I’ve been driving past the Pioneer Broach building on Telegraph Ave. next to Interstate 5 in Los Angeles for eternity. When I was little I knew that it was a head’s up to look for the nearby Samson Tire building and later I just fell in love with the sign which probably hasn’t changed at all since the company was founded in 1939.
I think some of the dead machinery in Pioneer’s backyard dates from 1939 too if the lettering on the “Drivmatic” is any indication. *swoon*.
You’re momentarily revivifying the rapidly fading bits of a more raffish, ungentrified but also more charming L.A., before skyrocketing real estate prices and bad taste fully set in. Reminds me a bit of the Pantry. I haven’t gone there for a number of years, but even after it began attracting a yuppie clientele, a tangible 1930s aura clung to the place. How many restaurants after 1970 or thereabouts have offered “steaks and chops”? The waiters (not “servers,” thank you) had been there for decades and always seemed like reformed ex-cons from Depression-era prison movies. Except for the prices, which were still reasonable, nothing had changed. . .the chalkboard, the furniture, the cash-register cage with a visible wear-spot on the floor in front of it. And most of all, as noted, the menu: “Hamburger Steak,” all manner of artery-clogging delights, apple pie, coleslaw and raw vegetables, coffee in thick mugs.
Is it still around?