Best Places to Spend Father's Day in Toluca Lake

Are you tired of giving pops the same old necktie, socks, slippers or sweater for Father's Day? Here are some local ideas from around Toluca Lake to show your dear old dad how much you care without spending an arm and a leg.

Pick up a special bottle of wine or collection of beers from all around the world at , the Valley’s best wine store. If dad is into cigars you can also purchase his favorite brand at their cigar lounge, located at 10600 Riverside Drive.

Celebrate Father’s Day and the 60th anniversary of . Located at 4410 Lankershim Boulevard, June marks the restaurant’s 60th anniversary of their opening on June 17, 1952. Enjoy a live mariachi band and authentic tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas and fajitas as well as margarita specials.

If you have a rockin dad, treat him to a tattoo at the , located at 4427 Lankershim Boulevard. Opened in 1995, this small, clean tattoo shop offers hundreds of designs to choose from or create an original tattoo with Abl, their main artist.

Venture outside the Toluca Lake boundaries a few blocks to the (since Toluca Lake doesn't have a movie theater of its own) located at 5240 Lankershim Boulevard, where two great sci-fi flicks are playing. Treat dad to a double feature of Prometheus, the latest space thriller from Ridley Scott and Zombie Dawn, a Spanish language horror movie filmed in Chile.

History of Father's Day

The idea of creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in the United States. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father 's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.

Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child.  He was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.

It was after Sonora Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. She wanted her father to know how special he was to her. At about the same time in various towns and cities across America other people were beginning to celebrate a "Father's Day."

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father 's Day.

Father s Day has become a day to not only honor your father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers and adult male friends can all be celebrated this Sunday.