Sandwiches

The Hot Spot Café & Pizzeria, from all appearances, is just that — a hot spot. The Glendale Police Department is a few steps away out the back door; City Hall is a stone’s throw away, and the courthouse is diagonally across the street. Next door, day workers ply their trade in front of Dunn-Edwards Paints. “Everything in here is great,” offered a day worker as he chowed down on a lunch of fried eggs, bacon, hash browns and white toast. It looked good. The eggs were cooked exactly the way I like them — fried and up. A police detective came in the back door and sat down at a table behind me. He’s a regular.

F olks who work in the cluster of office buildings in the 400 block of North Brand Boulevard have something new to cheer about. Just outside their front door lies the Beyond the Stars Cafe, a small but mighty sandwich, salad and coffee spot with quality that is a notch above the ordinary. Perhaps you've seen the historic Beyond the Stars Palace. This supper-club-type theater can be rented for large social and business events. They also have the occasional public performance.

class Tony Kienitz and Andy Olson know how to add some spice to a salad, and they'll share their secrets on Saturday. Kienitz and Olson will lead a two-hour class at Descanso Gardens on using unusual salad and sandwich ingredients, such as sunflower leaves, sesame leaves, shiso leaves, leeks and other summer vegetables. They'll also explore oils, vinaigrette and other dressings. Kienitz is the owner of Vegetare, an edible landscape design company.

It's official. The future has finally arrived. Just like in "The Jetsons" cartoon, you can now push buttons on a computer and the meal of your choice slides out on a tray. OK, maybe not immediately and certainly not for free, but at the new Specialty's Café and Bakery on Brand Boulevard in Glendale, that's pretty much how it works. Questionable spelling aside, Specialty's is totally plugged in to the modern, techno-friendly way of doing things. In the middle of the restaurant, there is a bank of iPads at which you place your order.

A happy hubbub percolates throughout Frank's Famous Kitchen and Bakery. To regulars, the place is known as Frank's, or Frank's Famous. In fact, that's their website — franksfamous.com. Friends greet friends, give menu recommendations and ask about families while at the counter, orders are cheerfully taken and called out, and a hum of conversation keeps the comfy dining area lively. At lunch, Frank's is a beehive. If you can't find something that piques your palate at Frank's, you really aren't hungry.

Annie Bettelli BURBANK -- I'm always curious when a restaurant touts itself as having "the best" of a specific dish. The green and white awning outside of Ben's Delicatessen's in Burbank claims to serve the "world's finest corned beef," and being one that appreciates this tastiest of deli meats either between rye bread or with boiled cabbage, I had find out if this was true. While the word finest is subjective at best, Ben's corned beef is very lean and not greasy whatsoever, like many corned beef sandwiches I've tried.

Salerno's Italian Café on Riverside Drive in Burbank specializes in satisfying the lunchtime cravings of the denizens of nearby studios and offices. But its menu extends beyond office hours, offering both breakfast and dinner. The breakfast menu is topped by a terrific breakfast combo burrito. Egg, cheese, hash browns and three meats ? ham, bacon and sausage ? are rolled up in a soft tortilla and served with salsa. Very tasty and so much meat inside that dogs began to howl when I bit into it. (I'm not kidding!

SCHOOL LUNCH MENU GLENDALE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Today: Presidents Day holiday Tuesday: Bean and cheese burrito or chicken patty or Kilroy's assorted sandwiches or chef salad or flavored yogurt or heart cookie, includes salad bar with juice and milk. Wednesday: Shrimp poppers and cheddar cheese or corn dog or ham and cheese on roll or taco salad or flavored yogurt or whole grain dinner roll, includes salad bar with juice and milk. Thursday: Ranch pizza with pepperoni or chicken nuggets or Kilroy's assorted sandwiches or chef salad or flavored yogurt, includes salad bar with juice and milk.

Since 1980, area residents have been really getting to know Ben -- Ben Shiralian of Ben's Delicatessen that is. This family-owned and operated eatery has become a favorite for many a hungry diner. In fact, readers of our sister publication, the Burbank Leader, recently chose Ben's Delicatessen as "Burbank's Best Deli" for 2004. What keeps them coming back for more? Besides the extensive "deli" menu, it's the service that brings hungry eaters back again and again.

Jeff Keating GLENDALE -- Alfonso Morales wanted a sandwich his way -- exactly his way -- but after five years and at least 200 tries at getting it right, Burger King officials finally said enough was enough. A $5,000 small-claims lawsuit filed by Morales against the Burger King restaurant at 523 N. Central Ave. was dismissed in Glendale Municipal Court Jan. 3, with Morales being advised to try someplace new in his search for the perfect, or at least perfect-looking, sandwich.

