I can do some research into architectural periods, so I can at least fake it. For instance there was a classical revival known as Beaux-Arts that hit America in the late nineteenth century and influenced many buildings on the Berkeley campus. Given that it's called the Coliseum, I'd lump Memorial Coliseum in the Beaux-Arts category, with it's peristyles. The USC campus, however, fits more into the Art Deco style that was big through the roaring 20s. Then there was Streamline Moderne that influenced the Pan Pacific Auditorium, and finally the movement we're going to get into today - Googie.
Beaux-Arts and Art Deco were about building impressive, long lasting structures, things get simpler and sleeker in Streamline Moderne. What I understand about Googie is that it's designed to catch your eye, to engage in non-verbal communication with this new beast - the automobile driver.
I've been making a lot of noise these last few weeks of how cool downtown used to be with its theater district. Even in those pieces, I had to concede the separate theater district in Hollywood, and the suburban theaters popping up all over the landscape. Los Angeles transitioned quickly, like blink and you miss it quickly, from a centralized city to a bunch of suburban hubs connected by a central concept.
Much like Downtown and Hollywood, these suburban commercial centers had theaters, department stores, restaurants, and coffee shops. The idea with Googie was to develop consistant and striking signage and architecture to make a restaurant instantly recognizable. Some of these restaurants are still operating, like Pann's in West LA.
I was lucky enough to eat at Pann's this past weekend, and it's definitely a treat. It's gotten new coats of paint, but otherwise it's the same place the opened back in 1958. It's got everything I want from a California 50's diner: rock walls, angular architecture, and a fun Jet Age sign.
That's the other big component of Googie. We're going to space! We're going to have flying cars and jet packs! Let's build a Space Needle and a Theme Building at the airport! Of course, LA and Seattle were super on board with the moment, as they had the large aerospace industry that I'm gonna have to write about someday.
We snagged some original menus from Pann's take a look at this:
The prices can be deceiving. That De Luxe Dreemburger adjusted for inflation costs $9.03, for a 1/2 of beef that sounds about right for a restaurant burger. The 1/4 pound Dreemburger costs $6.28.
The half spring chicken is all fried chicken, and is still the centerpiece of their menu today. So naturally it's what I ordered. Good food, and it all cost less than the $13.74 the inflation calculator says it should be.
That family night special actually sounds like a great deal. It's the same chicken meal, but without soup. I had clam chowder with my meal, and by the chicken got there I was too full to really make a go of it.
The family that owns and still operates Pann's has quite a Los Angeles restaurant history. George Poulos (truncated for extreme Greekness, the original family name is Panagopoulos) learned to cook in the military, then in '47 at The Pantry downtown. He first managed a restaurant at Yum Burger on Manchester blvd across from Inglewood High School. The Poulos family finally opened Pann's in 1958.
Of course, '58 is fairly late for a style that dates back to 1949. That's when the Bob's Big Boy in Burbank opened up, the home of the Double Decker burger (which is also quite tasty). In 1951 you have examples with Johnie's Coffee Shop on Wilshire, and the first Norm's restaurant. Which leads me to my next example (which I've also eaten at).
Downey is home to a lot of restaurant history, with the oldest standing McDonalds and the original Taco Bell. It also boasts this great Googie treasure, Bob's Big Boy once Johnie's Broiler once Harvey's Broiler. Harvey's (then Johnie's then Big Boy) opened in 1958, the same year as Pann's. Now Johnie's shouldn't be confused with the Johnie's downtown, but it is a great coincidence. It's possible they were under the same ownership, but I can only find circumstantial evidence of that. It's convincing circumstantial evidence though. That S curved arrow in the Johnie's Coffee Shop photo is also in the Johnie's broiler parking lot, and they're spelled the same which is an irregular spelling for Johnny.
Many of the same great features as Pann's, big circular booths, rock walls. They filmed part of an episode of Mad Men there, when Don and his kids are in California and Bobby spills the milkshake. Filmed part of Pulp Fiction at Pann's (as well as the now gone Holly's).
Johnie's was just one of the great coffee shops, operated as a restaurant up until 2001. By the time I was in high school and driving around, they were selling cars on the property. It was declared a landmark, then illegally torn down. Bob's Big Boy, who at one point had declared bankruptcy, bought the property and rebuilt it to the original specifications, but with the Bob's signage.
Anyhow, that's a quick look at a couple suburban Googie restaurants I've had to fortune of dining in. 50's diners like Johnny Rockets always end up looking like midwest Streamline Moderne 40s diners playing music from the 60s. Shades of the restaurant in Back to the Future, I imagine. When I think 1950s, I think Googie, and the quirky little coffee shops it begat.
***Update***
Seems I missed an important point when I first wrote this article. It's not just that Pann's and the original Norms, and Johnie's Coffee Shop all look like each other, they were all designed by the same firm. At the time the firm was known as Armet & Davis. John Lautner is the architect who designed the coffee shop Googie's which coined the term for this architectural style, but Armet & Davis have quite a few landmarks to their credit.
Johnie's Wilshire was the first of their biggest contribution block to Googie architecture. That place was commissioned in 1955, in '56 they designed three restaurants in the LAX area; Pann's, Holly's, and Falcon Coffee Shop.
This original menu is probably the closest we'll get to seeing Holly's, which has been demolished and is now an autozone. Holly's and Pann's almost feel like sister restaurants, don't they? We know they used the same architect, but their menus look like they were designed by the same person, and both menus feature a Dreemburger. Why ee? I don't know if I'll ever get an answer to that question.
Holly's offered their Dreemburger for 45c to Pann's 80c, so clearly Pann's was the higher end option in area eats. Holly's also offers a Dreemburger De Luxe, like Pann's, but also 35c cheaper. The biggest difference I see in the menus is Holly's doesn't offer a chicken dinner, they're strictly steaks.
If you click on the menu, you can see the devil in the details. Holly's has the rock wall, and plenty of light from the all glass front. It's longer than Panns, so instead of a square with a triangle hat, it looks more like a rectangle with a triangle flourish on the end.
We'll be here forever if I try and show every building Armet & Davis designed, but their next building was the original Norm's in West Hollywood. However, now you know about the four really cool restaurants they designed before the ubiquitous Norm's.
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