If you are ever in Oakland it would be worth it to read about the unusual Temescal district and its history then visit the area. At one intersection where Shattuck Avenue intersects Telegraph there is an old wedge shaped building going back to the depression that housed the original Kasper’s Hot Dog stand — now shuttered. This operation became a chain of both a Caspers’ and Kasper’s branches split due to some family squabble. These dogs are most similar to a Chicago-style dog except much longer and with no sport peppers or pickle but onion tomato relish and mustard on a steamed bun. Recent changes in public taste has resulted in the classic dog to be falling out of favor though.
There are still a few Caper’s around and a few more Kasper’s too.
The large yellow building in the back was once a quaint Italian restaurant named Bertola’s that was founded in 1933 and finally ran out of steam in the 1980’s. There is a remembrance on this blog with some old menus that look to be from the 1940’s or 50’s. This style of restaurant is mostly gone in the SF Bay Area. The closest thing left in terms of atmosphere and style of food is probably the Gold Spike in San Francisco. A must place to eat at least once.
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Re: Bertola. Check out New Pisa on Green St in North Beach. The soup is a meal in itself.
check please?
The New Pisa has similar food, but not the dark walled old-fashioned pre WWII atmosphere. The meal at Bertolas I’m sure is from some formula out of Italy in the 1920’s. I suspect there are a couple of such places left in the country serving a similar meal. It was designed to be cheap, moderately flavorful and filling. It consisted of a huge all you-can-eat tureen of minestrone, lots of good local sourdough french bread, romaine salad with vinegrette, pasta and meat (the pot roast was the best of the bunch. I can’t recall if there was desert included. The meal was $5 or something like that. According to the old menu it looks like the meal was $1 or so in 1933 (by extrapolation). Perfect for 1933. Lots of warm bread came with it. And drinks (usually doubles) were cheap too.
This was THE place for power martini lunches when I worked at the Bay Bridge in the 80s. You could get filled on the soup, and the sourdough helped to soak up the triple martinis for $2.25 Popular spot for retirement parties too, I crawled out of there many times… I now live in BigSac and there is a place with similar food, but the bar is not as good – check the reviews for a chuckle.
http://sacramento.citysearch.com/review/1250526
Speaking of martinis– wow, look at all the typos.
Certainly, in cities, hot dogs of one kind or another played an important part in kid palates. I grew up in a New England factory town back in the era of burning soft coal for power generation — to show how far back. One of our monthly treats, after we acquired an automobile, was to drive to the best known hot dog drive-up in town for a Saturday or Sunday night treat.
The place was named “Johnson’s” after whoever started the stand. It was run by three Greek brothers in my day. Their hot dogs were good quality, mostly beef, I guess. They always had a stash bubbling away in a kettle of beer. When you ordered your dog, they would take one out of the beer and drop it into a deep fryer filled with bacon grease. After a minute, they’d fish them out of the fryer and roll them around on a grill for another little bit to brown them and burn off some of the grease.
Delicious, whatever toppings you chose. It’s a good thing we didn’t do it, often. My arteries would never have survived.
Think … New Pisa is closed now. … DId you know the Kasper in East Lake Section (of Oakland) near International Blvd and 1st Avenue is finally closed?