is around her neck, hanging down at her side as they walk over to the deli counter and chit-chat. H and I are talking and getting our 1/2 lb. of deli meat as the woman wants to move up and down the display case to see what is available, but she can’t get where she wants because the hula-hoop is sticking out and might hit someone. At no time did she drop it to her waist and start ‘hula-hooping’ which at least would have been entertaining. Instead we same them a few more times at the store, picking up a thing here and there, all the while with the hula-hoop dangling from her neck.

So to recap for everyone what you see in the grocery store on a typical day here: Victoria slutty girls discovering cheese and crackers for the first time this century; girl wearing a hula-hoop and she browses the aisles and reads magazines at the checkout.

You never disappoint in the long run downtown LA, never.

Weekend Roundup - Carter’s Upset Stomach

Sorry for the lack of weekend posts - it got to the point where I figured I would just wrap things up with a single post here on Monday morning. Here is a look at what went down this weekend for Carter, H and I …

• Friday night was spent in the condo as we ordered in food and watched the last few episodes of 30 Rock on DVD. I have seen the entire season before but H has been making her way through it over the last month or so.
• Saturday morning we got up and headed to Long Beach. If you recall there is an Irish pub there we stumbled upon last month. The food was good and cheap so we thought we would check it out again. Unfortunately they changed some things, namely added spices. H’s salad had a little kick to it and my fries were terrible. Last time we were there the fries were just regular old french fries, cooked well and just the way I like them. This time around they added some kind of spice to the top of them and it was very disappointing. From there we walked around Long Beach again, the water front specifically. Saw another sea lion hanging out, this time a pigeon was trying to egg him on but he wasn’t having it. On the way home we stopped in Ikea and walked around, getting a couple ideas for our living area. A quick stopp in Target yielded some canned goods, bread and a few other things we needed. Came home to eat leftovers from the previous night and watch a disappointing hockey game.
• Sunday we got up and headed to Home Depot. There is a wall in our unit the owner said he would paint a different color if we wanted. Originally there was some mis-communication about that and it never was done. Things are cleared up now and we picked up a few color samples to try and gauge what would look decent. This was also our chance to check out Food 4 Less and we were quite disappointed (more in another post). Came home and grabbed Carter to go out and see the new and improved neighborhood flea market. Disappointed (again, will write more later). Came home to have Carter acting weird which prompted us taking him outside. On the way he threw up and had an accident out of the other end as well. We are pretty sure this is a result of two eggs he ate on Saturday and since then he is doing fine. H made him some beef and rice which he loves - I wonder if he gets sick on purpose just to get the meals changed up (jk). Hung out the rest of the day, watching television before I decided to clean most of the condo.

So that’s that! Nothing really exciting to be honest but nothing bad happened either. Later today I will share my thoughts with groceries here in downtown Los Angeles and the revamped flea market we took in.

50 Mile Round Trip for Lunch

This past Saturday H had an event to attend to until the early afternoon. Little did she know upon her return home that a decision had already been made, a really important decision that usually drives each and every Saturday. Where are we going to have lunch.

I wanted something down right good, something familiar that I would enjoy immensely. So I took to the Internet and confirmed a news story I recall reading back in 2005. That’s right, I reached back to 2005 to satisfy my hunger on Saturday.

Portillo’s.

Known throughout the Chicagoland area for their Italian beef and hot dogs, I recall an article a few years ago nothing that the company was heading to California to open a store or two. I quickly found their web site and noticed two location. One of them was nowhere close to us but the other was in Buena Park which is about 25 miles away.

I began visiting Portillo’s 7 or 8 years ago when H and I began dating. I don’t think I made a trip to Chicago without having at least one meal there. In 2002 when I moved to the area, Portillo’s was eaten at least twice a week. I just loved the fries, the hotdogs and the beef. And if you wanted to make yourself sick you got a chocolate milk shake on top of that.

When we moved into downtown Chicago we often would spend a weekend afternoon in the loop and would make the downtown Portillo’s our stop for lunch. We would hop on the 147 or 151 and get off at the front door. I can still remember the drive through lines running out of the alley and down the street, morning, noon or night.

So H wasn’t big on heading there for lunch namely because they don’t have a Barnelli’s or Barney’s in this location. But she noticed that my tongue was dragging across the floor with the prospect of eating a real hot dog so we got in the car and went.

Of course traffic was terrible - it is amazing that anyone goes anywhere here considering the headache of it all.

It was your typical Portillo’s - prohibition theme and setup the same way. Where Barnelli’s would usually be is a giant salad bar that we saw nobody eat from the entire time we were there.

H seemed to enjoy her first Italian beef which was a good sign. As for me, it was a jumbo with mustard and ketchup, large fries and large Coke.

It was so nice to eat something good and familiar. Apparently the hot dogs, buns and beef are flown in from Chicago to ensure their authenticity.

I have to admit that we will most likely be making the trip from time to time as it was one of the best lunches I have had since being here.

Finally a Good Meal, and a Few Other Things

What a busy weekend! I had intentions of cleaning our place at some point but that never materialized so today is the day to take on that task.

We woke up on Saturday and decided to take Carter to our new favourite dog park in Pasadena. He had a great time there a week or so ago … He was so excited to get in and run around that he couldn’t figure out the door at the entrance to the park. When he finally was let in he ran and ran like he loves to do. It’s good for him to get out and get some exercise. It was kind of warm outside and after a half-hour or so he got a little aggressive, something he only does when he is really hot and bothered. So we put him back in the car and took him to get a bath.

I don’t think there are many dogs that enjoy getting a bath and I completely understand. However, Carter is a pain in the ass when it comes to getting a good cleaning. It takes one person to hold him in place and the other one to do the dirty work. We went back to a local establishment that offers all the bathing services you need: tub, water, brushes, soap, towels, ect. It is a good setup because it would be difficult to bathe him properly in our tub now that we have shower doors. The process was great except for one thing: I think the nameless establishment we took him too watered down their soap. It wasn’t like that last time and you can just tell when something is watered down. Thrown on top is the guy trying to get us to buy some ‘fancier’ soap as soon as we walked in the door and I have a sense of what was going on.

Dropped Carter off at home thinking the day is done but H decided she wanted to check out a market. I still don’t know where we went, the GPS took us there but apparently it is famous and right next to a well known mall. By the time we got home it was six or so an no cleaning was going to be done.

Fast forward to yesterday when H decides that we should go and check out the closest Nordstrom Rack. So we make our was to Glendale (not close - nothing is) and the store was, well, just different then other ones. There wasn’t a lot of organization and they only had two people at the check out. We also poked our head inside Ross and weren’t impressed but we did buy hangers there.

Off to Burbank where we finally ate Taste Chicago and let me tell you, it was worth the wait. It was Chicago food at LA prices though. Italian beef, tuna sandwich, fries and two drinks ran us $25. The beef was excellent and H said her sandwich was very good. I left stating that it was the best meal I had since moving to LA.

Stopped to get the car washed, only to discover that the a bird had pooped on our car at some point and now we have a stain on the hood. That is what we get for only driving once a week in LA apparently. Not quite sure what we are going to do about that. Anyhow, back to the city but no time to rest. Up the street to watch them film Numb3rs (we love that show). Hung out for an hour or so and noticed there is a lot of standing around in ‘Hollywood’. Two stars of the show cracked jokes and ate the entire time we were there, they didn’t even act. But it was cool none the less.

On the way home we ran into Macy’s to buy some towels with our gift card.

Finally back at our place around 5:30 p.m.

Apparently I am cleaning today.