The original Brown Derby restaurant at 3427 Wilshire Blvd, 1952
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What a beautiful shot! It reminds me of the restaurant/motel combo with the driveway and parking lot separating the two. So sad all the Brown Derby’s are gone.
I ate at the Pasadena location in the ’80s. My mom treated me for a birthday supper. She thought it was one of the famous ones (!) and surprised me by taking me there. I want to say it was on Colorado Blvd. but what’s puzzling is I can’t find anything online about this location ???? Definitely not The Derby near the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia. This was supposed to be affiliated with the Brown Derby chain. Wish I still had a matchbook. I don’t think it was open long. Whatever the name was, it was very foo foo with white linen tablecloths and tiny dibbles of food. We never went back though but I still carry the memory!
Jean
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Here’s a 2011 article about the selling of the last BD property.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/last-brown-derby-restaurant-property-224627
Okay, I knew I wasn’t crazy. I was looking through some old things I had packed away and came across a birthday card my mom gave to me in 1986. Inside the card was a folded sepia-toned newspaper clipping ad for The Brown Derby which was located at 911 E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena. She wrote down directions on how to get there (we lived in Arcadia at the time) and our 8:00 pm reservations time! She even wrote “valet parking” haha Boy, that was big for us. We rarely and I mean rarely ate in anything more than coffeeshops.
What I also love about this ad other than my mother kept it as a memento is although this is the Pasadena location, there is a centered cartoon caricature of Gable with his arm around Lombard. Above this: “If it’s just anyone, anyplace will do. If it’s someone important, say ‘Meet me at the Derby.’ Below Gable and Lombard is another paragraph: “When Clark Gable wanted to propose to Carole Lombard, he took her to the Brown Derby. No place else would do. For your important luncheon or dinner engagements, remember the Derby” And the brown derby hat and restaurant’s name and 1926.
This location WAS affiliated with the others as I suspected. I have no idea how long it was in Pasadena, but I don’t think for long.
However I can truthfully say I’ve eaten at the Brown Derby (twice – the Wilshire hat location first and later in Pasadena) Wish I’d gotten over to the Vine Street one though!
Jean