Counter culture

America isn't the center of the world it once was when it comes to building things. Cars, tv's, cameras and airplanes are now made all over the world. But there's still one thing we manage to make a lot of.
Hamburgers. And there's one place, in my opinion, that makes them better than anyone else.

I started going to the Apple Pan when I was five years old. Leo, my barber that used to torture me (you never forget your first butche...barber) had his shop on Pico Blvd. just west of Westwood Blvd. As a reward for being good during the haircut - and by good I suppose my mother meant not leaping up out of the chair, grabbing Leo's straight-edge (not a euphemism) and threatening him if he cut another hair on my innocent young head - she would take me to the Apple Pan for a hickory cheeseburger, fries and a Coke.

It was the beginning of a life-long Apple Pan habit.

Of course back then, menu prices were a little different than what you see here. Not sure what year this is, but a hickory with cheese was 65 cents back in the post-haircut days.

To this day, when I sit down at the 27-seat counter to order, just out of habit I peruse the menu as if it's changed. Or like I'll order something different than I've been loving all these years.

Yeah, I see the tuna sandwich. But that's just crazy talk.

I know there are other great hamburgers. Cassell's on 6th St. was a legendary burger place where you built it the way you liked with homemade mayonnaise and horseradish. Since the restaurant got sold, relocated and downsized years ago, it's a shadow of it's former ground beef glory.

Hodad's in Ocean Beach is an amazing experience. The ginormous burgers, thicker than cement milk shakes, dingy, dive feel, tacky license plates hanging all over the walls combined with the always entertaining crowd - a combination of surfers, tourists, stoners and vagrants - add up to an exceptional burger experience. Hodad's is always a must have when I'm heading to San Diego for Comic Con...er...business.

Father's Office (both of them), Dave's World Famous in Long Beach, The Original Tommy's, The Counter, Fisher's, In-N-Out, and even the Bleunami at Islands. All great in their own right.

But if someone held an order of crisp, golden fries to my head and said I had to choose one burger to go with them, it would be this hickory-filled beauty right here.

I'm sure the fact the Apple Pan is part of my childhood is one reason I love it. For readers who are LOST fans you'll appreciate it when I say it's my constant. It's still here. I'm still here.

There's something extremely comforting that the same people who are serving the burgers now are the ones who served them then. That guy on the left with glasses is who I remember best.

It's not a chain. It didn't sell out to the mall next door or across the street, both of which threw the vault at the owner to get that corner. They literally stood their ground (beef) against the rampant, arbitrary development you see all over the city.

If you ever want to grab a burger with me, just tell me where you want to meet (meat).

But if it's not the Apple Pan, be prepared for a counter offer.