Did you know that longtime favorite San Gabriel Valley neighborhood diner Twohey’s turned 80 years old last year? While they really don’t look a year past 75, they are still serving a wide and delicious range of American comfort food from ribs (more on that later) to chicken and pasta, along with a traditional soda fountain.
Born in nearby Alhambra, in 1943, Twoheys relocated to South Pasadena in 2020, to a longtime restaurant site that now features a traditional lunch counter and soda fountain as well as a full bar, outdoor patios, and private dining room in a contemporary setting.
But we are here for the cheeseburgers, and Twoheys has quite a few of them. All of the handcrafted burgers at Twohey’s feature a ½ lb beef patty served on a brioche bun, along with a choice of french fries, garlic fries, homemade potato chips (!), and sweet potato fries, or potato salad, or a mixed green salad with mint-basil orange dressing.
We showed up on Saturday, and family owner Tanya Christos happily suggested the Bacon & Bleu with Applewood smoked bacon, bleu cheese crumbles, arugula, red onion, tomato, and of course, bleu cheese dressing. The sizable burger (as they all are) was overwhelming, along with a serving of their legendary onion rings.
The bleu cheese is properly tart, playing off the thickly sliced bacon, and lends a sophisticated touch to what is already an impressive burger.
And as we enjoyed a small (read large) version of the Twohey’s famous chocolate sundae, she actually suggested we return on Monday to try two more burgers. How could we argue?
Thus we returned on a rainy Monday afternoon to tackle the DBA Burger and of course, the All-American.
First, the DBA: It’s got that Angus beef-bacon patty, along with its own applewood smoked bacon, some generous slices of avocado, yummy pepper Jack cheese, some fresh arugula, fresh tomato slices, and some creamy, spicy Sriracha aioli.
You can already imagine what all of that would taste like. I can only confirm your fondest dreams.
From there we consumed The All-American, which is simple and classic, with its Aged Tillamook cheddar, lettuce, and tomato. Basic and delicious.
And because we mentioned that Twohey’s has a range of burgers, lets just mention that they’ve also got The Californian, which features Applewood smoked bacon, avocado, caramelized onions, mozzarella cheese, and chipotle aioli; the Beyond Burger, which has a Beyond Meat patty, along with avocado, arugula, tomato, pickled red onions and cucumbers, and roasted red pepper aioli, on a wheat bun.
The Turkey Burger features its own handcrafted turkey patty, Havarti cheese, more fresh arugula, some caramelized onions, slices of tomato, roasted red pepper aioli, on the same wheat bun.
That’s a lot of Cheeseburgers, but life is all about goals. And they’ve got at least one of our votes here.
Speaking of which, you can still take the Cheeseburger Challenge and vote for your own favorites.
Meanwhile, on a whole different subject, Twohey’s is currently having an ‘All You Can Eat” Ribs Special through Mid-February. We’ll be back here next week with a “full” report, so to speak.
Pasadena’s Cheeseburger Week runs from Sunday, Jan 21, 2024 through January 27. For more, click here.
