By Eric on 2006-08-11

There’s another meeting of the team. Dinner after the game at Johnnie’s pastrami wasn’t enough, so now, it’s a meeting at Cinehous to watch game tape. Is it about watching tape, or is it about hanging out one last time? Yes, it’s been talked about that some members of the team are leaving, and no one really wants to go “home”. So, maybe one more last meeting will happen with the team tonight. Then hopefully there’s one after that and then after that.

I ate one of these, and I was in pain last night. The first half was amazing. The pastrami is great, but the second half was a major burning feeling all the way down. I don’t eat meat all too often, but pastrami is a killer. I stayed up until super late, to help digest it!

Let’s talk about Johnnie’s for a bit. This spot in LA and I go far back in time. First off, it’s not on Sawtelle, but it’s on Sawtelle Blvd’s big brother Sepulveda, which at least in West LA, they run parallel on each side of the 405 freeway.

When my mother was busy working at her restaurant (which was daily), and dinner came, my dad either cooked or we went out. Sometimes it was Norm’s, (they actually did decent meals back then) or it was Johnnie’s! My father used to take me here maybe once every two weeks! Why? I have no idea. I guess safety in terms of healthy food and what not wasn’t a big thing in the 70′s and early 80′s. It was close by, and maybe it was just tasty and he enjoyed it. The tables inside have table top juke boxes like you see in old movies (Happy Day’s didn’t have these). The pickles are still the same and who knows, they probably have some of the same brine from 50 years ago, and the pastrami is still great.

Today, it’s funny how both of us can’t eat pastrami sandwiches. I pushed my luck last night in a moment of being one with the meat eaters on the team. If my dad ate it, he’d have a heart attack.