Tag Archives: Restaurants
Plate from Clifton’s Pacific Seas Cafeteria, 618 South Olive Street, downtown Los Angeles
Here we have a plate from Clifton’s Pacific Seas Cafeteria, 618 South Olive Street, downtown Los Angeles. Note the words at the bottom: DINE FREE UNLESS DELIGHTED. Clifton’s was a chain of LA cafeterias that opened at the nadir of … Continue reading
The May Company under construction, Wilshire Blvd circa 1939
It’s not hard to find a photo of the May Company department store on Wilshire Blvd but this is a rare one showing the store under construction in 1939. Little would those construction workers know that what they were building … Continue reading
Bob’s Big Boy drive-in restaurant, Burbank, California, 1940
Here we have Bob’s Big Boy drive-in restaurant in Burbank in 1940. Bob’s is still there but it doesn’t look like this, and it certainly doesn’t have wait staff running around in cowboy boots. Oh boy, the feet of those … Continue reading
Mammy Louise’s Bayou, 8711 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, circa mid 1930s
These days, you’d never find a restaurant with the word “Mammy” in the name, but the 1930s was a different time. Mammy Louise’s Bayou was at 8711 Sunset Blvd on the Sunset Strip. It was run by a black woman … Continue reading
Vogue Drug Co., 2001 W. Sixth St., Los Angeles, 1926, with both bulb and neon lighting
This photo of the Vogue Drug Co. at 2001 W. Sixth St., downtown Los Angeles was taken in 1926. The caption described it being a building whose signs feature the outgoing bulb lighting in favor of the incoming neon tube … Continue reading
A McDonnell’s drive-in carhop is on the job at the corner of Sunset Blvd and La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, circa 1930s
I love it when a place as every day as a drive-in restaurant gets a dramatic portrait. McDonnell’s was a chain of restaurants—both walk-in and drive-in—but of course the drive-ins with their 1930s neon lighting were the most photogenic. I … Continue reading
Venice Pier with the Ship Café visible on the right
I don’t have a date for this shot of the Venice Pier but it’s probably circa 1910s or 20s. On the right we can see the Ship Café, which opened in 1905 by Baron Long (who went on to develop … Continue reading
Wilshire Boulevard neon lightshow, Los Angeles, 1945.
This 1945 shot shows us was a buffet of neon Wilshire Blvd could be at dusk. At just one corner we have a “READ EXAMINER WANT ADS” with a Richfield gas station and a Simon’s Sandwiches drive-in restaurant. The “Examiner” … Continue reading
23 Hollywood celebrities autograph Casa D’Amore’s “What Our Patrons Say” card
Casa D’Amore 1644 Cahuenga Blvd Hollywood Celebrities listed in order: Tommy Dorsey Jimmy Dorsey Lana Turner Milton Berle Pietro Cimini Jerry Colonna Jackie Cooper Ann Miller Laird Cregar Cass Daley Joe Cotton Joan Davis Linda Darnell John Garfield Kay Kyser … Continue reading
J.J. Newberry’s Five & Dime, San Bernardino, 1937
Until I saw this photo of J.J. Newberry’s in San Bernardino in 1937, I’d forgotten how the counters at the five-and-dimes were laid out: long aisles as far as you could see displaying everything that you could imagine. It also … Continue reading