A BITE TO EAT

BROWN DERBY,  LOS ANGELES

Text from Wikipedia

Opened in 1926, the original restaurant at 3427 Wilshire Boulevard remains the most famous due to its distinctive shape. Whimsical architecture was popular at the time, and the restaurant was designed to catch the eye of passing motorists. It is said that the shape of the hat worn by New York governor and 1928 Democratic Party presidential candidate Al Smith, a personal friend of Somborn, was an inspiration. Another theory claims that Somborn was told that a good restaurateur could serve food out of a hat and still make a success of it. 

The small cafe, close to popular Hollywood hot spots such as Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel, became successful enough to warrant the building of a second branch.

               

Despite its less distinctive Spanish Mission style facade, the second Brown Derby, which opened on Valentine's Day 1929 at 1628 North Vine Street in Hollywood, was the branch that played the greater part in Hollywood history. Due to its proximity to movie studios, it became the place to do deals and be seen. Clark Gable is said to have proposed to Carole Lombard there. Rival gossip columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper are recorded as regular patrons.
In "L.A. at Last," the first of the Hollywood episodes of I Love Lucy, Lucy (Lucille Ball), Ethel (Vivian Vance), and Fred (William Frawley) have lunch at the Brown Derby. During the misadventure, the trio dines in a booth with Eve Arden on one side and William Holden on the other. This leads to the famous disaster scene in which Lucy inadvertently causes a waiter to hit Holden in the face with a pie.

The third Brown Derby, built in 1931 at 9537 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills, greatly resembled the Hollywood branch. It was closed in the early 1980s and demolished in 1983.

The Los Feliz Brown Derby at 4500 Los Feliz Blvd is the last remaining branch of the chain still extant and in operation. Film mogul Cecil B. De Mille, a part owner of the Wilshire Blvd. restaurant, bought the building, a former chicken restaurant named Willard's, and converted it into a Brown Derby in 1940. It uniquely combined a formal restaurant with a dramatic domed ceiling with a more casual drive-in cafe outside.