Preservationists, midcentury aficionados and purveyors of fried chicken alike all breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that the upcoming Sepulveda & Centinela project, a mixed-use residential development set to take shape on the busy Westchester corner where Dinah’s Family Restaurant now stands, would incorporate the beloved eatery into its design. A longtime staple of the L.A. culinary scene, the diner has been slinging burgers and fries to hungry patrons for over 60 years, becoming a veritable comfort food institution. The bad news? The project will force the place to shutter throughout much of the prolonged construction period, leaving its future somewhat uncertain, with the Los Angeles Conservancy recently pondering if it will ever return. As of now, the joint is still serving up its famous fried chicken and pancakes, with a representative telling Eater LA, “We’re dedicated to staying open and remaining that way through it all. And we will continue to operate til the city has to come and shut us down.” That’s surely music to the ears of countless Angelenos.
The historic coffee shop, which stands at 6521 S. Sepulveda Blvd., was initially established as Henn’s Restaurant by partners Howard Fox and Harry Quinn back in 1957. While there seems to be a bit of confusion floating around online regarding the property’s architect with many attributing its distinctive low-slung Googie style to a “Howard Tracht,” that is likely a misnomer. A Historic Resources Report dedicated to the Sepulveda & Centinela project instead credits known midcentury architect Jacob Tracht, AIA, for the design, detailing that the Pittsburgh native was also responsible for another Googie eatery in the area, the now-defunct White Front Patio Café formerly located in South L.A., as well as numerous MCM houses and buildings dotted across the city’s landscape, including the Starview Estate.
Just two years after opening Henn’s, Fox and Quinn changed course, revamping the diner into a comfort food eatery with a southern slant known as “Dinah’s Original Pancake & Chicken House.” (The name was simplified to Dinah’s Family Restaurant in the 1980s.) As explained by the Evening Vanguard newspaper in 1965, “The ‘original’ comes from the fact that Dinah’s is the only restaurant authorized by Les Highet and Erma Hueneke to use the recipes of the Original Pancake House of Portland, Oregon.” A historic menu on display at the café notes that the flapjacks served on the premises, which come highly regarded, “are made from fresh ingredients (we do not use prepared mixes) . . . and old-fashioned sourdough yeast is grown in our own kitchen from a culture of potatoes, flour and sugar along with enzymes. This all makes for light, fine textured and easily digested gourmet pancakes.”
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Thanks in large part to those deftly-crafted griddle cakes, Dinah’s proved immensely popular from the get-go, “appealing to the wave of Southern and Eastern transplants who arrived in Southern California following World War II,” per the Historic Resources Report. Soon, franchises were popping up all over L.A., in cities like Long Beach and Hollywood. Today, only two remain in operation – one in Glendale and the original, though they are not affiliated.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt The Westchester location’s popularity has never waned since its inception over six decades ago. Currently owned by Mario and Teri Ernst, who took over the reins in 1989 and are said to be related to the original owners, the diner serves over 1,000 people daily, with patrons coming from all over to sample Dinah’s familiar and comforting fare. Sited just a few miles north of Los Angeles International Airport, the eatery has become especially popular with tourists, a must-stop for those both arriving in and departing town.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Though Dinah’s offers wide and varied dishes, from patty melts to tilapia to Palestinian pancakes, the place is most famous for its fried chicken, prepared from a “well-guarded secret” recipe that “blends five different flours, along with an assortment of herbs and spices,” as is stated on the original menus. Gayot claims over 150 million pieces of the crispy poultry have been sold since Dinah’s opening! The restaurant’s familiar bucket-shaped sign is even said to have served as the inspiration behind that of the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain. As Teri explained to Eater LA, “We had the bucket of chicken out there since before KFC had it. Apparently, one of the former employees here back in the 60s took the idea with him to KFC and they started using it. But we had it first.”
