Am I the only one who looks at this photo and the “Happy Days” TV show theme song starts playing in my head? Here we have a glorious color nighttime photo of Hody’s coffee shop—and it looks like it took up the whole block. It stood at 6006 Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, so there was probably lots of land. One of the cars parked out front is a1961 Pontiac Catalina, so I’m calling this circa early 1960s.
Ira L. said: “My family dined at this Hody’s almost every week in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The building was huge and was not only a coffee shop- there was also a formal dining room restaurant, a cocktail lounge restaurant, and a banquet facility. We ate in the formal dining room and always had the same server – her name was Peggy and she was from Scotland and had a wonderful accent. They had a fabulous children’s menu which also turned into a clown mask. In the Fall they gave the kids pencil boxes with supplies for the start of the school year. A great memory.”
My thanks to David G. for sending me the Hody’s kids menu which was printed on a clown face:
This is how 6006 Lankershim Blvd looked in January 2019. It’s now home to a Subway sandwich shop and a huge parking lot, which isn’t quite so atmospheric, is it?
My first apartment was not far from there back in 82. It was a studio on Lankershim just below Victory Blvd. I don’t remember if Hody’s was there. I don’t have good memories of living there, not the best of area at that time, I was working night crew at Gemco Grocery at Victory and Vineland. I can’t imagine it being to much different back in the early 60’s. Mid 70’s I remember eating at Denny’s at Lankershim and Burbank on our epic bike ride to Van Nuys Go Cart in 7th or eighth grade and it was very busy around there at that time.
Looks like crap now!!!!