Every now and then, a photo comes along that make me want to a running into the screen: this is one such photo. This vibrant color photo is of Ben Frank’s restaurant at 8585 Sunset Blvd in the middle of the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. It opened around 1962 in the very LA-centric architectural style known as Googie, which featured wall and roofs at kooky angles. Also very Googie is that space-age needle holding onto the neon sign. It’s job was to catch the eye of drivers cruising along the Strip—and I’m sure it did its job very well.
My thanks for David G for this gem.
Lisa Benjamin Gilmour says: “The restaurant was named after my grandfather, Ben Frank, who along with his father, Abe, ran the Ambassador Hotel from 1921-1938. After my grandfather left the Ambassador he opened Ben Frank’s on Western and 8th in 1948/49. My grandfather trained a young, ambitious man named Bob Erhman, who worked there for many years. After my grandfather passed in 1953, the restaurant was sold. A decade or so after, Bob and his business partner opened their version of Ben Frank’s. Bob wanted to honor all the generous training he received from my grandfather that led him to own his own restaurant. That’s why it’s named Ben Frank’s!”
Here’s a close-up of the brown-and-white 1959 Chevrolet parked out front. A car this long is my worst parallel parking nightmare.
This is how that view looked in February 2021. It is now known as Mel’s Diner.
The ABC TV show 77 Sunset Strip 1958-1964 with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Edd Byrnes as Kookie (Kookie Kookie lend me your comb)
The building featured in the series was across the street from Ben Franks.
As a sidebar..when the public buses were on strike Mr. Zimbalist would pick up a few of us and drive us to Portola Jr. High. (his daughter Stephanie was younger) that is how neighbors operated. How about arriving at school in his 1934 Packard 1104 Super Eight Phaeton?
Lucky you Rosanne! Also across the street was Dino’s Restaurant! I’m glad Ben Frank’s is still there, even with a different name. So many Googie style coffee shops (restaurants that served a variety of meals) are gone. You can be hard pressed to find any coffee shops. When you say “coffee shop” to people nowadays they think you’re taking about Starbucks or Coffee Bean. I used to know where a half-dozen or more Denny’s were and now I can only think of one.
Then there were Ships on Wilshire & Westwood and another at Olympic and La Cienega. A few steps above was Ollie Hammond on restaurant row where breakfast was served late at night and in the wee hours of the morning. In Beverly Hills, Walters (closed a couple of years ago) and the best scoop of tuna and a cup of coffee is at Schwabs Pharmacy (435 N. Bedford) counter.
I used to frequent the Ships in Culver City, practically every day for lunch, when I worked there. I loved their clam chowder on Fridays. It wasn’t really Boston or Manhattan style; there was some kind of Mexican flavor to it.
I know the one at La Cienega and Olympic was used for filming in the movie “Into the Night.” It starred Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer. Lots of L.A. locations in that film, like Randy’s Donuts, LAX, the Shubert Theatre, Tommy’s Burgers, Frederick’s of Hollywood…among others.
And your own table jukebox and on some tables a toaster! Fun memories!
I always tight it odd (ironic?) that a genuine, honest-to-goodness diner was replaced by a not very good facsimile of a genuine diner
At least that particular ’59 Chevy would be a bit easier to parallel park being a station wagon – no need to guesstimate where the car ends, you can see the inside of the tailgate from the driver’s seat and the end of the car is just on the other side of it.
When I moved to Los Angeles in 1964 I had a little crappy apartment on Sherwood Drive, just down from here. Perry Lopez also lived there and I wondered why a ‘famous movie star’ was living in such a cheesy place. That was long before I realized that just because you’re getting parts in movies and your name in the movie magazines doesn’t mean you’re wealthy. One of my first dates took me up on the Sunset Strip one night and I recognized all the places I’d seen on tv, and then we went to Ben Franks for a late bite. It seemed to just glitter. I thought I’d made the big time.
Then since I worked across the street in Culver City, I spent a lot of time in the Ships there as well. Besides the soup, I loved the chicken fried steak with the canned peach. Don’t ask me why. ?!
What a trip! The architecture is the star. You had imagination back then. Today, they may know how to build the tallest skyscraper, right?
But these small, quaint little getaways seem to be forgotten. Not in the plans. That’s real Hollywood, and the way it was meant to be.
Another reason why we should preserve Hollywood. Thank you!