About a week ago, I posted a photo of the then-freshly laid stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In the background, I noticed a sign for a diner I’d never heard of called Toff’s. Quite my accident I later came across this color photo showing that their main sign was blue and their Googie angled roof. This photo was taken during the summer of 1967, when the 5th James Bond movie, “You Only Live Twice” was enjoying its impressive 10-week run at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
In this photo we can see Toff’s Googie-style architecture:
Matchbook for Toff’s restaurant: “Try Our Fine Foods”
I found this one on the LosAngelesTheatres blog taken May or June, 1955 when “Daddy Long Legs” was playing Grauman’s Chinese.
I love the tall guy and the short chubby fellow underneath him. Why doesn’t anyone do fun stuff like that today? When was toff’s destroyed?
I’m having trouble finding any info on Toff’s at all, which is surprising given it’s prominent location next to Grauman’s Chinese.
The middle photo of Toff’s above from the Los Angeles Theatres Blog is from 1954 and has a sign in the window that says “Open Soon.” The latest photo I’ve seen of it was on Bruce Torrence’s Hollywood Photographs and that was dated 1977.
Lots of photos were taken around the Chinese in 1977-78 when Star Wars was there, but I can’t find any that showed the corner where Toff’s was. It was definitely not there when the Chinese 2 & 3 Theatres opened in that spot in 1979.
It was little more than a covered lunch counter. I’ve never seen one that narrow. It puts me in mind of the long lunch counters in the Woolworth buildings. I’d like to have stopped there on a sunny afternoon.
Yes, those two B&W photos show how narrow it was. And yes, it looks like it had to have been one long counter.
You can see tables and chairs along the window with the long counter seats beyond. It’s always possible that there could have been a basement area for storage and more. But that storm drain might be a problem.
She’s wielding a movie camera…where’s that footage now?
Wouldn’t that be a great discovery of “found footage”?!
Two right arms and a wishbone’s worth.
The matchbook photo is the first I’ve heard that Toff’s stands for Try Our Fine Foods.” I just thought it was someone’s name!
I don’t know that it actually does stand for that or if they were just playing off the letters in their name. Either way, it’s kind of cute, isn’t it?
Good point!