Tiny Naylor's was a restaurant chain in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

started in 1949 by William Wallace "Tiny" Naylor and later run by his son Biff Naylor. W.W. Naylor had previously owned more than a dozen Tiny's Waffle Shops in

Central California Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the U.S. state of California, north of Southern California (which includes Los Angeles and San Diego) and south of Northern California (which includes San Francisco and San Jose, ...

.Hess 2004, p.75 Naylor moved to Los Angeles and hired architect Douglas Honnold to design an eye-catching

drive-in A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or Drive-in theater, movie theater) where one can driving, drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by ...

restaurant at the corner of

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...

and

La Brea Avenue La Brea Avenue is a prominent north-south thoroughfare in the Los Angeles, California, City of Los Angeles and in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California. La Brea is known for having diverse ethnic communities, and m ...

in Hollywood. Actor

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

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 popu ...

and

carhop A carhop is a waiter or waitress who brings fast food to people in their cars at drive-in restaurants. Carhops usually work on foot but sometimes use roller skates, as depicted in movies such as ''American Graffiti'' and television shows such as ...

service, and claimed to be the birthplace of the

Patty melt A patty melt is an American grilled hamburger consisting of a ground beef patty topped with melted swiss cheese and caramelized onions between two slices of griddled seeded-rye bread. Description and ingredients The patty melt is variously d ...

. 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 Biff Naylor. 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 coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

. Biff Naylor came out of retirement to purchase the

Du-par's Du-par's is a diner-style restaurant in Los Angeles, California, that was once a modest-sized regional chain. It was founded in 1938 by James Dunn and Edward Parsons, who combined their surnames to create the restaurant's name. The original locat ...

restaurant chain in 2004. Biff's daughter Jennifer Naylor, a chef in Malibu, consulted on the revamped menu. Biff Naylor sold

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