The City of Downey has purchased The Avenue, Downey’s smallest, most vacant movie house–a single-screen theater on Downey Avenue in the heart of the downtown.
That’s according to Samantha Gonzaga in this morning’s Press-Telegram–part of which was once prepared in a small office next door.
The city’s cost: $1.2 million for the 850-seat theater which is housed [...]

Couple of interesting yarns in the Press-Telegram lately.
On Election Day, if you missed it, Samantha Gonzaga wrote about how Johnie’s Broiler–the sad ’50s drive-in in Downey that was (mostly) illegally demolished a year ago– is supposed to rise again as a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant.
This sounds like good news–Johnie’s had a fat boy sign/Bob’s has [...]

Cebiche del Rey focuses primarily on slow-cooked meats and (mostly) uncooked seafood. The pollo saltado is a good catch-all dish—a jumble of sautéed chicken, tomatoes, onions, peppers, French fries and rice all lumped together into a pleasing pile. But the shrimp cebiche reigns here: accompanied by a few spears of yams, a roll of nickel-sized [...]

Anyone from Downey or who works in Downey or who drives through Downey knows Arthur’s, which is why the teeny restaurant—with about a dozen tables and a handful of seats at the counter—is packed virtually every morning. They come for the homemade chorizo, crisp and fluffy biscuits, potatoes O’Brien—home fries mixed with green pepper and [...]

Remember Johnie’s Broiler–the landmark Downey drive-in, pillar of 1950s modern architecture and key cruising spot that was illegally demolished in January 2007?
Downey City Council passed a one-year moratorium on any development out at the site, immediately after a bulldozer allegedly hired by a lessee knocked down most of the 1958 drive-in.
But now, Wave newspapers reporter [...]

Tues | Dec 11 The City Council of beautiful Downey, California, votes to hire a consultant to help them figure out what to do with what’s left of Johnie’s Broiler. You remember Johnie’s, right? It’s the authentic ’50s drive-in that was a shining example of Googie architecture—it also happened to make a club sandwich so [...]

Keith Dobbins plays Santa for the money and the kids. Also, he’s a Parrothead

PHOTO by RUSS ROCA
The last time Keith Dobbins met Santa Claus, the fat man was handing him socks. For a kid growing up in Pitt Gas, a coal mining town located along the Monongahela River in southwestern Pennsylvania, socks were a practical [...]

Will Johnie’s Broiler eventually be saved, or will portions of its remains one day decorate a very interesting shopping center?

CurbedLA reports (via the L.A. Wave) on the progress of the Downey Landing project’s Columbia Memorial Space Science Learning Center: it’s under construction! The building is at the heart of the 160-acre site that Downey purchased away from NASA and Boeing, a massive development that will house everything from retail space (Best Buy, Ross) to [...]

The remains of Johnie’s Broiler–one of Southern California’s last large-scale drive-in restaurants, where custom cars were king and even the food was fast–needs your help.
It’s been nearly a year since a man driving a bulldozer managed to flatten most of the 1958 Downey landmark. What’s left of the Googie-style restaurant–replete with flagstone, exuberant script and [...]