The Brown Derby

[Technonut]

I visited the one around Hollywood and Vine back in the 80's. From what I remember, it was nice.... I ended up getting crocked, and waking up in a new found lady friend's place in Carson... They DID make damn good drinks though. :eusa_doh: I still have a couple of the bar napkins...

 

[fortworthgal]

I've been to the one in Orlando. From what I remember, it is in the middle of the park, so it isn't like a stand-alone restaurant in the middle of town. While I'd love to see such a place filled with smartly-dressed patrons, I'm from Florida & live in Texas, so I'm not going to chastise folks for wearing shorts and t-shirts to a theme park in the middle of a humid Florida summer. lol

I'd love to go again, now that I'm older and have more of an appreciation for those types of things. And I love me some Cobb salad, with Green Goddess dressing. Yum!

 

[Martinis at 8]

We lived near the Wilshire Blvd. location in L.A. The "exclusive" Brown Derby was the one on Vine.

M8

 

[jazzzbaby]

I just got a book on one of the most famous restaurants of the golden era. The Brown Derby was the place to be seen in Hollywood. There were four Brown Derbies but the one on Vine was the most famous.

This book is great. Not only does it have great photos of the stars and the eatery itself, but it also has the recipes too.

One thing I learned is that the architect for the Hollywood Derby was Carl Jules Weyl. He went on to work at Warner Brothers as an art director. He received an Oscar for The Adventures of Robin Hood.

More importantly he was the art dirctor for Casablanca . Obviously he fashioned Rick's after his design of The Brown Derby. I now can see plainly the same artist's hand.

Is this a book from a few years ago? I had a sales rep that my company worked with that brought in this book many years back. He had seen the gazillion classic photos I had on my office wall and thought I would be interested in seeing it, as it had just been released. His mother & her sister "The Brewster Twins' are pictured in this book dining at The Derby. His dad was Bob LeMond announcer to such shows as "Leave it to Beaver" , "Ozzie & Harriet", "Our Miss Brooks" and so on....

I was fascinated by his stories and enjoyed when he came to visit on his sales calls. His mother & aunt were gorgeous gals!!

On another note...I did visit the old Derby long ago when I was a teen and spent some good times at the newer one in the past few years.

 

[Rafter]

Well, it is a theme park. You can't expect people in Florida of all places to wear dressier clothes. If I were at that theme park in the summer, I'd be scorched as it is. It gets humid in the summer in Florida.

I was referring to the Brown Derby in LA on Vine!

You know the one where William Holden got a plate of spaghetti all over him due to Lucy's shameless star-gazing!!

You're probably too young to remember that. That's the same episode where Lucy nearly sets her plastic putty nose on fire with a cigarette when Ricky brings Holden up to their hotel room.