That signage is slated to be included in the Sepulveda & Centinela development, which is being designed by the San Diego-based Carrier Johnson + Culture firm. Set to rise eight stories with 365,000 square feet of space and 362 housing units, the project will not only fuse Dinah’s into its façade but also “rehabilitate” the historic café. The L.A. Conservancy is heralding the preservation efforts, stating, “We need more projects like this that successfully integrate old and new, and demonstrate that this is possible, rather than demolition.”
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Location managers are likely rejoicing at the news, as well, as the diner’s retro aesthetic has been a filmmaker favorite for decades, with the flying saucer-inspired lighting, red channel-back booths and rock walls translating beautifully to the screen. Teri told Eater LA, “Every time a new [television] season starts, I get phone calls. People like to use the place because of the interior and the classic look.”
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Image Credit: Gramercy Pictures Indeed, Dinah’s has been featured countless times onscreen, most notably popping up as Stacks House of Pancakes, where the German nihilist criminals partake of lingonberry pancakes in the Coen Brothers’ 1998 cult classic “The Big Lebowski.” I have good news for anyone hoping to venture out to Westchester to emulate the scene. Dinah’s does actually serve a Swedish Pancakes dish consisting of “four crisp & thin pancakes, served with lingonberries and butter.” Guten Appetit!
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Image Credit: Artisan Entertainment Other productions to capture the eatery in all of its retro glory include the 1999 crime drama “The Limey,” which sees Wilson (Terence Stamp) dining on the premises with Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) while attempting to get to the truth behind his daughter’s murder.
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Image Credit: ABC In the season three episode of “Modern Family” titled “The Last Walt,” Dinah’s masks as the Moonbeam Diner where Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) takes his daughter, Alex (Ariel Winter), in the hopes of creating a memorable moment by sampling the “world’s greatest milkshake” together. As he explains, “You can’t expect me to see a sign that says ‘World’s Greatest Milkshake – 50 miles’ and not drive to it!” Unfortunately, after venturing said 50 miles and arriving at the restaurant, the two discover that the milkshake machine is on the fritz. So Phil instead implores Alex to try everything labeled “World’s Greatest” on Moonbeam’s menu, eventually causing her to throw up in their booth.
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Image Credit: ABC All is not lost, though, as in a heartwarming scene at the close of the episode, Phil writes Alex’s initials on the prop Moonbeam signage positioned on Dinah’s roof, imitating a gesture that Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan made for his daughter during the 1972 moon landing.
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Image Credit: Showtime Networks Avi (Steven Bauer) drugs FBI special agent Van Miller (Frank Whaley) with a hallucinogen at Dinah’s in the season one episode of “Ray Donovan” titled “Housewarming.”
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Image Credit: Open Road Films Freelance news videographer Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) interviews and hires a new intern, Rick (Riz Ahmed), at the restaurant in the 2014 thriller “Nightcrawler.”
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Image Credit: Walt Disney Television Agent 33 (Ming-Na Wen) and Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) kidnap Selwyn (Landall Goolsby), the inventor of the Nano Mask, from Dinah’s in the season two episode of Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” titled “Love in the Time of Hydra.”
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Image Credit: Sony Pictures Television And Jerry Seinfeld took Zach Galifianakis for a cup of joe and some glazed donuts at the eatery in the season 10 episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” titled “From The Third Reich To You.”
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Image Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures While “Little Miss Sunshine” was not actually filmed at Dinah’s, a bucket of the restaurant’s famous fried chicken did make an appearance in the 2006 comedy. In one of the movie’s early scenes, Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) brings Dinah’s home for dinner, which is quite amusing considering the fact that the Hoover family is said to live in Albuquerque, N.M., quite a ways away from Westchester! Grandpa Edwin Hoover (Alan Arkin) is not happy with Sheryl’s take-out choice and proceeds to go off on a very NSFW diatribe, lamenting, “What’s that? Chicken? Every night it’s the f*cking chicken! Holy God almighty! Is it possible, just once, we could get something to eat for dinner around here that’s not the goddamn f*cking chicken?“
Considering the eatery’s popularity, I think it’s safe to say that most Angelenos wouldn’t share Edwin’s disdain over a nightly meal from Dinah’s!