Wich Stand

Menu from early 1960s with illustration of Slauson location

Wich Stand was a 1950s style coffee shop in Los Angeles, California featuring a tilting blue roof and 35-foot spire, designed by renowned architect Eldon Davis.[1]

The Wich Stand was located on Slauson Avenue at Overhill near Inglewood, California and at Figueroa and Florence (listed on a matchbook cover). A critic said its "plunging dart of a sign keeps it from spinning off into space," and it is a surviving example of Googie architecture.[2][3]

The Beach Boys lived in the area and wrote an unreleased song called "Wich Stand".[4] The coffee shop also inspired another Beach Boys' song, "Root Beer (Chug-a-lug)", about "Cruisin' the A," which was driving the five miles between the A & W on Hawthorne Boulevard and the Wich Stand on Slauson.[5]

The Slauson location opened in 1957, fell upon hard times in the mid-1980s and declined and was vandalised, including a gutting of the floors and ceilings, after the restaurant closed in 1988. It was declared a landmark by Los Angeles County in 1989. It was refurbished and reopened as the Simply Wholesome restaurant and health food store.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "OBIT> ELDON DAVIS, 1917-2011". The Architect's Newspaper. 5 November 2011.
  2. ↑ Steve Harvey Coffee Shop Modern' Architecture Googie-History Closing the Menu on a 1950s Style June 9, 1986 Page: 1 Los Angeles Times (partial preview)
  3. ↑ Alan Hess (2004). Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture. Chronicle Books. p. 97. ISBN 9780811842723. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  4. ↑ "Sometimes Wilson would cruise several miles north to the Wich Stand at Slauson and Overhill, where the parking lot would hold a hundred cars from all over the South Bay, which is what locals call the area between South Central and the bottom half of Santa Monica Bay. He might have immortalized the destination drive-in in a 1964 recording, "The Wich Stand," but the track went unreleased. With a decorative spire poking through the slanted roof, buttressed by Swiss cheese struts, the Wich Stand looked like Southern California itself -- open, airy, offbeat and futuristic. Today the building is painted an unlikely forest green and houses a health food restaurant, Simply Wholesome, that caters to the large African American community in the neighborhood. The spacious parking lot in the rear, once packed with hot rods and surf wagons, stands nearly empty. More than the neighborhood has changed in South Central Los Angeles. over the past 45 years." Joel Selvin For the Beach Boys, fun, fun, fun began in humble Hawthorne May 31, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle
  5. ↑ James B. Murphy (2015). Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963. McFarland. pp. 215–216. ISBN 9780786473656. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  6. ↑ Chastang, Carol (Apr 9, 1995). "Windsor Hills, Happy Days to Health Food for This Landmark Renovation: A '50s-style coffee shop, the Wich Stand, gets new life as a Simply Wholesome store.". Los Angeles Times. p. 8. Retrieved 2015-01-08.

External links

Coordinates: 33°59′19″N 118°21′16″W / 33.9886°N 118.3545°W / 33.9886; -118.3545

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