LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is a cheeseburger aficionado. So, when he calls your burgers one of his "favorite" burgers, you've got something going for you.
"It puts a smile on my face," Tommy's owner Bob Auerbach said. "Let me say, 'Thank you, Andy. I'm a Chargers fan but thank you. You have good taste, my friend.'"
Reid grew up in Los Angeles right around the corner from the original Tommy's location.
Auerbach's step-father purchased the burger shack where he worked and lived.
"The story is, these sacks of onions, he would sleep on the onions until someone would wake him up and say, 'Hey, make me a burger,'" Auerbach said.
Tommy's has grown since then. Today, Tommy's has 34 locations and has become a Los Angeles icon, in a city full of them.
"Truly we've been having famous people come to Tommy's for years and years," Auerbach said. "Elizabeth Taylor loved Tommy burgers."
Reid once told the LA Times that Tommy's burgers are "good for you joints" and that the grease "keeps you lubed up, man."
Auerbach said the chili is his signature ingredient.
"It warms you up, man. It's like your barbecue out there in KC," Auerbach said.
Reid has been known to ship his Tommy's burgers from L.A. all the way to Kansas City.
"We have shipped it to England, as a matter of fact," Auerbach said. "We had a young man who was flying jets over in England who grew up in the United States and his parents surprised him by shipping a gallon of chili."
The only thing better than a shipment or a shout-out would be a visit, Auerbach said.
"We roll out the red carpet for every customer," he said. "But if Andy Reid shows up, I'll personally make him a hamburger, a triple quarter-pounder. That's a gut-buster."
It's good for your joints, we hear.
