Now its getting personal

FRESNO — Angelo's Drive-In didn't change, even when its slice of the city — by the train tracks and the highway — turned gritty. Customers moved to nicer neighborhoods. But they still flocked to the 1950s burger joint because of all the things that stayed the same: the chili, the Thousand Island dressing, the red-vinyl booths faded to orange. Angelo didn't own it anymore, of course. He'd sold it to his nephew Jim Karos, a Greek immigrant who ran it with his son Junior. In 2004, Junior sold it to Kay Lim and Ken Chea, Cambodian immigrants. PHOTOS: Driven out by high-speed rail That meant there were still owners who worked six days a week. The few customers the couple didn't know by name, they knew by their orders: more onions, burn hamburger, triple cheese. Then, this month, a woman from the California High Speed Rail Authority came with a big stack of papers. "So sorry … just doing my job … here's a number to call," she said. Lim and Chea are supposed to be out by Sept. 15. Angelo's, born of car culture, is giving way to California's long-awaited bullet train. The state's acquisition offer is $100,000 for the building and land, and $20,000 for the business. If the family wants to take the big neon hamburger, it will cost them $1,000. LA Times

I wasn't too bothered by the California Choo Choo fiasco, after all the California legislature is a dim bulb. But given that the Choo Choo is politically dead, why hassle my favorite restaurant. The Choo Choo nuts will shut down the restaurant, but are not likely getting the funds to put in the tracks. So, in a feat of multiplier less than one, Fresno loses the best place in town for French Dip sandwiches, and gets nothing in return.