La Pasadita (east side of Ashland, GNR Winner)

Wanted to post in the other LP thread, but it is locked as it's now a GNR. In Robyn and my quest to eat at every single GNR in the next 6-12mo, I went to eat at LP today for lunch. This place is awesome. It reminds me of every great little niche taco shop in San Diego, where I lived for 10 years. The meat is perfectly cooked, the staff is nice, it's cheap and it's fast. It was awesome and I'm sure we'll be back in a few days or so for late night eats.

It's nice that there's now a thread dedicated to this great little place. I'm glad you liked it, but given my experiences there over the last many years, not surprised. Don't overlook the barbacoa, lengua and the chile rellenos either .

kuhdo wrote:It's nice that there's now a thread dedicated to this great little place. I'm glad you liked it, but given my experiences there over the last many years, not surprised. Don't overlook the barbacoa, lengua and the chile rellenos either .

sorry forgot to mention what i had- the barbacoa and the carne asada

Bummed.

I always liked the tacos and burritos at the dumpy yellow hut on the east side of Ashland, over the other two across the street. I thought they were better; maybe the fact that they always toasted the burrito tortillas over the fire and the fact that the grill was maybe hotter than the ones across the street, or they moved so fast that one didn't often get the "meat in the grease bucket" thing. I don't know, but I know I'm going to miss it.

More details on the closing here, as first posted at LTH in this post by Vinny.

at dnainfo.com, Alisa Hauser wrote:On a chilly winter day, Espinoza, 46, stood outside of La Pasadita's distinctive bright yellow-and-black hut at 1161 N. Ashland Ave., which closed for business on Jan. 5 after more than 35 years.

Since 1976, the Espinoza family has paid rent to a landlord for use of the stand. But since 1984, they've owned two buildings across the street, which also house La Pasadita restaurants, at 1160 N. Ashland Ave. and 1134 N. Ashland Ave.

=R=

But very reliable sources tell me that a replacement, albeit with slightly different offerings, will be coming soon.

stevez wrote:But very reliable sources tell me that a replacement, albeit with slightly different offerings, will be coming soon.

I hope so!

Such a meta-ironic world we live in now. Hauser mimics the Onion in reporting actual, mundane to most, news with non-quoteworthy quotes from area man. ("Morgenstern rectified the situation by "just going across the street to the open" La Pasadita, but he added that the stand's closure "sucks big time."") I like it. East side was always by far the best, but it's good to see the family business appears to thrive. 35 years of having much better tacos than nearly any place in the US, indeed going back before the ubiquity ofTaco Bell and middle-American awareness of Mexican food at any level. Pretty impressive.

saw a really cool photo of the work going on @ the La Pasadita location, when they stripped down the yellow paint they uncovered a previous tenants logo -

A burger chain called Snappy Service System(chain out of Missouri from what I understand - a White Castle competitor) once occupied the spot selling $.05 burgers.

Saw the photo on the forgotten chicago.com facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

I might chain myself to the building if they threaten to do anything other than restore that storefront. Extremely cool. Reminds me of the incredible, vivid, like-it-was-painted-yesterday, century-old ad for flour that was revealed a few years ago on Southport when a slightly newer old adjacent building was knocked down. I loved looking at that thing for a few months before an unremarkable new condo went up.

JeffB wrote:I might chain myself to the building if they threaten to do anything other than restore that storefront. Extremely cool. Reminds me of the incredible, vivid, like-it-was-painted-yesterday, century-old ad for flour that was revealed a few years ago on Southport when a slightly newer old adjacent building was knocked down. I loved looking at that thing for a few months before an unremarkable new condo went up.

I drove by there last night I'm guessing the building will remain intact since the word Hamburgers is painted across the entire facade.

=R=

I drove by there last night I'm guessing the building will remain intact since the word Hamburgers is painted across the entire facade.

Drove by twice today, pretty sure the hamburger signage on the facade is what was underneath the yellow when they stripped it off. Rene G should go check it out because it looks old. As for the future of the building, it will be re-opened as another mexican take-out spot within the next month or two.

pizano345 wrote:

I drove by there last night I'm guessing the building will remain intact since the word Hamburgers is painted across the entire facade.

