Property Owner Raising Cane's seeks to evict Norms La Cienega after 67 Years
Gentle reader,
This morning, the Cultural Heritage Commission agenda for its December 5 meeting was published, with a worrying item #4:
MONUMENT: NORM’S LA CIENEGA COFFEE SHOP, HCM #1090: Informational presentation on the proposed rehabilitation of the Monument for a new restaurant use. Commission Review and Comment. Owner/Applicant: Raising Canes Restaurants LLC.
Thanks to an all-hands-on-deck preservation battle in 2015, Norms La Cienega is a protected L.A. landmark and the oldest Norms still operating (est. 1957), a rare 24-hour family style restaurant much beloved by the local community and fans of Armét & Davis’ exuberant Googie architecture. And it still flies the penant style sawtooth sign with the name of founder Norm Roybark.
Raising Cane’s bought the building for $16 Million in 2021, becoming the coffee shop’s landlord. Now it appears they intend to evict Norms!
On Thursday 12/5 at 10am, fans of this cultural, architectural and community landmark are urged to attend the Cultural Heritage Commission hearing in person at City Hall, or call/Zoom in, to make public comment letting the CHC and Raising Cane’s corporate know what this 67-year-old legacy business in its landmark Googie style building means to them, and how losing Norms would make them feel. Emails can also be sent.
RSVP for the Facebook event here—and pass it on!
The CHC has no power over what type of business operates in a landmarked commercial building; they only protect the physical features called out in the landmark designation. But public opinion matters to a big national chain like Raising Cane’s, and this is your chance to be heard.
To participate in the Cultural Heritage Commission Hearing, see the agenda with full instructions: https://ens.lacity.org/pln/heritage/plnheritage1217184825_12052024.pdf
If attending in person, City Hall is at 200 N Spring Street, but you enter on the Main Street side. Leave time to go through security. The meeting is held in room 1010, beginning at 10am.
Comments will be limited to one minute, so we recommend writing it down, timing yourself and reading from a script.
If making comment in person, fill in a speaker’s card when you arrive in room 1010 and you’ll be called on by name.
If making comment by Zoom or phone, see the agenda link, then follow the instructions when item #4 is called.
If sending an email, keep it under two pages, use subject line “Item #4: NORM’S LA CIENEGA COFFEE SHOP, HCM #1090,” address it “dear Cultural Heritage Commissioners” and send ASAP to chc@lacity.org.
And if you’d like to know more about Norms and its architecture, you can read the landmark nomination prepared by the Los Angeles Conservancy’s late, great Modern Committee here. Then watch Alison Martino’s recent SoCal Scene visit to her favorite diner with retro Americana maven Charles Phoenix, to learn about how the chain is growing and why this particular Norms is a national treasure that inspired Mad Men, Ed Ruscha and so much more.
We’ll update this newsletter with any additional information you might need as Angelenos come together to stand up for a true Southern California icon, our beloved and once again endangered Norms La Cienega Coffee Shop!
PRESS CLIPS & UPDATES:
Los Angeles Times - Norms, L.A.’s icon of coffee shop architecture, would give way to a fast-food chain. Some are outraged (11/26/2024): “The idea of transforming Norms from a sit-down restaurant, family friendly, affordable to a place to go to get fried chicken is astonishing to me,” said Kim Cooper [of Esotouric]. Cooper discovered the change as she looked through the upcoming agenda for the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission. She noticed Raising Cane’s was seeking to change the usage of the space. “It is so much more than a building. This is a place that has been open 24 hours a day... Norms is part of people’s lives and has been for 67 years, which in L.A. is basically a millennium,” Cooper said.
KTLA-5 News - Famous L.A. diner could be replaced by a fast food joint (11/27/2024): Kim Cooper of Esotouric says “I think there’s an opportunity here for Raising Cane’s to do something extraordinary to preserve, reactivate and restore something very beautiful, to bring what they have to offer to Norms, to the Norms building, but also honor what’s always been—to do some sort of hybrid.”
12/3/2024: Ahead of the Cultural Heritage Commission hearing on 12/5, Raising Cane’s has provided the slideshow for their informational presentation. The proposed restoration/remodel is to be done by the original firm, Armet Davis Newlove Architects, and they are seeking approval for new landscaping, to change the NORMS penant sign to read CANE'S and the OPEN 24 HRS neon to read OPEN LATE. A lost or obscured wall mural might be restored or recreated and the ONE LOVE / ELVIS / GOLDEN RETRIEVER branded kitchen made to look like a walk-up fast-food check out station with incongruous counter seating. See the whole slideshow below.
We’re off this weekend for the holiday, but return December 7-8 with a packed weekend of exploration. Saturday’s tour is an ascent from the old streetcar line on Sunset Boulevard to get to know a miraculous (and only slightly manufactured) Victorian time capsule, Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue. Join us for a deep dive into suburban development and visionary preservation, Chinatown locations and daring girl detectives, ancient trees, atomic age anxiety and the only real ghost story you’ll hear on an Esotouric tour—because it happened on one of them!
And on Sunday, it’s Know Your Downtown L.A., featuring a time travel tramp around Bunker Hill with native son Gordon Pattison, speakeasy tunnel relics and what might be our last chance to visit the tiled marvel Dutch Chocolate Shop before the building changes hands. Join us, do!
And a gentle reminder that we got subpoenaed for third party discovery in the lawsuit by the Marilyn Monroe house owners, and are fundraising to cover our legal expenses with a 20% off holiday sale on bulk gift certificates. Or just buy one ticket or some merch—it all helps!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 12/7) • Know Your Downtown L.A. (Sun. 11/8) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 12/14) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sun. 12/22) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher (Thurs. 12/26) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 1/18) • Broadway (Sat. 1/25) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 2/1) • Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 2/8) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 3/1) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice Downtown L.A. (Sat. 3/8) • Bunker Hill, Dead and Alive (Sat. 3/15) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 3/22) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (Sun. 3/30) • John Fante’s Downtown L.A. (Sat. 4/5) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 4/12) • Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles (Sat. 4/19) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (Sat. 4/26)
Richard do you remember that your grandfather went to Norms as often as possible
This is so sad for the neighborhood
stupid decision. Mom
so sad that something that was so much of my childhood is gone