HELP – This Pup Needs A Home!

Food trucks are so trendy in Los Angeles right now… and while we definitely do enjoy the occasional Kogi spicy pork slider, at heart we tend to be more old school and sentimental here at HiddenLA. So a big thanks to our friends over at Mapping Los Angeles for cluing us in to today’s LA Times article about the ongoing struggle of iconic food stand Tail O The Pup, which has apparently been gathering dust, covered up and sitting on wheels in a Torrance warehouse for four years now, waiting for someone to give the registered Los Angeles landmark a home.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Shown floating through the sky in the opening scene of Steve Martin’s movie LA Story, The Pup is one of the few remaining examples of LA’s famed love for pop architecture… back in the day where restaurants were shaped like hats, shoe stores were shaped like shoes, camera shops were shaped like cameras, donut shops were shaped like donuts and ice cream stands were shaped like owls (okay, so not everyone was literal).

The Tail O The Pup stand first opened to a great deal of fanfare in 1946 at the intersection of Beverly and La Cienega. It was moved to 329 North San Vicente in 1986 when its first home was slated to become a luxury hotel (now the Sofitel). Then when developers purchased the San Vicente property in 2005, the Pup found itself evicted a second time… this time to make room for a large condominium complex and a gay and lesbian retirement community which have still yet to be built.

“By that time, Dennis Blake had taken over the stand from his father. He toyed with the idea of moving the Pup to Westwood after its closure. That’s where the development company was willing to let him install it at a Broxton Avenue parking lot it owned. “But they wanted me to sign a long contract, and I got scared” and turned down the offer, said Blake, 57, of West Hollywood…

“I’ve been looking for a new place for it for a year — in West Hollywood, West L.A., Santa Monica, even Beverly Hills. Someplace our built-in clientele can find us,” he said. “I’m ready to rock and roll.”

Eddie Blake, 85, said his son needs a space “about 25 feet by 20 feet, plus some customer parking space,” before the Pup can be unleashed.”

It would be fun to have this long-timeAngeleno landmark back in view, so please spread the word. If you are 100% serious about giving The Pup a nice home, you might try contacting Bob Pool, the author of the LA Times piece.

1946 Max Yavno image via the Jan Kesner Gallery