Out in the strange region of the Valley known as Toluca Lake is a decent selection of restaurants for working-class folk like myself. Filling the role of Italian Deli is a place called Tony’s, which is a tiny little sandwich shop that also happens to offer a couple easy-to-serve-at-sandwich-shops-but-not-actual-sandwich items like lasagna. Most of their sandwiches come with an array of unvegan horrors like lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions, but one did not. This was the way of the unvegan.

And the sandwich choice was the Meat Ball and/or Sausage. The “and/or” part of the sandwich got be excited and I ordered the large size ($7.95) with the “and.” It took some time to prepare, which is never a problem for me because I like to know that it wasn’t prepared in some anonymous sandwich assembly line. When it was finally finished, I paid up and went to work on eating.

The first thing I noticed upon opened it up was the lack of anything resembling sausage. This made me sad, but fortunately the meatballs were good enough to carry the sandwich on its own. And boy was this sandwich loaded, with some meatballs even side-by-side instead of arranged in a neat little row like Subway likes to do. Plus, the meatballs were really tasty, juicy and beefy. There was just the right amount of marinara (which was good, but nothing amazing) and mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. The roll was good, but I would have liked the crust to give me a bit of crunch before giving way to a soft inside. If you’re looking for some soft bread, this will do, but perhaps I am spoiled by Bay Cities and expect a little more.

Tony’s is definitely a good place to grab a bite if you’re in Toluca Lake and want a sandwich, but it’s not exactly a destination.

In secret corners of Los Angeles, there are places that just scream, “Old Hollywood.” You know, the Hollywood before organic Whole Foods soy milk took over, when hot dogs were chock-full of nitrates and the only conceivable burger was of the “ham” variety. Vestiges of this near-forgotten time still exist, as proven by Irv’s Burgers, which I visited a few months ago. But Irv’s is not alone, as I recently discovered a similarly classic-looking place called Papoo’s Hot Dog Show in Toluca Lake.

Papoo’s opened back in 1949, eight years before the Dodgers arrived, and while the future of the Dodgers is in question, Papoo’s seemed to be kicking it old school just fine. At least on the outside. On the inside, things were thrown a bit into question. I was grabbing lunch with a coworker and we wanted to sit down, but couldn’t find a clean table. After wandering around awkwardly for a few minutes, one of the women behind the counter of this low-ceilinged building told us the bus boy was out, but she would clean the table for us. After another couple minutes, we took our seats and a look at the menu.

This menu was reminiscent of a greasy spoon, but with a heavy emphasis on hamburgers and hot dogs. In fact, despite having hot dog in the name, burgers came first on the menu. Yet, I needed me some hot dog and quickly found the ABC Dog. The A-B-C in the name stood for avocado, bacon and cheese – three delicious ingredients that pretty much go well with everything. Except chocolate. I don’t want avocado chocolate. What I did want was some fries and baked beans with my meal to make it a platter. Although they had beers on tap, I avoided such delights in order to prevent what would surely be a food-and-beer-induced coma.

The hot dogs were 1/4 pound, all-beef and offered boiled, grilled or ripped (deep fried). I was told grilled was the way to go, so I ordered away and waited a surprising 10 minutes for my hot dog. But when it arrived, it looked monstrously beautiful. Loaded and overflowing with toppings, Papoo’s didn’t skimp on anything. I’m actually pretty sure they used an entire avocado. The cheese was as American as Papoo’s, which is what I really hoped for in a place like this, and the mass of bacon was nearly equal to the mass of the hot dog itself.

When I bit in, I could taste what life was like back when Papoo’s first started serving the Hollywood regulars of the Burbank studios. The simple, yet delicious ingredients blended together perfectly and offered neither more nor less than I expected. The dog had a great snap to it and the bacon was cooked to a perfect crisp. The avocado was surprisingly fresh and cheese was exactly what you would expect from American. The only thing that really let me down was the fortitude of the bun, which split down the seam midway through my hot dog feast. Sure, the bun had been given a hefty charge, but I couldn’t help but think a little steam could have kept the bun strong.

Ultimately, it matters little what I thought of Papoo’s Hot Dog Show, because while researching this post, I have learned that Papoo’s closed their doors for good on Sunday. Yes, mere days after I ate my first meal there. According to the LA Times, the owner simply couldn’t give the place the attention it deserved. It’s a damn shame, too, because while Papoo’s wasn’t the best hot dog I ever had, it was still pretty good. Fortunately, serendipity brought me to Papoo’s before it shuttered, but it is still a shame to see another icon of old Hollywood disappear. Whatever ultimately takes residence in that corner in Toluca Lake will surely not have the character than Papoo’s brought and I’m willing to bet their hot dogs won’t compare.

In the continuing story of trying to find new and interesting food in the Valley, a coworker suggested trying out a place called Summer Canteen. Not knowing what sort of food a place named Summer Canteen would have, I opened up the menu online to find that it served none other than Thai. Wait, Thai? Really? I thought the rule of Thai restaurant naming was that it had to have “Thai” in its name (Thai Boom, Thai Smile, Natalee Thai, etc.) or use words from the Thai language (Jitlada). Summer Canteen broke these two rules, and would go on to break one more.

You see, the other cardinal rule of Thai restaurants is to offer crazy cheap lunch specials. Summer Canteen had lunch specials, alright, but they weren’t crazy cheap. In fact, their Massaman Lamb Lunch Set ran for 12 whole bucks. It was frightening, but I still needed a lunch, so I ordered the Panang Beef. It came with soup or salad, and since both were vegetable-based, I ordered the salad just to try the peanut sauce (which was delicious, if only it had not been on lettuce). Then, given a choice between white and brown rice I chose the brown.

The service was pretty fast, and my food was soon presented to me. Most would have looked at the presentation and seen something beautiful. I, however, could not take my eyes off the giant bok choy sitting on top of all my food. Fortunately, this giant green disaster left no remnants as I moved it to the edge of the plate to eat my real food. First, I ate the spring roll, which was pretty tasty, but nothing mind-blowing. After destroying that in two bites, I moved to the main course. Differing from most beef curry I’ve had before, the beef chunks were stew-sized and pretty much the most tender beef I’ve had in my life. And it wasn’t just tender, it also had great flavor from the panang curry. Mildly spicy, the panang didn’t force me to my glass of water, but still let me know my spice buds were still on my tongue.

The rice was way brown and way thick. But it was also really tasty, especially combined with the panang curry. And this brings me to my only real non-vegetable problem with Summer Canteen: not enough curry. I didn’t need my dish to drown in the stuff, but at 9 bucks for a lunch set, I would have liked enough to spread comfortably between the rice and beef. Sadly, this was not the case.

Yet, despite the problems of salad, bok choy and short curry, my meal at Summer Canteen was pretty awesome. The curry was tasty, the beef even tastier andin the end the $9 lunch set did not feel like a rip off because I was full and my taste buds were happy. It looks like the Valley has one more restaurant to brag about.