Food And Drink In Los Angeles, CA

The City of Los Angeles' landmark Brown Derby restaurant played host to many celebrities during Hollywood's 'Golden Age.' The eatery was an example of novelty architecture, as it was constructed to resemble a brown derby hat. The Brown Derby was the first eatery to serve chiffon cake, a recipe invented by an insurance salesman and later made famous by Betty Crocker.

However, the greatest food legacy of the Brown Derby is Cobb Salad. The dish was invented by and named after Bob Cobb, one of the restaurant's owners. Bob's wife tells that he raided the refrigerator late one night and just chopped up some leftovers for a meal. Later that night, some of his Hollywood friends happened to stop by the restaurant and joined Bob in sampling his concoction. When they began to ask for it on later visits, the rest was history.

The Brown Derby was named after a restaurant of the same name located in Malverne, New York that was a trendy vaudeville hangout. The initial Brown Derby in Los Angeles, also called the Little Hat, opened in February 1926, directly across from the Ambassador Hotel. It was frequently the site of after-parties following events at the Coconut Grove nightclub. This was the sole Derby that was actually built in the shape of a hat.

A second Los Angeles Brown Derby restaurant was opened on Vine Street, near the famous Hollywood and Vine intersection, on Valentine's Day in 1929. Other Derbies were then built in Beverly Hills and in East Hollywood. The latter featured a car cafe that followed the then-novel drive-in trend.

The Brown Derby in Hollywood closed its doors in 1985. The building shell was restored and placed atop a Wilshire Boulevard strip mall. It is now colored orange and known as the Cafe SheeRi.

In June 2004, the Derby and adjacent lots were purchased by a realty company and the plan was to demolish it to clear space for a condominium complex. A coalition of interested parties, called 'Save The Derby' sought to prevent the shell from being demolished by getting it designated as an official historical landmark. Due to their efforts, in May 2006 the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to recognize the entire edifice as an official Historic Cultural Monument of the City of Los Angeles.

In one 'I Love Lucy' show episode Lucy, Ethel and Fred have lunch at the Brown Derby. During the show, Lucy accidentally causes a waiter to dump a plate of food on famed actor William Holden. Presently, there is a copy of the Hollywood Brown Derby at the Disney-MGM Studios in Florida's Walt Disney World Resort.

Article Source: http://articlekarma.com

Matt Paolini is a food writer for CityBook.com, the family-safe online yellow pages, which carries an extensive directory on Los Angeles restaurants.

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