Tucked away at the end of a long drive behind some rather unassuming fencing just steps from a bevy of busy freeway interchanges sits one of the City of Angels’ most bucolic spots. Known as Los Angeles River Center & Gardens, the site is so clandestine, most Angelinos don’t even realize it’s there. As such, it is often referred to as a “hidden gem” by those fortunate enough to discover it. Comprised of five acres of serene beauty at 570 W. Ave. 26 in Cypress Park, the stunning property had some rather inauspicious beginnings, ironically starting life as a spice plant for Lawry’s Food Inc.
Founded by brothers-in-law Walter Van de Kamp and Lawrence L. Frank, the Lawry’s name has long been synonymous with the L.A. restaurant scene thanks to the company’s famed eponymous Beverly Hills eatery, Lawry’s The Prime Rib, which the duo established in 1938 and is, amazingly, still going strong today! At the time of its inception, the revolutionary steakhouse offered only one main menu item – prime rib served with all the standard fixings, prepared and carved tableside in a spectacle that servers have since dubbed “The Show.”
In conjunction with the eatery’s opening, Lawrence created a unique savory spice blend to bring out the flavor of the prime rib, a recipe he spent three months perfecting in his home kitchen during off-hours. The tasty mixture was a hit with Lawry’s patrons. As explained in a 1986 San Bernardino County Sun article, “The seasoned salt of 17 herbs and spices became the third shaker on each of the restaurant’s tables, but for some reason, it kept disappearing. It seems customers liked his creation so much, they took it home with them. And so Lawry’s Seasoned Salt was born.”
The flavoring proved so popular, plants were soon established to manufacture and distribute it nationwide. Eventually, the company added more items to its portfolio, becoming something of a non-perishable food empire along the way. According to the Sun, by the 1980s, Lawry’s Food Inc. was selling “more than 100 blended seasonings and other related food products, including its seasoned salt and pepper, dry gravy mixes, taco seasoning mix, taco shells and soup and salad dressing mixes.”
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Image Credit: RPOSD It is from those culinary roots that the Los Angeles River Center & Gardens got its unlikely start. Originally known as Lawry’s California Center, the sylvan facility was established by Lawrence and Walter in 1953 as a combination headquarters and spice plant for their growing company. The picturesque complex, which featured several pink-stuccoed buildings containing offices, labs and test kitchens, was designed in a Mission Revival style as a nod to early Golden State architecture.
In 1962, Lawry’s California Center was opened to the public by way of guided tours. During the free 45-minute sessions, visitors were shown virtually all of the facility, including such spots as the product development lab, the test market room and the dry blending room, where the Sun noted that “300 seasoning bottles a minute can be filled.” The tours, which included a simple cafeteria lunch, became a popular tourist attraction and Walter’s sister-in-law, Georgie Van de Kamp, an American Horticultural Society director, was soon enlisted to design and landscape the extensive grounds to give patrons a picturesque spot to dine. Her creation was a virtual oasis of trees, fountains and vine-covered terraces.
Recognizing the potential for profit, Lawrence and Walter added an outdoor eatery to the premises in 1970. Named La Cocina, the café offered dishes showcasing the company’s various spice blends and quickly started luring in hungry patrons all too happy to pay for a meal following the gratis tours. Eventually, two other restaurants were opened at the center, as well as several specialty food and wine shops.
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Image Credit: RPOSD Deeming the facility “Lawry’s gift to the city,” famed L.A. Times restaurant critic Lois Dwan painted a vivid picture of the lively onsite ambiance in a 1986 piece, saying, “The barbacoa, a handsome structure of tiles and arches, was built for grilling steaks. Portales patio is a sheltered retreat for cocktails where giant margaritas, sized uno, dos or tres, are offered with guacamole and jicama. There is a raised floor for mariachi, a fountain, flags flying over manorial gates and new parking lots,” all of it situated adjacent to “an arid mishmash of freeways and railroad tracks that make a garden even more an oasis.”
Though Lawry’s California Center welcomed upwards of 50,000 visitors a year, the Los Angeles Times notes it was “unprofitable throughout its history.” The recession of the mid-90s delivered the final blow to the complex and it ultimately shut its doors in January 1993. Lawry’s Food Inc. moved its production facilities to other company plants in Santa Cruz, Missouri and Maryland, and its picturesque former headquarters was put up for sale.
The site then sat in limbo for several years. Incredibly, at one point, city officials considered demolishing the entire facility to make way for a Home Depot! Talk about paving paradise to put up a parking lot! Thankfully, those plans were halted. Though the spice plant itself was eventually razed to make way for the Home Depot outpost, the gardens, office buildings and restaurant spaces were left intact, finally taken over by the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority in 1998 with the intention of turning them into a public park.
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Image Credit: RPOSD As plans got underway, the Los Angeles Times detailed the extensive undertaking in a 1998 piece, explaining, “The $8-million project will transform the complex’s distinctive hacienda-style buildings and lush gardens into the Los Angeles River Center, a focal point of efforts to develop greenbelts, parks and other public facilities along the riverbed’s industrialized corridor. As envisioned, the gardens will be restored and the buildings will be refurbished for exhibit areas, spaces for community groups and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.”
The completed Los Angeles River Center & Gardens opened to the public in early 2000. The idyllic landscape remains much as it was when originally designed by Georgie Van de Kamp more than 50 years ago. Featuring shaded courtyards, rolling lawns, colorful rosebeds and copious willow and ficus trees, the complex endures as a place of beauty and tranquility. As such, it has become an extremely popular wedding and special events venue. With a capacity for up to 500 guests, the site offers countless outdoor spaces as well as a two-level ballroom outfitted with Saltillo tile flooring, arched openings and a central skylight.
Naturally, the center has also proved extremely popular with location managers, popping up as everything from a rehab facility to an exclusive private high school to a convent onscreen!
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Image Credit: Netflix In the season one episode of “The Kominsky Method” titled “Chapter 6,” Los Angeles River Center & Gardens plays Nouveau Beginnings, the rehab where Norman Newlander (Alan Arkin) takes his daughter, Phoebe (Lisa Edelstein).
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Image Credit: Netflix The complex masquerades as the Sisters of the Divine Path convent, where Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) helps Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) investigate the murder of a novitiate nun in the season five episode of “Lucifer” titled “Detective Amenadiel.”
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Image Credit: USA Network It pops up as The Rutherford School, where Dan Broderick (Christian Slater) rather awkwardly attends the graduation ceremony of his eldest daughter, Tracy (Lily Donoghue), along with his ex-wife, Betty (Amanda Peet), and new girlfriend, Linda Kolkena (Rachel Keller), in the episode of “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story” titled “The Twelfth of Never.”
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Image Credit: Disney-ABC Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) and Wesley Evers (Sean Ashmore) attempt to tie the knot there via a last-minute wedding ceremony in the season three finale of “The Rookie” titled “Threshold,” but things don’t quite go according to plan.
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Image Credit: Disney+ And the property regularly appears in exterior shots of the supposed La Jolla-area Westbrook School for Girls, where Marvyn Korn (John Stamos) coaches basketball on the new Disney+ series “Big Shot.”