Googie Chrome

In July, Tesla opened its own neo-Googie Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard, giving Los Angeles a slice of Muskian techno-utopia.

Oct 9, 2025
Read more
  • Tesla Diner, designed by Stantec, opened at 7001 Santa Monica Boulevard in July.

In Los Angeles, it’s still possible to visit some of the best postwar coffee shops in their vintage glory. The loud signs of Norms, Pann’s, and Bob’s Big Boy still rise above the city’s sprawl, attracting hungry motorists with their cheerful colors and neon lettering. Their flamboyant cantilevers and upswept roofs land somewhere between the Flintstones and the Jetsons—neither stone nor space age, but the Benzedrine zaniness of Truman-era America. The most iconic restaurant of this cohort, Googie’s Coffee Shop on the Sunset Strip, was demolished in 1988. The building, designed by John Lautner and completed in 1949, looked inconspicuous enough in its time—if not for the fact that a quarter of the restaurant shot up the wall of the neighboring pharmacy as if preparing to launch into the sky.

Donning the satirical persona of one Professor Thrugg in a 1952 article of House & Home, the New York architectural critic Douglas Haskell understood this particular restaurant…

Skijler Hutson writes on the art and architectural history of California and its greatest city. He has mixed feelings on the case for letting Malibu burn.

Join our newsletter to read 3 free articles, or login if you are a subscriber.

or
from $7/month