Dining Out in Hollywood & LA (1949)

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    It's about midnight.  I wake up.  The train has stopped.  The lights are out.  We're in the middle of nowhere.  Then there's an Amtrak announcement that the train NEEDS A NEW ENGINE, and we would have to be RESCUED.  So I'm back home now, "rescued," now three hours late, ready to look forward to a nice day of seeing people scream at me about their parking tickets.
    I'm sorry about misspelling Sioux City.  All those vowels confused me.  I also left out the "t" in Liberty Street...I had requested Sioux City (Iowa) phonebooks from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s.  Nothing.  According to John Mariani, Jean Anderson, and Heinz, the "sloppy joe" began there as a "loosemeat sandwich."
     The following book is an absolute gem that's not in the NYPL.  I copied the whole thing and read part of it on the train.

DINING OUT IN HOLLYWOOD AND LOS ANGELES
by Craig Davidson
Assisted by Harry Mynatt
1949

Pg. 15:
   ...Beverly Hillbillies...

Pg. 17:
   ...breast of turkey Marco Polo... (OED for Marco Polo?--ed.)

Pg. 19: (Brown Derby restaurant--ed.)
   ...and all the salads, with special mention of the Cobb salad, a fine chopped mixed green with chicken, tomato, eggs, bacon, avocado, roquefort cheese, chives, and French dressing.

Pg. 28:  (Cock 'N Bull restaurant--ed.)
   Cock 'N Bull Ginger Beer is the ingredient with vodka that produces Moscow Mules, which are served in bright copper mugs here and at any number of other restaurants.

Pg. 32:  (Elbow Room restaurant--ed.)
   ...the Elbow Room's Shea Salad, which is the finest Caesar-type salad in Los Angeles.

Pg. 40:  (Har-Omar restaurant--ed.)
   This is the best Armenian cooking in Los Angeles, and there is some point to Paul Coates' interpretation of the meaning of Har-Omar's specialty Iman Bayelldi--"the priest ate it and fainted."

Pg. 41:  (House of Murphy restaurant--ed.)
   The Salad Bar naturally offers Di Cicco salad as its specialty, because Bob Murphy was the originator of this savory dish, which is closely akin to Caesar salad.

Pg. 47:  (Mike Lyman's restaurant--ed.)
   Specialties are the Three-in-one-Salad (fruit, mixed green salad and chicken salad)...

Pg. 51:  (Mocambo restaurant--ed.)
   Currently this is "where everyone who is anybody goes" to see and be seen.

Pg. 53:  (Naples restaurant--ed.)
   So oddly enough you will find that the star feature of their out-sized menu is Maine Live Lobsters--but cooked "Fra Diavolo," which means split down the middle and cooked with a red sauce containing olive oil, garlic, marinara and spices, which gives even a Maine lobster an unexpected and delectable flavor.

Pg. 56:  (Pacific Dining Car restaurant--ed.)
   ...but any resemblance to a "sinkers and java" diner for truck drivers ends. (...) Try the "rib eye steak" which is carved out of a prime rib double-thick, tender and delicious.

Pg. 57:  (Paul's Duck Press restaurant--ed.)
   You will offend him, too, if you don't order Romaine ala Paul, because he tosses it up with the dressing he invented thirty years ago and never changed, and which now is known in Los Angeles as Caesar dressing.  The name "Caesar salad" was given the dressing by Paul's former partner in Mexico whose brother bore that name.  This is the real dish and Paul mixes it at your table and dresses long cool green leaves of Romaine--uncut.

Pg. 59:  (The Players restaurant--ed.)
   For lunch, there is a long array of sandwiches that are full meals in themselves, starting with the Reuben Special, my favorite--sliced breast of turkey, baken ham, imported Swiss cheese, cole slaw, and Russian dressing on rye bread.

(It would not be until 1956 when the "Reuben" would win that sandwich contest.  This is another pre-1956 cite for the name--ed.)

   THAT'S IT!  I'M GETTING A HALF HOUR'S SLEEP!  IT'S NOT LIKE I GET ANY MONEY OR ANY AWARDS FROM THIS THING!