Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [244]
California
Al’s Place
13936 Main St.
916–776–1800
Locke, CA
LD | $$
If you are traveling the Central Valley in search of tasty meals served with heaps of personality, locate Locke, a hidden-away little town in the Sacramento Delta. Originally built by and for Chungshan Chinese, the old levee community was once notorious for its gambling halls, houses of ill repute, and last—maybe least—of its pleasures, Cantonese food. Locke’s weathered main street of wood-plank sidewalks and shuttered emporia with swayback second-story balconies remains a magical sight. In the middle of it is Al’s Place.
Al’s opened in 1934 when Al Adami, fresh out of prison as a convicted bootlegger, opened up the only non-Chinese restaurant in town. Al had no menu—he asked you how you liked your steak, which was the only thing to eat amid the slot machines and card tables in the dining room behind the front-room bar. Legend says that at some point in time, a hungry crop duster came in with jars of peanut butter and marmalade and asked Al for some toast to spread them on. Al liked the idea, and started putting peanut butter and marmalade on every table, a tradition that endures.
Today run by Stephen and Lorenzo Giannetti, Al’s Place still feels illicit. You enter past the beer and shooter crowd who occupy a dimly lit bar hung with dusty game trophies and memorabilia, into a bright backroom dining area lined with worn laminate tables equipped with shared benches instead of chairs, seating anywhere from two to eight friends or strangers, depending on how crowded Al’s is.
The menu remains simple, now including hamburgers, cheeseburgers, steaks, and one amazing steak sandwich. It is amazing because it is only barely a sandwich. In fact, what it is is a sandwich-size steak on a platter accompanied by a second plate of toasted pieces of sturdy Italian bread. Horseradish or a dish of minced garlic are available to spread on the meat. “Most people put the peanut butter or jelly on their toast,” Stephen advises us when we ask him what to do with it. “But I’ve seen some spread peanut butter right across their steaks!”
By the way, Al’s is known to regular customers as Al the Wop’s. When we asked Mr. Giannetti if he hears any complaints about that, he answered flatly, “No,” as if only some sort of dimwit pedant would worry about such a nonissue. He then continued: “I am Italian, and I don’t mind. It’s all in how it is said, anyway. WOP simply means ‘without papers.’ What’s wrong with that?”
Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch
4325 Glencoe Ave.
310–578–1005
Marina del Rey, CA
LD | $$
The back porch is actually just inside the door at this unlikely shopping-center restaurant with a sign outside that boasts of “down-home cooking.” Inside, the menu located underneath each glass tabletop offers such comfort-food classics as chicken and dumplings, meat loaf, and barbecued ribs served with collards, black-eyed peas, green beans, smothered cabbage, and/or mac and cheese. We are particularly fond of the crisp-fried catfish, sided by a pair of sweet-corn hush puppies. Lemonade is served in Mason jars.
Sweet potato pie is not to be missed—unless you prefer the rococo allure of pineapple coconut cake or the avoirdupois of bread pudding.
Ambience is a curious Los Angeles mix of neighborhood soul and photos of celebrities, especially of the Lakers from when they used to play in Inglewood.
Buz’s Crab Seafood Restaurant
2159 East St.
530–243–2120
Redding, CA
LD | $$
Thanks to Roadfooders Karen Meyer and Paul Duggan for clueing us in to Buz’s as one of the essential Roadfood experiences of northern California. They especially recommended cracked Dungeness crab (fresh from November through May), fish and chips, and charbroiled salmon, and they noted that Buz’s kitchen is supplied by its own fishing boats out of Eureka on the coast. Calling itself “Redding’s own Fisherman’s Wharf,” Buz’s truly is a seafood bonanza, being not only a restaurant, but a fish market, a deli, a crab-feed caterer, and a mail-order