Diners, Restaurants, Cafe & Bar 1930's - 1960's

The joint originally opened in 1958 as Stanley Burke’s Coffee Shop and later became the ultra-popular Lamplighter.



If the exterior of the place looks familiar, it should. Corky’s was designed by the famous 1950’s architects Arnett & Davis, the team behind the iconic Original Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake,
CA.



And even with the renovations over the years, the interior and exterior have kept their Googie characteristics that helps it remain the epitome of retro cool.

At the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Kester Avenue in Sherman Oaks, Mel’s Drive-In (formerly known as Kerry’s) exhibits a striking profile. Having seen it on the street before I knew what it was, I took it at first for a retro reproduction of a Googie coffee shop, only discovering later that it was built in 1953 and designed by the great Armét and Davis firm. In honor and memory of the late Eldon Davis, the May installment of the Googie Coffee Shops Bicycle Ride Series took us over the hills to pay Mel’s a visit.





Mel’s follows the classic Armét and Davis profile, with a roofline that angles up toward the street to define a space simultaneously cozy and open, although it is less sure of this diagram than later coffee shops like Pann’s and La Cienega Norm’s.




While we should be grateful that it is still operating at all, this coffee shop has suffered terribly from the heavy-handed interventions of the Mel’s Drive-In brand. It has fared far worse than the formerly Ben Franks location. Compare the photo above with how it looked in the mid-1980s in this image hosted on Flickr (one in a great set of 1980s photographs of mid-century Googie architecture):




Here you can clearly see the mistakes made by the Mel’s remodel. The pylon sign was already bad by the 1980s, but Mel’s really went wrong in a few places – the contrasting edge of the angled roof line, the tile applied to the retaining wall that follows the sidewalk, and worst of all, what they did to the front along Ventura Boulevard.




The original design integrated the angled posts that support this roofline by expressing them all the way up and even a couple feet above the top of this roof-parapet element; we read it as an architectural element integrated with the roof of the building. Mel’s remodel cut off the expressive angled column elements in order to transform the front into something like a billboard, and applied a bunch of diner-like signage elements that lack relation to both the style and the structural module of the architecture. Seeing a poor remodel often brings the merits of an original design into starker relief.

Pann's distinctive tropical landscaping and interior design was the brainchild of Helen Liu Fong, who had a hand in many of Armet & Davis most well known works and was one of the first women to join the American Institute of Architects.



Pann's is one of the last and best of the iconic futuristic coffee shops designed by the prolific firm of Armet & Davis. Its traffic island is an oasis of subtropical planting beneath an immense, hovering "tortoise shell" roof. An offkilter, animated neon sign bursts skyward. Inside, the restaurant boasts all of the hallmarks of the California coffee shop style—terrazzo floors, massive sheets of plate glass, a soaring roofline, flagstone walls, and planters rising out of the ground. Alan Hess writes in Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture that "these were places where George Jetson and Fred Flintstone could meet over a cup of coffee."




Louis Armet and Eldon Davis started their practice in 1947. In the period before 1970, they designed thousands of buildings in their distinct style—not just coffee shops, but private homes, markets, shopping centers, country clubs, even churches and cemeteries. Most of Armet & Davis' projects of this period contained custom-designed artwork, many in new materials such as plastics and resins. In addition to being a feast for the eyes, Pann's is notable for still being owned and lovingly cared for by family members of its original owners. Note the illustrated history of the owners' migration from Greece, across the U.S. to Los Angeles, near the Pann's entrance. In 1993, second-generation owner Jim Poulos completely restored Pann's to its 1958 glory, receiving a Conservancy Preservation Award for his efforts.

926 Tuscarawas St W, Canton, OH 44707, États-Unis
Téléphone :+1 330-456-7391

1960s Carvel Ice Cream Store Vintage Photo. Via Christian Montone Flickr.

Sometimes you can look no further...than your own backyard/hood & find art,history & culture ! The "Flying Bridge" looks like this today in Oceanside,Ca......my jazz band the now defunct 'Lounge Butchers" performed there in 2007 & 2008.... Goddess Wife Barbara Bidrowski got us booked through Janet McClenney Barton who was in charge until the end of everyhing....The Flying Bridge goes way back....it also had a coffee shop during the day....At night a restaurant & full bar..from prime rib to seared ahi to vegan delights.... .and some of the parties downstairs after the band finished were legendary !!!!

Kwik Way. A person in an "Oakland History" black-and-white photo of the original building. Even in black-and-white you can tell it was cool. It was called the "Grand Lake Drive In".


It was opened and closed a couple times in the last few years, as Kwik Way, and was in threat of being demolished. As it was a late night burger joint it had attracted a lot of bad vibes for decades.


But recently another local business was forced out of its digs farther down Lake Merritt - Lake Merritt Bakery.

This gorgeous restaurant and lounge was demolished a while ago...maybe about 10 years. I took this photo after I went there to have a cocktail, and found it closed! Much to my horror, it was razed not long after this photo..And I could kick myself for not taking more photos, but I never thought it would be torn down....lesson learned....what a waste. This was East Trent in Spokane WA.

Jim's Burgers Los Angeles, CA. ©Mike Vega 2010
1950 Kodak DuaFlex 70mm 100asa Arista B/W film

located on the corner of MacArthur Blvd and Pacific Coast Highway. Merle's goes back to the 1950's. I don't have the exact date when it opened. In the 1960's, it became the "The Zoo" drive in, and then in the early 1970's, it closed down, and was leveled. Today, it's the location of shopping center, and another restaurant, the Gulfstream Restaurant