Tiny Naylor's

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Tiny Naylor's was a restaurant chain in Southern California started in 1949 by William Wallace "Tiny" Naylor and later run by his son Biff Naylor. W.W. Naylor had previously owned more than a dozen Tiny's Waffle Shops in Central California. [1] Naylor moved to Los Angeles and hired architect Douglas Honnold [1] to design an eye-catching drive-in restaurant at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. [2] Actor Humphrey Bogart compared the slanted canopy roof of the building to "a huge bird about to take off.". [3] The restaurant featured Googie architecture and carhop service, and claimed to be the birthplace of the Patty melt. [4] Naylor died on August 17, 1959, while at the Del Mar racetrack. [5] The original location closed on March 11, 1984 [6] and was demolished. The site is currently a shopping center. [7]

Tiny Naylor's had a sister chain of Biff's Coffee Shops, named after W.W.'s son Biff Naylor. There were more than 40 Biff's and Tiny Naylor's locations in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. [8] In 1999 there was one Tiny Naylor's location remaining in Long Beach, California. [9] Biff Naylor came out of retirement to purchase the Du-par's restaurant chain in 2004. [8] Biff's daughter Jennifer Naylor, a chef in Malibu, consulted on the revamped menu. [10] Biff Naylor sold Du-par's in 2018. [11]

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W.W. "Biff" Naylor is a retired restaurant owner in Los Angeles, California. He was born in Oakland, California in 1939 and graduated from Pennsylvania State University. His father W.W. “Tiny” Naylor started Tiny's Waffle Shops in Central California in the 1920s, and operated a chain of more than 40 Tiny Naylor's and Biff's restaurants in Southern California. Biff Naylor took over operations of Tiny Naylor's after his father's death in 1959 and was still operating at least one location in 1999. The Biff's restaurant chain of the 1940s was a "forerunner to all the modern coffee shops," Naylor told the San Jose Mercury News in 2016. Those restaurants employed modern architecture in the googie style, and innovations that would be adopted widely through the restaurant industry including open exhibition cooking kitchen, stainless steel counters, refrigerated pie cases, and plate "lowerators" that warmed or cooled plates as needed. In 2017 Los Angeles magazine food critic Patric Kuh called the longtime restaurant operator "Diner royalty". Saveur magazine wrote that Biff Naylor created "The best damn coffee shops ever" in their "Saveur 100" list

Ben Frank's was a restaurant in West Hollywood, California, opened in 1962 by Arthur Simms and Bob Ehrman. The location, surrounded by the famous nightclubs of the Sunset Strip, led to a celebrity clientele, and the 24-hour restaurant became a popular late night destination. The distinctive googie architecture and eye-catching neon sign helped attract musicians like Jim Morrison and Frank Zappa, as well as patrons of the nearby music venues. The youthful patrons that frequented the restaurant inspired the producers of the Monkees TV show to place an ad seeking "Ben Frank's Types" when casting the show in 1965.

References

  1. 1 2 Hess 2004, p.75
  2. ↑ Wanamaker 2009, p.90
  3. ↑ Wanamaker 2009, p.92
  4. ↑ Inamine, Elyse (June 15, 2017). "The Patty Melt Is Getting Its Moment". Food & Wine .
  5. ↑ "=Tiny Naylor, Restaurant and Racing Figure Dies". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. August 19, 1959.
  6. ↑ Dreyfuss, John (March 9, 1984). "Tiny Naylor's Drive-in—The Sun Sets at Sunset and La Brea". Los Angeles Times .
  7. ↑ Williams 2005, p.309
  8. 1 2 "Du-par's Bringing Famous West Coast Brand East". Bethesda Beat. November 30, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  9. ↑ "'I'll Have the Blue-Plate Special'". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. October 14, 1999.
  10. ↑ "This Just In: Du-par's opens in Oxnard". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. March 5, 2009.
  11. ↑ Nichols, Chris (July 27, 2020). "Some of L.A.'s Most Beloved Institutions Are Threatened with Extinction". Los Angeles magazine . Retrieved September 26, 2021.
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