The Hat is a Southern California fast-food restaurant chain specializing in pastrami dip sandwiches. The original Hat was located at the corner of Third Street and Ford Blvd in East Los Angeles. (The site is now home to King Taco).
A second store opened shortly thereafter at the intersection of Garfield & Valley in Alhambra and has been serving World Famous pastrami dip sandwiches since 1951. There are 11 locations around Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties, in Alhambra, Brea, Glendora, Lake Forest, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Rancho Cucamonga, Simi Valley, Temple City and Upland, and now, in Murrieta.
Stephen and I stopped by the Brea, California location for lunch. This location has a dining area and a drive thru, which both are equally busy. Surprisingly, we came at 11:30 am on a Sunday, and found the dining room area empty, and considered ourselves quite lucky.
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The pastrami dip sandwich is the restaurant’s signature item. Unlike a New York dip, which is meat and bread, The Hat’s version comes on a French roll with mustard and pickles. The restaurant also serves burgers, dogs, sandwiches, onion rings, fries and chili cheese fries, another customer favorite, which can easily feed 4 or more people.
We chose to split a pastrami, a chili tamale and a small order of plain fries, which was still a huge portion.
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| “Small” fries that covered 1/2 a carry out tray |
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| Chili Tamale: A tamale covered in cheese, chili, pickles, onions and tomatoes |
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| Inside the tamale |
We didn’t order the chili cheese fries, but this is what an order looks like. It comes only in 1 size, and will set you back $4.79.
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