https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/ Fine Dining and Dancing in and Around Southern California On Hill Street - the restaurant shows up in photos starting in 1928 on Hill street. All women cooks and bakers! https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93540219 93540219 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93540220 93540220 Watch the Girls! https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93540221 93540221 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93542882 93542882 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93542883 93542883 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93695328 93695328 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93695329 93695329 Paul's Ship Ahoy Cafe "where seafood of every kind is served by jaunty waiters in the uniforms of ship's stewards, even to the caps, and the decorations are maritime The cover was hard to photograph due to the dark background. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93541877 93541877 Here's a second shot for more detail. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93541878 93541878 Here's the back of the matchbook. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93541879 93541879 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93816136 93816136 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93816137 93816137 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93823988 93823988 The Nikabob was one of the truly great Hollywood restaurants and a long lasting one. Established in 1928. First owners were Nick Krause, Paul Perrot (of Montmartre and Ambassador Hotel fame as well) and the great Bob Cobb of Brown Derby Restaurant fame (the name being made up of two of the owners first names). https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93823987 93823987 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93941457 93941457 May have operated as part of the old San Gorgonio Inn and Cafe. Located in Banning California (Riverside County). https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93940656 93940656 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93940657 93940657 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93958839 93958839 615 South Spring Street housed the Puritan Buffet in 1914. Apparently Griffith & Norris took over in the late 1920's - early 1930's. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=93958840 93958840 French Restaurant https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=94059300 94059300 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=94059652 94059652 Umberto "Bert" Rovere was born the November 23 (or by other accounts November 29 or possibly 20), 1890 in Turin, Italy. His "nick-name" was "Five by Five" (apparently an affectionate reference to his height and weight when he was in his late fifties). In 1906 (or alternatively at age 12 by other accounts), he came to New York and worked at the Waldorf-Astoria as a bus boy. He married Virginia Pierce Trivelli. He had three brothers, Dino, Ettore, and Mario, and one sister, Emma, who married famous restaurateur Joseph Musso (of Musso and Frank's Grill). He arrived in Los Angeles in 1920. He purchased the already existing but closed Paris Inn Cafe in December of 1924. The Paris in was previously owned by Rovere's employer, "Madam Zucca", who also had another restaurant featuring her name (Bert worked there in various capacities including head waiter and of course entertainment). He had previously worked as a well-known opera singer (baritone) in the San Carlo Opera Company and Metropolitan Opera Company and also a wrestling promoter, a boxer and a star in Vaudeville. Given his former sports involvement, well known sports figures, including early race car drivers, frequented the Paris Inn Cafe under Rovere's management. Early on the Paris Inn Cafe was located at 110 E. Market Street (near the Post Office and across from the Civic Center) and featured dancing and orchestras along with dinner. It was most famous for it's singing waiters, which was an idea Rovere was credited with inventing. It featured both French and Italian cuisine. He eventually took on a partner at the Paris Inn, a Mr. Innocente Pedroli. He continued to sing in guest appearances on the radio and sang nightly of course at the Paris Inn. Opera stars, given their friendship with Mr. Rovere, also naturally frequented the Paris Inn. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95296546 95296546 The Original Paris Inn closed around 1950, when Los Angeles, using eminent domain, built the City Jail on the property. Who knows how long the Paris Inn would have gone on were it not for this event. Due to the success of the Paris Inn and Lucca's, Rovere was able to buy a ranch in Las Vegas, Nevada (with a swimming pool of course!). A new Paris Inn was built at 845 N. Broadway and opened July 25, 1950. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95296545 95296545 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95296547 95296547 Vagabond's House was located at 2505 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. Named after Don Blanding's poem, the Vagabond's House was one of three South Seas themed nightclubs owned by Joe Chastek ( the other 2 being the the Zamboanga & the Tradewinds, also in Los Angeles). https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95566639 95566639 https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95566640 95566640 The most appropriate name for owner and place is that of the last eating stop on Wilshire's downtown end. The Vagabond's House is Joe Chastek's pride and joy and Joe is the purest vagabond you'll ever meet. He may not even be there when this is published, for Joe has seen the world through many different colors of glass and each new one is more interesting than the last. He ran away from home in Minneapolis when he was twelve, stowed away on a freighter to the Orient, made a small pile in photographs in Singapore, started a brokerage firm in Honolulu, helped organize the Philippine Stock Exchange, returned to the United States with a big pile and lost most of it when his automobile business was swept away in a Los Angeles River flood, and made some of it back in a night club or two. When he was still a kid in Minneapolis he knew an older boy who had a hot dog stand, and he swore then he'd have one of his own some day. The Vagabond's House is Joe Chastek's hot dog stand. Although you probably couldn't get a hot dog in the Vagabond's House if you tried, you can get eight different kinds of curry?all of them recommended. There are other things on the menu, but curry is the one to eat if you are sampling. And it goes with the scenery. There are about a thousand feet of bamboo in the place and enough coiled rope and rope-wound posts and rope decorations to hang all the customers. It's excellent decoration, and ingenious too. Bamboo costs fifty cents a running foot over the counter. Joe persuaded the park authorities to sell him all he wanted from Lincoln Park?forty-foot poles for forty cents apiece and a bottle of whisky for the caretaker who turned his back and told him to help himself. The forty-inch swordbill over the bar he got from a sailor who brought it in one night and offered to trade it for a five dollar bill and a bottle of liquor. The excellent display of mounted wild animal heads are on loan from a friend who found that the alcoholic fumes from the bar kept the moths away and thus preserved them better than he could in his two-room apartment?the rhino,, zebra and water buffalo made it a little crowded. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95566641 95566641 A noted Culver City hot spot for swing and big band music in the 1930's and 1940's, Louie Armstrong played here - Jan Garber too. https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95568803 95568803 Culver City - Zoot suit hang-out too! https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95568804 95568804 Jan Garber's band playing nightly! https://vintagematches.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoID=95568805 95568805