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.