A Box of History

One day in 1969 I had come through the back door of the chili parlor, through the empty kitchen and then into the restaurant. Ernie, my dad's uncle, was standing on the left side at the counter end talking to Mickey, my dad. Ernie was holding a box lid filled with various photos, newspaper articles and such. I could tell he was upset, perhaps the only time in my life I have seen this emotion from him. It was before opening time and he counter was free of customers. I said hello to Ernie and dad as dad began his way back to the kitchen to check on the beans.

Ernie's demeanor was sad, there was a hurt emotion that permeated the conversation. He explained that he had shown "all of this" (pointing to the box) to those "Texas Men," and "they ignored it." Just then mom came in through the back door. She'd been getting supplies at the near by Smart and Final store where the restaurant was customer number 81. Ernie handed the box to me and went towards the kitchen. I looked over the contents while mom tended to the pies and dad and Ernie finished stocking the steam table for the day. I will share with you the contents of that box in hopes of correcting some of the falsehoods written in the years of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. In particular I'll offer evidence as to the true origins of chili con carne and the difference between it and many of the variety of chili dishes loved throughout history. We'll open the doors of some chili parlors and take a look inside.

My love of chili began about the age of seven. Our home in San Diego was about a three hour drive from Los Angeles where our closest relatives lived. Fortunately for us they owned a chili parlor and visited most of the big holidays, never coming empty handled. Often they would bring gifts but always they would bring chili and fixings to go with it. Extra chili was planted in the freezer to tied us over between visits. Sometimes we would visit them and thus I became familiar with the horseshoe counter restaurant early.

Back in those early days there was a cigarette machine in the corner under a mural painting which extended the length of the wall. A standing coat rack was placed next to it and I recall many a rainy day seeing that rack fill us as (mostly) men filtered in for lunch and hung their coats before settling in on the stools ready for their bowl of hot and red. The stools were in front on a long mural Ernie had painted on the wall. It's a wonderful landscape of mountains, pines and rivers. The old stories say he was an avid fisherman but that was filler text a journalist once wrote about the mural. Truth was Ernie loved to paint and he loved landscapes. he had a camera and used it often. More than that he was a collector of the View-Master landscape photos and he used them often as references for his paintings. I was given his scrapbook and old paints when he passed. He had promised to teach me to paint but I only got one lesson on how to draw the trees he painted in his mural before he passed away.

In 1946 Ernie Isaac and his wife Myrtle opened what would become the oldest restaurant in Burbank. The counter surrounds a well thought out center containing everything needed to get one started on a bowl of hot and red shortly after you're seated. The original counter was built by my dad's father, Leonard LaMere who, along with his wife Thelma (Nettie) Phillips LaMere, sister of Myrtle Isaac came from Wisconsin to California in a second car when Ernie and Myrtle drove out about 1938 to San Diego. Leonard and Nettie's four children came as well, one of them was an eight-year old named Harold LaMere, who was nicknamed Mickey. A remodeled counter with laminate covering and orange swivel stools was a big improvement made sometime in the early 1960's.

Let me stop here and talk about one of those social media posts that incorrectly tells the history of Chili John's in Burbank. Ernie and Myrtle did not come to California because Myrtle had tuberculosis! Ernie's first wife in Wisconsin had that and passed from it. They came to California seeking canning and expansion opportunities before WWII and it was only after the war that they secured and opened the Burbank location. I've tried to correct this statement on various social media posts and the inability to do so directly led to my finally starting a book so that corrections will be in print and hopefully stop the misinformation. If the current owners think this is a cute little story they should know that T.B. is not something the health department seeks to allow by food handlers! How well did I know Myrtle? She was my godmother, she was our family's "Aunt Momo," and she was a wonderful, hardworking and joyful woman.

We've now dispelled a few of the social media posts, when the Isaac's came to California, that they came with family, and that Myrtle was not the reason for the move and she was not sick. Other stories will be corrected and told in the upcoming book. A video is currently in the works to address the false statements being produced by fans of the current owners on social media. Future posts will expand on the early history of and briefly touch upon many of the chapters of the book, some of which might lend a few ideas to current and future chili cooks.

The following is a portion of the text of the text in my upcoming book. I thought it would bring you close to understanding my passion for keeping the history accurate. I do know a few old time chili parlor folks who could write a book such as this, but I have not yet read it. As I've seen the changes over the years it has become all too clear that not only has this type of chili, this hot spicy dish that slides down smoothly and can store for years if prepared properly, not only is it rarely found available it isn't very well known. This chapter is just one of several that will hopefully restore some accuracy to the many chapters of chili evolution over time. I must make a few statements before launching into the chapter. One is that I refer herein to Chili John's "the early years," those of John Isaac from the late 1800's, in Auburn, Illinois and Green Bay, Wisconsin, through Ernie Isaac's experiences in Green Bay, San Diego and Burbank, California, as well as Mickey LaMere's through the early 1990's when my family sold the Burbank Chili john's. The inaccurate statements made on YouTube videos of today are only partially the blame of the current family which owns it. Apparently the verbal corrections of the history never made it from the first through various new owners. However, a lot of the history was on the wall, some in need of a few journalistic corrections but overall told the stories pretty good. However, I had offered to fill in the correct history for the current owners when I started seeing some inaccurate statements throughout social media, but I was banned from the restaurant. That is a different story by itself. Therefore, I am using this site and the book to once and for all correct the story of this famous restaurant. THIS IS NOT A TEXAS RECIPE. Part of the problem was a story that appeared on the back of a late 1960's menu that did not get corrected, which was part of Ernie's consternation. As for Mickey, he lost any time to correct it as Ernie unexpectedly passed away before the year was up and he had plenty to deal with to keep it all going. By the time he was able to turn his attention to other things, Mickey was pretty well into the world of chili cook-offs, as a judge and helper, not as a cook. There was no social media continuously blasting the inaccurate history and it wasn't an issue. But now, as the untrue parts are overtaking the true history it is time to put this history in writing. The current owners can write their own history from 1990 on, but it's time they take down Dad's 1975 Los Angeles Magazine spread titled "Chasing Down The Hottest Chili In Town" in which dad and two L.A. restaurants tied for first place. I had that blown up at a shop that did blueprint printing, framed it and gave it to him for Christmas that year. It hangs still today (as I write this) on the wall behind the stool near the kitchen on which mom used to sit at when the counter was quiet. I have a later issue of the same magazine with a similar contest and the Burbank restaurant got a photo of a bowl of chili and didn't make the text. So I don't ever want to hear "since the 1900's and it's never changed." The stories told here relate to chili history that deserves to be known for that history. And even though the chili I tasted recently in 2025 was decent and somewhat close (I was banned but snuck in with a girlfriend and didn't say who I was) it was not the chili of my youth. It is hoped the book will provide a bit of understanding and it is hoped these pages will correct the inaccuracies in the history because history, chili history, matters to some of us.