I don’t have a lot of information on this coffee shop, but I find this image so evocative of 1950s LA coffee shops that, for me, at least , it’s enough. This color night photo is of Pick’s coffee shop at 11925 Santa Monica Blvd in West Los Angeles. With is neon-lit zigzagging roofline, I suspect it qualifies as being in the Googie style, but I’m not 100% sure. At the very least it’s Googie-adjacent. Either way, it looks very inviting for a late-night feast of coffee and pancakes, doesn’t it?
** UPDATE ** – Rob R says: “It has all the tell-tale signs of Googie. Bold, geometric shapes, futuristic-vibe, cantilevered roof lines, floor-to-ceiling windows, a mixture of materials, including glass, steel, concrete, and raw boulders. It’s definitely Googie style! There also was a restaurant called Pix Coffee Shop at 10531 S. Western Ave.”
Here is a daytime shot:
And of course the mandatory matchbook:
And ashtray:
This is what occupied that location in August 2022.
Now it’s a strip mall! Wonder how long Pick’s was there? It seems to me lots of strip malls started being built in the early ’80s. I always disliked them and over time they look worse.
I know I’ve driven by Pick’s decades ago, but I couldn’t remember exactly where it was. Good thing the matchbook has that addresss on it. Also, how old is it that it still has the alpha prefix on the phone number?
My grandmother’s phone number when I was a little kid had a GR prefix: GR9-3939. Easy to memorize.
The strip mall is hideous.
I as well hate strip malls!!! When does this insanity stop!!! We are losing icons everyday to the wrecking ball and nobody seems to want to stop it.
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!
You do realize that someone has to pay for all the buildings you want to have been saved. More population means coffee shops with large parking areas are being bought up and replaced with underground parking and other businesses. If you want to stop it do you have the money to do so?
Do you approve of many of the ’80s strip malls disappearing now and replaced with underground parking apartment buildings and the first floor being retail spaces?