Joe emails: I grew up in Pico Robertson – I was probably the first customer of Nagilla Pizza. When you went there on a saturday night, it was the who’s who of YICC (already the self important place it is), Bnai David (which had just started being the self important place it now is), and BJ (always will be the only real power shul in the area – the rest are posers).
After a long absence, (like 10 years) i was there saturday night. On the streets were men walking back from late evening prayers. I figured they would bring their womenfolk to nagila and i could then match faces with the over the top family highlights on the YICC website or maybe see some of the ashamed to be orthodox jews from Bnai David who work at federation fronts like the jewish journal or UJ (or whatever they are calling it these days).
Inside Nagila, it was like being in isfahan, Iran. The persians were like the humidity, they were everywhere. Multiple generations of them came, and while I had my meal in short order, they were occupying the place. According to the one person i knew, they “close the bitch down”. I am sorry, and i love jews, but i went over to one table with a persian family who probably lent money to the Shah to borrow the pepper and garlic, and an old persian matriarch refused my entreaty for a loan of the peppers to my table 6 feet away. They bring their babies screaming, along with their ancient grandparents in makeshift wheelchairs.
They hardly wear kippot, their woman dress like episodes of Icarly, and they are more clannish than armenians. They do not clean up after themselves. I really do not understand the appeal of Pico Robertson, it is really gross.
