With the end of World War II, the United States became the undisputed world power as well as the leading economy, producing the largest share of the world’s goods.
Many changes took place in American society as the soldiers returned. Suburbs sprang up with housing for growing families, shopping centers appeared, and many workers enjoyed prosperity. And a new type of eating place came into being, known as the “California coffee shop.” There had been coffee shops before that, but Southern California introduced new features, particularly in terms of design.
Triumph at the war’s end was celebrated with ticker-tape parades, but also in the design of cars and buildings, including the exuberant design of coffee shops in Southern California. The style of restaurant buildings that has also come to be known as “Googie” was modern, but without the severity of International Style. It used a wide range of materials developed in wartime, and forms inspired by the angles of fighter planes, the energy of the atom, and the bursts of bombs.
The inspiration for the striking designs of California coffee shops – known as Coffee Shop Modern – is frequently attributed to the space age, but over time the realization has grown that it was equally inspired by U.S. world ascendancy rooted in warfare. It may seem strange to attribute inspiration for a sprightly and bright type of architecture and interior design to something as ominous and deadly as the bomb, but a number of writers have made this connection.
In the words of Michael Sorkin’s essay “War is Swell” [in World War II and The American Dream, 1995]:
“That the atom so readily became a chipper symbol of American modernity in the immediate aftermath of its use as the greatest instrument of mass death in human history speaks volumes about the relationship of the accomplishments of war to the formal culture of peace. The decor of the fifties is all bursts and orbits, nuclei and energetic spheres. The atom was fully relegated to the class of things, isolated from life.”
[See also Elizabeth Yuko’s “Why Atomic Age Design Still Looks Futuristic 75 Years Later”]
Elements of coffee shop design can be seen in the look of automobiles of the same time. Some of the striking elements of California coffee shop design were echoed in the fins of Cadillacs inspired by the P-38 fighter plane. In Googie Redux, author Alan Hess, who has been largely responsible for recognition and appreciation of the creativity of Coffee Shop Modern, notes that Time Magazine called the 1959 Cadillac design the “ICBM [Intercontinental Ballistic Missile] look,” and also that “The Olds Rocket, the Olds Cutlass, and the Buick LeSabre were all names borrowed from aeronautics.”
The design of coffee shops was nicknamed “Googie” after architect John Lautner’s 1949 unique Los Angeles creation bearing that name. It featured expansive glass window walls, unusual angles and roof lines, prominent signs, and bright colors. [partial view shown above — it extended farther to the right]
The vocabulary of Coffee Shop Modern signals its inventiveness. Terms in a glossary by Alan Hess in his book Googie Redux include: amoeboid, boomerang, cantilevered canopy, diagonals, dingbat, flagcrete, folded plate roof, free form, hyperbolic paraboloid, starburst, steel web lightener, structural truss, and tapering pylon.
California coffee shops, often bearing nicknames of their owners (Norm’s, Biff’s, Ship’s, Hody’s, Sherm’s, etc.), were casual, unpretentious, comfortable, moderately priced, and open 24 hours. Compared to the inexpensive eating places of the Depression, they offered a cheerful example of luxury for the masses, or what has been termed “populuxe” (See Thomas Hines’ book of the same name). Contrary to the usual negative public reaction to modern architecture, the upstart designs of the coffee shops were well accepted.
Counter seats were usually spaced generously and built with cantilevered supports allowing for unobstructed floor cleaning. [see above] Many had walls of decorative stone. A 1955 news story about the newly built Carolina Pines Jr. at LaBrea and Sunset noted its imported Italian mosaic tile columns, Palos Verde stone walls, and custom-designed wall plaques, among other features. It also had a carpeted dining room and an outdoor patio eating area in a garden protected from road noise and dirt with decorative fencing. [see below]
The coffee shops also introduced exhibition cooking. Although Eastern diner-style eateries had long done their cooking in sight of patrons, coffee shops introduced stylish designs and materials to the cooking areas and kept them sparkingly clean.
And, oddly enough, considering that the coffee shops were open all night, many of them had cocktail lounges.
Coffee shops designed along the lines of Southern California’s soon spread across the country. In St. Louis there was the Parkmoor, Cleveland had Manners, and Denny’s, with its beginnings in California, flourished everywhere.
Of course, as was true with neon signs, there were critics, notably Peter Blake in his 1964 book God’s Own Junkyard. He lumped Googie-style designs with neon, billboards, subdivisions, and a general decline in the built environment.
Starting in the mid 1960s but gaining in the 1970s Googie style was rejected, and what has been dubbed the “browning of America” by Philip Langdon had begun. Now chain restaurants of the coffee shop type began featuring earth tones, mansard roofs, exposed wooden beams, hanging plants, and subdued lighting. The coffee shop type of suburban restaurant continued in chains such as Denny’s despite competition by fast food establishments. McDonald’s, which had itself begun with Googie styling, toned down its buildings.
