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Just how many drug stores does L.A. need? The creeping urban plague of big superstores opening a few blocks from other big superstores is about to claim the mid-Valley landmark Chris' & Pitt's barbecue. And Erik Himmelsbach doesn't like it, summarizing his hurt this way: "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
His Valley Boy column in CityBeat rightfully notes that Dr. Hogly Wogly's Tyler Texas Barbecue on Sepulveda is still the king of Valley barbecue, but he adds:
The Pitt’s is “Home of the Live Wood Fire.” Hell, yeah, it is. It’s a rough-hewn roadhouse proudly lacking the effete affectation of today’s uptight trendoid chow palaces. It’s a Fred Flintstone scene, full of ravenous barbarians at the gates of hunger, anxious to gnaw on a rack. And you’re going to get messy. You finish your meal not with a cappuccino, but with a toothpick and multiple Wet-Naps in foil containers....Like I said, this hurts … another artery in the throughline of my life snapped without anesthesia. A historic landmark gutted for a goddamn chain drugstore. The news instantly turned me into a concerned member of the community. What is happening to my neighborhood? Valley Glen is going the way of Times Square!
Himmelsbach, incidentally, is the producer and writer of Centerfold Babylon now appearing on VH1.
Don't forget, the Pussycat Theater at the corner of Western and Sunset -- one of the area's last porn houses -- was recently torn down and will make way for a new shopping/housing complex. It will feature 56 affordable housing units... and a Walgreen's.
Posted by: Mike S. at October 16, 2003 03:56 PMI need many drug stores. I dont need as many dry cleaners or Starbucks. Probably too many video stores too.
Posted by: Justene at October 16, 2003 04:13 PMStarbucks Valley invasion continues unabated. A new one on Sherman Way just west of Sepulveda and two new ones in San Fernando. If you highlight them on a map and connect the dots, you get more fascinating shapes than a Rorscach Test. Freud would be more proud about that than the coffee. (They don't carry Sacher Torts).
Posted by: Jaime at October 16, 2003 04:34 PMHimmelsbach should purchase the Cris and Pitts and set it up as a historical monument...
Question? Why is the property sold? Lack of business? Owner is old and wants to retire/no one wants to buy his business? Building is on leased land and the property owner got a better deal?
Whatever the reason if you want the Walgreens out then simply encourage everyone in your city to not go there. Lack of business will shut the doors and then an enterprising entrepreneur can open a barbeque place.
Posted by: Rick Yung at October 17, 2003 02:21 AMWhoa, look out everyone! Here comes the Libertarian Brigade, with its keen collective sense of what life is like in the real world.
Rick Yung? Your suggestion is nuts? But question? About "enterprising entrepreneur?" Is that like "lawyerly attorney?" Or "medical physician?" Or "equine horse?" Or "zoned-out wacko?"
Posted by: expat at October 17, 2003 07:19 PM
of LA Observed
Ah, shoot. Chris' & Pitt's may not have had the best barbecue, but it was, I don't know, rickety/funky/homey. And now we're getting a Walgreens, which will be about a half mile from a Sav-On. Modern capitalism offers so many choices!
Posted by: Henry Sheehan at October 16, 2003 03:38 PM