Whenever I come across the name “Googie’s” I inevitably think of the restaurant next to the famous Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset Blvd that lent its name to a whole architectural style. So I was surprised to find this (undated) photo of another Googie’s restaurant. This one stood at the corner of Fifth and Olive Streets in downtown Los Angeles. That’s quite very central location—it overlooked Pershing Square, in the heart of the city. That lush green vegetation we can see would have been part it—this is back when Pershing Square was actually a park and not the stark square it is today. But that kooky angular, striped awning would have caught the eye of hungry passersby, which of course was the whole point.
That corner is completely unrecognizable now. This image is from June 2021:
When I was in high school, we used to go downtown to the central library (a block west of this location) when we needed to do research for papers. We’d always go to Googie’s for lunch. I have fond memories.
Also, sometimes we’d stroll around the Biltmore, too.
We used to go there after clubbing in the 80s, and my friends Raymond and Debi would put the top money in the water glass and flip it upside down because they were drunks