A few days ago I posted a shot of Hollywood Boulevard, noting the distinct architecture of stores built back in the 1930s. I think this photo illustrates this point even better. This is the Bilicke Building, which opened in 1930, and used to stand at the northeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Gramercy Place. From what I can see, it used to house 8 or 9 different business, and each of them featuring a quite different aesthetic. The one in the middle is the most well known. At first it was a Brown Derby, but that didn’t last too long and then became the Hi-Hat. That also failed to set the world on fire, and became the first incarnation of an LA institution, Perino’s.