Tiny Naylor's was a restaurant chain in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

started in 1949 by William Wallace "Tiny" Naylor and later run by his son

Biff Naylor W.W. "Biff" Naylor is a retired restaurant owner in Los Angeles, California. He was born in Oakland, California in 1939 and graduated from Pennsylvania State University. His father W.W. “Tiny” Naylor started Tiny's Waffle Shops in Central Cali ...

. W.W. Naylor had previously owned more than a dozen Tiny's Waffle Shops in Central California.Hess 2004, p.75 Naylor moved to Los Angeles and hired architect

Douglas Honnold Douglas Honnold (August 17, 1901 – March 14, 1974) was an award-winning Canadian-born American architect. He designed many residential properties and commercial buildings in Los Angeles, California. He won an Honor Award from the Southern Califo ...

to design an eye-catching drive-in restaurant at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. Actor

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

compared the slanted canopy roof of the building to "a huge bird about to take off.". The restaurant featured

Googie architecture Googie architecture ( ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, Jet aircraft, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was pop ...

and carhop service, and claimed to be the birthplace of the Patty melt. Naylor died on August 17, 1959, while at the Del Mar racetrack. The original location closed on March 11, 1984 and was demolished. The site is currently a shopping center. Tiny Naylor's had a sister chain of Biff's Coffee Shops, named after W.W.'s son

. There were more than 40 Biff's and Tiny Naylor's locations in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. In 1999 there was one Tiny Naylor's location remaining in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

came out of retirement to purchase the Du-par's restaurant chain in 2004. Biff's daughter Jennifer Naylor, a chef in Malibu, consulted on the revamped menu.

sold Du-par's in 2018.

References

* (previously published in 1986 as ''Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture'' ) * * * {{Refend Defunct restaurants in Hollywood, Los Angeles Restaurants established in 1949 Commercial buildings in Los Angeles Demolished buildings and structures in Los Angeles Modernist architecture in California Googie architecture in California Googie architecture Buildings and structures demolished in 1984