Tommy's

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Original Tommy's is a Southern California American hamburger chain, known for its chili-cheeseburgers and chili-fries.

1 History
2 Expansion
3 Menu
4 Marketing
5 Trivia
6 Other
7 External link

[edit] History

The original location was opened on May 15, 1946, by Tom Koulax (1918-1992), the son of Greek immigrants, on the northeast corner of Beverly and Rampart Boulevards west of downtown Los Angeles. The stand, which still stands today, sold hamburgers and hot dogs topped with chili. At first business was slow, but started to pick up.

Some time in the 1960s, the operation was expanded, and the entire lot at this intersection was purchased. Soon after, the northwest corner was acquired for expanded parking and storage of goods. Not long after that, a second service counter occupying the building at the perimeter of the northeast lot was set up. The food was essentially the same from both counters, yet the original shack counter often had longer lines, perhaps for nostalgic reasons.

Students from several local schools frequent the original location. Mr. Koulax's alma mater, Belmont High School, is also located on Beverly. Students from the University of Southern California (USC) often go on a late night "Tommy's run" to the Beverly location. Even USC's cross-town rival, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), visits the original location albeit less frequently than USC.

For the longest time, french fries were not served on Beverly, only bags of chips. Some of the first expansion locations offered french fries from day one, such as Pico Rivera and Eagle Rock. Eventually, in the latter half of the 1990s, the menu at the original Beverly location expanded to include french fries, and with that, chili fries and chili-cheese fries.

The first Original Tommy's at Rampart and Beverly like most of the other restaurants is open 24 hours and is often very busy, even in the middle of the night. It is common to see a line of patrons around the block at all hours. You can expect to see everything from limousines to people in bathrobes. During peak rushes, the cooks are able to predict loads in such a way as to have customers served in around fifteen seconds from placement of order to receipt of food. This location also continues to serve beverages from electric coolers near the counter on the honor system - all other locations have a soda fountain, and some of these locations also offer refills of soda. (Others with full-serve fountains may not be able to, depending on health codes.)

[edit] Expansion

In the 1970s, Tommy's began to expand to other locations, taking care to expand carefully - a critical balance of cost, quality, and good locations has always been used for this, and as a result, Tommy's does not expand to more than a couple of locations per year. There are now 27 Original Tommy's restaurants, all in the Greater Los Angeles Area except for one in Barstow, California (off of I-15 and Lenwood Road) and one in San Diego, California (off of Claremont Mesa Blvd., in Kearny Mesa). The restaurants are all company-owned, and there are no plans for the company to offer any franchised locations.

The company is based in Glendale, California, and is run by the late Mr. Koulax' family.

[edit] Menu

All sandwiches and tamales are served with a standard garnish of chopped onions, hand-sliced tomatoes, pickles, mustard, and chili, unless otherwise requested. As of 2004, stores are also offering Thousand Island dressing and lettuce on request for burgers.

All locations serve Pepsi Cola branded beverages; iced tea is fresh brewed, except at the Beverly Blvd. location, which does not have the facilities, and serves cans of Lipton Brisk iced tea.

Hamburger
Cheeseburger: Note - similar to In-n-Out, a customer can request multiple-layered burgers (double, triple, etc.).
Hot dogs
Tamales: Steamed XLNT brand tamales, with a ladle-full of chili atop them
Chili Boat: Simply a paper "boat" with chili, topped with tomato, onion, and pickle slices
French Fries
Chili Fries, Chili-Cheese Fries: Simply an order of french fries with two ladles of chili over them. The chili cheese fries will have a slice of cheese placed between the doses of chili, to aid in melting.
Breakfast Sandwich: Replaces the hamburger patty with a sausage patty and fried egg. Served with the standard toppings mentioned above except for mustard, which is replaced by mayonnaise. Only available in the morning.

[edit] Marketing

Restaurants offering similar styled chili-cheeseburgers in the Los Angeles area often adopt names similar to Original Tommy's in an attempt to cash in on Tommy's popularity. Some examples of this are Tommi's, Tommie's, Timmie's, Tomy's, Tim Tom's, Tammy's, Big Tom's, Thoma's, Tom's #1, and Tomboy's. The knockoffs were repeatedly sued successfully, but the knockoffs continued over the years. The statement If you don't see the shack, take it back is designed to differentiate the Original Tommy's from the knockoffs, as the first store appears on the corporate logo. This is somewhat analogous to the surplus of "Ray's Pizza" restaurants in New York City.

[edit] Trivia

The building on the northwest corner of Beverly and Rampart has the name Tomasito's over its door. Originally, this was a Mexican restaurant by that name, and it was serendipitous that the name was on the building when Koulax purchased it. It is currently used for pantry storage.

Tommy's is famous for serving its food at record speeds, especially when ordered from inside the restaurant and not through the drive-thru. Most customers, even on busy days, are served within a minute of ordering their meal. In fact, customers often receive their orders right after receiving their receipts.