Sandwiches

Whiplash is one of the hazards of my job. I take unfamiliar streets when I drive around town with the express purpose of discovering new restaurants. Peacha's, a tiny place on south Victory near Alameda in Burbank, made me do a hard double-take, almost...

In the battle of man vs. food, man must always win. Otherwise, it's just sad to say it was bologna that did you in. Almost a year ago, I tested my gastronomic threshold for sandwiches. What started as an innocent tour of Burbank's sandwich shops became...

Marisa Sanders remembers when television icon Huell Howser wandered into Burbank’s Tallyrand restaurant two years ago. She gushed when he sat in front of her in a swivel chair at the diner’s counter. “I said, ‘I just want you to...

Squeezed on all sides by chain shops and eateries in Burbank's Empire Center, Grain Lab is an independent island. The small eatery, which opened last month, has the minimal look of a hip chain, with a slightly industrial-meets-organic laboratory feel with...

With its stylized olive-and-black façade and the silhouette of a lone woman in a wide hat standing in the midst of white lettering, Mama Hong's Vietnamese Kitchen stands out on Burbank's San Fernando Boulevard. Inside, spare décor and clean lines...

There used to be a time when the only people who cared what junk-food companies did were health advocates. How I long for those days. Can we not have our artery-clogging pizzas, breaded chicken filet sandwiches and crème-filled cookies without...

There should be a course at cooking schools called the Psychology of Restaurants. What makes us go into one restaurant and avoid another? For instance, my personal biases make me resist places that look corporate and slickly merchandised. So I was a...

Three Burbank High School graduating seniors were honored at the Burbank University Women's Scholarship Tea at the home of Marcia Baroda May 10. Receiving college scholarships were Seda Byrut and Valery Vasquez from Burbank High School and Jordan Bradley...

This is the epic conclusion to Bryan's two-part sandwich tour of Burbank. Read part one here. I've heard a meat sandwich described as a lot of things. Until recently, though, never “buttery.” We sat on hard benches at McCambridge Park,...

This is the first in a two-part series. I have returned from the most epic, delicious, salt-infused expedition of a lifetime. It was the most glorious tour one can take of this fair city. Should you choose to take the journey yourself, I shall...

There are designers who specialize in making new buildings look old — fabricating that used and loved look before any actual customers arrive. Their tools include distressed wood, scratched steel and pre-aged Naugahyde, for an instant patina of...

On a strangely cool August day several years ago, I walked into a New York City classroom to begin my first day of classes at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Inside that small, overheated room were a dozen other students, and the...