Mission Restaurant (Demolished)
Pomona, CA Photo courtesy Adriene Biondo
A quiet afternoon at Mission Restaurant in Pomona offered a chance to appreciate a coffee shop with more character than its modest name suggested. The glass walls, tilted roof, and colorful stonework belonged to the days when a roadside restaurant could make an architectural statement before serving breakfast.
The building opened as the Hull House Restaurant in 1958 and became Mission Family Restaurant in 1971. Located at Mission Boulevard and White Avenue, it spent decades feeding neighborhood regulars in a setting that carried much of its original coffee shop appearance. A few customers inside didn’t make the building any less worth a look.
Mission Restaurant
Pomona, CA Photo courtesy Adriene Biondo
After the restaurant closed, plans to reuse it as a 7-Eleven offered hope that much of the exterior would survive. Unfortunately, the old dining room never reached that next chapter.
UPDATE: Mission Family Restaurant closed in 2013. A June 2020 fire severely damaged the former Hull House, and the building was subsequently demolished. 10-26
Henry Moffett's (Gone)
Bellflower, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Looking for chicken pies? The rooftop bird at Henry Moffett’s in Bellflower made the specialty fairly easy to guess. Apparently putting chicken on the menu wasn’t enough. One had to stand above the restaurant and supervise the proceedings.
Opened in 1958, Moffett’s became a familiar stop for customers seeking an old-fashioned chicken pie dinner. The restaurant combined neighborhood comfort food with a roadside character that gave passing motorists something to remember. Even without an appetite, that chicken deserved a closer look.
The Moffett’s name also reached Arcadia, where a second restaurant opened in 1975. The Bellflower location, however, eventually served its last pie after nearly half a century in business.
UPDATE: Moffetts closed its doors in August 2007. The site is now home to a medical office building. 06-13
UPDATE: Henry Moffett’s closed in August 2007. The original restaurant at 16506 Lakewood Boulevard was demolished, and a medical office building replaced it. Another roadside dinner landmark finished its run, rooftop chicken and all. 10-26
The Bear Pit
Mission Hills, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Missouri-style barbecue found a longtime Southern California home at The Bear Pit in Mission Hills. The name sounds like somewhere to approach cautiously, but ribs and a generous appetite are more useful here than wilderness equipment.
The business began in the late 1940s, when Ben Baier brought his Missouri barbecue traditions to a small shack in Newhall. Its popularity led to a move into the northern San Fernando Valley, with the Mission Hills restaurant dating to 1954. Quite a journey for a little roadside barbecue operation.
UPDATE: The Bear Pit remains open at 10825 Sepulveda Boulevard in Mission Hills, continuing its long run of Missouri-style barbecue. Fortunately, this roadside bear hasn’t gone into permanent hibernation. 10-26
(Many thanks to the numerous contributors advising
that The Bear Pit is alive and well!)
Zucky's Deli (Closed)
Santa Monica, CA Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
The sweeping lettering at Zucky’s Deli gave Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica a memorable dinner invitation. Glass walls, angled canopies, natural stone, and glazed tile helped the restaurant look right at home in Southern California’s space-age coffee shop scene. Zucky’s arrived at this location in 1954 and became a familiar 24-hour gathering place. Founded by Hy and Fred Altman with Hy’s wife, Wolfine “Zucky,” the restaurant offered a neighborhood meeting spot long after more conventional dining rooms had turned out their lights.
The restaurant closed in 1993, but its name didn’t disappear with the kitchen. The distinctive 1962 sign received Santa Monica landmark designation in 2005, preserving an important piece of the old frontage.
UPDATE : Zucky's has been remodeled and is now open. Many thanks to Chris of Lottaliving.com for update. 10-06
UPDATE: Zucky's has sat empty for the past 14 years. The building and sign were renovated several months ago. There is a sign in the window that the building will be a bank location (I forget what bank, it's not a big one). That sign has been there for months, but there has been no activity inside (i.e., installing the things one would need to run a bank). Many thanks to Don Solosan for update. 12-07
UPDATE: The bank has moved in and is now open for business. Many thanks to Don Solosan for update. 02-08
UPDATE: The former Zucky’s at 431 Wilshire Boulevard was remodeled for bank use. Its landmark sign survives, keeping the deli’s familiar name above a building with a considerably different menu of services. 10-26
La Palma Chicken Pie Shop (Gone)
Anaheim, CA Photo courtesy Steve Jones
A chicken pie dinner and a memorable neon bird made La Palma Chicken Pie Shop an Anaheim stop worth remembering. Dating to the mid-1950s, the Euclid Street restaurant became a neighborhood institution under longtime owners Otto and Angie Hasselbarth. Apparently the chicken outside trusted the kitchen enough to keep advertising its specialty.
Generations of customers returned for familiar pies and an old-fashioned dining room. After Otto’s death in July 2015, the restaurant closed and never reopened.
UPDATE: The pie shop is now closed. The longtime owner Otto Hasselbarth who owned the place since 1972 passed away in July 2014. The top part of the 20 foot neon sign that has the chicken roosting on the La Palma lettering was saved and being restored by the Museum of Neon Art. For more, see the Orange County Register. 04-16
UPDATE: Jo Won Noodle House took over the former restaurant at 928 North Euclid Street by early 2017. The upper chicken-and-“La Palma” portion of the neon sign was saved in 2016 for the Museum of Neon Art, giving the roadside bird another place to roost. 10-26
Mission Restaurant (Demolished)
Mission Restaurant
Henry Moffett's (Gone)
The Bear Pit
Zucky's Deli (Closed)
La Palma Chicken Pie Shop (Gone)
