More old L.A. eateries

If you enjoy remembering old local restaurants and already exhausted Jonathon Foerstel's Los Angeles Time Machines, writer Mark Evanier's POVOnline is an entertaining place to spend some time. His pages begin with the Ontra Cafeterias and Harry's Open Pit Barbecue, pass through Ship's and Hampton's, and stop in on Scandia, C.C. Brown's and Ollie Hammond's, among others. Of the late and kitschy island-themed Kelbo's, Evanier writes:

There were two of these odd restaurant-bars. One, on Fairfax across from CBS Television City, was torn down and there's an outlet of The Vitamin Shoppe at that address today. The building that housed the other was over on Pico at Exposition. It still stands but has been converted into a bikini bar called Fantasy Island...

The menu at Kelbo's was not all that Hawaiian: Burgers, barbecue meat sandwiches and some miscellaneous seafood. The concession to the islands was that every plate was garnished with a piece of pineapple and the fried shrimp was coated with coconut....One other thing that interested me about Kelbo's was that much of its advertising art was done by a gent named Bob Hale who otherwise turned up on Los Angeles TV from time to time as a cartooning weatherman.

Start here to visit his restaurant pages. Thanks to Bob Patterson for the pointer. I'm a fan of this stuff, obviously.