A 25-year-old man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to punching a gas station clerk after he allegedly stole sandwiches. Dana Hall was charged with one felony count of second-degree robbery in connection with the Jan. 4 incident at the Shell gas station in the 600 block of North Pacific Avenue, authorities said. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge kept the bail amount for Hall at $50,000, said Shiara Dávila-Morales, spokeswoman for the county district attorney's office. The robbery occurred at about 9:13 p.m. when Hall reportedly walked into the gas station and began stuffing sandwiches into his pants, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

I've been to the Rose Parade every year for as long as I can remember. Tradition has it that we all to go my in-law's home afterwards for our favorite meal of the year, including Honey's famous potato salad. But I can't invite all 700,000 or so spectators to the house, so here are some great eateries on and around the parade route, some Pasadena mainstays and some newly opened hotspots. A number of restaurants close down the day of the parade but many are worth checking out in the days before and after the big event.

Robert Downey Jr. stared at me all through my lunch. I was eating at Studio Café Magazzino, a tiny, home-spun café across from the massive Warner Bros. complex, enjoying the homemade soup and sandwiches, when I noticed that Sherlock Holmes himself was looking right through the window, his gigantic eyes boring out from a poster covering a beige stucco building corner. The view inside the café was less distracting. A distressed, white picket fence covers part of the counter and potted ivy spills over an old metal icebox and sink in one corner.

The Hot Spot Café & Pizzeria, from all appearances, is just that — a hot spot. The Glendale Police Department is a few steps away out the back door; City Hall is a stone’s throw away, and the courthouse is diagonally across the street. Next door, day workers ply their trade in front of Dunn-Edwards Paints. “Everything in here is great,” offered a day worker as he chowed down on a lunch of fried eggs, bacon, hash browns and white toast. It looked good. The eggs were cooked exactly the way I like them — fried and up. A police detective came in the back door and sat down at a table behind me. He’s a regular.

It's official. The future has finally arrived. Just like in "The Jetsons" cartoon, you can now push buttons on a computer and the meal of your choice slides out on a tray. OK, maybe not immediately and certainly not for free, but at the new Specialty's Café and Bakery on Brand Boulevard in Glendale, that's pretty much how it works. Questionable spelling aside, Specialty's is totally plugged in to the modern, techno-friendly way of doing things. In the middle of the restaurant, there is a bank of iPads at which you place your order.

Vegetable lovers rejoice! There’s a hidden gem of a cafe in Glendale that is armed with veggies and is not afraid to use them. The Basement Cafe is nothing fancy, but they serve good, home-cooked food with a lot of flavor at a reasonable price. Hunkered down in the basement of the architecturally iconic Hollywood Production Center on Brand, the aptly named eating establishment boasts few signs, so you have to go looking for it. It appears to have originally been designed as the commissary for the office building and still functions as such but is also open to the public.

F olks who work in the cluster of office buildings in the 400 block of North Brand Boulevard have something new to cheer about. Just outside their front door lies the Beyond the Stars Cafe, a small but mighty sandwich, salad and coffee spot with quality that is a notch above the ordinary. Perhaps you've seen the historic Beyond the Stars Palace. This supper-club-type theater can be rented for large social and business events. They also have the occasional public performance.

San Francisco Sub in Glendale might be the ?little sandwich shop that could.? Several factors during our visit indicated they are still working out the kinks but the signs are quite promising that they are moving in the right direction. The décor, ambience and layout of toppings are no different than any of the national sandwich chains but there?s a definite earnestness in their desire to please. They offer two sizes ($4.50 small and $6.50 large) for most of the sandwiches. They used to offer a size in between but that is now covered up on the menu board.

Executives at Glendale-based IHOP are hoping Americans’ love for two dessert and breakfast foods will make its latest product a hit: a stack of pancakes layered over cheesecake filling. The company on Monday debuted its new “five-layer pancake stackers,” a creation that includes a layer of “crust-less cheesecake” in between two pancakes topped with fruit and whipped cream. A regular combination comes with bacon, hash browns and two eggs and totals 1,250 calories, according to IHOP, which did not offer other nutritional details and did not have specifics for only a pancake stack.

Thousands of street-food lovers streamed into the Americana at Brand late Tuesday, with some waiting in line for hours to order Vietnamese baguette sandwiches or red velvet pancakes from trucks. Some sat on curbs or on the walls of the Americana water fountain eating tacos, sandwiches and other truck offerings, while others glanced at the long lines for the nine trucks at the Street Feast event and reconsidered. “There’s no way we’re even going to eat,” said Glendale resident Barbara Simon, who was roaming the shopping center in search of a short line.