After spending the afternoon shopping with my gal pals Kelly and Brenda for the perfect Spring Dance frock, we were in dire need of something good to eat. Brenda suggested that we hit up a diner a few blocks away because her brother was working the dinner shift.  I wasn’t in a burger and milkshake mood, but Brenda’s twin brother Brandon is pretty hot and is known to offer up freebies when the restaurant’s owner isn’t looking.

We pulled up to a retro-style restaurant emblazoned with the words “Peach Pit” in neon lights. Once inside, we were greeted by Nat Bussichio, the restaurant’s amiable proprietor. He pointed us towards a comfortable corner booth near the back and handed each of us a menu, knowing very well that neither Kelly nor Brenda ate much of anything.

As we settled into our seats, I glanced around the room to admire the decor. The brightly lit space was accented with chrome trimmed tables and waiters sporting fetching maroon and teal shirts. The records pasted on the wall and penny jukeboxes gave the Pit a decidedly throwback feel.

Brandon came by soon after to recite the daily specials and to take our orders. The Peach Pit offers classic diner fare, from fries to burgers to ice cream sundaes. The Mint Chocolate Marshmallow Jelly Bean Extravaganza Sundae is our friend Donna’s favorite for when she’s feeling traumatized (like that one afternoon when she witnessed her mother cheating on her father and missed hanging out with Color Me Badd). Quite a few menu items caught my eye, but I was told that the thing to get here is the famed Mega Burger. I went ahead and ordered the signature dish and a malted milkshake to go with it.

While we waited for our food to arrive, Kelly talked about how excited she was to be voted Spring Princess for the upcoming dance. She planned on buying Brandon, her date for the evening, a vegetable corsage. Brenda was noticeably quiet throughout the conversation because she had no interest in attending the dance. Instead, she planned on checking into a hotel room with her Porsche-driving boyfriend Dylan McKay for a night of deflowering.

Before we could get to the subject of birth control, our food had arrived. The Mega Burger ($10.99) was practically the size of Jack McKay’s illegal bank roll. In between the toasted buns were two all-beef patties, slices of American and Swiss cheese, tomatoes, hand-leafed lettuce, and Bermuda onions. It was a beefy mouthful, but I somehow managed to get a bit of everything in my first bite.

Hand-ground each morning by Nat, the beef was extremely moist and grilled to a medium rare. I was afraid that the burger would be dry due to the lack of sauces, but I needn’t have worried. The juicy patties, combined with the oozy cheese, was just about perfect. The sweet and cool milkshake offered the perfect complement. Now, I totally understand why my hoity-toity friends come here, even though Brenda was robbed at gun point one night.

After I polished off my burger and my friends grew tired of pretending to eat, we paid our bill and headed to a club down the street where our friend David Silver was playing a gig. We all swooned when he played his hit single, “You’re So Precious to Me.” Donna is such a lucky girl!

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The Peach Pit
Beverly Hills, CA 90210