Apple Pan harkens back to the old days of Los Angeles burger consumption, when the main thoroughfares were lined with burger joints. Dating back to the 1930s when this area was pretty rural, and located on Pico Blvd, it still is housed in the original space with a horseshoe counter, griddle in the middle, the servers are all old men in paper hats and aprons, and drinks are served in paper cups in a metal holder.
The slogan of the joint is “Quality Forever”, beckoning all from their neon sign. The menu is limited: two types of burgers, fries, tuna sandwich and 3 types of pies.
The burger offers are the Steakburger (which is just a regular burger) and their famous Hickory Burger with their homemade BBQ sauce. I went with the Hickory, opting for a slice of cheddar which is supplied from the same farm that they get their meat from. The meat is ground fresh and delivered everyday, I guess keeping up with the mantra of quality forever.
I started with some fries. The fries were standard frozen variety, not too much to talk about. As with In-N-Out you can order them “rare” or “well done”, I just went with a regular order with a mix of both I guess. The one interesting point with the fries, is that when the server asked if I wanted ketchup, he pulled a Tom Cruise-Cocktail flip of the Heinz bottle and poured a perfect amount of ketchup on an adjacent plate.
In a few moments my burger came out, served old school style wrapped in wax paper. It was bigger than I thought it was going to be, I’d estimate a good 1/3 lb. patty. It was cooked a fine medium (I prefer med rare but I didn’t have a choice), on a nice toasted bun. I was worried that the BBQ sauce would be too overpowering, but it wasn’t too strong (more tangy than sweet) and my first bite allowed me to enjoy the good beef flavor and the nice mild cheddar. The lettuce and pickles were under the meat, which allowed for me to get the meat/cheese bite right at the top, and kept the burger from getting too messy. The last few bites were the best though; nice and soggy from the sauce and juice from the meat, with the bun good and soft. I quickly devoured it; one hand holding the burger in the wax paper, and the other hand dunking the fries.
I was seriously considering ordering another burger, but the server talked me into going for a piece of pie (it is called the apple pan). Their pies and when the recipes were made are listed on the back of the menu (the apple pie recipe originated in Ohio, and was brought to LA in the 1920s). I went a la mode, and a nice steaming hot piece of apple pie with two huge scoops of French vanilla ice cream came out. Honestly I should’ve gone with the banana cream. I was raised on my grandmother’s apple pies, and nothing still compares to those. However it was clearly homemade, and with the quickly melting ice cream it still tasted great.
So in the superficial land of trendy LA it is still good to know that a place like Apple Pan still exists (and is very popular; the crowd was thick with many people waiting for an open stool). So quality forever!
