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 [...]

How my father became an environmentalist without really trying

PHOTO by OLENA KUCHERENKO
A few things my father pioneered:
• Driving a Saab. This was the ’60s, mind you, when cars were still made of steel and driving a foreign car—your Toyota, your Datsun, your VW—meant jokes about war atrocities and Japanese beer cans. The idea of driving [...]

Cebiche del Rey reigns over Downey

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
We live in Southern California, and so it’s no surprise that taquerías dominate our landscape, sprouting up between blocks about as often as the next palm tree. But as good as it usually is, Mexican food has a limited palate: a cuisine stunted by decades of false [...]

At Arthur’s, the eggs aren’t the only things that will catch your eye
Downey used to have two great coffee shops: Johnie’s, which was destroyed, and Arthur’s. Johnie’s was more beautiful and was the place you went to at night. Arthur’s has the better food, especially its breakfast fare. Anyone from Downey or who works in [...]