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Street FoodWhat is street food? Street food is good food that's not fancy. It's a great meal you can order quickly, yet without feeling like you're supposed to leave fast. It's food the locals usually know about--food that you don't feel strange eating by yourself, but are always glad to reveal to a special friend. Street food costs less than $10 per person. You order it at the counter, or at least pay for it there.
Pink's in Hollywoodby G. S. MoreyPink's sixty-three-year tradition makes it one of the most revered restaurant dives in the city. Based on classic American ball-game fare, Pink's robust menu of hot dogs, burgers, and fries twists the concept beyond the pale of decent God-fearing concession stands. I sometimes tease my vegetarian boyfriend by inviting him to come with me "since there is no real meat on the menu." Not true, of course. Pink's all-beef Hoffy brand hot dogs and spicy polish dogs are universally hailed as the "best in L.A." by locals and "decent" by New Yorkers (high praise, indeed!). Described as being juicy and having a good snap, these solid sausages can be tastefully dressed with the ketchup, mustard, relish, etc.
I offer second-hand reports on the ketchup issue because when I am at Pink's, I can't be bothered by a hot dog with ketchup. That I can do at home. No, I go to Pink's for the chili. It's what the sign says, after all: "Pink's Chili Dogs." Their chili is a dense concentration of pure savory with a bit of tang. Molto Buono! Too much of a good thing is rarely better. On the other hand, photographer John Sexton is reported to have said, "How do you know if you've gone far enough, if you haven't gone too far first?" "Too far" at Pink's begins at the Poli-Bacon Cheese Burger. A cheeseburger with a split grilled polish sausage and a couple slices of bacon, it's smothered with chili and dressed with lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, and onions. Oh, and don't forget an order of chili cheese fries...just keep your cell phone's 911 preset handy. Should you ignore the sharp pains in your chest afterwards, you may wish to take the next step: The Poli-Bacon Burrito Dog +1, which is a large flour tortilla wrapped around two polish sausages, two slices of cheese, three strips of bacon, and chopped onions, and choked with chili. Then there's its more healthful cousin, the Chili Cheese Chicken Burrito, which takes the form of a large flour tortilla wrapped around two chicken breasts, lettuce, tomato, two slices of cheese, chili, and onions...guacamole and sour cream extra. The object here is not necessarily to be able to walk away from Pink's as merely to survive the encounter. And, somehow, your odds are increased by including one of their magic elixirs with your meal: Orange Crush, Mr. Pib, Jones, or Dr. Browns. The brainchild of Betty Pink and her husband Paul started with a push cart purchased with a $50 loan Betty got from her mother. She later decided to purchase their current location off the then-unpaved Melrose Avenue. Ms. Pink passed away recently but is survived by her husband, her children, and her original chili recipe still in use today.
The restaurant's street-front presence is entirely open to the sidewalk. You queue up and order at the front, walk around to the side to pay and collect your grub, find an open space in the small back patio, and commence degustation. If you bother to look up at your fellow feasters during the day you'll find every sort of local, from dealmakers, to actor-waiters, to work-a-days, to work-a-nights. At night you'll find movie goers, movie makers, and post party punks. So, for a piece of Los Angeles, do what my expatriate brother does on his annual homecoming from Japan: Visit Pink's. (Altoids not included.)
Pink's Note: As it turns out, I can bring my vegetarian boyfriend to Pink's after all, because, according to reader Anna Sampson, Pink's offers both a vegetarian and a vegan alternative to their all-beef Hoffys. When I asked her what she thought of these alt-dogs, she was enthusiastic. "They are absolutely delicious," wrote Ms. Sampson. "And virtually fat free." Still, I'm not sure I'd want my boyfriend to see me hunched over a dripping chili dog like a leopard over her kill. A woman should have her secrets, after all.... Article & photos by G. S. Morey
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If you have ever seen a crude-oil spill reach the coast, then you'll recognize the appearance of this odd brown slurry, but once placed on the aforementioned juicy dogs with good snap, it creates a culinary fugue that's music in your mouth.
In the new millenium's Los Angeles, Pink's inhabits the corner of LaBrea near Melrose, in a strange neutral zone where upwardly mobile West Hollywood meets street-level East Hollywood. These two forces form a riptide that churns and mixes like ol' Betty's chili pot. This, in turn, attracts throngs of hungry Angelenos from miles around.