
The verdict? “It’s f- amazing,” Ghavami said, one bite in.
#MEMORIES BRING BACK YOU PLUS#
Though the new Irv’s menu sports pastrami sandwiches, hot dogs, vegan burgers and tuna melts, she played it classic for her first meal there: a single-patty cheeseburger with fries, a Coke and a side of the house-made Irv’s sauce, plus a sprinkle-topped birthday cookie because it was cute. “I was like, ‘Well, if it’s good enough for the Clash, it’s good enough for me,’” she said. “I’ve been seeing the progression of the reopening,” she said, “so I’m like, ‘What’s the big deal here?’” But what really caught her eye, she shared, was the enlarged, framed photo hanging on the wall of the new glassed-in dining room, a shot that’s iconic to Irv’s lore: the Clash stationed out front of the burger shack in 1982, taken by celebrity photographer Bonnie Schiffman. Ghavami, a DJ who also goes by Rose Knows, works just down the block from the new location and had noticed the new signage and the commotion. Rose Ghavami had never been to Irv’s, but she’d been curious for months. On reopening day, he didn’t bring “his only friend” to get roasted again, but he did bring his dog, Mia.

“I was devastated - I felt so bad for them because they’re such a staple of the neighborhood.” As soon as he learned of the reopening, he began marking the days until he could return, this time to the new location, for his go-to order of fries, a Coke and a single cheeseburger (sometimes with bacon, sometimes not). When Irv’s closed, Evans, like so many who were there on reopening day, said he was upset by the news. She always draws a little picture and she remembers you, and she remembers which street I live on.”Īs a regular, he usually flew solo, except on one visit when a friend tagged along - and Hong took the opportunity to roast him: She drew faces on the paper plate as she normally would but labeled it “James and his only friend.” Her and her mom, they’re just always so great.

“Sonia was the nicest person in the world, and it just made me fall in love with the place,” he said. James Evans walked by the last location of Irv’s for years until finally stopping for a burger out of curiosity.
