On 12/11/2011 3:26 PM, Tommy Joe wrote:
>
> 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.


The hole-in-the-wall places are great because there's not a whole bunch
of expectations, the customers want hot food, served fast, with decent
quality and a fair or better than fair price. The owners want happy,
paying customers who are not going to hassle the staff. What could be
simpler?

>
> 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

The image burned into my memory of the owner is of a guy that's behind
the counter with one hand under his chin dreaming about the future - or
was he really thinking about the past? Or maybe it was of Hong Kong.
Anyway, it was a pretty wistful image. I wonder what he's doing now...

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