Smile while eating.
By Christopher Bonin
Pasadena is known for television shows and movies that have been filmed there, as well as world-famous institutions like Caltech and the NASA JPL Center, but Los Angeles County residents know they can also eat great hamburgers there.
Let me explain
Pie ‘n Burger, opened in 1963, is a time machine. One day, I happened to chat with James, a press photographer, at this legendary Pasadena restaurant. Surprisingly, it got me thinking about the links between dentistry, gastronomy and France. Michael Ozborn, the CEO of Pie’N Burger, studied dentistry at USC. Then, over time, this generous man took over the management of this legendary restaurant, which is enshrined in the history of Pasadena and Southern California. I have not given up hope that one day a Pie ‘N Burger food truck from Pasadena will roll through the streets of Paris. (Today, anything is possible. The Californian brand In-N-Out opened a “pop-up restaurant” in the 16th arrondissement on August 14, 2024. It existed for only two hours and sold 400 burgers.)
And what about your early contacts with dentistry?
A surgeon from the French Navy, Jacques Gardette, came to America in 1778 and became the founder of American dentistry. He even made a denture for George Washington. The American doctors Cyrus Starr Brewster and Thomas Evans also had their dental practices in Paris.
Napoleon III appointed Dr. Evans as the Emperor’s official “surgeon-dentist.” The French Emperor even sent Dr. Evans on a dramatic diplomatic mission to President Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
In Paris, the bust of Horace Wells, the American dentist who discovered anesthesia, towers over Thomas Jefferson Square. And in Chalon sur Saône (Burgundy), there is a George Eastman Street, just like in Paris. Eastman founded Kodak and built a Kodak factory in Burgundy (it has since been replaced by an Amazon sorting center) because Nicéphore Niepce invented photography in 1822 in Varennes-Saint-Sauveur (in Burgundy, near Chalon sur Saône in France). Kodak films made photography easier and cameras were ubiquitous, just as mobile phones are today.
George Eastman suffered from dental problems throughout his life. He funded several dental care centers in Europe that still exist today so that younger generations would not have to suffer as he did. The George Eastman Dental Institute, founded in the 13th arrondissement of Paris (opened in 1937), still treats children today.
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