Hawthorne, CA - Take a drive down Hawthorne Blvd. in Hawthorne and eventually you'll come across the Hawthorne Grill. Formerly, Holly's, the Hawthorne Grill exhibits much of the Coffee Shop Architecture Alan Hess has written about.

Hawthorne Grill
Hawthorne, CA
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

There was a time when a drive down Hawthorne Boulevard brought travelers to Hawthorne Grill, better remembered by many as Holly’s Coffee Shop. Check out the dramatic roofline and old roadside sign, giving motorists something to admire before pulling in for a meal. This was a coffee shop with a little more ambition than four walls and a place to hang the menu.

Holly’s opened in 1956, when Southern California restaurants were finding all sorts of ways to catch the attention of passing traffic. Architects Armet & Davis gave the building its distinctive Googie look, combining bold angles with the welcoming appearance of a neighborhood coffee shop. A stop for breakfast could come with a glimpse of the future, at least as the future looked in the 1950s.

The "Grill" June, 1999
Hawthorne, CA
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

The building later became Hawthorne Grill, carrying on under a different name. Like many of these old coffee shops, it became part of the familiar scenery along a busy boulevard. Then the doors closed in 1990, leaving the dining room waiting for another use.

That next use brought quite a bit of attention. Quentin Tarantino chose the restaurant for the opening and closing diner scenes in Pulp Fiction, released in 1994. The empty coffee shop became a movie set, and its booths suddenly had a role in one of the decade’s best-known films. Quite a change from taking breakfast orders.

The movie gave the old restaurant another chance. Chris Garnreiter reopened Hawthorne Grill in June 1995, adding a mural of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson and cutouts near the booth used in the film. Visitors could sit down for a meal and look around a place they had already seen on the screen.

It is now the Summer of 1999. The millennium is near and Y2K concerns continue. Unfortunately, the Hawthorne Grill just couldn't quite survive to the new century.

Hawthorne Grill, Armet and Davis 1956 - 1999
Hawthorne, CA
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

Cruise nights brought another familiar sight back to the property. Classic cars gathered outside, pairing the old coffee shop with the sort of automobiles that suited its beginnings. Between the angular building, roadside marquee, and cars in the lot, there was plenty here for a roadside traveler to check out.

Unfortunately, the comeback didn’t last. Garnreiter filed for bankruptcy in May 1996, and the restaurant fell quiet again. Movie fame had brought customers back through the doors, but it couldn’t keep the coffee shop going.

UPDATE: Hawthorne Grill was demolished in June 1999, taking the former Holly’s building and its roadside identity with it. An AutoZone replaced the restaurant. The old booths and roofline are gone from Hawthorne Boulevard, though a return visit to Pulp Fiction still offers a look inside this lost South Bay coffee shop. 10-26

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