Downey’s successful re-launch of its 1958 Broiler—first a Harvey’s, then a Johnie’s, now a Bob’s Big Boy—seems to prove nostalgia’s worth. Or does it?

PHOTO by RUSS ROCA
It was a perfect Kodachrome moment: the reopening Oct. 19 of Johnie’s Broiler, Downey’s Googie-est diner: a glass-walled, horseshoe-boothed, cottage-cheese-ceilinged spaceship that had boomeranged off the corner of Firestone [...]

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 [...]