lunch at the hat

yesterday i was in the greater los angeles area for the final track meet of the season. specifically, we were in eagle rock, at occidental college. instead of taking a team bus to this meet we had vans, and we had a little more flexibility in what we would be eating. normally, we get subways or some other sandwiches, which are fine, but when you can have some variety in lunch @ a track meet it's appreciated (by me).

now, i attended college in fresno, but spent a lot of time in this general vicinity during college because my brother lived in pasadena, which is a stone's throw from eagle rock. so, whenever we in this area, i try and hit restaurants that i know from my own college experience.

yesterday, after my final thrower finished competing and we were all seeking a late lunch, i proposed a spot that would take us about ten minutes to get to. of course, they were game, so we jumped in our vehicle, onto the freeway, and were quickly there. we had to cruise about for parking, as the spot was packed.

my two throwers and i dined at:



ah, the hat. this is seriously the best pastrami place i've been to on the west coast. they have a handful of locations in southern california and that's it. the one in pasadena is not the original, but whatever. it's been around for forever and it's the bomb. honestly, the only pastrami sandwich i've had that was better was from katz's deli in new york (super bomb).

now, these pictures demonstrate that i'm a bit lazy with photo taking, and that photos don't always capture your subject well. my photo of the sign was quickly snapped, and it could have been framed better. the photo of the sandwich (below) was after i'd already taken a bit, messed with the sandwich a bit, and then remembered that i wanted to to take a picture. even still, a photo looks messy and small, and while the sandwich is a bit messy, it's also around 7" and will fill you up.



not much beats hot pastrami, and on it's own this sandwich is a meal. but, we shared a large order of fries between the three of us. that's right, shared it. the large fries is essentially the bottowm third of a 4"x5" brown paper bag. tons of fries. we didn't even finish it (just a few scraps left over). that's right, two college throwers and their megazone eating throw coach didn't quite eat all the fries with their sandwiches. but it was soooo good. and my throwers were very happy that i took them there.