On Dec 11, 12:36 am, dsi1 > wrote:

> Sounds like my kind of place - barbecue joints are good. There was one
> down the street but that closed down recently because they lost their
> lease. The owner had a repair shop next door and it seems that his wife
> might have killed herself and then tried to set her car on fire while it
> was parked in the shop. There was something strange about that so I
> suppose closing down and moving out was all for the best.
>
> Small menus are good. The hole-in-the-wall Chinese/burger/plate lunch
> place down the street which has been closed for about a year had a
> pretty extensive menu. I once counted 25 separate menus hanging around
> the walls of the building and behind the counter. I have no explanation
> as to how that happened. The had puzzling items like "Italy Fried Won
> Ton Spaghetti" in addition to local plate lunch items like beef stew and
> hamburger steak and hamburger sandwiches and teri-beef sandwiches. My
> guess is that it's the only place on this planet where you can get a
> slice of pizza with Chinese roast pork and macaroni salad.
>
> The owner would always complain to me about business and tell me of his
> plans to build an office building on the very small property. The guy
> was Chinese with a heavy accent so I might have told him that I'd rent
> office space from him when he builds what could only be an impossibly
> small but tall and scary building. If he actually comes through with
> this, it's going to be embarrassing as heck!
>
> Anyway, long story short, that spot would be about the right size for
> for a burger-kiosk.


Burger-kiosk, lol. When I lived in Hollywood Ca there were quite a
few really inexpensive Thai restaurants around, some of which stayed
open till 4am. There was one spot, the first one I was referred to,
called Thai Spicy Chicken. They had tables if you wanted to use them,
but there were no waiters, just an ordering counter. It moved. A big
line but it moved fast. They had more than just chicken but that was
the main draw. I think that's why the line moved fast. "Assembly
Burger", lol.

Anyway, this joint closed down one day for interior changes that
took about half a year. When they reopened there were linens on the
tables and waiters in place of the fast moving counter service. I ate
there after the change, only once, and for me it could not compare in
any favorable way to what was there before the change. Now of course
I know the people who ran the place are in the job of trying to make
money, and maybe they needed some kind of change. I don't know. Or
maybe they sold it to someone else. Anyway, amazingly enough - can't
speak for now, but more like 20 years ago - there were quite a few
really inexpensive Thai restaurants in Hollywood because they had
their own Thai community there.

Your comments on the owner with the skinny space looking to grow
his business vertically was funny. Maybe the world needs people who
are driven. Maybe the driven drive us. But I still think it's funny
and sad at the same time to watch driven people work work work to get
more only to throw it back into bigger and bigger ventures that cause
bigger and bigger headaches, for most of them anyway. I'm not the
driven type. I'm the type who wants to hit the lottery but doesn't
want to buy the ticket. Maybe the driven lunatic business owner is
ultimately a more generous human being than me as all I want to do is
relax and live with the great advantages generations of hard workers
have given us with their many sacrifices.

TJ