Over the years, Los Angeles has had its fair share of exotically themed restaurants, but one of the more outlandish was the restaurant shown in this photo. The Zulu Hut stood at 11100 Ventura Blvd in Studio City in the San Fernando Valley not far from Universal Studios. I don’t know what the Zulu people actually ate in South Africa, but in Southern California, the menu included cornpones (cornmeal bread), squab (aka pigeon), and fried chicken. One report I read said that the waiters served their customers in black face. I guess some places still serve pigeon these days (though I haven’t even seen it in any LA restaurant I’ve been to) I’m glad we’ve moved past the black-face era. The Zulu Hut was open from 1924 until it burned down in 1931.

These days, 11100 Ventura Blvd is occupied by a British pub called The Fox and Hounds. This image is from May 2024.