Fast Facts : Tommy’s : Tommy, Tommi, Thomi, Tahmee....

On May 15, 1946, welder Tommy Koulax paid $800 for a hotdog stand at Beverly and Rampart boulevards and hung put an agreeably straightforward shingle: Tommy’s--a name since inexorably identified with the uniquely L.A. fast food Tommy cooked up. “Tommy was the person who started the chiliburger in Los Angeles,” declares Brent Maire, General Manager of Tommy’s Original World Famous Hamburgers, now with 17-going-on-18 locations around town. “Others might try to copy the name, but the chile is a secret recipe and that’s not so easy to copy.” Indeed, although Koulas died in 1992, his name carries on not only at his own chiliburger dynasty but in the uncanny number of L.A. hamburger joints that, completely by coincidence , bear Tommy-like names and derivations. A sampling:

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Tommy’z Famous Chili Burgers:

Number of Locations: 1

Is there a Tommy?: Yes, owner’s father.

Price of a chiliburger: $2.20

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Big Tomy’s:

Locations: 3

Tomy?: No

Chiliburger: $3.24

Justification: “We may not be the original Tommy’s but we are the original Big Tomy’s.” Nick Slaventis, owner *

Tommy’s Char-Broiled Burgers:

Locations: 1

Tommy?: Not originally, but currently there is a manager named Tommy.

Chiliburger: $2.38

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Tom’s Junior Burgers:

Locations: 5

Tom?: No

Chiliburger: $1.25

Justification: “There’s no Tom, it was just a popular name. Tom’s Junior Burger was started in 1976 by a man named Gus.” Peter Politis, owner.

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Tom’s Hamburgers

Locations: 21

Tom? No

Chiliburger: $1.95

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Tommie’s Hamburgers:

Locations: 3

Tommie? No

Chiliburger: $1.29

Justification: “People do confuse us with the original Tommy’s but we don’t try to ride on their coattails.” Tracy Orteg, owner

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Tam’s Burger:

Locations: 26

Tam?: No

Chiliburger: $2.00

No longer with us... Out of business in 1995

Tom’s Original Superburgers:

Locations: 1

Tom?: Yes, the owner.

Chiliburger: $2.71

Justification: “It’s not named after another Tom, it’s named after me.” Tom Bak, owner