Come for the gangsta history, stay for the fries
Tam’s on West Rosencrans Avenue has been slinging big burgers since 1971. Simple is the modus operandi at Tam’s. The windows are covered in bright decals with oversized pictures of gut-busting menu items like the pastrami burger and chili cheese fries. Over the years the menu has expanded to include Mexican food staples like burritos and tamales alongside classic American diner fare. Dining is available inside at one of nine booths in a long galley-style corridor next to white tiled walls with light blue and red accents, or outside under a green corrugated metal awning at circular cement tables.
Or opt for drive-thru service. Don’t be alarmed by the bulletproof glass between the cashier and the customer. Compton, CA, has a storied past. Hard hit by the crippling crack epidemic of the eighties, Compton was plagued by gang violence. It was also the cornerstone of West Coast gangsta rap – giving rise to such hip-hop acts as N.W.A., whose story is brilliantly told in the biopic Straight Outta Compton. Consider the bulletproof glass a souvenir of those days. (You can bet your boots the Starbucks across the street wasn’t around back then.)
Info
Address 1201 W Rosecrans Avenue, Compton, CA 90222, +1 310.537.8478 | Getting there Free on-site lot | Hours Daily 6am–midnight| Tip Watts Towers (1727 E 107th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90002), about 3.5 miles north, is the lifelong work of Simon Rodia and an iconic symbol of the Watts neighborhood. Tours are available for a nominal fee (Thu–Sat 10:30am to 3pm, Sun noon–3pm).
Tam’s was the site of an old-school gangsta flashback on a fateful afternoon in late January 2015. Death Row Records cofounder Suge Knight, having allegedly just been asked to leave the set of a TV promo for Straight Outta Compton being filmed a few blocks away, rolled into the Tam’s parking lot in his red F-150 Raptor truck. A surveillance video captured blurry images of rapper-turned-filmmaker Cle “Bone” Sloan approaching Knight’s truck on foot, followed by a flurry of punches exchanged through the driver’s-side window, and finally the Raptor backing up over Sloan, exiting the frame, and then returning and running over Terry Carter, a longtime Compton resident with ties to the music biz. A somber episode from Compton’s rough past.
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