Latif’s Restaurant was started by a man named Latif. He was Albanian and had been drafted to cook for the 20,000+ workers building ships for WWII. Afterwards, he settled in Turlock, CA, and opened his restaurant.
The current family owners bought it from him in 1971; I chatted with the patriarch who was working the cash register and he was telling me his son owns the place now and he just works there for the food. He was a great guy and I really regret not snapping a photo with him.
He gave me a rundown on the history of the place and the celebs who stopped by — the Beach Boys, local politicians, and most famously it was a dining stop for then Vice-President and Presidential Candidate George HW Bush. Barbara and Jeb(!) were with him, as was Chuck Norris (!!). That’s right — Chuck Norris was in the Bush entourage. I actually vaguely kinda remember knowing that he was a staunch Republican and that it would make sense that Walker Texas Ranger would be a G Herbert Walker Bush-man.
In any case, the stools where George Bush and Barbara Bush sat have placards on the backs of them; the one Chuck Norris sat in weirdly does not. But I snapped a few photos on my road trip back from Modesto, post marathon. I was still dripping wet from splashed cups of water and so didn’t want to sit down and my stomach wasn’t exactly right for pie. It was one of the rare occasions I have turned down pie… I regretted it even then and especially now — LOOK AT THEIR PIES (photo taken from Yelp!):
Nonetheless, here I am standing NEXT TO where a then VP and Future President of the United States… and future FATHER of a President of the United States sat.