The change was due in part to the Vietnam War, but I can’t help but wonder if Americans hadn’t already become disenchanted with power and wealth based on military might.
© Jan Whitaker, 2024
It's great to hear from readers and I take time to answer queries. I can't always find what you are looking for, but I do appreciate getting thank yous no matter what the outcome.
Restaurant-ing through history 
Hi Jan, thanks for a wonderfully enlightening article. I’ve long admired this architectural style, but never knew it had a distinct name. The LA Conservancy has a list of googie buildings on its website, including some non-restaurant buildings: https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/style-type/googie
Cheers,
Rhonda S
I think they give tours too.
Great and interesting read (as always, thank you) but respectfully I would disagree with a couple of mentions. The Olds Rocket clearly indebted to aeronautical speak but I believe the Olds Cutlass and Buick LeSabre reference a military curved blade sword not aerodynamics but nonetheless harken back to the mentioned military theme-alas. The visual analogy between the Caddy’s twin ‘bullet’ taillights and the P-38 Lightning’s twin engine airframe leaves me with a giant ‘huh?’ but then analogies, like beauty, can reside in the eye of the beholder. And besides, maybe I’m too damned detail oriented- said with a smile.
Sorkin and Hess are very much interested in and sensitive to design and how it reflects and celebrates the intensity of the war and its weapons. I can see (visually) the influence of the P-38 on Cadillac fins and of fighter planes on the 1950 LeSabre for instance. Admittedly I do try to grasp the big picture.
Respectfully I remain totally unconvinced. Could you explain the logic?
The chief designer at General Motors was a big admirer of the P-38, and he was in position to set the tone at GM. It’s not that the P-38 was copied line for line and curve for curve in designing the Cadillac but rather that the lines of it and other wartime aircraft changed the lines of cars, which lost their baby fat and became sleek and pointy. Fins became a sign of power.
While not exactly ‘exhibition cooking’, the ubiquitous and beloved Worcester diners in the Northeast, which flourished beginning in the 1920s, had its grill (eggs, bacon, burgers, etc) operated by a short order cook in direct, open view to anyone who sat at its expansive counter. It was a beloved feature of our own Miss Florence until the 90s.
Right, customers seated at counters often entertained themselves by watching the short order cooks — but usually the term is reserved for cooking performed on more stylish equipment than in diners or old-style lunchrooms.
I love these articles, Jan!
Real fun article, never knew out in CA they had such architecture for these coffee shops. Does anyone have some old menus from these places? Love to see what people in CA ate back then and compare it to the coffee shops I knew and loved …. always had Grecian chicken.
BTW here is a link if you ever wanted to know what a P- 38 Lighting fighter looks like
https://www.americanheritagemuseum.org/aircrafts/lockheed-p-38-lightning/
I think there might be some menus on e-Bay, pretty routine food selection, sandwiches, steak, chicken . . . I don’t think there were so many coffee shops in California that were run by Greek-Americans though. Readers might want to see the P-38 — I looked at many of them, along with many automobile fins too!
Good one, Jan, fascinating!
Jan, very interesting nice work. Early Macdonald’s design, and other burger places out west, seemed to reflect similar features to what you described. Some motels, gas stations too.
War has always had an impact on some civil design, America is not unique in this. Eg the cloche female hats that resembled the poilu helmet of WW I.
But a question. Do you think any phase of this coffee shop design influenced the early Starbucks and other modern-type coffee chains? Or was that a sui generis development? Thanks.
Gary Gillman
Gary, hard to say about lasting influence but my sense would be no as far as style goes. But possibly yes in terms of pleasantness.
Thanks for that, makes sense.
I checked further about the cloche. Apparently it was invented in 1908, so before the Great War. It was often likened to a helmet but I could find no clear statement it was inspired by same. So maybe a bad example, but one thinks too say of Brutalist architecture, which resembled military bunkers and similar. This was an international movement in design.
Anyway, fwiw. Thanks again.
Gary Gillman
Hi Jan- What a beautifully written and obviously extensively researched article! I was a little Midwestern kid during the golden age of California coffee shops, so I never got to experience them first hand. Your article allowed me to enjoy them at least vicariously! Best regards Bob
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Thank you, Bob!
Great article – here’s another place I go to often. https://theboulevardcafe.com/
To get the best images, Google it and check images. Very Futuristic. 😘
Looks great!
A wonderful essay as are all of yours! Thanks for doing the excellent research, and a particular thank you for the images and the bibliography, which I plan to check. Keep up the good work!
Thanks very much for that!