Beeps

Beeps from Diana Tran on Vimeo.

On the corner of Woodley Avenue and Sherman Way, a bright pink covered building still stands as it had some 50 years ago. Beeps, which was built in 1957, has been offering the San Fernando Valley hamburgers, hot dogs, sundaes and much more to regulars whose continued support has kept the establishment flourishing.

The most popular items have been consistent throughout the years.

‘The most popular item is the steak sandwhich,” said Josephine Rowley, current owner of Beeps. “Steak, pastrami, chicken, in that order.”

Customers come here relying on old favorites and reminisce of childhood outings to Beeps with their families.

“We get [about] 90 percent regulars,” said Rowley. “Three times a week, like clockwork.”

Regulars like Michael Jovanosa has been coming to Beeps for the last 22 years.

“I’ve always enjoyed coming here, people are always good and the food is great,” said Jovanosa. “I like it; it’s a good hole in the wall.”

The décor is unmistakably 50s, which, up until a few months ago, were original relics of a time where the valley was drastically different from today. Rowley has owned Beeps for the last 20 years, and seeing the changing community she felt the restaurant needed an update.

“About nine months ago we switched everything,” Rowley said. “We had the original photographs up there and they were really old, they looked tacky and faded so we kind of revamped it a little bit.”

The building has not changed much aside from the addition of new photographs and 50s paraphernalia that adorns the walls. However, in 1971 the back of the building was bombed and had to be remodeled.

“There was a liquor store next door and it was trying to get out of escrow,” said Rowley. “So they bombed it.”

Each customer has their own favorites, like William Bilchik, who has been coming back to Beeps for the last 15 years to satiate his cravings for fish fry.

“Fish and chips and fries [are favorites],” Bilchik said. “The nights here are nice and quiet. It’s cool.”

This long established restaurant continues to feed patrons with hearty helpings that keeps customers coming back for more. While the economy struggles, people still have to eat and Beeps is the place to go for great comfort food.

Cheap Sushi Series -- Kabuki

Another great sushi place is Kabuki, which was recently voted best Happy Hour for 2008 by Pasadena Weekly (there are several locations with one right here in the Valley.) The sushi menu for happy hour has great prices along with quality fish. From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Kabuki serves up a variety of treats for under $5.

Their happy hour appetizers range from broiled mussels to salmon rollers, gyoza dumplings (pot-stickers) and “fire cracker” (two scoops of spicy tuna served alongside crunchy chips) costs $3.95 for the simpler items to $4.95 for the fire cracker, calamari rings, and sesame chicken.

Fire Cracker

The fire cracker had a spicy kick that creeps up on unsuspecting taste buds and the chips that are served with them have a nice crunch to contrast the soft tuna.

The gyoza’s were fried perfectly, sitting on a light sauce with a beautiful bunch of fresh greens to garnish.

Gyoza (Potstickers)

Kabuki’s salmon sushi is fresh and much bigger than at Sushi Mac’s which resembles closer to real Japanese food, meaning smaller portions compared to Kabuki’s imitation of Western style super-sized meals. The spicy tuna roll was great for the price, also bigger then rolls found at Sushi Mac.

Salmon Sushi

A happy hour menu wouldn’t be complete without drinks since they are the main course for most happy hour attendees. Their specialty drinks are very fruity and disguises the alcohol well, for those who do not particularly enjoy the taste. The “Red Cheeni” is a must have, with Japanese vodka, Lychee liqueur, and pomegranate juice, it’s absolutely divine.

Red Cheeni

Cheap Sushi Series -- Sushi Mac

Want to satisfy that sushi craving without paying more than $20 dollars? At Sushi Mac the prices are $2.75 per plate, all day, everyday. The menu is limited to two types of roll fillings, spicy tuna or crab meat, which may seem dismal but the spicy tuna is so good it makes up for the lack of variety.

The menu is organized into the number of pieces per dish, but the prices are the same throughout. The only appetizer served are hot soy beans but are perfect for munching on while watching the sushi chefs fill orders.

Two piece sushi plates include your choice of salmon, tuna, albacore, freshwater eel, octopus, and egg, among other things. The bed of rice is gently molded so the rice is not a clumped up mess and overly worked. It’s best to get there at 11 a.m. or about 3 p.m. which is when they make fresh batches of rice.

Albacore Sushi

The warm, lightly vinegary rice tastes amazing with the fresh slice of salmon on top. The eel sushi is equally amazing with the crispy skin against the soft cooked meat all lightly drizzled with eel sauce.

Eel Sushi

Sushi Mac also makes 4 piece plates that are usually four pieces of a roll with different toppings. One plate they offer is a spicy tuna roll with crunchy shrimp tempura pieces on top with their own spicy mayo (mayonnaise and hot sauce like Sirracha.)

Spicy Tuna with Shrimp Tempura

The 6 piece plates are rolls with the seaweed on the outside; while 8 piece plates are rolls with the seaweed on the inside. They also offer a variety of four piece plates, the best among them the spicy tuna with salmon on top, deep fried. The tuna is almost all the way cooked, but the crunch the tempura batter gives the rice gives a different kind of texture that is found from traditional sushi. Adding the cooked salmon on top with a drizzling of eel sauce is an added bonus.

The only cons about Sushi Mac are parking and seating. The plaza has a valet but the parking is still very tight because of the Starbucks and postal office store that all share the same lot. The seating inside can also be just as bad, especially on weekends or at night.