Drove by twice today, pretty sure the hamburger signage on the facade is what was underneath the yellow when they stripped it off. Rene G should go check it out because it looks old. As for the future of the building, it will be re-opened as another mexican take-out spot within the next month or two.

Funny timing, as a friend of mine interested in Chicago architectural history forwarded me some info and pictures of the location a couple of days ago. And according to the La Pasadita website, the location was formerly named Hamburger Castle. My friend said the signage indicated that they sold 5-cent hamburgers, but I can't confirm this at the moment and I can't find any additional information about this place on the web. In any event, I prefer the Hamburger Castle look - very cool, and a shame how people keep plastering over or otherwise ruining some very cool buildings.



edited as follows: sorry jimswside for ignoring your post above (realized thanks to JimInLoganSquare) - and thanks for providing the missing link here . . . very interesting.

jimswside would appreciate it if folks looked up about five posts in this thread.

jimswside wrote:saw a really cool photo of the work going on @ the La Pasadita location, when they stripped down the yellow paint they uncovered a previous tenants logo -

A burger chain called Snappy Service System(chain out of Missouri from what I understand - a White Castle competitor) once occupied the spot selling $.05 burgers.

According to the book "Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age" by John A. Jakle & Keith A. Sculle, Founder Paul C. Hill opened up his first Snappy Service hamburger shop in October 1925 in Trenton, Missouri. But in 1929, Hill moved to Terre Haute, Indiana where he headquartered the company for another 33 years until his death. The book also states that Hill initially "bypassed prosperous Illinois with its own medium-sized industrial towns because that state had a sales tax, whereas Indiana had none." and that "Twenty-one stands comprised Hill's own Snappy Service at its height and he helped start three brothers-in-law in the hamburger business, two of whom used the Snappy Service name and operated in Illinois."

"...Hill rejected Ray Kroc's offer for a business relationship at the start of the McDonald's chain"

Snappy Service closed its last two remaining shops located in Terre Haute & Kokomo, Indiana in 1983.

PIGMON wrote:

jimswside wrote:saw a really cool photo of the work going on @ the La Pasadita location, when they stripped down the yellow paint they uncovered a previous tenants logo -

A burger chain called Snappy Service System(chain out of Missouri from what I understand - a White Castle competitor) once occupied the spot selling $.05 burgers.

According to the book "Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age" by John A. Jakle & Keith A. Sculle, Founder Paul C. Hill opened up his first Snappy Service hamburger shop in October 1925 in Trenton, Missouri. But in 1929, Hill moved to Terre Haute, Indiana where he headquartered the company for another 33 years until his death. The book also states that Hill initially "bypassed prosperous Illinois with its own medium-sized industrial towns because that state had a sales tax, whereas Indiana had none." and that "Twenty-one stands comprised Hill's own Snappy Service at its height and he helped start three brothers-in-law in the hamburger business, two of whom used the Snappy Service name and operated in Illinois."

"...Hill rejected Ray Kroc's offer for a business relationship at the start of the McDonald's chain"

Snappy Service closed its last two remaining shops located in Terre Haute & Kokomo, Indiana in 1983.

In spite of what has been repeated in quite a few places recently I don't think this Snappy Service System on Ashland was related to Hill's Snappy Service, the well-known early White Castle imitator originally based in Trenton, Missouri and later in Terre Haute. Hill's Snappy Service had some locations in Central Illinois but I'm not sure there were ever any in Chicago. I think the Snappy Service System on Ashland derived from an unrelated Southern chain with a name chosen to be deceptively similar to Hill's Snappy Service.

Matt found this plate when googling "Snappy Service System" the other day:

http://www.restaurantwarecollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5356&page=1

The seller of the plate was able to get in touch with a descendant of the proprietors, who confirmed that Albert Pierce lived in Dallas and owned a diner called Snappy Service System. His brother Tom took the name and started a chain in Chicago.

Pretty awesome. Yay Internet!