©Glenn Koenig / LAT

19th century Los Angeles cattle ranchers knew how to party. They threw massive barbecue orgies that lasted for days. They dug huge pits deep into the ground, and slow smoked 65,000 pounds of beef at a time for thousands of guests.

Charles Perry of the L.A. Times dug through historical archives to unearth this style of cooking seldom seen in our paved-over City of Angels. It’s a great food anthropology story, and a fabulous-sounding meal recreated by modern day food adventurists. Read about it here.

Just today, Orange County’s Filling Station Cafe opened the Thanksgiving order book for their legendary pumpkin and apple pies.

This mom and pop restaurant’s behemoth pies of incomparable flavor sell out fast. You have two weeks or so before they max out capacity.

How much does it cost? In the time it took you to read that, someone else is dialing the phone. I can’t bake pies this perfectly dialed in, nor do I want to practice before the holiday. I got mine. You get yours.

Filling Station Cafe
201 N. Glassell St.
Orange, CA 92866
714-289-9714