Hof’s Hut

Harold Hofman started serving 15-cent Hofburgers off a beach stand in Long Beach in the 1940s before opening a permanent diner in Belmont Shore in 1947. The Torrance outpost on Crenshaw Boulevard keeps the same coffee-shop format his family has run since: all-day breakfast, chili, onion rings, and pies baked in house. Craig Hofman, born in 1951, the year the business took its current family-run shape, now runs the chain his father built. It's counter-and-booth simple: order, sit, and wait for a slice of pie to come out warm.