James Dean gas station corner to become grocery

Last month guest blogger Stephen Sachs wrote for LA Observed about paying a last visit to the former Casa de Petrol station where actor James Dean filled up the day he died in his Porsche Spyder in 1955. Sachs knew well the history of the place, and when he saw the the station at Ventura Boulevard and Beverly Glen in Sherman Oaks being torn down he stopped in to take some final photos.

Now comes word from Curbed LA that plans have been field with the city planning department for development of a "specialty grocery store" and "ancillary restaurant" on the site. Details are scant, but there are plans for the sale of "a full line of alcoholic beverages" for on-site consumption and "instructional tastings."

This is the corner just east of Casa de Cadillac where a short spur of Tyrone Avenue steers westbound Moorpark Street traffic onto Beverly Glen or Ventura.