Smile while you eat.
By Christopher Bonin
Pasadena is known through TV and movies filmed there and for world famous institutions such as Caltech and the NASA JPL Center. But residents of Los Angeles County know that they can also eat great hamburgers there.
Laisse-moi t’expliquer
Pie ‘n Burger, which opened in 1963, is a time machine. One day, I happened to be talking to James, a press photographer, in this legendary Pasadena restaurant. Surprisingly, it made me think about the links between dentistry, gastronomy, and France. Michael Ozborn, the CEO of Pie’N Burger, studied dentistry at USC. Then, over time, this generous man took over the reins of this legendary restaurant which is anchored in the history of Pasadena and southern California. I have not given up hope that a Pie ‘N Burger food truck from Pasadena will one day roll through the streets of Paris. (Everything is possible today. The California brand, In-N-Out, opened a “pop-up restaurant” in the 16th arrondissement on August 14, 2024. It existed for only two hours and sold 400 burgers.)
And what about early dentistry connections?
A surgeon of the French Navy, Jacques Gardette, came to America in 1778 and became the founder of American dentistry. He even made a dental prosthesis for George Washington. American doctors Cyrus Starr Brewster and Thomas Evans also had their dental offices in Paris.
Napoleon III appointed Dr. Evans official « Surgeon-Dentist » of the Emperor. The French Emperor even sent Dr. Evans on a dramatic diplomatic mission to President Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
In Paris, the bust of Horace Wells, the American dentist who discovered anesthesia, overlooks Thomas Jefferson square. And in Chalon sur Saône (Burgundy), as in Paris, you find a George Eastman street. Eastman founded Kodak and he built a Kodak factory in Burgundy. (Since replaced by an Amazon sorting center) because in 1822, Nicéphore Niepce invented photography in Varennes-Saint-Sauveur (in Burgundy, near Chalon sur Saône in France). Kodak film made photography easier and cameras ubiquitous, as do cellphones today.
George Eastman had dental problems all his life. He financed several dental care centers in Europe that still exist, so that younger generations would not suffer as he had. The George Eastman Dental Institute founded in the 13th arrondissement of Paris (inaugurated in 1937) still treats children today.
Henri Benoit Lefrancois in front of Pie ‘n Burger food truck (Photo – Pat Smith)
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