Norms Fans Yelled Real Loud and Raising Cane's Heard Us
Gentle reader,
Were you planning on attending the Cultural Heritage Commission hearing at Los Angeles City Hall on Thursday 12/5 (tomorrow) to hear directly from Raising Cane’s representatives about the company’s plans to shut Norms La Cienega down and transform L.A.’s greatest surviving Googie coffee shop into a single item fried chicken take out joint?
Well, why not head over to Norms for a delicious brunch instead? You are not needed at City Hall to fight for Norms tomorrow. Because a short letter was just uploaded to the CHC’s Day of Submissions Google drive that we think you’ll be very happy to read. We sure were!
There are few forces more powerful than affective ownership, the feeling deep in your bones that a place really belongs to you. The community spoke out eloquently about what Norms means to them, online and in the media and with our phone calls and emails seeking a meeting with Raising Cane’s owner Todd Graves, and we all got our message across.
We appreciate Raising Cane’s having the grace and good sense to hit the pause button, and we look forward to a productive, community focused conversation about what happens next for Norms.
Since he’s already hired original architects Armét and Davis’ partner Victor Newlove for the Norms remodel, perhaps Todd Graves will be inspired to commission his own unique Googie style building to be a flagship for his business, just as the beautiful Norms La Cienega represents the mid-century Southern California vision of Norm Roybark—a jet age hospitality that continues to satisfy and inspire after 67 years of 24/7 service.
We will continue updating our original Norms advocacy newsletter with news as it happens, and let subscribers know when Raising Cane’s returns to the Cultural Heritage Commission for their informational presentation.
So stay tuned and never give up on the places you love, because you have a lot more power than you realize, especially when we work together.
Want to take an Esotouric tour? Saturday’s outing 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. Join us, do!
And on Sunday, it’s Know Your Downtown L.A. (sold out with a waiting list) 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.
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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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of our main newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 12/7) • Know Your Downtown L.A. (Sun. 11/8, sold out with a waiting list) • 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)
Raising Cane’s can find another site since they closed down a Coco’s Diner in Torrance 2 years ago and there aren’t many 1950s era diner restaurants left.