In the 1930s and 40s, McDonnell’s was a chain of more than 15 restaurants around Los Angeles. This one was called McDonnell’s Fairfax restaurant and stood near the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Fairfax Ave (which puts it near the iconic May Company department store.) Apparently their signature dish – or at least the one they were pushing in 1941, when this photo was taken – was called “Chicken in the Rough.” Does anyone reading this remember what that was? It was only 50 cents, which sounds like a pretty good deal to me. And check out that huge arrow they had up on the pole. You couldn’t miss it!
McDonnell’s Fairfax restaurant near the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, 1941
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Prolly related to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_in_the_Rough
Ah! Thanks MMM! Yep, you’re probably right. It never occurred to me to look it up on Wikipedia!
Interesting when you consider McDonnell’s menus often note that they had their own chicken sourcing. Perhaps they withdrew from this franchising arrangement?
BTW, I do have a McDonnell’s ashtray stashed away with a location list in the applied print. IIRC, it’s blue glass which should match up to the blue glasswares seen in the cover photo of one of their menus…the china in the image appears to be the “Pink Roxbury” open stock pattern. And one Worthpoint record of a group sale of 60 pieces of commercial flatware noted McDonnell’s among them, but the images were so awful there was no way to view this piece…it might reveal a supplier to the chain. Too bad no interior photos seem to come up for any of the locations.